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Being raised in Australia seems to instil a fascination with snow and all things cold, stemming from a complete lack of exposure to sub-zero temperatures. Winters are by no means warm, but snow simply does not fall at low altitude, nor does the temperature remain below zero should it happen to drop there, so something that is “naturally” frozen is very novel. Possessing the near-polar opposite climate is Norway, and in particular, northern Norway. The Norwegian landscape, characterised by spectacular fjords and soaring mountains, has always been one of the places that I dreamed of visiting. With the winter break offering an opportunity to travel and my desire to experience “a real winter”, Norway seemed like a great option. More than this, the frozen landscapes of Arctic Norway offer many experiences which simply cannot be found anywhere else. This trip was always going to be cool.

To go or not to go

Without a doubt, this trip was going to be the most expensive that we had ever done. This, combined with trying to design an itinerary with little information and no similar experiences, also made it the most difficult trip we had to plan. Initially we wanted to do a Norway tour, that is, to visit many places, both in the south and the north. The real hurdle was the fact that in winter, very little functions, both manmade and natural. For example, many waterfalls freeze up, and access to many sites of interest is only possible with a car. I was not comfortable driving in the type of conditions that one encounters in Norway, so we were limited to public transport. In addition, trying to find reasonably priced flights led us to the decision to spend our entire week in a single location, something that we had never done before. We like to move around and see as much as we can, but it was just not going to be possible. We decided on the town of Tromsø, the seventh largest city in Norway and the second largest city north of the Arctic circle in the Sápmi region. The city is primarily situated on the island of Tromsøya; the town is located 3 degrees north of the polar limit (roughly 350 kilometres) and is home to more “the world’s northernmost…” things than you can count.

To aid us in creating an itinerary, we read all the standard guides, but the final word on most for most of our planning came from tripadvisor, which I had vaguely known of prior to this trip and have since come to love. We tried to book and pay for as much as we could in advance due to the cost, which was a great move also because there were many tourists around during the Christmas/New Year’s period, so having things organised beforehand was good. Regarding visiting the area, it seems true to say that the majority of people go there to see the northern lights, as it is a well-developed, easily accessible city with great scenery, making for an excellent combination. Many people come for a day or two to see the lights, and then leave. However, there is so much more to the place than just the lights, and it is a shame that so many people miss out on what the place has to offer. Whilst we were really keen to see them, our trip was about getting a feel for what it is like living in the Arctic.

De-lightful

Our adventure began with a flight from Paris to Tromsø via Helsinki. No direct flights exist between the cities in winter and Tromsø is primarily serviced by the Scandinavian airlines; Finnair just happened to be the cheapest at that time. The flight to Helsinki was 3 hours and the flight to Tromsø was 2 hours, so with a 40 minute stopover, our afternoon flight arrived in Tromsø at approximately 2100. The airport is also on the island of Tromsøya and is thus very close to the city. Buses run into town, both scheduled (lines 40 and 42, 40 NOK) and dedicated (70 NOK) which take 20 and 10 minutes respectively. We took the direct bus as we just wanted to get to our accommodation and head to bed. The airport was very small and relatively quick to get through – there were no customs and the bus was stationed right at the exit, so it was all very smooth. As we left the airport, we entered a massive tunnel; during the course of the week we came to appreciate that this tunnel is the primary road in Tromsø. Linking all parts of the island and housing the parking facilities, this keeps cars out of the city but also out of the weather. It is an incredible system and is something that is only really possible in a country like Norway, where high taxes and a positive attitude towards practical, long-term infrastructure essentially enforce the existence of such facilities. I was particularly blown away by the existence of roundabouts in these tunnels.

Our arrival in town was pretty spectacular

We soon arrived at our accommodation for the week, the Thon polar hotel (http://www.thonhotels.com/hotels/countrys/norway/tromso/thon-hotel-polar/) which was the cheapest accommodation we could find. Initially we attempted to find places on couchsurfing, but this yielded no results, so we just sucked it up and found a hotel, which we were also able to pre-pay. There was only a mild hiccup while checking in, we were informed that they only had a twin room but we could change to a double the next day. The extremely friendly receptionist also mentioned that if we were interested in seeing the northern lights, this particular evening would be a good chance. So we went up to our room, ditched our stuff and rather than follow our initial plan of going to bed, we suited up and headed out in search of the lights.

Cruising around in the town graveyard in some very deep snow

We had already organised to go on some northern lights “tours” for later evenings, so unsure of the best places to go, we passed by the reception and asked for some information. We were told that atop the hill on the island’s centre is the Prestvannet, a park with a lake and minimal light pollution from the city. It is approximately two kilometres from the main city, but all uphill on very icy/snowy roads and paths. So we left our hotel and I remember just glancing up and seeing a very faint wisp of cloud, however it was just a little bit different to a normal cloud. After watching it for a second I was positive that it was indeed the lights, and sure enough, within seconds the intensity ramped up. We were in the centre of town, so we started to haul ass to try and find a better place, but we had only made it some hundreds of metres to the Kongeparken before the show became too spectacular not to just stop and stare. Trails of green and a blue/violet colour were being painted over the sky and they were bright; much brighter than I had imagined. More impressive though was the speed with which they were tumbling and rolling, seemingly entangling themselves. After some time, I would guess 10 minutes or so (I had completely lost any sense of time), they began to die down. We pushed on up the hill, and soon came across the town’s graveyard. There was very little light around and we had a nice view of the area, so we decided to set up there and wait for the next show. Due to the depth of the snow, it was a non-trivial act to find a place that was a) suitable and b) not directly on top of a headstone, the majority of which were completely buried and made excellent booby traps. We waited some twenty or so minutes and then once again, the lights really turned it on, although this time we had a great view over the city and surrounding mountains.

