Location: 100km north auf Fauske
Odo: 288554

Today I saw something whitish on the shoulder of the road. What might that be? Flour? Coke? Hmmm. Then I saw the whitish stuff on the road. Not too much but there. By instinct I reduced my speed very carefully and watched the truck driver some distance behind me doing the same. Can’t be, can it? This night the heater kicked in suspiciously often, the windscreen was very moist due to condensation at morning and yes, it felt crisp somehow. But it’s around midday and the sun is shining. But hence to the high mountains there’re some places where the sun doesn’t shine. And I don’t mean anybodys arse by that, just in case you were wondering.

yep, that's ice on the puddles...

Some mud roadsite. At noon!

Yesterday, after almost three days without much driving I checked on my battery and found out it was only half full. I didn’t watch no movies and only used the tablet for internet access. In Germany the solar panels (160Wp) could easily sustain the fridge and some light and the sound system. I did some troubleshooting, cleaned up the solar panels and then it hit me: There’s nothing wrong with the solar panels, the solar system is to blame! In the arctic the sun does not climb that high to the sky anymore and my panels are pointing straight up since I had no time to build adjustable mounts. Since a client asked for some work to be done the same day I’ll need to incorporate some driving (for charging) and working in my daily schedule… Seems it’s time to head back to base…

same odo and location...

The famous Reinebriggen, the interwebs and different magazines say it’s one of the best views in Norway. I parked just in front of it by coincidence yesterday. Some nice czech guys got up and I didn’t because there was rain on the horizon and the surrounding mountains (same height) were already hidden in the clouds. They got wet and didn’t see much, I “failed” at integrating some sensors in my power supply. The improvement didn’t pass my own safety check and I really don’t want to mess with unfused (solar panel…) 8 amps in a wooden interior.

Anyways, the guys said the hike is steep but alright and they want to do it again next day for the view. The interwebs said 440m height difference, up to 75% incline, difficulty T3 (more info: http://de.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/SAC-Wanderskala) , three hours return, not advisable when wet, completely unmarked. Today was not really wet and I met them on their decent shortly before the saddle of the mountain. “Yeah, it’s nice, enjoy, take the detour right on the saddle for the lookout and goodbye, we’ll do another hike today”. Ok…

I took the detour, enjoyed, went back on the main track. After about 1:30h I arrived close to the top of a summit but the track stopped at a small “wall”. I saw a well frequented climbing route, just 3-4 meters, probably UIAA grade II, so easy to get up and alright to get down again (which is the tricky part since I was alone by now on the mountain and the rock climbing gear was in the van). To cut a long story short: It took me another 1,5h with multiple short climbing passages in a terrain where you really don’t want to fall until I reached highest point around. Just imagine a drop of a couple of  hundred meters on both sides. After six hours I was back at the van, really exhausted and worried about myself. Taking twice the time that normal people do, shitting my pants on climbing passages the czechs didn’t even mention and being really exhausted while they go on a second hike… I know I’m out of shape but is it really that bad?

Luckily it isn’t. After some research I found out I actually went over the Reinebriggen up to the Helvete. 730m height difference, difficulty T6+ (according to some guy on hikr.org), seven hours return, or as the geo magazin put it into words “advisable only to experienced rock climbers with ropes&harness”.

Well… I guess I made some mistakes here. First, I went out without a map and proper research. I thought I didn’t need a map because you can the the whole track pretty much all the time. I was correct about that but a map would have been helpful to figure out which summit is which. And in front of every tricky passage I thought like “a well, this is probably the last one” until finally one were. This is something which can become very dangerous when you have to retreat by the same way…

To sum it up: It was a really nice day! I was in a bad mood for some time because I thought I’m horribly out of shape but besides that I had a good workout and a nice view. But really: The track sucks. This has been my steepest hike since the Volcano on Ometepe/Nicaragua which was probably ten years ago… At least now I understand why the Norwegians are using these hiking sticks…

Location: near Reine / Lofoten / Norway
Odo: 288238

If you were wondering where all the Scandinavian postcard & calendar pics come from: I guess I found one of the places. I actually parked here because I was hoping on a shot of the village with northern lights. What I got was a full rainbow instead. Not too bad at all.

