TravelStream™ news feed for member samira_steve on TravelPod's free travel blogs service http://www.travelpod.com/syndication/rss/samira_steve en-us Copyright ©2009 TravelPod.com Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:57:05 -0500 http://www.travelpod.com http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188897360/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188897360/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188897360/tpod.html Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:57:05 -0500 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Rushden, United Kingdom

I am now back in sunny England! I remember it was sunny when I was leaving and it is now sunny when I am back. At least it is not pouring down with cats and dogs!

Great to be back as I am going straight to a birthday part of Mark, celebrating his young 50th birthday and that means free alcohol and food! :) Not to forget the cake!

Here is the list of people I met that I would like to thank:
Steve, Theunis, Nick, Angela (Middle East), Larissa (for the jump), Ellaina, Alonso, Miguel, Katia, Kasey, Matt, Matt, Jane, Lana, Tova, Aviv, Robin, Stee (Africa), Clive (thanks for the amazing stay in one of the only 2 huts in the most exclusive resort in Botswana ever and for all the fun! ;), Emersson and Glyn for joining Steve and I in Hong Kong and later on in Malaysia and Singapore, Emma (your beautiful, cuddly personality and wonderful smile), Michelle (China and Australia), Jens, Philip, Phil and Julie, Lisa, Ian (China), Lesley (South East Asia, for our wild nights in the town), Carl (all those long drives in the outback and putting up with me on the passenger seat next to you), Tracy, Phill, John, Victor, Baz (Outback, Australia), Kakadu National Adventure Company (Adventure Tours in Australia, you know your stuff!) Erik, Henrik (The random grumpy guy I met on the boat while I was in Whitsunday sailing the magnificent blue ocean, there is even proof of him being grumpy, as there is a picture of me with him looking grumpy in the background on my wall back in the UK, kindly put up by Mark, that he looks grumpy! then again then we didn't really know each other! When we did know each other, he almost broke my arm! But he was soon found out to be useful in the kitchen! Thank you for your company in Australia, along the great Ocean Road and your hospitality in Sweden and being a great camping buddy), Nick, Samuel, Lindsey and Colin (for keeping mark, Steve and I company from Airlie's Beach, sailing trip to Magnetic Island, Australia), Rebecca (for having Steve and I in Brisbane and for the fantastic Christmas at the Beach and teaching me body boarding!), Mark (for asking me to come to see you if I ever came to Australia, 5 years ago on a bus in Jasper, Canada), Michelle (for your absolute inspiring way of living and your great personality and hospitality in Melbourne and fun traveling with you in China), Josh (for letting me stay at his place in Adelaide, while seeing Henrik), crew on the whitsunday sailing boat, Australia, Tracy (Fraser Island), diving lot at the Yongala diving site in Australia, Cape tribulation education centre (I now know which fruits to eat and which to avoid), Rory, Ramona, Emma, Brook, Clare, Trish, Chuck, Jean, Bruce (Tasmania, Australia) Tracy, Elinor, Mike, Robinson Island crew, Kim and Harbour diving crew in Fiji, Wout, Annekke, Kristin (Fiji), Dan, Malene (for being my tent mate and all those pushes up the hills while cycling in New Zealand), Amanda, Sinead, Katie (for keeping me company on the hike up Tongoriro Crossing, New Zealand), Erik, Dan (New Zealand, Sweden), Scot (thanks for asking me to come to see you again, 5 years ago on the bus on the way to Jasper), Ginny and Chris (special thanks go to keeping me company on the Inca Trail and your fun loving personalities, can't wait to see you back in the UK), Chris, Katherine, (Argentina, Chile, Bolivia and Peru), Inca Trail Crew, Maria, James, Trude, George (Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay and Brazil), Carolina (my friend from School, whom I met in Brazil after 12 years), Scot, Teisha, Penny, John, Aron, Tammy and dad, Nir, Eyal, the Kiwi cousins, (you guys truly made the trip in the Galapagos unforgettable and more precious), Paolo, (Ecuador), Sheila and Rick, Efie (Amazon, Ecuador), The beautiful couple I met in Ecuador on my first day when I arrived, and they looked after me as I was feeling quite unwell, I hope I can find your emails again, Tony, Sona, Jane (Cuba), Diving crew at Playa del Carmen, Mexico, Simon, Stella (I wish I had more time with you) (Mexico), Pat and Dor'e (whom initially I met on top of the Wyna picchu mountain, in Macchu Picchu and later I stayed with them in LA for over 2 weeks, your hospitality is indescribable, your personalities are unforgettable and your friendships are cherish-able, also thanks to the rest of the Smyths, Bryce and Pilar, Mike and Duffy for the trip to the Walt Disney Land, California and for all the rides we did over and over again), Matt (for meeting me in San Francisco and for the great road trip in San Fran and New Jersey), Tracy (for meeting up with me in California) Sheila and Rick (for having me in Washington State, for your love, the memories you shared with me, for taking me in like a family and for the fun adventures on the road, exploring this beautiful part of the US), John (for letting me stay at your house in Seattle and for the fun times, even though you had to get me away from God Father), Ellaina (for coming down from VanCouver for a day to see me in Seattle, I look forward to our future travels), My brother Fouad and Kata (for having me stay in New Jersey with you and not making me move the Piano while you were moving out from your house!), Alan, Will (New Jersey), my Uncle Hamid (for seeing me in Stockholm, after 5 years), Henrik (Camping trip; part 2; continuation from Great Ocean Road: for having me stay at your mum's and meeting all your friends and family and for one of the best camping trip ever! you survived in the bush with me for almost 3 weeks, my friends can assure you, that is a record! Sweden, Norway), Yvonne, Hasse, Emma, Rikard, Micke, Ante, Emma, Henrik's Grandparents (for all the tasty food), Erik, Dan (Sweden).

