straumen

 

hit the "road Jack" good by lofoten, here i come Straumen.

 

when i was travelling to the north cape i met Michi(the girl with the dogs, remember) she did give me a number of a guy in straumen where i could get perhaps work. after i couldn't get a job on the lofoten as a fishermans friend i rang this guy up. Dieter is speaking-hi here is mike, i met michi up in alta and she told me perhaps you have work for me- how old are you- 37-good age you can start on monday ;-) i just love it when plan comes together(quote: hannibal smith -A-team ). and what a great decision it was. a cool bunch of people. since than i life here in straumen and work as an carpenter, cabinet maker, handy man. loving it.

 

so i took the ferry from svolvaer to skudvik and another 100 km to straumen. the first few weeks i was living on the campground in straumen. at first it was more than enough for me, or what can i say it was a step up in comfort. i could stand while cooking ;-) still i do have to go out for the toilette and shower. after a couple of month i decided to upgrade again, winter is coming and here it can get to

-30. now i have my own place and i am not a guest anymore. the little things in life ;-)

 



this is the few from my new palace. i think a few of the ocean is a must if you have it just in front of you nose . hehehe ok it is just hard to find a place here not having a few like this ;-)

and of course i made it my self straight away comfy. a hammock in my lounge room and pang i did have the statement                                 MIKE IS NOT NORMAL       the biggest compliment people can give me ;-)

that's is the main food since i am here in norway. it is so awesome. fresh fish, catched with a lousy fishing rod and in one hour 6 of the buggers. but i think that was beginners luck. since i do it more often i can stand there for hours with nothing ;-)

 

my work. have never done it and i am still a bit wobbly in the knees when i have to do my ballet acts on this little tiny joists. getting the hang of it though.

 

this the first trip with my boss Conrad. he took me out to the place he grow up until he was 14. no connection roads, the only way to get there is by ship. thanks Conrad i don't think so many tourist will get to places like this. SAGFJORDEN.  awesome place

Conrads boat on the left hand side

 

that is the few to the entry of the sagfjorden fjord

 



couple of drinks and a little fire. by the way its after 12 at night and still day light. here they drink a self mad spirit called moonshine. this is strong man. it does not taste very yummy but it does definitely the job

 

GABY i told you i will drink it on the beach on a special place. thank you.

 



out fishing with conrad

 



 

he showed me how to fish and to make them ready to eat. look at my face ;-) just a pro, i felt sorry for the first couple of fishes. don't worry the killing i left this day to conrad. quick and sober.



we went for hikes in his backyard. 3 germans and a norwigan.(2 german dogs)

that's the end of the sagfjord. from all three sides of the fjord are coming in little rivers from all the lakes up in the mountains. it is just such a beautiful place

still frozen and it was pretty much summer when we went there.

 

thanks conrad you are an awesome man

 



just right in front of conrads door step. all the deers coming down to drink the sea water. yep took me in wonder as well, but than i could remember, where i grow up the farmers always put salt blocks in the cow shed and they just loved it.

 



my first solo trip in the area. just in front of my door step is the Blåmannsisen (Lule Sami: Ålmåjalosjiegŋa) is the fifth largest glacier in mainland Norway. It is located on the border of the municipalities of Fauske and Sørland in Nordland county, Norway—just 2 kilometres (1.2 mi) west of the border with Sweden.

Its highest point is 1,560 metres (5,120 ft) above sea level and its lowest point is at an elevation of 810 metres (2,660 ft). Three outlet glaciers extend from the icecap. A small outlet spills over a subglacial ridge to the north damming an unnamed lake resulting in occasion outburst floods. To the east a large outlet extends towards the lake, Leirvatnet. A further outlet descends steeply to the west. The western and northern outlets are heavily crevassed, as is the snout of the eastern glacier calving into Leirvatnet. The glacier also calves into lake Blåmannsisvatnet, resulting in extensive crevasses in the glacier above that lake. Given the degree of crevassing at the margins, traversing the glacier can be dangerous, particularly in late spring or early summer when snow bridges may be weak. The ice-dammed lake on the northern margin occasionally produces jökulhlaups (also known as Glacial lake outburst floods). The icecap is typically 200–400 m (660–1,300 ft) thick, exceeding 800 metres (2,600 ft) in places. The equilibrium line altitude (ELA) is around 1,100 metres (3,600 ft) on the eastern side of the icecap, above the Leirvatnet outlet. Satellite imagery, including that used by Google Earth, shows extensive exposed firn suggesting the ELA has retreated in recent years in common with other temperate icecaps in Norway.The southern margin of the glacier exhibits a forefield exposed since the retreat from the 'Little Ice Age' maximum with a well formed end moraine marking a former margin

 my camp at the lake

 



