Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts
Showing posts with label snow. Show all posts

2017-11-08

Yellowstone 171002 Snow Lodge to Cody

Yellowstone 170927-171005

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© NF Photos 171002

Leaving Snow Lodge and Upper Geyser Basin today at 8,30. We are going east and to a colder climate. We travel along Yellowstone Lake and east out of the park to Cody and .Best Western Sunset Inn

To start the day we met the Wapiti deer again. But in snow this time. I think it was the same one as yesterday.


We made two quick stop for birds and then a last stop and goodbye to Yellowstone Lake, and at the last stop we met a women dressed in summerclothes. She appared to look for birds. I asked her if she wasn´t cold? But she said  she lived there so she was used to the cold weather.



Goodbye Yellowstone Lake!


From Yellowstone Lake we drove through Shoshone Valley. Alongside the river. What an amazing place. Wonderful Mountain hillsides and a bridge over the river, with an amazing guest. We had spotted a rather young grizzly at the side of the road. We stopped and followed the grizzly. It seemed to be a rather young one. And at the bridge it crossed the road and climbed over the fence to the other side. We could follow it for about half an hour. Amazing. Think I will have to do individual post for this as well, late on.  I found a video of travelling this road it is in the end of the post.





Of course we had picnic lunch and then visited Buffalo Bills Museum.
Pahaska Tepee shop and Buffalo Bill Museum. That was the first place I had time to shop. So, I did. a poncho and a blue shirt.


Around three a´clock we arrived at the motel in Cody But did not stay for long.  What happened next was:  Wild horses, Red Canyon Wild Mustangs So, after getting our rooms and unloaded the luggage we were out and about again. This time the were taken there by the tour guides for the horses. Arriving at a location where we did see a herd of horses we stopped and was instructed about how to pass the fence. And to be careful of small cactus's with harsh needles. One of us was unlucky and had a bad encounter with the needles on her thigh. Not fun for her.

We walked carefully towards the horses but we soon got a problem. There are roles about how close you are allowed to be towards wild animals. But those horses was curious about us and approaches us. Making us go backwards again.  One thing I notices was that the yellow grass was very stiff. And I noted that the horsed did not graze as they usually do. They eat the top of the grass. The seeds! Looked very unusual until you realized what they took.




Then we headed back to Cody and went to Buffalo Bill restaurant for dinner and was served a VERY BLOODY STEAK. I doubt it was fried more then 2 minutes.  And, for the first time we had a group session sharing some of our images from the first days of the trip.

Back to my room, taking a shower and uploading my images. And, back to single room again :)
Tomorrow we are going to Gardiner.

Shoshone valley river to Cody video from youtube



Linking up with: Sky Watch Friday   Saturdays Critters


 Image file For Yellowstone trip
Instagram  Travels and Birds

2016-02-22

Japan 160124 Tokyo - Akune in Kyushu

Japan 160122-160204
Bird Photography trip

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© NF Photos 160124

Woke up rather early to go down for breakfast. It was kind of, a mix between western and eastern breakfasts. A detail I noticed was that the boiled eggs was marked in the shell where to cut of the "head". So, instead of open the egg by smashing the top I only had to grab the top and lift it off. :) 

We met in the lobby at 9 for the plane to Kyushu. Now, it turned out that the plane was cancelled. A snowstorm had hit the western part of the island. But our guide, Ms Harumi Yamanaka, quickly run out in the domestic hall. After a little while she came back. Smiling. She had rebooked our flight to the airport Miyazaki on the east side of Kyushu where the storm still had not hit. 

Kyushu is a subtropic island so they have almost none experience of  snow. They had no means of clearing snow away from the runway.  





Well, we boarded the new flight and was on our way almost the same time as scheduled. Due to the changed route, I guess, we were rewarded with a beautiful view of Mt Fuji. The trip took about 2h.  Cool to see it has a upside down heart-looking feature on it´s side. See image at the end of the post.
         





When we were going in for landing it was kind of weird. The clouds were very low and it felt as if we were flying in a tunnel. Strange!








Arriving at the airport we found palm trees and other tropic plants and a chill in the air as a warning about what was to come. The bus that was about to pick us up in Kagoshima was rescheduled to Miyazaki. It took a while before it came so we took an early lunch.