Once the lights had died down, we decided to finish our trip up to the Prestvannet, which was relatively close by. We had a quick wander around but it seemed as though the light show had burnt itself out, so we didn’t stay long. Not to mention, the cold was starting to bite. So we wandered back down to our hotel – with only one major stack on the ice to speak of – and slept for the few “night-time” hours which remained.

A bluetiful city

To ensure we made the most of what little light there was, we were up at 0830, when daylight begins to appear. We had our breakfast and headed out into the town, to get a glimpse of the area in the “light”. We headed to the harbour, which is more or less the centre of town. There was actually more light than I had anticipated, but the colour was a deep blue, much like dusk or dawn, however more intense and somehow clearer. But the level of light is such that one can easy see the surrounding landscape and it does almost feel like day. By 0930, it’s about as bright as it is going to get, it begins to darken at about 1330 and is dark by 1430, so the window of light is short.

A view over the bridge and surrounds as seen from the cathedral

We did not have any particular plans for the day other than to explore the city. The town is primarily wooden buildings, and the city apparently contains the largest number of “old wooden houses” in northern Norway. There are plenty of colours about, but everything has a shade of blue that contrasts the orange of the sodium lamps which run twenty four hours a day.

From the harbour, the most logical place to go was over to the Arctic Cathedral, which is an icon of the town and also not a cathedral but rather a parish church. To reach the church, one must cross another icon of Tromsø, the Tromsø bridge. Measuring a little over a kilometre, the 40 metre cantilever bridge connects the city island to the mainland, and is really impressive, particularly when calm waters and the mirror-like reflection somehow enhance the bridge. The cathedral has a very distinctive form; it is sometimes called the opera house of the north, as it does bear a resemblance to the Sydney opera house, but is much more regular. The overall shape is said to come from the island of Håja, which we would visit later in the week. Unfortunately, and unbeknownst to us, the church is closed for the entirety of January, so we were unable to look around inside. But moving on, it was not far to the fjellheisen, a cable car (140 NOK return) that climbs Mount Storsteinen, a peak 400 odd metres above the city.

The closest one gets to a sunrise/sunset, Fløya.

Atop the mountain, one is treated to an amazing view over the town, which in the blue of day looks amazing with the all its twinkling lights. It is hard to explain, but the view is somehow very crisp. It was however, extremely windy and rather fresh on the summit. Not that is was exactly toasty warm in town, but being completely exposed and having gained a little altitude, it was much colder. To warm ourselves up, we continued to climb on the Fløya. The snow was incredibly soft and also incredibly deep; it was hard going, but due to the landscape, with a little climbing one gains access to huge areas of previously hidden views, often with very different lighting conditions, so the climb was somewhat addictive. However, before we were able to get too far, we noticed that it had started to get pretty dark. Even though the cable car runs until 2200, we did not want to be up there in the dark, so we headed back.

When we reached the bottom and were heading back into town, it was almost completely dark and even though it was only 1430 did not feel too strange – although it would start to feel a little stranger some hours later. We had a northern lights tour organised for the evening, which started at 1700, so we had a late lunch/early dinner in order to prepare for this. We asked for a recommendation from our hotel, which was not communicated with clarity, but the key point was to go to the place with the burrito pizza. We only vaguely intended to go there, but by sheer coincidence the place we picked ourselves, Peppe’s Pizza, was the very place as incoherently described by the receptionist. The food was okay and the service was efficient and cheerful, so it was a pretty good choice.

Looking south over the fjord from the bridge at about 1400.

Some of the strongest lights we saw; we were on our way to the coast

For the northern lights tours, as advised by tripadvisor, we had organised a set of three tours with Arctic Explorers; our reasoning was that, given the unreliability of the lights, if we managed to see them at least one night of the three we would be happy. Having seen an impressive display already, we were excited to try and see them again, but also to travel around and see the landscape; as we had no means of transport, this would be our chance to see some more of the northern lands. In contrast to the big tour operators, the Arctic Explorers team is comprised of four vans, with four guides, all of whom are excited by getting out there and seeing the lights. We spent time with three of the four, which I will elaborate on in greater detail when appropriate, but needless to say I do not think the tours could be run much better than they already are. Definitely not for everyone, but for people that are keen to get out and explore off the beaten track, Arctic Explorers is a good choice.

We were picked up from our hotel at about 1700, taken to a nearby warehouse where we got changed into body suits and were briefed on where we would go. As the forecast was relatively good for both the weather and solar activity, we headed out in the direction of the coast and a little to the north. Our team was ourselves and four English people, along with our guide, a really lovely Finn named Monica. We had only been driving for about 30 minutes before we pulled over as the lights were again roaring, however the side of the road was not the best location from which to view them. We continued further, with a few stops, but eventually settled at Eidvatnet, a saddle with a clear patch of sky sitting overhead. Contrary to what I had imagined, ‘hunting the lights’ is not so much a matter of chasing down the lights themselves, but rather more like trying to find clear skies and then waiting. As the weather was clouding over and there was a little bit of the lights visible (referred to by our guides as ‘activity’), we stayed here for quite some time. We had some dinner, in the form of dehydrated meals along with some hot chocolate and spent much of the time just watching the lights and sliding down the snowy hills.

As the weather started to clear, we decided to push on to the coast, if for nothing else than a change of scenery. When we got out of the car at Rørvika, it became apparent that the ground was one large ice block. There was little to no snow around, suggesting it had been melted by some above-zero temperatures, then with the return of freezing temperatures it had formed a remarkably smooth surface, easily the most slippery thing I have ever encountered. After a bit of bush-bashing, we were on the water, and to make things even better there were clear skies.

