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There was a desire at the beginning of our
journey; desire for the unseen, for the unknown, and for
adventure. Desire to discover, to experience and to share.
Just few days after finding Runde in the map, being convinced
of its uniqueness and beauty, I called my friends. Hunger for
travelling came over us.
With very little knowledge of the island though
full of excitement, four of us set on the journey on the 20th
of April 2004. We want to gain new experience of watching and
photographing arctic birds in their natural habitat. Squeezed
in a small four passenger car we took the long and strenuous
journey to the island of Runde. It is situated on the west
coast of Norway between the fyords of Storfjodr and
Romsdalsfjord, west of Alesund. The island is fascinating
already at the first sight. The cliffs rise from the sea up to
200 meters; the highest peak Vardane reaches up to 333 meters.
About one third of the island is covered with marshland and
dotted with small lakes, stretching up from the altitude of
about 100 meters. It is the relatively cold climate of the
island and the warm Gulf Stream that provide the surrounding
sea with abundance of plankton and fish and thus create ideal
conditions for nesting of arctic birds. Runde is the third
largest highly diverse bird colony in Norway. In fact, you can
find all species of artic birds that breed in colonies in this
northern country here, all that in the area of 6,4 km2
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