Evening of the 11th January

Hilde picked me up from her apartment just after 4pm. I gave her a thank you gift, a little plant in a lovely silver pot, for her hospitality and generosity. I am truly grateful.

Hilde drove me into the city and dropped me at the Radisson Blu Hotel where I checked in and headed up to my room for the night - room 808. I had another corner room that looked out over the north of Tromsø and across to the main land.

At 6pm I was downstairs waiting outside to be picked up and taken to the Tromsø Wilderness Centre for dogsledding. The van was almost full and after we stopped at the Scandic Tromsø hotel there wasn't a spare seat in the mini bus. Thirty minutes driving south we arrived at the Tromsø Wilderness centre. We were greated by Northern lights immediately. The sky was almost clear, and it was lovely to watch the faces of those who'd not seen the lights before, see them for the first time. The other reason I laughed was some attempted to photograph the northern lights with the flash going off on their camera :)

Inside the building I was given a warm suit and boots to wear during my dogsled ride. Myself and one other couple went dogsledding, the others were there just to see the lights and have a snack in the Laavo (Sami tent). I was introduced to the dogsled driver, Graig. He told me a bit about dogsledding and covered me with a reindeer blanket. He also told me that as it was quiet tonight he was taking this opportunity to train some of his dogs to take the lead.

Off we went with the second sled team behind us. It was beautiful! The landscape opened up and to the left we looked back over Tromsø island and the mainland and to the right was hills lit up with the half moon. The huskies, all 11 of them, pulled us along the track.

The little cloud added a nice effect when the northern lights came out to play. Graig called for the dogs to go right, but they wanted to go left. So he made them stop. We went up to the lead and coaxed them. Whilst he was doing this I took the opportunity to photograph the Aurora. It came out a little blurry, but not too bad. After a few attempts and several times of being pulled to the right, eventually we were off again in the right direction. Up and over hills, around trees and through fresh soft snow we went. It was lovely.

Once back, Graig introduced me to the team of huskies and I attempted to get some pics, but without the flash, they didn't work so well. I was taken to meet the pups and got to have a cuddle. They were so cute.

From the pup and dog kennels I went into the laavo. The Sami people use this to eat and sleep it and it looks like a teepee. It was lovely and warm inside with the fire going. I had a soup, followed by some reindeer meat and vegetables (carrot, potato, pumpkin & turnip) concluded with some yummy chocolate cake.

I chatted with Michelle and Kat who I'd met last night on the Northern Lights Bus. They'd come to see the Northern Lights from the Wilderness Centre and were very happy that they'd seen them. It was really good to chat with them again. Outside I photographed the moon over the dog kennels. I took some photos for Michelle and Kat and will email thse to them, as they'dnot had much luck with their camera. We had some fun photographing using my camera.

The northern lights were no longer dancing in the sky and we headed back into Tromsø. I farewelled Michelle and Kat after getting their email address, and said I'd see them in the Kirkenes at the Ice hotel as were are going to be there at the same time.

Back at the hotel it wasn't long before I was in bed. Just as I had turned out my light, my phone rang. I wondered who it would be, it was about midnight. It took a while to work it out but it was the handyman who wanted to fix our leaking roof at home. I quickly told him I was in Norway and he was best to phone my housemate Kal. Opps :)