One spring day in Seitseminen National Park... my friend was playing with his new video camera and digital voice recorder.

During the Easter weekend, I visited the island cottage again. I was prepared to stay there overnight or even longer if I could get the cottage warm enough. I walked to the island on ice using snow shoes and pulling a sled behind me (forgot huskies at home!). It took maybe 1.5 hours and it was quite tough job. Nothing was changed since my previous visit. Still a lot of snow everywhere! Inside the cottage was -3°C at first but the stove heated the cabin soon. A nice surprise was, that the smoke went out through the chimney this time!

At some point of the night I decided to go out and check if there were northern lights. The forecast was quite good!


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Some bird pics from the Kilimanjaro climb and safari tours in Tanzania and Kenia. I'm going to add the names of species later so that anybody who is interested in can feel the joy of naming the birds themselves!


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I saw Cirque du Soleil's Alegria on Friday! It was AMAZING! This was my third Cirque du Soleil show! I got a last minute cancelled ticket one day before. It happened to be the first row seat! I was so close, saw everything, heard everything...

It was such a nice weather! The sun was shining all weekend. At night it was -20°C but the sun heated the air during the daytime - which is almost 12 hours already! I have bought snowshoes. I though they could be handy when walking on the ice to the cottage island. They were!


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Today was the first night (as far as I know) when northern lights were flaming on the sky and visible as far as southern Finland during this winter season! These photos were shot on my backyard in Tampere city centre.


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Some elephant photos from Amboseli...


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Some photos from the safari to Ngorongoro National Park


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The last day of Kilimanjaro adventure.


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Ready for the summit attempt!



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Early morning at Karanga camp.


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Woke up at 7 am. although we were going to start the climb up to the Kilimanjaro Base camp two hours later. 10-12 hours sleep is enough! At night it was raining again but the tent was almost dry this time.

Can you see the row of climbers on the mighty Barranco Wall?


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The fourth day! We were going to climb up to Lava Tower camp (4600m). This was an important visit to the higher altitude to get our bodies acclimatised for the summit attempt. The next overnight camp would be lower in Barranco.


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Wake up at 7 am. A nice cup of coffee in my tent, then hand wash and breakfast.


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I woke up at 6.30 am. The night was warm (12°C) and I was sweating in my sleeping bag. After breakfast it was time to disassemble the camp and start the walk which should be an easy and short one.


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If you can't climb it - drink it!


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Making a photo book of the Israel-Jordan adventure...

Ivan in Israel