Nikkor 24-70 mm | f/2.8

To photograph around the Northern Cape, the season of mid-May 2022 was ideal. Although weather reports had just recently been reported of meter-high snowfall, but on our approach the last kilometers were cleared and we could easily reach the top of the North Cape without snow chains. There were still no car traffic jam of mobile homes, which occasionally flooded the driveway and parking lots during the season, and we could almost photograph and enjoy the monuments and magnificent views.

At the furthest point of the Lyngen Alps, where the Barents Sea, Ullsfjord and Lyngenfjord meet, the Lyngstuva lighthouse on Sørklubben guards the shipping lanes. The scramble up to the lighthouse is rewarded with a fantastic view.

The wonderful scenic route across the Valdresflye plateau is one of the 18 Norwegian Tourist Routes, which are maintained by the Norwegian State Roads Administration especially for tourism because of their picturesque landscape. There are parking and rest areas along the route and there are also vantage points at particularly impressive points.

The archipelago of Norway at the Skagerrak form a very relaxed landscape. The glaciers have not only smoothed the original rocks here, but also produced a special feature - large "Potholes (Jettegryte)" with circular, reflective water surfaces.

In Rjukan, everything revolves around electricity, just as we like it :-) The Vemork hydroelectric power station, built in 1911, was the largest in the world at the time and right in town you can see the Såheim hydroelectric power station today.

The Gaustabanen take you up the 1,900 meter high Gaustatoppen. We are lucky, the railways and access have just started seasonal operation and our summit ascent leads first over serpentines to 1170 m, then with railway 1 horizontally 850 meters into the mountain and from there with a funicular at 39° 1050 m wide and 850 meters high.

Small roads lead from the Lyngenfjord to Narvik, the Norwegian port city between mountains and fjords. The Lyngenfjord bids us farewell with grandiose cloud formations and the mood lighting conjures up an unusually menacing atmosphere over the Lyngen Alps.

In Narvik we moved into the Scandic Hotel - a good choice, because we got a room on an upper floor as requested and looked forward to the panoramic view of the harbor facilities we had been hoping for.

When we arrived from Alta, the Lyngen Alps offered us a wonderful panorama with the best light conditions. We had again rented his accommodation "Aurora Dreams" from Frank, where we had already spent Christmas and New Year 2021/2022. At the turn of the year we found ideal conditions to photograph the polar and northern lights. Now we were hoping to photograph the midnight sun over the Ullsfjord.

In the Hjemmeluft area on the southern shore of the Altafjord in northern Norway, just west of the town of Alta, Neolithic and Bronze Age petroglyphs were found in the autumn of 1972, ranging in age from 2000 to 6500 years.
Petroglyphs (from Greek πέτρος petros "stone" and γλύφειν glýphein "to carve") are representations worked into stone, which often show hunting and religious scenes from prehistoric times. Unlike rock art, a petroglyph is engraved, scraped, or pecked, and sunk into the ground.
 

The E69, which joins the E6 to Alta, is a dream road with spectacular views. At the end of May the roads are clear but the snow-capped hills and mountains give a wintry impression.

Occasionally reindeer appear who have already scraped small patches of grass under the snow to graze. It goes a long way along the Porsangerfjord. Small islands with few houses suddenly appear behind the curves and tunnels of the country road.

You can often go 80 km/h here and we make good progress until the road gets busier when we arrive in Alta and we are happy about the many cyclists.