The forms of the lights can be unbelievable

Whilst waiting for the activity to kick up, I found the remnants of the high tide: massive ice sheets, some 4 or 5 centimetres thick, which I was having an absolute blast playing with, much to the confusion of the others. Our waiting turned out to be a terrific move as once again, the lights started up – not with the intensity of the previous night, but not so far from it. However, this time we were in a much darker and more visually appealing area, right on the Skarsfjord, and we watched for hours. Once the show had died down, it was close to midnight. It was clear that people wanted to head back; the English in particular seemed to have had enough, with the attitude of “seen ‘em, let’s go”. So we drove back to town, with a few stops on the way as the lights perked back up – my perceived attitude of the English was further solidified when only we and the guide got out of the car to have a look and they just sat inside quietly. While driving we saw a white flash of an animal about the size of a rabbit, maybe a little larger, which remained unidentified for our trip as Monica did not know the English word for the animal and said they were uncommon in the area; she did not believe they were this far north and no one else knew what we were talking about - I believe the leading guess when we left was a lemming. By 0130, we were at the warehouse returning the gear and by 0200 we were back at our hotel and absolutely exhausted.

Lights over Skarsfjord with the Milky Way — Lights over Skarsfjord with the Milky Way

Dog-tired

There was to be no rest for the weary, as during the daylight hours, we were going dog sledding. It is an activity that is quintessentially Arctic, but I was amused to learn that most people from the area had never done it and hence it is seen as a tourist-only activity. We were going with Arctic Adventure tours, which we had again chosen based off tripadvisor, and at the time, they were the number two activity in Tromsø. We met at the Radisson Blue hotel (which seems to be the meeting place for nearly all tours) and were shuffled onto a minibus. It was early morning, so no one was saying much, including the driver. We headed ultimately south to the inland area next to Grindøysundet on Kvaløya, but this drive is longer than one might think due to having to go west and then south-east to get there. We arrived at the property, where there was a house and many kennels. We again suited up into warm gear and then the driver, who also turned out to be the owner and tour leader introduced himself as Hege. In contrast to the silent bus ride, once he started talking he did not stop, but this was a good thing as it was all interesting. He gave a history of dog sledding, which essentially evolved in Alaska during the gold rush era, as well as a history of the breed of dogs used. I had imaged huskies, but as he explained, huskies are not ideal animals as they will always keep some fuel in the tank just in case they need it, which is a great thing for survival, but not great for sledding. So again during the Alaskan gold rush, huskies were mixed with many breeds of dogs and out of this came a completely mixed breed with all the qualities required for surviving in the cold, but much smaller and lighter than a husky and that would just go and go until they killed themselves, which is exactly what was desired (apart from the dying). At some point Hege just picked up the dog and handed it to me, and it was indeed very lightweight.

With some basic instruction on how to drive the sleds, we headed toward about 8 of them which already had the teams of dogs attached. It was funny to see that as soon as we gestured in their direction, they began to go nuts, making an absolute racket and not quietening down until we were on our way. There were about 7 or 8 teams of two people, with Hege leading and everyone else following in some sense. Within each team, one person was driving whilst the other sat and enjoyed the view. Once we took off, the first thing we realised was how powerful the dogs are; they pull hard and gain a lot of speed very quickly. Each team left some distance between sleds, but it was not long before we had caught up to the people in front of us, and we continued to ride behind them while our dogs were really trying furiously to overtake. The couple in front never really seemed to go fast enough, so eventually the whole group stopped and Hege went to speak to them. His advice was that the dogs can, in a way, sense who is driving and whether or not they’ll push them to work. For example, when climbing uphill, the driver should partly dismount to help push up the hill, but if they instead sit back and are lazy, for a while the dogs all look around and wonder what is going on, but pretty quickly they will just chill out and go with the flow, dropping the speed entirely. So we started up again, but sure enough the couple in front did nothing to change their driving, and so again we were just riding their coattails the whole time. We were continually stopping to leave a big gap, but would always catch up in a matter of seconds; it was rather frustrating. But when this was not on our minds, the experience was awesome. Cruising through the snow, in the middle of nowhere with absolutely mind-blowing scenery around was really something special. Driving is also not the easiest thing – particularly when you are climbing a steep hill and are essentially trying to run in really deep powder. But it goes without saying that when the driver of the sled in front of us stacked it and completely submerged themselves in the snow and then the sled flew off like a rocket with a passenger who could do nothing but hold on, we were pretty entertained. Rather than walk next to the sleigh tracks, upon recovery, the person walked on the tracks and only moved when we screamed at them to get out of the way before we ran over them. But without a slow sled in front, we really stepped on it. Almost equally entertaining was less than five minutes later, when the partner who was previously the passenger and was at the time the driver also stacked it in really deep powder, creating a very satisfying snow cloud.

On the sled, looking from Grindøysundet — On the sled, looking from Grindøysundet

In the latter sections, we really were leaving a wide berth between us and them, which meant holding everyone behind us up, but I think everyone knew what was going on. Although if there is one thing that the dogs do not like, it is not running when there are other dogs running. When we were stopped they were just going nuts, and when the sleds in front took off, it was seriously challenging to keep the sled stationary, we had to jam the brake deep into the snow and hold it there. But as the first half of the trip was roughly uphill, this meant the second half was more-or-less downhill, and this meant speed. We were absolutely hammering it, which was so much fun and this made it quite sad when we saw the property on the horizon, and had to return. Arriving back at the kennels, the dogs were put away and we were shown to a lavvu (a tent-like structure) for some tea and cake. This was a nice chance to wind down and talk to Hege; we had an fascinating discussion about his trip to the North Pole with the dogs. One of the most interesting things he mentioned, that I had never thought about previously, was that because it is just a collection of ice sheets, which individually move, it is very challenging to reach the pole. You move some 100 kilometres during the day, set up camp for the night and when you wake up, you are further away than the day before!

