Just a little detour

So we are back in Oslo and the travelling part of the summer holiday is over. The drive back from Bodø was broken up this time with a stop at a hotel in Hell, which is by Trondheim Værnes Airport and the name has of course appeared lots in marketing. The hotel was thankfully far from being a hotel from hell although the experience of calling to book a room (online booking when you have a dog inevitably ends up with a message telling you to call them) was indeed an experience from hell.

The the call when eventually answered was answered by someone in an overseas call centre who was clearly reading off a script and initially I thought had to be scam but turned out to just be terrible customer service. I was actually positively surprised when we checked in and they were indeed expecting us and with a smile😅.

At breakfast and after a check of the weather forecast I hatched a plan to add another species of butterfly, and what would be my 80th in Norway, by detouring via Trysil to see Silvery Argus (kileblåvinge). I had assumed this would be a long detour but the Map app suggested it would only be 8 minutes longer so it was a no brainer although still required a good sell in to get Jr on board.

The route took us on wide, straight and empty roads through amazing wilderness in Femund and was a much faster and more enjoyable drive than following the main E6 road. The butterfly was only discovered in Norway in 2006 (although could of course have been present much, much longer) and has only ever been found around Trysil close to the Swedish border. For such a scarce species it was very easy to find and numerous on flower rich road verges. I clearly hadn’t done my homework though as especially the males were much smaller than I had expected. It was a very beautiful butterfly with on the males a broad black border to the turquoise on the upper wing.

Underside of a male Silvery Argus. The Norwegian name - kileblåvinge - comes from the white stripe

A very smart butterfly

The females were noticeably larger and probably also identifiable just from this angle although as with most butterflies everything become easier when you see them from below..

The route from the cabin to Oslo with the suggested route to leave Hell where we spent the night

And via Trysil it was only 8 minutes longer. None of the roads are classified as main routes but were a joy to drive

The apparently quickest (although much longer route) was via Sweden although the time is the same as the initial Norwegian only route so I don't really understand why this was suggested. If one is driving further north to for example Finnmark then a route via Sweden and Finland is definitely quicker but I have not seen it suggested for Bodø before. The E6 route to Bodø has become a lot quicker (and safer) due to improvements between Trondheim and Fauske and there are still long sections that that haven't been finished yet but maybe the Swedes have also been improving their roads?

Skiing with Hawkie

We have spent the first part of the Easter holiday downhill skiing at Trysil. It was positively divine conditions with deep blue skies, no wind, overnight temperatures falling below -10C but with the sun making it feel warm. There was also loads of good snow, so skiing was a delight especially after having got the ski prepped and the edges sharpened.

There were not many birds to be encountered but the most numerous were 4 Siberian Jays and 3 Hawk Owls so I was a very happy skier. We got very close to the birds but with only a lousy iphone camera the shots do not do justice to the experience. I had taken my superzoom away with me but chose not to have it with me whilst skiing in case I fell. I was less worried for the camera than my ribs which came off the worse from a previous fall on the ice. Given that I didn’t fall (bar one embarrassing dismount from a chair lift) and the fact the owls were very stationary I do regret not having gone back to the hotel and collected the camera because the light was great, the trees not too tall and one owl in particular was very confiding.

me filming Hawkie

a Siberian Jay (lavskrike) honestly!

there were tracks from Hares all over the place but here we also saw where one had been gnawing on a tree either to eat the bark or maybe just to wear its teeth down