Wintercamping with a frenchman.

So, I woke up pretty early the other day, made breakfast and had my cup of coffee.
Pacing back and forth in our tiny apartment as I usually do, looked out through the window on the fresh snow which was covering the ground - remembering that the night before was one of those dream-like evenings with a snow covered sky - heavy snow, covering the ground on just a few minutes, quiet and peaceful.

I decided to hike around the lake which is just outside the town where I live, a 35km long hike in the snow with a beautiful lake view, perfect environment to hike around and the perfect image for the amateur photographer which I am. 

Enough said, I packed my bag with all I were to need for my adventure.

My Nikon D3400, food, bushstove and cooking equipment as well as my woolblanket for when I finally found a great place to make a small camp for taking a lunchbreak.

Over looking the forest, enjoying the silence of the winter.

I were just about to head out through the door when I checked my phone, I had gotten a text message through my instagram, courious to whom were texting me - I had to look.

It happened to be a frenchman which I had met on a campsite when I was out photographing and were to cook some dinner over the flames - he was wondering if we should meet up and do a overnighter in the snow. 

My first thought was to decline, mostly because I´m not used to meet new people - and I truely hate to speak english (funny since I choose to write in english haha), but I decided, what the hell - why shouldn´t I, I have the oppertunity to meet new people and get to go outdoors and do what I love to do ! 

Enough said, we were to meet up a couple of hours later and travel together with bus to a place just a couple of kilometers from where I live. As we arrived to the hiking trail we had one goal, we need to find a good location to set up camp with a good resource of fire wood and some what in cover from the weather.  Mostly because for my sake, I was using a DD Hammocks 3x3 tarp so I would be the most exposed to the elements. 

Our camp site for the night, I´m using a simple tarp setup
and Guillaume are using his Hilleberg tent.
Gotta say, I love the contrast between high tech and low tech. 

We had just around 1.5 hours before sunset - to put up our camp, collect firewood and all the other essential things which were easier to do while we had some daylight. 

The rest of the night were shared around the fire, speaking about all and nothing, shared some knowledge and talked about photographing, video making and gear. 

Most say I was positivitly surprised how easy going everything was and how fun it was and taught full it was to hang around someone els with the same interest. 

Waiting for a good coal base to be created so we could cook some dinner
and didn´t need to worry the flames would go out
thanks to the snow we got later on.

It started to snow in the evening, it truely felt like winter in southern sweden.

The night was long and cold, sleeping in a 2 season sleeping bag with no firereflector or fire close by to generate heat, fortunally Guillaume brought a sleepingbag liner for me to borrow for the night - with the liner and my canteen filled with hot water I managed to get 3-4 hours of sleep before waking up cold as a popcycle haha. 

Never the less I managed to sleep for half an hour at the time for the rest of the night and by 7 o´clock I decided to head out and try to capture the sunrise (the weather forcast said it should be a clear sky this morning), hiked my way through the cold winter morning up on a hill just a couple of hundreds of meter from our camp. 

The moon light managed to squeeze through some
heavy clouds covering the sky this cold winter morning.

As I hiked my way through the fresh powder snow, I had to stop so I could catch my breath for just a short while, as caught my breath and tried to keep my breathing under controll - I saw how the ground was illuminated by some sort of light.

In the heavy cloud covered morning sky, the moon managed to squeeze through some illuminating lights - giving me just enough light to so my poor 18-77mm lens could capture the moon light. 

Unfortunally the clouds were to thick so I couldn´t take some beautiful shots of the sunrise, 
but atleast I got warm after hiking up and down on those steep hills haha. 

As I got back to camp I made a small fire to get some warmth and to cook some breakfast, waiting for Guillaume to wake up from his beauty sleep haha. 
Once he woke, I packed up my stuff and and left him by himself while I explored the surrounding area, making the best of the time I had in forest.

Picea abies, red spruce
embracing and thawing the froozen water drops from it´s branches.

Betula pendula, silver/wart birch with it´s lovely hanging branches.

Old barb wire on an old fence post.

Found a lot of animal tracks in the snow, this fox were tracking a rabbit. 

On my way up for a pretty steep hill, I had to stop
and soak in the warmth of the sun even though it didn´t last for very long.

Guillaume all packed up, ready to head into the woods and do some exploring.

Headed back to camp to meet up with the frenchman before deciding where we were to venture, still amazed how much gear he could manage to fit into his backpack, he had it all. A drone, videocamera, some sort of stabiliazer for it, all camping gear, solar panels, batteries, spotlights and even a frikking espresso machine, haha!

I was sure happy not to have to carry all of that gear on my back!

Guillaume on his way to a sweet look out spot. 

As we arrived to the spot, Guillaume brought out his drone to take sweet footage from the sky - overlooking the valley and the river beneath us, sure was eye opener to see how it works and what amazing shots you can get by using one of those.

At the look out spot, snow covered trees
and a fresh breeze of cold air - truely a gift from mother earth.

I think it´s pretty interesting how two people from different backgrounds, wealth and cultures can come together to be joined in union and enjoy something as simple as nature - here we were two strangers with nothing in common besides, photography and nature, still we managed to bound and come together as what I would call - as friends. 

We had a short break, talking about life in general and our ambitions and goals as photographers and film maker, I need to say that he has a more ambitious goal than me, making beautiful drone and hiking videos as a guide for those whom might want to go outdoors and hike a trail or visit some specifik area but don´t know how or are corious about how the trail look like.
(Hope I got it right haha)

I found the way he talked about his ambitions as a film maker, to be something I think I miss in my life, a true calling - knowing exactly what I want to do and giving it my all.

It made me think of what my ambitions with this blog and with my instagram page are, to be honest I don´t know. I don´t post things to get followers and become famous or to become a gear tester and earn an income out of it, I just want to share my adventures, ideas and thoughts through images and words. 

My ambitions with this blog were and are a way to unburden some of my thoughts - into writing, to talk about depression and how I deal with it and also to share my love as an outdoors lover, but also to hopefully inspire someone to get outdoors, go hiking, go fishing - pick up  wood carving as a hobby, carving spoons and kuksas is really fun, I promise!

Guess we all need to think about what´s important to us and find a way to
pursue our goals in life.

Thanks to Guillaume for inviting me for some winter adventure! 

/ Andy