After a chat, we returned the gear, loaded back up onto the bus and were dropped in town. It was already dark by this point, so like the evening before we organized to have some food before goin out on another northern lights trip. We had initially anticipated doing one every second night, but apparently we booked in for three consecutive nights and we could not change it due to all other nights being full. When 1700 rolled around, we were again picked up from our hotel and taken to the warehouse to get geared up. The group consisted of more of a mix, with an American, a Mexican and two sets of two friends both from eastern Europe, but they were pretty quiet and kept somewhat to themselves. Our guide this time was Øystein, who is also the owner of the company. As the weather was not looking so good, we were to head inland in an attempt to find some clear sky. This drive is much longer than that to the coast, but has a much better chance of clearer weather.

On the road, we had a good chat with Øystein, who is a local and has a really good philosophy on life, one that I feel is shared by Norwegians in general, which has such respect for the environment and the work/life balance amongst many other things, so it was great to discuss all things Norway with him. After some time we arrived at Skibotn, which is on the Lyngen fjord and near the highest mountain in the Lyngen Alps, Jiehkkevárri. The weather was still pretty cloudy, so we decided to push on to Finland. We did not get so far before there were a few breaches in the clouds, a very localised hole, through which some weak lights activity could be seen. Everyone was super excited; as we would have been had we not had spectacular shows the two evenings beforehand. As the weather was moving roughly inland, we continued toward Finland, but as soon as we began the climb, snow started to fall very heavily and with every metre toward the border the snow grew deeper and deeper, which was not a good sign. So we abandoned this idea and headed back to Skibotn, where we would wait out the weather, which was to clear around midnight.

Again we had dehydrated meals with some hot chocolate, but the Øystein “twist” was that we had to prepare the meals – he was selling them as the meal for the arctic adventurer and in such a way that, perhaps if you had never seen such meals before, you might be impressed, however when you eat them regularly (as we do on hiking trips), it seemed a little much. But I understand his angle/idea. Shortly after we arrived, another group (Monica’s) arrived and set up nearby for the wait.

To occupy some time, we again were sliding around in the snow and wandering on the beach of the fjord as the tide was really low. It was in fact the spring tide and some amazing sand formations were left exposed – had the sky been clear and the lights doing their thing, I am not sure one could find a more perfect spot for a photo, but it was not to be.

After several hours the clouds slowly began to fade away, but so did everyone else. It would have been about 1230 when the other group contemplated going back, but Øystein assured Monica –without consulting anyone – that we were keen to wait it out. Whilst I was not against the idea, neither was I for it. We had already had late nights and long days, so the concept of staying out in the cold was not a clear winner. Mia in particular was not all that keen on the idea and was also starting to get a cold. But after being given a weather shield blanket, she set herself up and went to sleep. I kept myself occupied talking with people and wandering off and taking photos as by this time almost all clouds were gone, so I could get some starscapes. But when Øystein decided it was late enough – primarily motivated by one of the guests needing to be at the airport at 0600, we headed back. It was a long drive, some two and a half hours, where most people drifted off to sleep (though it could only be a half sleep due to the loud radio Øystein had going to keep himself awake). I really admire the dedication on his part for trying his best to ensure everyone gets a northern lights show; particularly as the drivers are at this every night.

Some hours later we arrived back at the warehouse, swapped our gear and then headed back to the hotel. We got back at 0530, late enough that Øystein was taking our Mexican friend to her hotel to grab her luggage and giving her a lift to the airport. Needless to say we just got to our bed and collapsed.

Afjordable luxury

Again there was to be no rest for our weary selves, with our daytime activity of “the crazy boat”. This was a cruise around the fjord that I had found on tripadvisor which had numerous positive points: a) it was a cruise b) it was cheap c) it sounded crazy. The reviews just said it was fun and the website was a poorly formatted English/Norwegian mash-up. The proper name was Vulkana and their selling point is some kind of spa boat with a luxury restaurant on board. The spa is based around a Turkish hamam, a sauna with a panoramic view and hot tub on deck.

We arrived just before boarding to the poorly signed boat along with a smattering of other groups, and all waited patiently while the crew prepared the ship and did not acknowledge our existence. When we were invited to board, it was absolute chaos as 15 or so people tried to navigate their way into the hull and pick up some boat shoes on the way down. At this point we were wondering whether we had made a mistake with the cruise, but once we were all in the hull, things calmed down. A crew member explained the history of the ship, which was a story revolving around drunken rich people buying a boat, but the long and short of it was that an ex-whaling ship had an expensive makeover and was now a spa boat. The hull was quite a nice room, with a big skylight and the hamam attached to the stern, but it would not be running as the boat can either have a hamam or move, and we were doing the latter. The overall instructions were to have fun, and that was about it. So after everyone left to go to change rooms, we just got changed in the hull and headed up on to the deck, where we had some really nice scenery along with amazing lighting. As the sun does not break the horizon and sits just below it, the magnificent reds and purples associated with sunrise and sunset can hang around all day, which was exactly what was happening.

After freezing for a little on deck, we made a beeline for the hot tub. Some people were just leaving so we immediately got a spot in the rather small tub. During the intro, they said their record was fifteen people, but comfortably it would sit 6-8 people, depending on size. It quickly became apparent that we were in the minority as tourists, being the only ones not speaking Norwegian. Everyone was really nice and had no issues with switching to English and we met some really interesting people, including a professional tuba player and his wife, a South African woman whose mother was visiting; it certainly was not the standard mixture of people. We met two Londoners as the only non-residents of Tromsø, for whom it seemed impossible to stop using their GoPro cameras. The hot tub was literally cooking us, as it was wood fired and was too hot, but due to the minus five temperature plus wind, one could somehow handle the heat.