Special thanks to Zambezi white water river rafting, Livingstone Bungee jumping (Africa), Airlie Beach Sky diving (Australia), Pacific Harbour Shark diving (Fiji), Route-burn hiking crew (New Zealand), caving crew (New Zealand), Biplane adventure (New Zealand), Rangitoto river rafting (New Zealand), downhill mountain biking (Bolivia and Cotopaxi), many climbing adventures in Middle East, Tasmania and South America for keeping me still alive! And very well addicted to these activities!

Thanks to all of you at home reading this blog and sending me your comments and emails and messages. Thanks to those of you (Mark, Chris, Emerson, Glyn, Fouad) for coming out to see me, while I was away. To my family, thanks for your support, even when I was jumping off of a bridge, jumping out of a plane, flying a plane, diving with the sharks, climbing up a mountain somewhere, or any other crazy thing I have done in my life! :)

Thank you.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1189874340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1189874340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1189874340/tpod.html Mon, 17 Dec 2007 12:54:46 -0500 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Rushden, United Kingdom

I wish I could say that the Saga was the traveling, but it is more the not knowing what to do with my life! :)

A lot of you have been sending me emails asking me what I have been up to since I got back to Sunny England. So I thought I will send an update on my status while I have been back. Of course I will also reply to your individual emails just to confirm what I have been saying in this email and a few odd little secrets here and there! ;) This one is for you John, when you told me that people are more interested hearing about what happens in the tent and not where the lake is! :)

Well I am still unemployed, confused and restless and unhappy since the adventures are over! The day I arrived in the UK was, as you know, Mark's 50th birthday, so it is now official that he is no longer 27! I was 22 when I met Mark and he was 27 then and for the next 5 years. I have to say life hasn't been kind to him as a 27 year old! Then again he did come away to see me 2 times and both times he ended up practicing his disco moves under the water, the last time involved a duet with a shark!:) The birthday do was great and successful, and although I had complaints from people that I had returned on the big day to steel the attention, whereas Mark thinks that no one would have turned up without me as the star attraction! It was still nice to see a few other much older familiar faces. It was of course great to see Kathy and I couldn't believe some of my ex-co-workers had babies! And a few were getting married. Apart from that not much had changed. Not at all! Had a good boogie with Mark and even managed to get Henrik on the dance floor, which he was determined that would never happen. A few beers later, he was the dancing queen! I met new faces, which is always great and fun and have been able to make new friends and managed to get a few convinced that traveling is great!

