a weekend on senja

Wow, it's really not easy to find half an hour (or rather an hour in this case) to write a post when the days are filled with day-long lectures, activities, and I'm being surrounded by some of the best scientists in the field so that I better use the time for discussions and socialising... :)
And to make things more difficult, the wireless in this building doesn't like linux! :(












But finally, some pictures from my trip to Senja!












Senja is an island near Tromso, incredibly beautiful with very (!!!) impressive mountains. We've been there for a weekend (sort of) few days ago, did some touring around with a friend's car (many many thanks to him!), walked up one of the smaller mountains, got bitten by loads of mosquitos, and generally enjoyed the landscape!









So I hope, you enjoy the photos!

We left Tromso at around 10pm on Friday evening. It was overcast, but hey! midnight sun is just amazing anyway! We drove via Finnsnes because the ferry that connects Kvaloya, the island next to Tromso, and Senja doesn't run so late in the evening. And so we saw another of this big bridges that seem to be everywhere in this area full of islands!












On Senja, we stumbled over a pretty big elk, with huge antlers. It stood right next to the road (luckily not in the middle of it), but till we had the camera out, it was gone...
And so we drove on and eventually got to a beautiful beach. Reminded me a little bit of the beaches on the Falklands: white sand, turquoise waters, only palm trees are missing for a perfect impression of a Caribbean beach - and it's cold.

We stayed in a tent close to that spot, on the beach itself where numerous signs saying "camping forbidden". They must have had too many tourists...












The next day, we walked up a hill and had an awesome view from its top. Unfortunately still pretty cloudy, but nevertheless beautiful! And up there was a lake in which the mountains of the other side of the fjord were reflected - awesome!




















We walked down next to the lake. According to our map, there was a hiking path, only it wasn't. We must have been blind. Instead, a little bit further on, we met a (private) road that was not on the map. This map really needs an update! Really! The tunnel, we went through when we continued our drive, also didn't exist yet on there!









Anyways, we drove on and passed a place where we thought we have to stop for the view and apparently others thought so, too! A brand new path leading down to some amazing rock formations and the "Felswatt" (forgot the english expression for it) just waited for us and we explored the area. The typical zonation was clearly visible on the rocks, and in some of the rock pools there were even pretty big sea stars and lots of anemones!




























In the evening, we had our dinner on some other rocks and stayed right next to one of the incredible sandy beaches. Were not really the temperatures to jump into the water though... And while we were sitting there, enjoying the evening/night sun, we were eaten by mosquitos... It has been quite a while since I had so many bites!