Scouting reports (trips to areas relevant to the comic)

[thorny]

even if there was less people than there would've been on a Friday evening a couple weeks back.

I was looking at those pictures thinking how scary those empty streets look -- because that's probably about what they would have looked like in daylight in year 1.

[Vulpes]

Did some scouting today after work, very much based on Jitter's speculations on Disqus.

First, the obvious one:

Interesting - both in your photo and in street view, it is much more open; could be the angle but I'm having a hard time visualizing a viewpoint that would match the comic. It's making me wonder if that was a conscious choice, to make it feel claustrophobic, as though if you enter a city, you're hemmed in and terribly vulnerable.

[Jitter]

So here are some pictures from the Iceland trip.



Site of the Icelandic parliament, the Althingi, located in Þingvellir, now a natural park. The parliament gathered here from 930 until 1798 and is the oldest parliament in the world still in existence.

Waterfalls

Spoiler: show

The magnificent Gullfoss, which can’t be photographed in one go, at least without a drone





The incredible Seljalandsfoss, where you can walk behind the 60 m high waterfall, flowing from the Eyjafjallajökull glacier



And the Gljufrabui, directly out if a fairytale, which flows into a “cave” where you can wade into. Gljufrabui is right next to Seljalandsfoss, so don’t miss it!

Geysers

Spoiler: show

Strokkur




Gamla Laugin, where you can swim in the natural water from the geysir system mixing with river water. I’m glad we swam first and saw the boiling water later

Landscape (a couple of examples here, more in the album linked below). Unfortunately most are taken from the car.

Spoiler: show

Sheep


Þingvellir


Sheep in Þingvellir


Somewhat fertile land



Almost barren land


Road towards Bruaradalur?

Album on Postimage, about 50 pictures, for some reason they went into a very random order

https://postimg.cc/gallery/hSwQD4T

[Keep Looking]

Ooh, these photos are really neat! Iceland looks like a cool place to visit.

[Jitter]

It’s literally cool, when we went in late June there was a day with sunshine and the heat was over sweltering 15 C! The Icelanders were out enjoying the warmth! Otherwise it was around 12 C although he summer sun warms the skin even there so I went in a t-shirt a lot.

At that time there wasn’t too much crowding, people everywhere yes but as you can see in the pictures it was still easy to see the land. Late July or August however are out of the question, I’m told by a friend who goes on horse riding safaris there every few years.

[Róisín]

Jitter, amazing photos. I am curious: in the picture of flowers, I recognise Geum rivale, the water avens, Geum urbanum with yellow flowers, what might be a buttercup  confusingly among those, and a tiny lady’s mantle, but what are the little blue ones? Some kind of cranesbill maybe? It is so long since I have been to Iceland that I fear I have forgotten some of the flowers.

And it sounds as if the place is very crowded now. I remember spending three summer days (on two of which it most delightfully rained) sitting at Thingvellir with the flowers and the rocks, learning the land there, and seeing only two people, one of whom was watching some sheep graze. We nodded politely to one another, and each of us went on with what we were doing. Both the land and the plants there reminded me a lot of the Burren in Ireland. The land there felt both very peaceful and very active and alive at the same time.

[Jitter]

Yea, it’s some type of cranes-bill. The leaves show better in the full-size picture. And you are right, the buttercups grow through the geum leaves which makes it look surprising. I took lots of pictures of the plants and especially the flowers, but with the limited quality available most of them don’t look very interesting especially if you aren’t into plants. Most have really tiny flowers and leaves as is typical of such hardy alpine flowers.

And yes, it’s crowded. Like I said it wasn’t too bad when we went, but no chance of sitting around alone! I added two photos at the end of the album of a waterfall like it was possible to capture alone and how the experience actually had people around (those are some random people, they went around on the stones for a loooooong time). There are lots of tours that take bus-loads of people around “the Golden Circle” where they go to Thingvellir, the geysers, Gulfoss and somewhere else like a greenhouse farm in just a few hours! So, whenever those loads come somewhere it’s going to be crowded. The good thing about the tours is that reading the ads made us realize how close the places are, so we rented a car and moving in our own pace managed to see a lot!

