Climbing in Sardinia, Italy, in April.
Rocks of Sardinia
Category: Nature
Winter / Talvi
February in Helsinki
Greetings from Mongolia – better late than never
I finally had the time to go through some pictures from Mongolia. These are from the Semi-Gobi, “not-quite-desert-but-almost”.
Home to Dorio and his family, close to Khogno Khaan. This was their summer yurt spot, in the winters they moved their home to a more protected area. If I remember right it was only some 6 hours driving from Ulanbataar.
The daughter, Dolgor, with a friend.
Dorio, the father of the family.
Children of friends and relatives visiting the yurt.
Norjing, the granmother of the family.
Traditional Mongolian dress.
Play-wrestling with a friend. Wrestling and horseriding are both very appreciated sports in Mongolia.
Guests – there were so many I lost who was related and how.
Dorio spotting eagles.
This is actually not the yurt of Dorion (I seemed not to have pictures of it!), but one somewhat close by.
Solar power was a big thing, and motorcycles were popular for herding
Toilet with a view.
Pile of dung getting ready to use.
Orgiö, the olderst son of Dorio, was already riding without a saddle at this age.
Dinner – not something I ate though, we got vegetarian sushi.
Did not spend too much time inside, but this is the main yurt.
The northernmost lighthouse of the world?
Already some time ago we had a trip through Lapland, driving – and occasionally hiking – from Finland to Norway and back.
The nature is wonderful, and the more North you go the better it gets. We went all the way up: the last stop before turning back was the Slettnes Lighthouse by the Arctic Ocean. It’s a little lighthouse built in the very beginning of the 20th century. The locals claim it’s the northernmost lighthouse in the world, and the northernmost point of Norway (inland that is – Nordkapp is on an island!). To be sure it’s the northernmost lighthouse in mainland Scandinavia.
If I remember right, it took us about 5 hours to drive through the peninsula to the town near by, Gamvik. And it already took almost the same time to come from our previous stop close to Alta to that point – Northern Norway has some meandering roads. There are parts of the peninsula that are so bare that it seems like Mars. But still, at the very tip, there was still a lot of life. And landscapes.
It was a place I would still love to get back to. They rent out the house under the lighthouse proper, and even at the time we were there, some time in the very beginning of September, it was already pitch-dark at night. There was a lady intending to stay there for the whole winter, that must be an experience, since it’s right by the open Arctic Ocean and even the 3 kilometer road taking to the nearest town, Gamvik, will not be open for cars when it snows.
The town of Gamvik and the people who showed it to us were also unforgettable – put perhaps more on that later. Just to start, since there were very few stores and taking transporting stuff there simply takes forever, nothing was easy to buy. Even fresh fish – in a fishing village…
Climbing in Grotti
Trying to get up a wall on St. Stephen’s in Grotti, Italy. Continue reading
One dark night at the Dolomites
I woke up alone at this tiny little village in the Italian Alps (in the Dolomites) some years ago, and this is what I saw – an all-encompassing fog, with just me and a couple of trees watching it.
Visiting Nuuksio
Impressions from the natural park of Nuuksio this summer. These were all taken on a nature photography course held by Hanna Rosti.
Old dog learns new trick
Our dog didn´t grow up in Finland, but after a year here, she seems to feel at home. Among other new things, she suddenly learned to swim – at the age of five.
She has always loved water, but has also been slightly suspicious of stepping in to it. Not to mention loosing her foothold and having to actually swim.
There is an abundance of lakes here, and quite some seaside as well, so admittedly she was subjected to much more water than before. One day at the sea, after years of fear of swimming and just wetting her feet in shallow water, she decided to jump in the sea to follow a random swimmer.
These pictures are not taken on that occasion, but a bit afterwards at our lakeside cottage, where she was practicing her newfound skill so enthusiastically she didn´t get dry for days. (Of course, later on that resulted in a stinking hotspot – a local skin inflammation often caused by moisture. Itku pitkästä ilosta…)
Vehka 