I spent the following week in London with Henrik. After all regardless of how small his town is back in Sweden, Rushden was still a big downgrade, so I had to do something about it and take him to London. In fact he was so persistent to go and explore Rushden the first day we arrived, that he decided to go without me (I was quite happy on the coach!) and 30 minutes later he returned and said "I explored" and he managed to find one good looking woman in the city! I personally think it must have been a transvestite!

London was a lot of fun. We walked and walked and walked! I don't have any photos, since believe it or not, I officially retired from taking photos, which I know makes John very happy! :) But Henrik was the official photographer and he will hopefully put them on his blog. We stayed with Ginny, who was a friend I made while I was traveling in South America and we bonded during the Inca Trail! :) It was great seeing her again and the stay with her was fun and very relaxing. I took Henrik to where I first used to live in London, which was near Kings Cross, and then to South Kensington where I lived for 4 years afterwards. A big difference! However, this time I really enjoyed Islington, Kings Cross and Holborn and I know, or at least I have heard that these areas have changed a lot recently, but the old London has a certain charm and character. We walked from Islington where Ginny lives to Kensington, almost everyday, but exploring different places. It is incredible how far the places are from each other, yet it is possible to walk from one place to another and to really see London, if you like walking, it is the best way to do it! We visited my old schools and I found my school had a big gate outside it with a security camera, which it never used to have! We went to London eye, Tower of London, London Dungeon and we took the river cruise in London and to Greenwich. It was my first time there and we went with Ginny. We visited Camden Market and Portobello Market, and I am sad to hear that they are thinking of closing Camden Market! We tried food such as fish and chips, jacket potatoes and baked beans and English breakfast. Anything that is basically not good for you! :)

Henrik left a few days ago, which was quite sad to say goodbye to him, but I am sure our paths will meet again, and it also made me realise that the holidays are over! So since then I have been looking for jobs, getting in touch with old friends and I have got back into running! Well the first thing Mark did, the day after Henrik left was to put me down for a short 4 mile run at work. I then found out that it was a 8 mile run (which I had the choice of doing), as we went around the first loop, I said to Mark that I will do the 8 mile. So my first day back in real life started with an 8 mile run. I was very impressed with myself that I did it. It has been 15 months since the last time I ran! My time was 1 hour and 19 minutes, which is the slowest time from the club and I know it is my slowest time too. Although a little girl did beat me dressed in pink not more than 12 years of age! But she was running a shorter distance, nonetheless I made sure as the photographer was taking the photo, she wasn't in it! Can you imagine the humiliation? :) But at the moment I still have a big smile on my face. Mainly from the pain of the bike ride today!

Mark, Lucy and myself went for a 30-mile bike ride today. I found out it was 30 miles at the end of the ride! I already had one bad knee from yesterday's run and today for the first time in my life, I flew over the handle bar and managed to hurt my other knee! I can only say one thing and that is not to stay too close to Mark's backside! You see I was racing after Mark down the road and there was a puddle of water, so he went around it and so did I! Except I was too close to him to see the bridge and the fence! So I rode straight into the fence! Mark heard the crash and looked back, next thing I know he is on the floor! :) Lucy was just shaking her head! So I am truly back into full training mode again! Let's see what wonderful things I can achieve this year! We then went into our local dive shop here in Rushden and the lady behind the counter looked quite concerned as she asked if I was OK. She must have thought we were trying to be John Wayne!

I have been able to catch up with John and Rachel who left on their one year travels before me, in fact they got back the day I was leaving! I have now found out that they are off again for 7 weeks this time, in Argentina! So I am avoiding them right now! :)

That's all I wanted to say, I will of course keep you all informed about my future plans and I hope that I will return to the world of traveling soon. In fact there are a few diving trips I am arranging, so you will hear about those. I will let you know as soon as I become employed too! :) And hopefully one day soon I can get back to Africa and work, as I have been wanting to for a while.

:)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188203340/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188203340/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188203340/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:41:43 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Mo i Rana, Norway

This morning we woke up at 7:20 which has been the earliest record for us since we got on this trip. We were ready to climb Fykantrappene stairs of 1124 steps, which is the longest and steepest stairs in Europe. But no one warned us about the path you had to take to get to the stairs which was also quite slippery! The stairs were rather slippery because of the rain and they were made of wood, so you can to take extra caution crossing them. Once we reached the top of the stairs, you could get a magnificent view of the surrounding fjords and the dam. The colour of the water was crystal blue and green and it was so clear that you could see it was fresh. After all it was coming from the mountains and the melted snow and Glacier which we discovered later on. Rest assured we didn't dare to take a dip in this water.