The swimming place Gamla Laugin was wonderful, we were afraid it would be packed too since some of the tours include a swim there in the day tour but there weren’t too many people (as can be seen in the picture). If anyone is planning to go, Gamla Laugin is much much better than the Blue Lagoon which is always packed with tourists. There are a number of public baths in Reykjavik which probably are better than either in the high season.

We also had a whale watching trip but didn’t see any. At least there were puffins

[Róisín]

Thank you for taking the flower pictures! It is probably obvious that plants and rocks are very much my thing. People sometimes consider me weird for spending years working my way across the world spending between a few days to nearly a year in the places that answered me, mostly ignoring the ‘tourist attractions’, and either finding work in each place so I could stay there longer or just living off the land, being everything from a farmhand to a lab technician to a short-order cook, and learning a great deal from the whole process. I think it was time well spent.

[wavewright62]

Thank you for taking the flower pictures! It is probably obvious that plants and rocks are very much my thing. People sometimes consider me weird for spending years working my way across the world spending between a few days to nearly a year in the places that answered me, mostly ignoring the ‘tourist attractions’, and either finding work in each place so I could stay there longer or just living off the land, being everything from a farmhand to a lab technician to a short-order cook, and learning a great deal from the whole process. I think it was time well spent.

"I think it was time well-spent."  Mistress of understatement, you is. XD

[Jitter]

Here are some new photos. These are from Uusimaa i.e. not in any of the places in the comic exactly, but they have some nice industrial ruins. These are from Espoo quite close to my home at Espoo manor.

Old water mill in Espoo:

Spoiler: show

The place where I assume a gate was situated to ensure enough water in the adjacent mill pond



Stream downriver of the gate, plus bridge from 1778



Mill pond with lilypads and hut of unknown purpose



The old gutter, which lead the water from the mill pond to the mill on the other side of the road





Downstream, water coming from under the mill



Ruined ruins (brick building is the mill building)





We were watched during the visit

[lumilaulu]

That second-to-last picture looks like such a fun place to walk in or around the water, especially in warm weather. Makes me want to splash in the water with my feet.

[Jitter]

It’s a lovely place! And doggo loved the water too, she doesn’t want to go into water, but she was sniffing it all the time The stream is quite rapid, perhaps it’d be better to sit on the bank with feet in the water.



There is also the manor park and and area with big oaks, which are also lovely but not very relevant so I didn’t include any of those pictures

[thorny]

It’s a lovely place! And doggo loved the water too, she doesn’t want to go into water, but she was sniffing it all the time The stream is quite rapid, perhaps it’d be better to sit on the bank with feet in the water.

Yes I think your dog is very wise not to jump into that! Did you have her leashed to make sure that she didn't?

Indeed a lovely place to sit next to, though.

[Jitter]

Yes, she was on the leash all the time, attached to the harness that is visible in the last picture. Strong enough to lift her if needed. She doesn’t like water in general, it was surprising to see how interested she was here. I would have expected her to shy away from it. It had a bit of a lake water smell even to me, so it must have smelled fascinating to her

[Jitter]

Kermajärvi station checkup
1st July
Scout: Jitter (assisted by family and doggo)
Areas cheked: Kermajärvi station, Ylämlly. routes between in Heinävesi, Liperi and Joensuu, Eastern Finland
Summary of findings: trolls detected: 0 Kades detected: 0 Signs of corruption: none Seagulls detected: around two dozen

Report: Kermajärvi station was inspected at around 19:30 on the scouting day. Weather was partially cloudy with a little rain but not heavily overcast. No cause for alarm was identified. Human activity in the area seemed normal (several fishing parties at the rapids). Seagulls first approached the scouting party at Heinävesi town, some 7 km from the station (close flyby by two birds). At Kermankoski, gull activity was focused on one particular area at the “foot” of the rapids. Possibility of a lake troll could not be ruled out, but may have been fish. The gulls didn’t appear more agitated than they normally do.

Kermankoski rapids pictured from upriver (A2 p 149, panel 2), sentinel station is to the left:


Kermanvirta between the first rapids and the station:


Seagulls circling an area at the foot of the rapids:


Approach to the sentinel station:


Sentinel station pictured from northwest (Kermankeidas) (A2 p 149, panel 4):


Exit the station towards the south (not pursued by bear) (A2 p 156 panel 6 and p 168 panel 1)


Further pictures from along the route will be supplied later (time to go hiking soon).