Folgefonna National Park in Hardanger spans 5 municipalities with a total area of 545.2 km². Folgefonna is the collective term for three glaciers named Nordre, Midtre and Søndre (Northern, Central and Southern) Folgefonn. The southern part is the third largest and one of the most southern glaciers located in mainland Norway. At the highest it’s 1662 meters above sea level and 400 at the lowest. The glacier is in some parts as thick as 500 meters. This would be my first visit to Folgefonna as part of a round trip in the region and prior to this adventure, the only glaciers I’ve seen have all been in Iceland. Before the trip I spent hours studying maps and searching online for information. As I had no plans on actually walking the glacier itself, the search was for locations around the glacier where I could get up close enough to get a decent impression of it and fortunately there were some great spots found, but I’ll get to that a bit later.

Read the rest of this entry »

After weeks of research, searching and comparing tripods suitable for hiking trips I finally got the chance to test one of the cheaper options on the market, the HorusBennu 747T aluminum tripod with the LX-1T ball-head. I’ve only had it for a week and so far I have only had a chance to test it on two occasions, both outdoor at twilight with long exposures and loaded with heavy equipment (2kg). So far it has performed quite well considering it is one of the cheapest eBay travel tripods around. I plan on testing this in a wide range of situations and will write a review once I am done. Meanwhile, I’m happy to answer any questions anyone might have regarding the head and legs.