We eventually parked ourselves to the south of Tromsøya and as soon as the boat stopped, the plank was cast out for diving into the fjord. Most people are surprised that the fjords of northern Norway do not freeze, but this is because the Gulf Stream batters the entire region and is responsible for the mild climate. The coastal temperatures are anywhere between zero and minus ten, often sitting around minus five. This is really not that cold considering how far north it is. However, one need only head inland by some tens of kilometres before the temperature plummets 20 or 30 degrees. So the shallows of the fjords can freeze, but the sea temperature sits around 4 degrees, which is still pretty fresh. So naturally after seeing people diving in, it had to happen. Not thinking about it I just dived in and it was cold. While that may seem like a useless statement, it is all that you can say. You feel the warmth of your body escaping and the number one thought is “get me out of this”. As you get out of the water, even though the air temperature is ten degrees colder, because of the conductivity, it is much warmer; a relief even. Making the day’s second beeline for the hot tub, I jumped in and about 2 minutes later I just started to hurt all over, obviously as blood was starting to be allowed back. Mia was a firm “no way” on the fjord-diving front, but after a bit of peer pressure, she was in for a dip – how could you not have a dip?

We headed down to the sauna and witnessed an attempt to enter the water from someone leaving the sauna, but she bailed at the last second. A crew member then went into the sauna and took her out and held her over the water, but she was holding on for dear life and was not going in. It was only once he had convinced her that he was going to put her down that she relaxed and then he proceeded to throw her in. Whilst this may sound rough, it was all in good fun and utterly hilarious. The sauna was nice but not so large, and when the same crew member came in and said we needed to crank the place up and then proceeded to do so, it became unbearably warm and everyone else left, so space was no longer a problem. There was an announcement that we would be leaving soon, so after another quick dip and some more sauna time, everyone got changed and gathered in the kitchen/dining room, where a seafood curry was served. It was a Thai style curry with really fresh seafood and was by far the best oriental cuisine I have had in Europe – something that I miss dearly - and there was all we could eat, along with fresh bread and ice cold water. It was a really nice lunch to finish off a fun few hours; and before long we arrived back in Tromsø.

Having had only a handful of hours sleep in the past evenings, we were wrecked. We had spoken with Øystein the night before about the possibility of rearranging our final lights tour, which was going to be that night, and he said he would message us in the afternoon with details. So we went back to the hotel and I fell straight asleep. But unfortunately a proper rest remained off the cards, as we received a message stating that changing was not possible and we would be picked up in an hour.

So for the third night in a row, the minivan appeared out the front of our place, but this time we were with Matt, an Australian ex-Londoner. There were also two Australian women on the tour, meaning that the majority of the bus was Australian; something that one does not really expect in Norway. We drove to the warehouse and suited up (we were experts at this by now) then headed out. As the weather was looking nicer than the previous night, we were to head to the coast, but contrary to the first night, we would travel to the south. To start, we went in the direction of the island of Kvaløya (or “whale island”) which is a pretty interesting place. It is one of the largest islands in Norway and has a rather distinctive kilometre-wide isthmus, formed by the Kaldfjorden penetrating from the west and the Ersfjord in the east. But this was not our final destination; we were ultimately heading to Sommarøy, an island far to the west at the mouth of the Kattfjord. So it seemed fitting that our first stop was at the end of the Kattfjord.

The lights were bright, but really low in the sky

We pulled in to some pretty stunning scenery overlooking the fjord and like previous nights, people were provided with tripods and given a lesson on how to photograph the lights should they appear. During this time I had snuck away to get a few happy snaps and to my surprise the lights showed up in a few of them; they were not yet visible to the naked eye. Upon telling everyone, it became apparent that our quick stop would evolve into something a bit longer, particularly as the activity began to increase in strength. As it was not the ideal spot for watching them, we eventually packed up and headed further west, following the fjord. We had a quick stop in at a pier overlooking the fjord, which was really nice as the lights were going pretty crazy and seeing them reflected in the fjord was rather special. I was a little annoyed as we were departing since I had set up a photo with the pier once everyone else had returned to the car, only to discover that I had no battery left and the process of getting my spare, swapping and reframing was going to take too long, so I ended up bailing on it, which was unfortunate given the stunning location.

We continued west and eventually found a point to stop and have dinner, which was right where the fjord opened up, and hence was rather windy. Behind some rocks, a decent spot was found and dinner was prepared. We again received the talk of how this particular dehydrated food was the food of champions, but we were spared the “authentic preparation experience” of the night before and Matt just prepared everybody’s meal.

After dinner we were back in the van and heading west. Near to Sommarøy, we stopped at the point just before the bridge connecting Kvaløya to Sommarøy, which was quite an impressive bridge. For a road in the middle of nowhere (and in the arctic), to have a bridge of that calibre (over 500 metres) shows how good the infrastructure really is. According to the Wikipedia page for said bridge, one has to watch out for the traffic lights playing up when it is windy – so don’t say I did not warn you. We headed down to a sheltered beach for a look, and whilst there we remarked that there were many luminescent plankton washing up on the beach. We did little other than just observe this for ten or so minutes, but it was intriguing. Particularly as people were interested in trying the see the animal, but they promptly extinguish themselves upon being removed from water, so this did not work all that well.

We headed out once again, but this time with the final destination of Sommarøy as the target. We crossed the bridge which leads into a small fishing community, and with a population of 261, it even had some public toilets, so we made use of them. As we pulled into the service road, there was someone standing in the middle waving us down. We stopped and he began to say something, Matt informed him that no one spoke Norwegian, and so (of course) he switched to English and told us that there were some left-over fireworks from New Year’s Eve, and everyone in town had come out to watch them, so the road would be closed for 10 minutes. But he also said we should stay and watch, so we did. And all I can say is wow. The “left-over” fireworks were much more serious than I had thought, to the point where it was a near-professional display. I have never been so close to a display, or a display seen by so few. It was truly a case of right place, right time.

