It was a magnificent journey to one of the most impressive natural spectacles, when heading to Tromsø in Norway, 350 km above the polar circle. Me and my friends we booked a flight, hotel and a car a couple of months in advance, not knowing wether we would be able to see the lights. I was told that it is not about the sun’s activity (the lights will always be visible – with variable intensity) but all about the weather. And to our surprise we were blessed with four star-bright polar days and nights!
What we basically did was to spend the day geocaching, hanging out in the shopping mall and sleeping while waiting for the sky to become a little darker, as there was no sun anyway. We then packed ourselves into the rental, drove through the underground road network of Tromsø, past the airport and went out into the western outback, where the lights of the city could not reach the sky any more. In this dark sky area we passed several well lit, though abandoned, villages, with our faces always tightly pressed against the windows staring up to the sky.
And then all of a sudden someone would cry “I see green lights…”, “for God’s sake, now stop that f****** car”. And there they were…beautiful…dancing right in front of our faces. The magnificence is as hard to describe as the depth and the dimensions of the Grand Canyon. You cannot see this in a picture, you have to experience it with your proper eyes. The pictures I took with the widest angle lens I own can only give you a glimpse on what you can expect on your own aurora trip.
Making our way to the farthest western point we reached the Sommarøy Artctic Hotel (http://www.sommaroy.no/no), an oasis in the middle of nowhere. After warming-up ourselves with a hot cup of coffee in front of the fireplace we went on and found a remote house on one of the many peninsulars that stretch out into the open sea. It was such a perfect spot so that everything we had to do was to wait for the lights to come. And when they appeared I pushed the shutter to preserve the memory that will accompany me for the rest of my life.