Judging on the size of the coach parking lots near sights this place must be crammed with tourists during the season. I guess I did it right coming here “too late” in the year…

Location: Gryllefjord / Senja Island / Norway
Odo: 287634

I was really exhausted after the sheep hunt since it was the first real physical exercise since I got sick. After that the Aurora Alert App showed a particle density which was thrice what I’ve seen before and probably means that it is going to be awesome. No collapsing and passing out but staying up late… The first lights showed up and 22:00, which is really early. So I brewed a cup of coffee, got the camera ready and when I was ready they were gone. Classic… But they returned eventually and they were awesome! My camera skills are very limited so sorry for the probably too long exposure and the blurriness and that I’m too lazy to pimp them digitally. And one thing was impossible to catch: The lights were crawling over the sky! Starting in the west some oozed over sky until the disappeared east. There were even northern lights in the south!

According to wordpress (the software this blog runs on) this is the 100th published post. Jippi! Originally I was not thinking about blogging more than these pictures but I guess this anniversary demands some thoughts…

At first I was very insecure about starting this. I wasn’t feeling very well to put it in nice words and the first couple of posts were quite personal. I put them online eventually and didn’t tell anybody but very few friends who gave me either positive or no feedback. Since I loving writing since I’m a child I just kept on writing for my own fun and entertainment. I somehow lost the personal touch in between for which I am a little sorry but there was plenty of travel stuff to write about and the texts I started about what is going on inside of me never matured enough to put them online. In short words: I’ve got my ups and downs. Comparing to prior trips I’m performing awesome and should be really proud of myself for constantly fighting my fear to approach new people. I made good friends and had awesome experiences. There’s still this nagging voice in my head which says that I still can do better. That’s right for sure but I still have to learn to be joyful about improving and not be sad because of not being as perfect as I want me to be.

I had a large share of beautiful nature but I’m also a little sad that there was no real party summer for me. I somehow miss this feeling of lying in the sun being drunken and just enjoying the moment. On the other hand I enjoy being sober as well. My consumption on this trip was really low, I have been tipsy a couple of times and never been drunken. I almost completely stopped smoking without even noticing. I probably smoked less than 10 Cigarettes on the whole trip up to now. Despite the German “normality” of drinking on every occasion I proved to myself (again) that alcohol is utterly useless. I don’t need it to be happy, to cope with things, to be open-hearted, to be self-confident or pick up women. All of this is actually more easy when my brains are working 100%. I really forgot about this because a Friday or Saturday evening without a couple of beers was a seldom thing at home. And I still love beer, I’m drinking “Finkbräu” (alcohol free) writing this.

After two months of travelling and autumn around me I start to think about heading back to Hannover. I’m getting tired of being alone in the wilderness and would like to do more stuff with people. Even if this means to go to big cities again. So I’ll probably have a taste of Senja Island and the Lofoten since I’m here already and they should be really awesome. After that I’ll probably rally down for Olso and Göteborg, pay a visit to Copenhagen and then back to Hannover since at least one hydraulic lash adjuster of the van got really noisy. It’s an issue which doesn’t need immediate attention but can make a lot of damage in the long run. Since the camshaft has to be removed I really don’t want to do it roadside.

After that I’ll either stay in Hannover, move home or just jump in the van again to head south. Or east. At least somewhere warm. Or something comes up tomorrow and my plans will change. Until now, the hope for stumbling onto the place where I want to stay forever or the love of my life stayed a dream. But I guess that’s fine. I’m always longing for new views and experiences so there probably can’t be such a place. Maybe there can be such a human being. Well, we’ll find out eventually. Up to then it’s just up to you (and me) to enjoy the journey instead of being sad for not having reached the final destination yet…