We soon arrived at Hillesøya, the small island at the end of Sommarøy, and the end of the line. Unfortunately, the lights had died down significantly by this point, but as we were there, we would nevertheless climb to the top. It was seriously icy and windy, but once atop the hill, we were afforded great views over the fjord. We could also see the island of Håja, that which is said to have inspired the arctic cathedral in Tromsø, and I could certainly understand why one would say this, the form is very distinctive. But after sitting around for ten or so minutes, it was late, cold and windy and the lights were no longer doing their thing, so everyone agreed that it was time to call it a night. We were pretty happy with this, due to our array of late nights and early mornings, so the idea of being in bed around 0200 was pretty appealing. We packed up our stuff, loaded back on the bus and began the drive back into town. We arrived at some point later, ditched our gear and then were dropped off at around 0140. We headed straight to bed as we again had an early morning, unawares that by coincidence, we would be returning to more-or-less the exact same spot the next day.

A whale of a time

Again we were treated to some nice colours and amazing landscape

We again arose rather early in the morning for our rendezvous to go whale watching. From late November until mid-to-late January, whales come to feed near the coast, often quite deep into the fjords, such that they can be seen from the towns. We were at the tail end of the season, but thought we would give it a go and hope we were given a glimpse. We elected to go with Arctic Fishing Adventures, which at the time was the number one “thing to do” in Tromsø on TripAdvisor. I knew that it was a little out of town, but that was it. We again were to meet at Radisson Blue hotel, but that was all the info we had. We searched around for a bit and saw nothing obvious and eventually a taxi driver whom had been sitting there for a while asked us if we were waiting for Arctic Fishing, but in a manner like we should have somehow known that he was transporting us. Anyway, we, along with one other woman climbed into the taxi and headed in the exact same direction as the night before.

After 40 or so minutes, we arrived at the end of the Kattfjord, but unlike last time when we stuck to the south side of the fjord, this time we took the northern road. The only notable event on the trip was seeing a reindeer just lingering on the side of the road, really not fussed by our presence. Not long after we arrived at a collection of 10-25 buildings, which is also known as Lauklines. The taxi driver said to speak to “that guy”, pointing to a collection of 4 people standing in a circle and left. So we proceeded to walk down and someone, I am not sure who told us to go and put on floatation suits, which could be found in a shed nearby. So we did this and returned to the area, and it was not at all clear who was waiting for the tour or who operated the tour. At some point, people started getting on a boat, and still no one had said anything, so we also got on the boat.

The boat was small but comfortable and clearly set up for fishing, so obviously this was a side business. We cast off and were cutting right down the middle of the fjord toward the mouth. The scenery was just on another level; the mountains and the fjord combined with spectacular lighting coming from the below-horizon sun was really something else. Although it was not entirely clear what the plan was or where we were going, I was not bothered, it was just so pretty. We trundled along (at one point running over a rather startled puffin), passing some smaller islands, some with beaches, as well as many fishing trawlers until we passed the familiar bridge leading to Sommarøy, which gave us an idea of where we were. Soon enough the fjord was really opening out and we could see the island of Håja and before long there was no more land to the north, just some far to the south, and we were roughly in line with Hillesøya. We could see a few other boats around, then with timing almost too good to believe, as we had just begun to wonder “is this where we were going?” we caught sight of a whale breaching.

Within a few seconds all the other boats were there, all waiting for the smallest movement. What benefited us was the fact that our boat was tiny by comparison, so when there eventually was some action, we were all over it. And I will say that the boat was masterfully piloted. We always seemed to be in the right place at the right time, which to me means that this was no coincidence and that the captain knew what he was doing. But it still was not clear who on the boat worked for the company and who was playing tourist, though once the action stated to intensify, this became more obvious. There was a spotter giving the locations to the captain and also a photographer. Everyone else was just doing their best to shuffle around the boat to be in the right locations; except for this one guy, who just stayed at the back of the boat, not even glancing at the whales. But as for the whale watching, what can I say? The word majestic is always thrown around when one discusses whales, but this is because it is such an apt description. There was a pod of humpbacks, which were initially a little timid but seemed to warm up to it, and were soon slapping their fins, slapping their tails and even poking their heads out of the water. It is really something that has to be seen and experienced; such gargantuan animals moving seemingly effortlessly through the water, effectively playing with the boat and amongst themselves. It is in essence a humbling experience. Except of course for that guy at the back of the boat, who did not want to know about it.

The colour in the sky seemed to be intensifying, making the scene almost unbelievably beautiful. As a consequence, cameras were being fired left right and centre (mine included) but I was a little unsure about the employee essentially shoving people out of the way to take his photos, to me that seemed a little inappropriate. But like many things of this nature, it gets to a point where taking photos serves little purpose and the best thing to do is just relax and enjoy the show.

But before long, the small amount of light there was began to fade and we had to begin the return trip. This was also the first time that the captain actually said anything; to get through almost the entire adventure without speaking to the clientele is not a bad effort. Soon enough we were arriving back at the dock and disembarking – and of course the guy who had been at the back was the first off, I have absolutely no idea what his deal was. As if to continue with his new-found talking ability, the captain invited everyone into his shop for tea/coffee and biscuits, which seemed appropriate as he was from the United Kingdom. During our chit-chat, we were informed that the return transport was only just leaving Tromsø and hence would arrive in 40 or so minutes. So helping ourselves to some more biscuits, we ended up having a good chat with the captain, who contrary to his previous performance apparently loved to talk. Eventually the taxi arrived and we journeyed back into town.

After having late nights and early morning, our activity for the evening was to go to bed early and get a good sleep. In addition, they day after did not have an activity, so we were not pressed to get up early. After a fairly delightful dinner at Flyt (a café which doubles as a burger joint/extreme sports bar), followed by a drink somewhere on Storgata, we retired to our room and slept like champions.

Polar opposite

Contrary to all the other days of our trip, we did not have anything planned for the Monday, neither the light hours nor the night, so as a result of our busy schedule thus far, this day became some form of rest day. The weather was still being kind to us – that is to say there were no violent snow storms or similar – so we just planned to explore the town a bit.