After the stairs we went to check out the dam we found out last night and decided to climb it to the top. The dam was quite impressive, but the view on the other side of the dam, was something I would never forget. As I took my last steps to reach the top of the dam, I looked up and for a moment was short of words to describe what I was seeing in front of me. There was a Glacier in the distance and mountains covered with snow. I was speechless, well very temporarily, then started coming out with words such as, lets go there!

So Henrik and I crossed the dam, and decided to go and check out the Glacier. You know when you were a kid and you used to look at mountains and hills, and ask your dad "are they really far, or can I just run to them and touch them and come back" well it was the same thing here, they looked closer to us than they probably were, one of those optical illusions I suppose. But none the less we started on our journey to the Glacier. We saw one little avalanche which did make us think twice about going out there, but we decided to go as far the second hill and see how that goes.

I actually really don't think God wanted us to go there, a few minutes later a thick fog came over us and totally covered the Glacier, still unsure about crossing or not crossing we made an attempt to climb over the second hill, which I soon discovered to be very slippery and on the way down I almost went straight into the water! It was right out of a comedy and I was very worried about my camera at this stage, of course! Struggling up the hill, fighting against gravity and my slippery boots, I managed to finally get myself to the top. Now this hill was not even more than 4 mts high, so this really was comical! Henrik was already at the top, laughing his head off! Once on the top we were faced with a hawk circling above our heads making strange noises. This must have been our second warning for the day! He really didn't seem pleased to see us there. We continued forward and came to a halt as we heard another avalanche, but this time it was a lot louder. I thought it was a helicopter! Henrik looked very concerned and not so keen on the idea of going any further. I also didn't like the idea of pushing him to go any further and realised he is more sensible than I am! So we turned around.

We got back in the car and drove out of the tunnel towards a town called Holand. From there we decided to catch the boat to go and see the Svartisen Glacier, and I wonder if the Glacier we saw earlier on today was part of this Glacier. In order to go and see the Glacier, once we reached the island, we decided to rent bikes and to cycle out there. It was only 3 kms. The ride through the village was quite fun, there wasn't many people around, but there were lots of sheep and cows. Once we got to the Glacier, we followed a path which soon ended at the bottom of the hill, from there on, it was up to you if you wanted to go ahead and climb to the Glacier and it was at your own risk. It is highly advised not to walk on a Glacier on your own in the absence of a guide and I remember this from my Glacier walk in New Zealand, so we decided to would climb up to it but we will not walk on it. It was really nice to see the Glacier and to be able to take some photos. We then climbed back down, got back on the bikes and rode back to where we were supposed to catch the boat back to Holand.

That day we drove through a tunnel which was as long as 7.6 km and we had 2 ferry crossings. That night we camped at Mo i Rana.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188292080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188292080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188292080/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:32:41 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Trondheim, Norway

Trondheim, the third biggest city in Norway and famous for the cathedral called Nidarosdomen and the beautiful streets and houses. Before reaching Trondheim, we checked the polar Arctic circle. We had crossed it before in Sweden in the middle of nowhere on the way to Kiruna, half way between Haparanda and Kiruna. It was cold and for the first time since I arrived in Sweden and Norway, it had snowed. The arctic circle is pretty much in the middle of nowhere with a few hills around it and the road that has the sign where you cross over the circle. I went for a walk and managed to see 2 Reindeers.

From there which was located 80 kms North of Mo i Rana, we drove south to Trondheim, checked out the city, had lunch and drove out of the city back onto the highway. We were now reaching the end of our camping days and soon had to cross back into Sweden. We camped one night outside of Trondheim and the following day we reached Sweden. We crossed back into Sweden via E14 which took us back into Åre, Östersund and we camped in Hudiksvall. We had driven 1000 kms only from Trondheim back into Sweden. This was our last night of camping. It was sad to say goodbye to the tent and even the sleepless nights in the car. I sure had a great time being on the road for this long with Henrik. Sweden is a beautiful country full of life and for those of you who like your hiking and climbing this is one of the places to come and explore. The people are friendly and gorgeous to look at, and the food is surprisingly unlike what most people may think is different and quite tasty. I liked Norway too, I have met a lot of Norwegians on my travels, and they are by far one of the easier people to get on with and they have a great sense of adventure. I sure look forward to coming back here and to see the country, maybe in Winter. And any of you out there who are interested in doing the hikes in Abisko National Park, drop me a line! :)
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188114240/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188114240/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188114240/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:26:33 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Glomfjord, Norway