Around 13,00 we was finally on our way up north west across the island to find our hotel in Akune. Luckily the driver was used to snow as he sometimes works in the northern part of Japan.


After driving a while the snow started. And increased for every bit we drove. Half way across the island the conditions was bad. The road started to have a lot of snow and the traffic was not used to it. It was sad to see bamboo shrubs and tea bushes bowing heavily with snow on them. 

We made one stop, in an convenience store to buy something to eat. And to give the driver a rest. In the end of the day it was at least 2 dm of snow. At one place we spotted an  excavator trying to get rid of snow on the road. 

We arrived at Akune at nightfall and was having dinner. Then we went to bed as the morning will be an early one. 



From the news!
Snowstorm in Kyushu  more news


The bed, Japanese style :)  Quite good actually.


  Mt Fuji

Linking up with:
NF Trees n Bushes
Our World Tuesday
Travel Tuesday

Japan on NF Photo  NF Birds around the world   

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24/1: Flyg Tokyo – Miyazaki på ön Kyushu. Buss till hotellet i Akune
Planen idag var att vi skulle flyga söderut till Kagoshima på ön Kyushu. Nu visade det sig att ett snöoväder hade stoppat alla flyg dit. Snö är extremt ovanligt på Kyushu, där det normalt råder ett subtropiskt klimat. Därför orsakar minsta snötäcke inställda flyg, då det inte finns snöröjning på flygplatsen. Vi lyckades dock boka om flyget till Miyazaki på östra delen av Kyushu, som inte drabbats av snön. Vi nådde dit vid lunchtid och fick sedan en lång bussresa till området där tranorna övervintrar. Bussfärden tog oss genom ett landskap med snötäckta teodlingar, bambudungar och palmer - på vissa ställen med upp till 2 dm snö! Många udda intryck med andra ord! Så småningom nådde vi fram till vårt hotell i Akune lite efter mörkrets inbrott, glada att det gick att ordna så vi kunde ta oss hit överhuvudtaget. Imorgon väntar en heldag bland tranorna vid Arasaki och då ska vi äntligen kunna börja fotografera på allvar! 

2015-05-04

150306 Varanger, Norway. Gardermoen to Båtsfjord

Varanger, Norway 150305-150311 
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© NF Photos 150306
For maps see blogpost Varanger


I did sleep on a couch but woke up because of cold drafts from a corridor so I had to move. But I got some sleep anyway. In the morning, after checking in, I met with my travel guide and fellow travellers. Lots of planes was cancelled due to the Norwegian pilots strike. see image of scedule reflected in airport,  but we was airborne according to schedule. It took two hours to get to Kirkenes. But in a way the trip was a disappointment. I had expected to see the mountain range but we travelled over Sweden and low country. I did not see mountains until we
got very close to Kirkenes. 


Image to the left, Varanger from above a few min before landing. 

After we picked up the rented cars we took off to Båtsfjord.








To start with it was a beautiful road,  now and then close to rivers and the arctic sea.




The sun came out occasionally and we made a stop at a frozen river with some water still flowing down a small fall.  First stop was at Skoltefossen.






When arriving at Varangerbotn we took a lunch break. And then continued inland due north west. We made a few photo stops and once we did see moose. A cow and half grown calf. 







31 km from Båtsfjord the road was closed due to snowy condition. There was a road barrier over the road. No passing permitted until they cleared the road of snow.  It was very windy and slippery and traffic had to wait to go in a caravan behind a truck with a snow blower the rest of the way. So we had to wait 1.5h before we could continue and then it was already dark. There was some piles of snow outside the house with the waiting room. The light from the room lit it up and I took some shots. People wondering why I shot them. But what I saw was not piles of  snow, I saw this: Watching


When the truck arrived it did not take long before we reached Båtsfjord. We arrived at the hotel around 18.00h. Got our rooms and took a quick shower before dinner was served at 19.00h.


After dinner we had an info meeting and was given our warm overalls to use in the hide. Well, that was kind of fun. You really feel clumsy in that suit. But it turned out to be great.  Then we were all very tired and forgot we was about to check for aurora.



I got to bed rather early as we were to meet again at 05.00h to go to the first session in hide. 
Winter in Varanger

Linking up with Sky Watch Friday

Varanger on NF Photo  NF Birds around the world   

2014-07-12