Beech forest in autumn colour

From october till this weekend, I have been to two beech forests to photograph the beautiful autumn colors. It was a bit tricky as the cold and autumn has started later than usual, probably due to the cold spring.
Sundbyholm, the one that I have been to many times before, is few km outside Eskilstuna. Known for being be the northernmost in Europe. The other one is on Torö just outside Nynäshamn, same area where I photographed MilkyWay in previous blog post.

It's something magical with the beech forest with its tall trees and colors that in spring is so amazingly lush, bright green that in summer turn into a dense, dark and mysterious place. 
Despite all of that - Autumn is still my favorit time - just see the pics below :)

Sundbyholm

Torö

Sundbyholm

Torö

Sundbyholm

Sky full of stars (Torö)

Last week, there were perfect conditions for photography of the Milky Way.
I have never really been successful to take them in Sweden before. Mainly because it is quite difficult to find places where there is not too much light pollution, around Stockholm in any case, but also partly that its rarely clear skies during autumn.
Knowing that it's mostly summerhouses around Torö, it meant also that there is bigger chance of succeeding. At this time of the year, Milky Way is visible toward the open sea and Finland, which means that it is 'easier' to find good spots where the background is dark. Although as you can see in the pictures below, there is light from the towns along the coast anyway - Norrköping, Oxelösund, Trosa etc.
Really pleased with the result though, and the whole process of standing still and just gazing into the stars and the Milky way is quite relaxing :)

                                                                     

Croatia 2017

Finally it was time for my summer vacation too :)
Croatia, where we were heading is great, and a lot of people know of that so its' getting more and more crowded and especially during summer when everybody is on vacation.
Anyway, to avoid the major crowds, we flew down to Dubrovnik Sept 10th, hired a car and drove along the coast to our summer house.
First four days we were joined by my wife's little sister and her husband who had already been there a week earlier, which only meant that we had somebody joining us for the drinks after that the building projects had been started.
We too had few days alone before my cousin and her husband joined us for some sun, drinks and adventures. It is nice and fun to show how great Dubrovnik and the Peljesac peninsula are with all the vineyards, seaside resorts and restaurants etc...
Last couple of days of vacation we were alone again discovering and hiking the mountains and walking on the Napoleon road that goes through the whole Peljesac. To be honest, think we only did 4 km (one way) but then there is more to explore coming years :)
To do the hikes and mountaineering as we did this year would have not been possible in the middle of the summer, it is simply to hot.
It was so great that we have already decided that it will be the 'same procedure' next year - summer of 2018 here we come.

I love the nightskyes there :)

                                                                     

Mantis

Lonely kayaker

Ston walls

one of many vineyards

vineyard

City of Ston from Napoleon road

Dubrovnik

Hiking in the Romanian mountains

It was a while back since I updated the blog, not really been out photographing. Although, now I have bought a smaller and easier camera and I feel motivated again to get out.
Now I also have two new interests - MTB which is really fun and the other is making knives. Besides that, I have been out fishing more and everything else too :) Well, never enough time for all the fun!

Anyhow, back to this post which is about Romania hike we did couple a weeks back.
12 good friends and two guides, one Swedish and one local. It was the first time we had guides and it was really nice as they would tell us about the area and its history. We would probably have managed without guides too - we have great map readers in the group - but Romania is a bit special as there are plenty of bears, wolfs and lynx in the area, and even angry protective sheepdogs so it's safe to have guides (they would sacrifice themselves?? )
The walks were quite demanding with up to 1200m up and then same down, ending up at peaks of 2200m. The weather was really on our side - sun every day, temperatures between 25 and 30C which of course was tough too. Loads of water is needed but there are water sources up on the mountains and it tasted good.

The first two days were hardest, with long walks of just below 20km and at high altitudes. We would be up at 8 in the morning for awesome breakfasts consisting of local vegetables, sausages/meats, fruits and loads of eggs. Coming back late in the evening with sore legs to a prepared dinner was super! The families we stayed at would make us local food - best!!
Final night we slept on the other side of the valley with only a shorter walk for 2 hours before heading back home (14h trip!! Not great)
Must be honest - I had sore legs after those three days.

Not a single trace of any predators that we so feared, which was a bit of a disappointment but on the other hand we saw the sheepdogs who were right near us at several occasions sniffing around and looking angry :) Will need to get back.

Go hiking in Romania! Lovely old forests and once up on the mountains - what views!!

                                                               

Sheep dog

Draculas castle

India, Alappuzha backwaters

Its taken few weeks to get back here, but here we go :)
Our last days in India were spend at Kondai lip backwater resort - A fantastic place surrounded by lakes and canals. The birdlife was incredible, bird where ever you look and best of all  - many different kinds of kingfishers - My favorit. Unfortunately I only had my normal zoom with me which also mean no good pics of birds. As a part of the package, the first evening we went on a bout trip through the canals all the way to the Arabian Sea, or actually we had walk the last couple of hundreds meter over the sand banks but it was worth it :) 
The water was surprisingly warm, although unprepared as we were there were no swimming. Not sure its even 'possible' due to the strong currents.
Following morning we went out by ourselves in a small paddle boat for some fishing and bird watching - we saw a lots of birds but didn't catch a single fish.
Around lunch we got collected by our driver that took us to the last place we would be visit in India this time - Alappuzha. A harbour filled with hundreds of houseboating, also called rice boats.
We had the whole boat to ourselves till the next day, including a chef that cooked and served us all the food and the refreshments while we were cruising the canals and lakes. By the time it was dark and bedtime we were back to the harbour. Following morning, during breakfast the course was shorter as were had to be back by lunch to head back to the airport.
Time flies by when having fun, it was time for us to get back to Sweden.