 

in the back round the glacier

 



 

an awesome scenery and definitely worth to go up. it took me 10 hours to my camp side, 24 kg backpack and i don't really now how many km. but it is awesome hike and the few is just so cool all the way. enjoy the pictures

on the right hand side of the bottom of the lake you can just see a bit of straumen my new home for a couple of month

 

love it



thanks to all the people here in straumen and at work. you guys making life here to an awesome time. thanks conrad, dieter, sandra, christian, ivan and wife and all the others. cheers being cool people

lofoten









 Lofoten is an archipelago and a traditional district in the county of Nordland, Norway. Though lying within the Arctic Circle, the archipelago experiences one of the world's largest elevated temperature anomalies relative to its high latitude.Lofoten (Norse Lófót f) was originally the old name of the island Vestvågøya. The first element is ló 'lynx', the last element is derived from Norse fótr m 'foot'.The shape of the island must have been compared with a foot of a lynx.

Vågan (Norse Vágar) is the first known town formation in northern Norway. It existed in the early Viking Age, maybe earlier, and was located on the southern coast on eastern Lofoten, near today's village Kabelvåg in Vågan municipality. However, the Lofotr Viking Museum with the reconstructed 83 m long longhouse (the largest known) is located near Borg on Vestvågøy, which have many archeological finds from the Iron Age and Viking Age.

The islands have for more than 1,000 years been the centre of great cod fisheries, especially in winter, when the cod migrates south from the Barents Sea and gathers in Lofoten to spawn. Bergen in southwestern Norway was for a long time the hub for further export south to large parts of Europe, particularly so when trade was controlled by the Hanseatic League. In the lowland areas, particularly Vestvågøy, agriculture plays a significant role, as it has done since the Bronze Age.

Lofotr was originally the name of the island of Vestvågøy only. Later it became the name of the chain of islands. The chain of islands with its pointed peaks looks like a lynx foot from the mainland. In Norwegian, it is always a singular. Another name one might come across, is "Lofotveggen" or the Lofoten wall. The archipelago looks like a closed wall when seen from elevated points around Bodø or when arriving from the sea, some 100 km long, and 800-1,000 m. high.

 

 

i was looking forward to this one. i have heard just great things about the lofoten and the pictures following will tell it was what i hoped fore.

the streets on the lofoten takes you along the ocean, through valleys and over mountain riches. it is like island hoping you just drive from one island to the next one, but some hoe they are still all connected. one of the most beautiful drive i have done so fare.

 

 

 

of course there is a little bit architecture involved, but so fare i did pretty good to get around it ;-)

 



 

first night on the lofoten and it keeps getting better



i drove all the way

 

to the bottom of the lofoten

 



 

to the little village Å

 

 

the street is ending here and it is worth staying for a couple of days. it is a small and tiny, but i can tell you it makes up with the beauty. the houses are standing mostly half in the water half on rocks. there is not much of grass or dirt, shaped by the elements it is a power full, energy loaded part of this wonder full world.



 

i think there is not much of fishing going on here it seems like they changed to fishing tourist. still the stock fish is all over the place and the smell just fits to the place.

 

 

thousand of these dry little fishes all over. i want to take a picture of a man who was taking the stock fishes down, but he only replayed. you can take pictures of the fish but not of me. bloody tourist. probably would say the same if every five (bleppi) minutes the next idiot with his camera comes along.

 



 

the rest of the day i was hanging out on the beach and enjoyed the sound of the ocean and thinking about people i would love to have with me to share.

 

 

i looked for a spot to place my car and get ready for my hike the next day

 

yes i gonna hit you baby. good night 

 

 

 

in the morning than it was time to see how long i can go straight up. sometimes i do ask myself why i am doing this to myself. straight a 800 m, through snow, mud and rocks.

 



 

yes i know. mike don't do hike this in sneakers.

 



often i really bit me in my a... not to be serious about things i do. hiking boots would have been definitely applicable ;-) but hey, all this worries about things like that, i does not MATTER. it pays out any way, you just have to do it. look at this few

 



 

 

and here i found my limit to hiking by myself. it was just another 20 m up but i was shitting my pans to do this with out any friends. fazit. not skilled enough and shit scared ;-)

 



 

my next life i want to be a birt ;-) a veggele halt

LOFOTEN.

you have to see it. since than i have been there another 2 times and i will do it again and again and again.

SEE YOU NEXT TIME