Beautiful, Amazing Tromsø and the Aurora Borealis

Saturday 8th January, 2011

A very early rise commenced my day of amazing adventures. First was a tram ride to Oslo Central Station, followed by a trip on the FlyToget to the airport and an 8am flight away from the sun and into the polar nights of Tromsø.

On arrival, Hilde met me at the baggage claim with a big smile and a hug. Once my pack was out, we left the building into the -6 degree snowy weather. Hilde was disappointed for me that it was snowing, as this could mean no viewing of the Aurora. I assured her it would be fine tonight and the Aurora would dance for me :)

Hilde drove me around the centre of Tromsø, helping to orientate me so that I could find my way easily when she had to work on Monday and Tuesday. We made plans of things we could do together over the weekend - Hilde has been so amazing and generous to spend time with me, showing me the sights and allowing me to stay at her apartment while I'm in town (Hilde herself is staying at her boyfriends' home). I am being so well lookied after on my travels, and I am ever so grateful.

A quick stop at the supermarket to pick up some groceries, so that I could cook at home and not have to spend enormous amounts of money to eat. (For every 1 Australian dollar you get 6 Norwegian Kroner. So when I was in Oslo and I'd spend 180NOR, which has been the typical simple evening meal, its about $30. My 6 times tables have been getting a work out.) Then Hilde took me to her apartment and filled me in on anything I might need to use, gave me some print out maps and bus timetables for use during the week, sorted some clothing options for tonight and made plans for Sunday and Tuesday.

Hilde, left me to settle in and I made use of the time to update my blog, copy photos onto my USB stick, work out what I would take for my photo tour and made some dinner. As the evening drew closer I became more and more nervous. I could only pin it on fullfilling my goal and being out in the cold. I had to reassure myself many times that I was well prepared clothing-wise and there was always the option to borrow ski-suits and boots if I wasn't warm enough. I managed to eat some dinner (at 5pm) before putting on all my layers - thermal leggings, thermal socks, wool socks, fleece pants, thermal top, Merino wool jumper and goosedown coat, as well as seal boots (borrowed from Hilde). I had with me to put on later wind/water-proof pants and jacket, cashmere scarf, neck scarf, Merino wool beanie, rabbit fur hat, thermal gloves, fleece glove/mittens. Also in my bag was my gel hand warmers, the ones with the metal click inside that cause the stuff inside to heat up. I think I was going to be warm enough!

Hilde picked me up at 6pm and we drove to the Radisson hotel to wait for the guide. He arrived just before 6:30pm. Kjetil Skogli runs Aurora Borealis photography tours several nights a week and takes a maximum of seven people each time. He is known as the Aurora chaser because he will keep driving until we find some Aurora's even if that means driving to Finland - I had my passport in my backpack. However, during the day, round about midday the snow stopped falling and the clouds had disappeared by the time we were getting into Kjetil's van. Three other couples joined me on tonights adventure - a young newly wed couple from York, a couple from Ireland and another older couple whom I think where also from England, but I'm not sure.

I was so excited by this stage, I was really here, I had made it all the way from Australia to see the Northern Lights. The sky was clear, there was no wind, it was going to be a great night!

And it was, within half an hour we made our first stop by the side of the road and saw faint but definate Aurora's. This first stop was an excellent opportunity for me to have a bit of a play with my camera and work out the settings to get the best photos. Kjetil was fantastic is assisting me to use the best settings. Before long, we decided to head off and see if we could get a better viewing place - there aurora wasn't doing much and in fact had all but disappeared. But I'd see them!!

We kept going for another 20min, when we spotted the Aurora out the car windows. As soon as there was a spot on the side of the road, we parked and set up. Instantly getting some great photos of the aurora over the mountains. Here we stayed for many hours, taking may shots. I even ventured through the snow and onto the 'beach' (rocky area in front of the water) to get a different perspective. This was amazing. Mostly greens and yellows in the aurora.

The aurora slowed and looked as though it was disappearing, so we headed back up to the car. Kjetil thought perhaps we should hop in the car and find a new location. Just as we were literally opening car doors, the Aurora Borealis made a spectacular show. As quick as you can imagine we had tripods set up again and cameras capturing images. I had been using 15second exposure, and should have set it to 6-8seconds in order to truly capture the reds and pinks, along with the greens and yellows. So quite a few photos came out more green, yellow and white, however I still captured some brilliant images! I love my camera. The other dilemma was where to point the camera!!! The aurora danced and moved so quickly across the whole sky, making amazing patterns and colours, so bright you could clearly see around you. Awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome, awesome!!! I bounced with absolute delight!

Kjetil said that was some of the best aurora he's seen in the last couple of weeks!!

Eventually the aurora slowed and disappeared. Once again we turned to the car, hesitant just incase she put on another show for us. Nothing much appeared and we piled all our gear into the car and headed for a new location. We stopped not long later at a location where there was plenty of space and a good distance from the road. We immediately took some photos as the aurora put on a small display before petering off. Small hues were seen across the sky, but nothing like we'd seen earlier.

Kjetil brought out the tea, coffee, biscuits and Norwegian sweet cake for us to enjoy. We gazed at the stars, and Kjetil built a fire. I decided to put on my overpants (wind/waterproof pants) and added the neck scarf. I still had the rabbit hat and windproof jacket if I needed. It was about -10 or -11, but earlier hadn't noticed as we were moving about lots. My fingers and toes got a little cold, but with movement were pretty good. Although I did use one of my hand warmers whilst we were here. I took some photos of the stars and set my camera to take a photograph of myself. Kjetil pointed out various constellations using his light pointer (an amazing gadget) and we watched the aurora faintly flicker on and off - this being a sign of the end of the evenings lights.

00:45 we collected our things and climbed back into the car, heading back to Tromsø. We arrived back into town within 40-45min - we hadn't ventured far. Kjetil very kindly dropped everyone back at their hotels and me to Hilde's place. I was a buzz and found it very hard to get to sleep, although I'm sure I was out quicker than I think :)