In the early morning I snuck off and went around town. Whilst very small it certainly has its charm and like many Scandinavian countries, its share of modern architecture. The most noteworthy building in this sense is the library, which is a grand “arching” building, for lack of a better description. Another really neat town attraction is the town mosaic, depicting everything the town is known for, and due to the use of gold it really stands out.

In the peak of the day, we headed up the path we had taken during our first night in town, winding past the graveyard and up to Prestvannet, the park/lake situation at the top of Tromsøya. During the daytime it looked nicer and there was much more activity (unsurprisingly). There were many cross-country skiers circulating the lake in deep, well used tracks whilst others were instead free-skating over the lake. We were casually wandering around aimlessly and happened across a primary school, which was profoundly interesting, as it really hammered home the point that people live here. In this much snow, in this temperature with this amount of light. There were children running around, just being kids, and there was a group playing football. These children are equally experienced playing football on a field of snow/ice as they are playing on grass. It is just mind-blowing!

Following the lake around, we found a few other people like ourselves, just frolicking in the snow or taking pictures of icicles, but mostly we had the place to ourselves. But it did not take long before the light had begun to diminish, meaning it was time we headed back into town and had some lunch. By then the darkness had completely descended, but as we had a museum trip planned, this was no hindrance to us. There are essentially two main museums in town, the polar museum and Polaria. We had heard from multiple sources that the Polaria was not really anything special, but the history museum was worth it, so the choice was essentially made for us. Based in the old harbour in the old customs warehouse, one cannot fault its aesthetics.

The interior and the exhibition itself were excellent, covering in detail the history of arctic exploration, of which I knew bits and pieces, but I learnt a lot from the visit. The most impressive story was that of Fridtjof Nansen and Hjalmar Johansen, who attempted to reach the north pole (and got further than anyone previously) but during their return trip had some technical hiccups, and more-or-less became lost at sea (or, ice depending on the time of year). After an unbelievable set of events they managed to make it to Franz Josef Land, and before they were rescued they were forced to pass two winters there. Such good hunters were they, that when they were finally found, they were both somewhat fat as their diet (high in blubber) was plumping them up. From the sound of it, they were some incredible individuals and their story is worth investigating.

We were eventually forced out of the museum due to its closing, but we were probably 85% the way through, to it was not a major bummer. We headed back into town to grab some dinner, but wandered around the harbour on the way, as it looks really nice at night. As we were to be having an early morning the following day with plenty of physical exertion, we ended our rest day with an early night.

Pow pow

Well rested, we once again rose early for our final day in Tromsø, which we were to spend in the mountains. Through Tromsø Outdoor, we organised to do a guided snowshoeing trip. One can simply hire snowshoes and walk by themselves, but the real issue is location – to get somewhere that is interesting to go climbing, you need a car. So a guided trip offers the best value in terms of gear hire and transport; it was by far the cheapest activity and by picking the “advanced” activity, there were only two other people in our group (again Australians!). So meeting once again at the Radisson Blue hotel we loaded into the van and drove all of 50 metres to the shop, which was essentially a snow sport hire shop. This was to be just a quick gear pick up, but the driver’s door on the van had other ideas, with the latching mechanism freezing up, meaning the door could not be closed. So while the store owner was trying to fix this, we just chatted inside and looked on the map where we were going to go. Our guide was a young Polish woman who was really friendly and excited about all things snow and travel. After about half an hour of chatting and having a few snacks, during which time the door had been removed and reattached, there had been no progress. However a novel solution involving a screwdriver-to-trigger mechanism had been discovered, so we were soon on our way after all. On the downside, a thirty minute delay when one has only four hours of usable light is not insignificant!

It is hard to imagine such a scene being lush and green as it (apparently) is in Summer

We headed back over to Kvaløya, like our previous adventures and, once again, in the direction of the Kattfjord. However this time we just ditched the car on the side of the road next to a mountain, then put on our snowshoes and started to ascend. We were once again quite lucky with the good weather conditions and a really pretty sky colour. One thing I love about hiking is you have much more time to really take in the surrounds, as compared to a car or boat, where you are hurtling towards a destination. Climbing up, you really can soak in the environment, and the landscape around us was so pretty. Snow-covered mountains jutting up out of the sea with staggering rock formations makes for some good viewing.

The mountain we were climbing is called Tverrfjellet and is some 500 metres tall, which by alpine standards is not so serious, but things are very different there. For example, the tree line is only at about 100 metres, as compared to some kilometres in the Alps. And one is always rising up from sea-level, meaning that the height of the peak is the height you climb. In addition, as there is nothing on the other side of the mountains other than the arctic sea, once you are close to the top and exposed the wind is just brutal! On the way up, the terrain was quite friendly; nice deep powder without a track in sight, but the steepness was continually increasing. Even though we were only a group of five, it did not take long to show that we were somewhat faster than our fellow Australians, so much so that the guide told us to go on ahead and reach the summit, as it was not clear if they would. But before we split off, the guide shared out some warm blackcurrant juice from a thermos, which was incredible, I will definitely be stealing that idea for my other winter adventures.

Pushing up the hill, it just continued to get steeper and, as we were walking up a gully, it was decidedly not level, which in snowshoes is not all that comfortable. But before long we were approaching the summit and we could feel the wind kicking up. By the time we were at the top, we were doing well just to be able to keep our feet on the ground – it was ice cold (well, much colder) and blowing a gale. But the view from the top was something pretty special: we could see over the Kattfjord to the west and the lake of Krokskarvatnet, and were otherwise encircled by larger mountains, including the peak which we named the baby Matterhorn due to the striking resemblance to its namesake. After we had explored around a little, watched someone ski down the mountain, and finally huddled down behind the summit cairn to get out of the wind, the rest of the team arrived. We did not stay long due to the fading light, but my jealousy of the man with the skis was certainly out of this world.

Looking north of the valley. The conditions up here define inhospitable.

