Cody Duncan Photography: Travel, Landscape, Climbing and Life

Tonight (Halloween 2009) was the Hay on Fire festival here in Hay-on-Wye, Wales.  The night first started with a parade through town that slowly made its way out to the ‘Warren’ on the edge of the river Wye where the fire festival was held.  The crowd numbered in the thousands to watch the fire dancing, hear the music and see the final culmination in the burning of a wicker man giant with of fireworks.  By far the coolest celebration I’ve yet to see on Halloween.  My pictures don’t do much justice to the coolness of the night…

The STF (Svenska Turistföreningen) runs a series of mountain huts (fjällstuga) along the Kungsleden trail. The huts are only open until the 20th of September but they all have an ‘emergency hut’ which stay open year round which one is able to stay in.  Leaving Abisko and heading south, the first hut is Abiskojaure.

Fire warms the kitchen in Abiskojaure hut.

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Utakleiv, Lofoten islands, Norway.

Hay-on-Wye is on the northeast border of the Brecon Beacons national park here in Wales.  Though slightly confusingly, the Brecon Beacon mountains are further west, with the Black mountains being the range here in the east.   Welsh mountain ponies roam the wild grassy hillsides and mountains and can be quite friendly as they try to discover whether your clothing or camera is edible.  My camera lens was completely fogged by horse breath on numerous occasions as I was trying to photograph them.

On a nicer day, the Norwegian mainland would be visible in the distance.  The Vestfjord as viewed from Stamsund, Lofoten islands, Norway.

Gamla Stan (old town), Stockholm.  Cobble stone streets, narrow winding alleyways, brightly colored buildings, tourists, and street cafes; the old town of Stockholm fits the ideal of a classic European city and is a wonderful place to wander around, day or night.

last light at Unstad, Lofoten islands, Norway.

Typical weather during my 10 days on the Kungsleden trail.  View from near Tjaektja hut, looking north up the Alisvaggi towards Alesjaure.

The landscape is totally amazing and beautiful, despite the weather.  Barren rugged mountains with rivers and waterfalls everywhere.  Most of the northern section of the trail is above the tree line.

(working on some small netbook, so not too sure about the color.  Hope its not too bad.)

Arrived in Stockholm on the 15th of September and then flew north to Kiruna the and onward to Abisko the next day.  Spent 10 days of mostly rain and snow hiking the northern section of the Kungsleden trail – too late in season to complete whole trail, have to wait until next time.  Next headed to Stamsund in the Lofoten Islands, Norway for a couple weeks of hanging out before heading down the Norwegian coast to Trondheim and across into Sweden.  Walked nearly 20km down a snowy road trying to hitchhike, but it didn’t go so well.  Finally caught a short ride in the late afternoon and ended up camping  in the forest on the edge of some town.  temps dropped to maybe minus 10-12 at night, not so fun in my 0 degree sleeping bag; got up at 6am and thawed out in the train station waiting room for a few hours.  Next spent a few days wandering the streets of Stockholm before flying to London and taking trains and buses to my current location: Hay-on-Wye, Wales – the “town of books.”

Raining today, so getting some needed computer work done…