Sunrise and icebergs

Last trace of sun we've seen..

At crewchange almost 2 weeks ago (that means only 3 left!!), I took some stunning sunrise picture from Ocean Explorer just when we met up with Challenger. Tought I share them with you guys in this sad time. We are all talking about what happen in Oslo and following everything from internet, it's just to awful to be put into words.

Iceberg in the horizon

Ramform Challenger

First batch of happy offsigners

Since then we have basically had two types of weather.. Fog and storm.. or more like fog, fog, fog, storm, storm, storm, storm, fog, fog, fog, fog.. so not much exciting to see or capture on film. Altough I tried getting an iceberg in the fog and storm here..

The travel to Greenland..

Flying over the fjord into Narsaque

..turned out to be a bit more complicated than planned.. Arriving at Narsarsaque with a Boeing 737 in itself was an experience I will remember. Flying slalaam in a fjord, sigsacking in low altitude around a mountain to get inline with the airport was pretty interesting..

Felt like we where pretty close to the mountain!!

When we arrived in Narsarsaque, the helicopter plan had been cancelled due to heavy ice in Julianhaab. New plan was flying with chartered small dash 7 planes to Paamiut, a small village a bit further north. When we arrived here, the airport was ofcourse fogged in, so after an hour or so of circling we had to head to Nuuk instead. Here we got to experience some Greenlandish nightlife at the locak Eskimo/Inuit bar, it was something special, that's for sure!

Bar Eskimo style in Nuuk

Flying over south east Greenland

Next day we tried again, heading for Paamiut, and after a few hours delay, the fog lifted just enough for the plane to land. Not the biggest or most fancy airport I have been to exactly :)

Fog is just clearing on Paamiut airport

Finally arrived

The luggage band was a truck

I had some time in Paamiut waiting for the rest of the crew, so I had a walk around and took some pictures. Truely beautiful place, but so isolated! Later that day we all boarded the Ocean Explorer, for a 12hrs transit to the rendevous with Challenger and just about 50 happy offsigners.

Peaceful in Paamiut

Local children playing by the harbour

Turen til Grønland viste seg å bli litt mer komplisert enn planlagt.. Innflygningen til Narsarsaque var en historie i seg selv ettersom vi fløy i sikk sakk inni en fjord mellom fjell i en Boeing 737 (med plass til 200mennesker) for å lande på ei bitte lita øde flystripe.

Etter planen skulle vi egentlig ha helikopter til Ocean Explorer i Julianhåb, men denne planen ble kansellert da hele Julianehåb fortsatt er innkapslet i is. Istedenfor fløy vi småfly til Paamiut, litt lenger nord, (fantastisk utsikt på veien..), men her var hele flyplassen innhyllet i tåke. Turen gikk da videre til Nuuk (Godt Håb) hvor vi ble innlosjert på byens eneste hotell og fikk prøvd oss på litt Inuit/Eskimo uteliv :).

Dagen etter var det akkurat glipe nok i tåka til at vi kunne lande i Paamiut og borde Ocean Explorer som tok oss 12timer sørover der Challenger kom oss i møte. Fikk tatt noen bilder fra  Paamiut mens vi var der også.

Greenland next..

All good things must come to an end.. and that's the end of my lovely summerholiday in Kristiansand and Norway. I've had such a good time, it feels hard to leave.. Luckily, a real adventure is waiting! I am going to Greenland (for work of course..) and it is very different from Japan or Angola and Nigeria where I've been working the last few years. Icebergs, rough weather, long long crewchanges and cold climates is waiting.. Hopefully some stunning sceneries and wildlife too.

Early tomorrow morning I'm flying to Amsterdam and London Gatwick, here a charterflight has been hired to bring us to Narsarsuaq, Greenland. There we will stay the afternoon and night before a 20min helicopter trip to Julianhaab. In Julianhaab, the Ocean Explorer is waiting. 8hrs on the Ocean before we will arrive somewhere far far out in the sea to good old Ramform Challenger. Updates and pictures will come :)

The last, but maybe the best (?!) weekend..

I've had a really great last weekend at home! Me and Katarina and the The Girl Geek Dinners Kristiansand drank beers and jumped around Thursday night at the great event "Sommer på Torvet.

Me and Katarina "På Torvet"

 I also ate loads and loads and loads of good Norwegians strawberries.. I LOVE strawberries.. I could switch out chocolate any day for strawberries. (Those who knows me well, knows how much I love chocolate..)

 After eating all that strawberries and drinking all the beer, I needed some exercise, so I helped my parents to stack a couple of winters worth of wood for the fireplace into the garage.. Soo many ways to have fun:)

 Then I went into town and had a look at some "sand castles"... Can anyone make something better? Challenge for the no wind days in Maui..

 The rest of the weekend I spent helping out my good friend Liv getting stuff ready for her amazing wedding! And of course attending the wedding.. and the afterparty.. that lasted until 6am.. I think that says something about what a great night that was. Great day actually. Topping it all of with a good long Sunday chillin by the sea, eating leftovers and laughing about last night. Thanks for a great weekend!!

Me and my good old friend Monica

The Happy couple :) Håkon og Liv

Go Norway!

As many of you know, I have spent my last few weeks in Norway!! My priority has been to meet as many of my friends as I can and spend time with my family. It has also been time for some fun and sports ofcourse :) A week ago, I drove to Oslo to visit my friend Jorun and see Foo Fighters. We also attended the very first Oslo Watergames. Here we joined in on Oslo SUP Challenge sprint (1.6km) and long distance (5km). For those lagging behind, SUP = Stand Up Paddle. We had loads of fun, I "won" the ideal time on the sprint and we all did very well. For the first time ever there was more girls than guys attending! (and most of those girls were kitesurfer girls!!). After the Challenge, we met up with old and new kitesurfergirls for a night out in Oslo. What a blast!!

Other than this amazing weekend, I have spent some time running and roaming around in all the beautiful woods and forest and seaside places we have here in Kristiansand. Took some pictures from a trip me and my mom did to a place called Doneviga. Really beautiful.

And as if that wasn't enough fun, my friend Randi, took me out in their brand new Sea Kayacks. I just loved it! Man, if I am going to get one of those whenever I move home! And I'm going to rent one in Maui so I can practise my deathroll in hot water (with sharks..).