Skating on Kringlevann at last

After multiple trips over the past few weeks to Kringlevann all resulted in failed attempts at skating, I was beginning to think my chances of skating in the great outdoors this season was fading fast. Fortunately we had a good freeze over the past few days and only a minor dusting of snow. After I trudged up the hill to the lake, I was greeted with a solid 50 – 70 mm of rock hard smooth ice 🙂 The snow on top was all fluffy stuff which didn’t affect skating at all.

Me skating on Kringlevann

Clearly this went off with a big crack as I turned around immediately!

Beautiful view onto the skating surface at Kringlevann

I brought a drill along in case I needed to gingerly make my way onto the surface, but it turned out to be hard as a rock and not needed.

Ice leaf

Whilst walking along Akerselva, Marte saw two leaves that looked like they had frozen ice between them. She peeled the leaves off, and out came a beautiful frozen ice leaf.

Marte and Ingvild with the ice leaf

Running to Kringlevann

One of my favourite hobbies in New Zealand was always finding ice to skate on come the winter months. By the time I arrived in Norway last winter all of the lakes were covered in snow, so this time around I’m trying to keep a close eye on the lakes and as soon as they’re frozen I’ll be skating. I knew there wouldn’t be enough to skate on today, but I decided to combine running with inspection of potential skating spots. Unfortunately the places I’d like to skate are quite a long way from my home. So I ran 9 km uphill to a lake called Kringlevann. As expected, it only had a slither of ice on the top, maybe 10 mm at most. A few more stiff frosts and it should be skateable though. This was also the longest distance I’ve ever run in my life at 19 km for the full round trip. It wasn’t exactly a super fast run at 2 hours and 30 minutes, but I’m happy to have managed the full distance without collapsing part way.

The track on the way up the hill

Eating out in Lisbon

After WordCamp Lisboa, we went out for dinner a restaurant overlooking the city. Unfortunately I had left my camera in Norway and my phone doesn’t do the view justice. Suffice to say, we had a very beautiful view out across Lisbon cityscape.

View from the restaurant

Another view from the restaurant