Once again we were woken up in the morning by the sound of heavy rain and the dripping of the water inside the tent. The tent no longer was as good as we had it at the beginning of the trip and the weather in Norway had been rain and more rain ever since we arrived here. We managed to jump out of the tent as soon as the rains stopped for a short period of time, undid the top cover of the tent, and left everything to dry under the very weak sunshine which lasted for about 10 minutes. Meanwhile we ate our breakfast and packed everything in the car and got ready for our road trip. While I was putting stuff in the car, I heard strange noises coming from the side of the car and looked up to see Henrik battling with his sleeping matt. Next thing I knew he had attacked the helpless thing with a pair of scissors and said out loud, that is what you get for not cooperating. I made sure I would not get on the wrong side of him! :[

After the scissors incidence, we headed out towards Bodö. We got to the tourist information and asked them where we could eat whale! As much as I am against the whaling industry, I just had to try it to see what the big deal was about. We got to this fancy looking pub/restaurant and asked if we could order whale. She looked at us as though we did not belong to this place, since I was dressed in my waterproof gear and Henrik was in his camouflage outfit. She told us where to seat and how much we owed her. It was 99 Norwegian Kronor for the food which is about 10 Euros. I was hoping that the portion was going to be as generous as the cost. And it wasn't of course! But it was much more better than going to a French restaurant where the plate is a lot bigger than the food on it! Whale to me tasted like beef jerkys with a little bit of a kick in them which must have been due to the large amount of pepper they had added. It did also taste fishy.

We then checked out the city in the pouring day and it was then that Henrik and I started talking about working in a fish factory somewhere like in Norway or Alaska and of course conversations like that takes you to far far away land of traveling! So we soon stopped before we got carried away! We waited around to see the strongest tidal current in the world, which was in Saltstraumen. It was going to be at exactly 6:08 in the afternoon. It occurs every 6 hours and we had missed the one at about 12 midday. Bodö is also famous for Sea Eagles and has the highest number of these birds in the world. But we sadly only saw one stuffed one!

The tidal current was a little bit disappointing. The pictures all showed a big whirlpool, but it wasn't anything like that. We then continued with our journey. We got to Glomfjord which there was another dam and it was where most of the hydroelectric power in Norway came from. By now it was about 9 in the evening and the daylight here in Norway is the same as in Sweden and it was getting darkish. We decided to stop on the other side of the dam and to sleep in the car. But first we read about 1124 steps that took you to the top of the mountain for a lookout. We decided to would go and find out where they are and climb them tomorrow morning. On the first attempt we were unable to find the stairs, instead we came across a very dark tunnel which you could drive through. Since the barriers were up, we decided to drive through it. It was really spooky, as you couldn't see the other end of the tunnel and if you turned off all the lights of the car, it was pitch black. When we finally got to the other end of the tunnel we were pleasantly surprised to see higher mountains and bits of snow around us. It almost felt like the tunnel must have been going up and up in the mountains. We continued driving on the road which then took us up to the highest point and you could not go any further. But right in front of us there was another dam, except this time we were on the other side of it, behind the dam. It was quite strange. We decided not to explore anymore and to go and come back tomorrow morning. On the way out of the tunnel we saw the stairs on our right and they looked pretty high up. That night we slept in the car.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188769500/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188769500/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188769500/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:23:00 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Fauske, Norway

This morning we drove back to the information centre after a quick breakfast in the car as the weather was very cold. It was soon becoming apparent that the further North we drove to, the colder the weather was going to be. At the information centre we found out about a few hikes we could and a canyon that we could go and see. I thought that the canyon was going to be far away from us, but it was only 150 meters away. After the canyon we got ready to drive to Narvik in Norway, since we were so close to Norway. We decided that instead of driving all the way up North of Sweden we would go and explore Norway for a few days. As we got back on the road and started driving towards Narvik, we remembered that we hadn't checked out Lapporten, the famous mountains with a valley in the middle that you can even hike through. So we went back to the information centre and the lady told us to go back on the same road we were traveling on and stop at the look out. So we did, but sadly we could not see the mountain, due to the poor weather.

