We spent this past weekend in the Norwegian city of Tromso on a quest to see the famous Northern Lights.
Despite having travelled extensively around Europe in the last four years, we had never made it to Scandinavia. Flights were always too expensive, or the time of year was wrong or there just always seemed to be somewhere more interesting to go.
After finding great flights through Norwegian last year we soon realised we'd done Scandinavia a disservice by not visiting sooner. Norway is beautiful at any time of year, but especially in Winter when a thick blanket of snow covers the ground and the Aurora Borealis make their appearance in the night sky.
We decided to increase our chances of seeing the frequently elusive lights by going on a Northern Lights chase with Green Fox Guiding. There are lots of different companies that do this, but we picked a small group tour, rather than the large bus tours that you can book through the Information Centre.
Having borrowed our friend's camera specifically for the sole purpose of photographing the lights, we needed all the help we could get in setting up the camera. Our guide Markus configured the camera for us so we were able to take some amazing photos. I'm not sure we would have gotten the same level of service on a larger tour.
We met Markus in front of the Information Centre at 6.30 p.m. on a clear Sunday evening. There is a lot of luck involved in seeing the lights, you are far less likely to see them on a cloudy or snowy evening, and it's hard to predict what the weather will be like when you book several months or weeks in advance.
We managed to go out on the best night out of the three we spent in Norway. The previous night had been snowy and overcast, and the next night we had a huge blizzard.
Tromso is a small city located in the Arctic circle, and about a three hour flight away from London. It's easy to walk around the entire city in a day and we spent a couple of hours exploring before meeting the rest of our group for the tour.
During our stay in Norway we didn't stay in Tromso, but stayed about 25 minutes outside of Tromso in a tiny town called Ersfjordbotn, located in one of the most beautiful Fjords in the Troms region. Having spent the previous day in such a small town atmosphere it was nice to explore Tromso and browse in the shops and relax in a coffee shop. I have to say, the Scandinavians do good coffee!
These great thermal suits were included as part of our tour. There were enough for everyone in the group but not everyone chose to wear them. Even with about five layers on both my legs and upper body I wanted to be as warm as possible and put mine on straight away to the amusement of the other members of our group.
It's not super easy to put these on over top of your snow boots and winter coat! There were also hand and feet warmers and snow boots if you didn't have your own.
Our first stop was about an hour out of Tromso,
overlooking a beautiful Fjord and next to a busy road. Markus was
getting readings that the lights should be appearing very soon after our
arrival, so we spent our time setting up our cameras and admiring the
beautiful views out over the Fjord.
There were lots of stars visible in the sky, which is usually a sign that the lights will be clear enough to see. If you can't see the stars then you probably won't see the lights as clearly, if at all.
Just after 8.00 p.m. bright white lights appeared over the mountain behind us and danced across the sky. It's hard to explain the excitement at seeing such an amazing phenomenon in person and in such a spectacular fashion. It was hard to tear our eyes away from the sky long enough to set up the camera for each photo. For these photos we had the camera on about a 15 second shutter speed.
The lights are caused by solar particles reacting with the earth'€™s magnetic field, and can appear as all kinds of different colours. They will always look different in your photo's as the camera's slow shutter speed allows it to process the colours better than your eyes can.
The lights danced above us for about five minutes before fading away into the night. Markus was still getting high reading's of Aurora activity, so we decided to remain at this spot for a while longer.
Markus brought out a Thermos of delicious Sage and Cinnamon tea and some chocolate biscuits. He also had some reindeer skins that we laid out on the snow and we lay down under the night sky and watched the stars and satellites far above us. We also managed to see the International Space Station as it raced its way across the sky.
Not too long afterwards, the lights again appeared suddenly in the sky above us, and stayed a lot longer then the previous ones.
We were so lucky that we got such an amazing show. I had always thought the lights just shone in the sky, but they twist and move around the entire sky.
After
the lights died down we continued further towards Finland.
Unfortunately we didn't manage to see the lights again that night, but
Markus did the best he could, trying to find the clearest skies and following the magnetic readings as he went.
I
imagine even if we had seen the lights again, it would have been hard
to beat the show we'd already seen. Instead we stopped several times in
the dark and beautiful wilderness for hot tea and baguettes and just
appreciated the silence and reflected on the amazing experience.
After we returned from Norway, Markus sent me the below photo's he had taken on the night. Obviously far superior to mine given that he is a professional photographer with an amazing camera!
If you do go on a Northern Light's chase with Green Fox Guiding and don't have a camera, rest assured you will still end up with amazing photos like these.
really amazing Niki such a sight to see
ReplyDeleteThat would have been such an amazing trip to do,a once in a lifetime expereince I think!
ReplyDeleteGreat blog thank you. Did you manage to see the Northern Lights from your base in Ersfjordbotn also?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it was too cloudy while we were there, but I know other people have stayed there and have had amazing light shows. I think it's just the luck of the draw :)
Delete