We started driving to Riksgränsen which was the last city or town in Sweden before entering Norway. We decided to stock up on food as it was going to be rather expensive in Norway, even more expensive than Sweden! 2 tins of Ravioli and lot of bread and spread later, we got back on the road and soon entered Norway. The border crossing was pretty much like the one in Finland. The scenery however, was absolutely magnificent. We both felt that this was the best road we had been driving on, so far. We stopped in Narvik to ask about a tourist road along the coat and we found one.

In my opinion if Sweden is the land of lakes and pine trees and forests, Norway is the land of Fjords and mountains. The view was totally and utterly out of this world and something that words cannot describe. The gigantic mountains around us as we drove around and through them, through the tunnels. The length of these tunnels varied from less than a km to over 8 kms. The fjords were so elegant and their reflection in the dark waters of the lakes and the ocean was quite something. In a way it was Milford Sound all over again for me.

We drove to Fauske that night, which involved taking a ferry. We camped that night after a long time of searching for a decent campsite.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187899080/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187899080/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187899080/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:20:58 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Kiruna, Sweden

Kiruna is famous for it's iron mine which is the largest in the world. We were hoping to take a tour in the mine, but since it was Sunday by the time we reached Kiruna, everything was closed. Kiruna is situated about 300 kms North West of Haparanda. It is an OK city with not much nice things to look at, well except the mine and the skiing ground. We slept in the car the first night we were in Kiruna. The next morning we went to the Ice hotel which of course was not in function now until Winter. On the photos and the postcards, it looks pretty amazing and it is a place where I would like to come back to and stay in winter. In fact I think whole of Sweden will look totally different in Winter. I think it would look more amazing, covered in Snow. We have seen many people on the road on their roller skates, practicing for cross country skiing. It is a sight to see, while you are driving on the highway you see these bright coloured people, pushing themselves on the skates with walking sticks. I am sure they all have more complex terminology than this.

After we checked out the Ice Hotel we went to the information centre in Kiruna and found out that everything we wanted to see was closed on the Sundays. Except a church in Kiruna which was the most beautiful building in Sweden in 2001. We also took a hike in Kiruna along what was suppose to be a well signed track called midnight track. Except we never found the signs. Until the end of the hike as we came back to the car park where we had left the car. It was to the right of the car and not straight ahead, as we had gone. The hike took us to a mountain that was one of the Ski resorts. From there you could get a great view of the mine and the surroundings. Kiruna has midnight sun from the 28th May to 16th July. There are polar nights from the 1st December to the 31st December, when it is black all 24 hours of the day.

Once the hike was over, we drove to Abisko National Park. There are many hikes you could do here. The one that I have found to be very interesting was a 5 week hike which takes you from Abisko to Saltoloukta mountain hut. This walk takes you through to Kebnekaise which is Sweden's highest mountain, but only at 2117 metres. You could also do a 7 day hike from Abisko to Kebnekaise. You can guess that I will be coming back to this part of Sweden. The hike sounds really interesting and at the hut in Abisko we met many hikers that were staying at these huts overnight, and it reminded me of the Routeburn track in New Zealand. Well maybe one day I can come back to this part of the world again, and you can be sure Henrik will also be made to do the hike! And this time not on a scooter, although he has talked about bringing a quad-bike!

Here in Abisko, is where I stole a shower! You don't think that is possible? Well let me tell you. As we drove to the car park of the visitors centre and where the hut was located, Henrik went for a wonder and came back with a cheeky smile on his face as though he has just done something he wasn't suppose to! He told me about this bathroom which was open and had a shower in it. It has been one week since my last shower and if there was going to be one for free, I was going to take it. I can't tell you how great it felt to have a shower in a hot water and not to have to bath in a lake with freezing cold water! After the shower, we left immediately on a search of a good spot to put up the tent. Although as the night drew longer, the weather got worse and we were convinced it is a much better idea to stay in the car. By now we had gotten used to sleeping in the car and Henrik was even managing well with his maneuvering in the sleeping bag, but he had not stopped complaining, oh no, that is too much to ask! :)

On the road to finding a spot to sleep, we had a close encounter with an Owl. As we drove on the road, I noticed something sitting in the middle of the road, which at first glance, oddly enough it looked like a baby to me. Suddenly as the car headlights shined on him, his head turned and his eyes shined red and he flew away from us, inches away from the car, by this time, Henrik had let go of the steering wheel and closed his eyes with his hands and screamed like a girl! I wasn't sure what scared me most, the baby flying or the scream! I couldn't stop myself from laughing, as I was shocked to see Henrik behave in such a manner, you can be sure that I keep reminding him of that to this day! The spot that we finally found was in a car park looking space off the main road, next to 2 spooky campervans. But there was one in them, or was there?
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188758700/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188758700/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1188758700/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 15:17:53 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Luleå, Sweden

This morning we had a quick dip in the lake, ate breakfast and left the campsite to Luleå to meet up with Dan and Erik. Dan and Erik were two of the cavers I met while I was in Nelson in New Zealand. They were both studying in New Zealand when I met them and since then, they had been back in Sweden for a few months. Dan was moving up to Luleå from South of Sweden to begin his University, and Erik was coming up to see him from Sundsvall.

Henrik and I had lunch at a kebab house which was run by an Iranian. It was lucky since we needed to charge our phone battery and when I found out he was Iranian I spoke to him in Farsi and asked him if we could charge our phone while we were eating our food. Not only he let us do that, he even gave us free coffee at the end of our meal. The food was also very tasty and rather large.

Then at about 12 we met up with Erik and Dan. We walked along the waterfront, sat for a while and talked about our trip and what they had been up to since they got back. Dan wasn't quite sure if the choice of the Uni was quite right for him, but like we all said he would know once he started. We then decided to go and see the city since none of us have been there before. We came across an off licence and decided instead of going out we would just buy some drinks and sit outside Dan's flat and have a mini party. Well we sure did buy some drinks and it was quite a lot and I ended up drinking the whole bottle of Amarula all to myself. Since no one else liked it. That wasn't the best decision I ever made in my life. I paid for it at the end of the night. I soon retired to bed, well my sleeping bag in a tent outside the flat and fell asleep till the next morning. The next morning I was woken up by the biggest hangover, and my head felt like the size of a basketball. I managed to have some water but couldn't face eating any breakfast.

Dan was probably the only one who looked like hadn't had anything to drink. That morning in the car was quite a silent one. We drove to a nearby village called Gammelstads Kyrkstad (The Church Town of Gammelstad), which is a UNESCO world heritage area. There is a church in this village which built in 1496. We tried to go inside the church the first time, but heard there was a ceremony, so thought we would wait and instead we went and explored the village. There were old houses that belonged to the Sami people, so once again I felt very much at home! We went back to the church and realised that it closes in 15 minutes and the ceremony was still going on, so we thought we will go in regardless and check it out. The ceremony happened to be a funeral. So we crashed a funeral. Dan made sure he was sitting outside, and no where near the inside of the church!

That day soon ended after visiting the church and the village and Henrik and I said goodbye to the boys and continued on our journey. Since we were so close to the Finnish border, we decided to drive to Haparanda which is in Sweden and borders with Finnish town of Tornio. We crossed the border which really looked nothing like a border and got to Finland. Immediately as we crossed the border we noticed differences in the countries. Finland seemed a lot more flat and not as green as Sweden. The weather was pretty bad! In fact that day and the next day it rained non-stop. We camped in the forest next to a lake, got completely soaked as the tent decided not to co-operate with us and it was bent quite badly. The next morning we decided to leave Finland as there was no point hanging out here if the weather was going to be like this. So we drove back to Haparanda and continued our journey in Sweden.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187529420/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187529420/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187529420/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:56:57 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Östersund, Sweden

We started the day this morning with a cold swim in the lake where we camped by! The water was so cold that I wasn't sure what was going to make my heart stop first, the swim or the coldness of the water! But it was getting rather hard to breath and we just decided to swim as fast as possible to the other little Island on the other side and to swim back. A few minutes after being in the water, my body was quite numb and I couldn't feel the coldness anymore. The only thing that was left which I didn't like was the darkness of the lake as you opened your eyes underneath the water. You couldn't see anything! Feeling numb in the water and being able to face the cold, all went out of the window as soon as I stepped out of the water and caught the wind! That froze me all over again. The walk back to the car was pretty painful for me as I only had my towel, Henrik had brought all his clothes to where we swam from and I wasn't even thinking! Well I was fully awake after the swim. We left the campsite and stopped at a moose garden in Åre. The moose garden was run by a Norwegian lady. She had two moose there, one male called Arthur and one female called Wilma. Every time she called for Wilma, it reminded me of the Flintstones. Wilma was a typical female teenage moose. If you know what a typical teenage moose is like! Apparently is like a female teenage human!

There we learnt that moose can jump as high as 2.5 meters and when they run they can take wide steps as far as 4 meters apart from each other. They can also swim up to 4 knots. And that is when she told us about the possibility of the dragon in the lake being nothing more than a moose. With us there were two German girls, one whom took quite a fancy in Henrik and I believe Henrik was flattered by the fact that she liked him and he did his best to make her blush! He happened to remind them that there are many German tourists that come to Sweden and take a fancy in the moose signs and steel a few of them. The girls were quite disappointed in what he said and the one who liked Henrik made sure he knew that they weren't like that. Standing in the middle of the field with a moose behind me and thinking that I have now lost Henrik to the German girl, I was coming up with plans in my head to continue with the trip, and the thought of hitchhiking was swimming in my mind. But then again Henrik came back and decided he would never miss out on this trip. Until the next best thing came along to distract him. Being in Sweden, it doesn't take much!

That night we drove back to the same campsite in Östersund near the lake and where we had our first fire. We ate at golden arches that night.
]]> http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187440620/tpod.html http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187440620/tpod.html#comments Travel Blogs http://www.travelpod.com/travel-blog-entries/samira_steve/travelbog_2006/1187440620/tpod.html Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:54:09 -0400 Destinations: Middle East, Africa, Asia, Australasia, South, Central & North America. Read all about it. Written by Dr S.

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Åre, Sweden

First day in Åre was pretty much spent climbing the highest peak in Åre called Åreskutan at the height of 1420 mts. It was 4 and half kms and it was expected to take us about 3 and half hours. I think it took us about one hour less than that. Henrik and I started the climb together but we got separated from each other as he took off and I got distracted by rocks to climb and got a little bit bored of the track, so decided to go off the track and climb a few of the rocks. I am not sure if it was a good idea or not, as these were pretty high and after each one you climbed there was another one and another one and you didn't really know what to expect around the corner. Of course it wasn't serious climbing as I had no equipment with me and I don't know how to do that anyway. I was then forced to come back on the track as I hit a dead end. I had to climb down the path onto another path covered with snow on the steeper side of the mountain, and the snow went down the hill where you could no longer see the end of it, and it looked a little bit scary, as if you slipped, you wouldn't know where you would land, either on another rock if you were lucky or way down the mountain! I did my best to keep to the side of the mountain which was not on the steep side and fought my curiosity to find out where that snow ends! I never did find out!

On the top of the mountain I reached a house which at first I didn't think it was anything special, but later on I found out that it was a coffee shop and that Henrik had been waiting for me inside! I passed the coffee shop, noticed a platform on my right and wanted to climb it, but then saw lots of signs with electrical shock on them and Swedish writing, so I assumed you are not allowed to go there. But apparently you could! I got to the bottom of the hill where you catch the chair lift to go down and decided to wait there for Henrik. About 45 minutes later, he came running down the hill as he had got scared I was lost or had fallen off the mountain! Happy to see each other again and feeling exhausted, we got on the chair lift, watched a few young people bike down the hill where you ski and wished we could do this, if it didn't cost as much as 90 Euros!

That night we camped in Åre near yet another lake. Henrik made pasta with hot dogs and hot coffee and this time we were prepared to make a fire! We even had an axe and saw to cut the tree branches, and all was there on the curtosy of someone! We got our twigs and a few huffs and puffs later, we made our fire. Henrik then went to bed and I sat outside and enjoyed the fire a little bit longer before retiring to bed.
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