We were cruising down pretty fast; some even attempted to slide down; although this never seemed to work all that well, it was certainly entertaining to watch. On the way down, we caught glimpses of some animal on the summit where we had just been, of the size of what one would assume to be a reindeer, but no one saw well enough to confirm it. Before long we were back down, but by this stage it was almost completely dark. We packed back into the van and headed into town. There had been talk of stopping in Kvaløysletta for a coffee on the way out, as apparently Eide handel is the best place in town, but due to the time that was not going to happen. But the guide’s attitude that because we were running late, she was happy to stay out late was much appreciated, as otherwise the walk would have been cut short. On arriving in town, we stated that we had to pay a little extra as Mia had hired some ski pants, but we were told that it was on the house due to the delay, which again was really nice.

As we had an early flight out of town the next morning, we took the afternoon to get our affairs in order. We calculated how much money we were going to need for the following day and how much we had left over, and decided to go and have a decent meal. After perusing the webbernets, we settled on the 69° N Brasserie, a restaurant concentrating on local ingredients. In short, it was really good and definitely worth it, and the waiters were really friendly, which is always a bonus. After having our fill there, and content with having seen the town, we headed back in preparation for a very early morning to catch our flight.

Capital punishment

Our final day in Norway was to be a full day trip, with 8 hour layover in Oslo. Our plane left Tromsø at 0630 and the bus from town to the airport leaves on the hour, meaning we could have either half an hour or one and a half hours to check-in (where we had a bag to drop). We elected for 90 minutes as we thought thirty was just not enough – usually boarding closes 30 minutes before take-off. But upon arrival at the airport, in typical Norwegian style, it was all super-efficient and evidently must be set up to accommodate these flight times, as no one else was waiting for our flight (everyone there early instead boarded the 0530 plane), so we had an hour to kill. At least it gave us some time to find some breakfast. During the morning, the light snow that had been falling was getting heavier and by the time we were about to get on the plane, it was just dumping down. It was both unfortunate and fortunate that we did not experience a proper snowstorm during our stay, especially as there were heavy snowfalls at both ends of the week.

We had a short flight and by about 0800 we were in Oslo. As we had the full day, we thought it best to profit from our situation and see the town. From the airport, there were a few options: a bus, a train and an express train. The times between trains are nearly negligible; the only redeeming feature of the express train is that it runs more regularly. Still, should one not be in a hurry, there is no need to pay the extra for what is essentially the same service (90 NOK vs 170 NOK). Waiting only a few minutes and then passing a little more than half an hour on the train, we arrived in central Oslo. With no real plans for visiting things, we exited the station, started to walk down the main street (Karl Johans gate), and just wandered around. The city was a lot different to what I was expecting; the only other Scandinavian capital I had visited was Copenhagen, which is a very grand city, exactly how I imagined it would be. Oslo was much newer, not so many grand stone buildings and to my surprise, very little snow. But given that the mildness of the 2013/2014 winter in Europe, this was not too surprising.

Walking down the main drag, one passes such sights as the cathedral, the theatre, and eventually ends up at the royal palace. Much less lavish than the royal palace of neighbouring Denmark, it is still quite pretty and provides a decent view over the town. It did seem however that 1000 on a Wednesday is school excursion time, as we must have passed half a dozen school groups. Our next stop was the rådhus, or town hall, which was a mighty impressive building; impressive enough to be voted the Norwegian building of the (20th) century. The building is situated at the centre of a cirque-like arrangement of buildings, which would usually be of little importance, however it is now burned into my memory thanks to the following incident. Upon our arrival at said building, a siren sounded for approximately 30 or seconds, and was quite possibly the loudest thing I have ever heard; being located in a theatre-like structure only served to amplify the already brutal noise, which repeated again a few minutes later. We had (and still have) no idea what it was for, and everyone around was acting like normal, so perhaps it is a common occurrence, but it is definitely something to be avoided if possible!

We continued along the waterfront which leads to the town’s fort, the Akershus Festning, which was free to access and had very well-kept grounds. We did not stay long as we had a rendezvous with a friend for lunch, and I wanted to see the ever-so-famous opera house. We took a shortcut through what appeared to be the military district (since the only building with a title that I recognised was the ministry of defence), however this shortcut was more of a dead end, so we had to backtrack somewhat. After navigating our way to the next inlet of the bay, we arrived at the opera house. The water was almost completely still so the design of the building could be properly appreciated. My limited knowledge of the building came from hearing about the “construction of a national icon” which came in significantly under budget and ahead of schedule. It would astound me if such a thing happened anywhere else in the world. We headed over to the front doors but were informed that the inside was closed due to a private function. It was unfortunate, but we would not really have had the time for a look, given that we were already running late, so we had a quick wander around the outside, which allows one to climb onto the roof for views over the city. The marble exterior is very pretty and certainly stands out amongst the much darker predominant rock compositions of mangerite, gabbro and anorthosite that are so characteristic of Norway. We did a quick loop around and then made a beeline for the station to meet up with our friend. He took us to an area of town that we were assured was cool and found a place for lunch, a Mexican restaurant. The food was really good and it was great to catch up – although he did trigger a revelation with regards to our expenditure. We had paid almost the entirety of the trip and activities in advance, so we only had the day-to-day expenses to deal with whilst there, but somehow I had the exchange rate as 8€ equals 120 NOK, which we had been using to calculate our spending. During our chat, it became obvious that I had the rate the wrong way around, that it was in fact 12€ to 80 NOK, resulting in an instantaneous non-negligible price increase. That beer that was “only a little bit more than Paris” at 8€ just became 16€. Had we not already paid for everything and realised all our expenses had just doubled in price we may have had some kind of panic attack, but as it was, it was not too rough. But there is much truth to the tale that Norway is expensive. A country with 37.5% equivalent VAT is not going to be cheap, but you see where the money goes. Anyway, after both this revelation and our lunch, it was time to head back to the station and then back to the airport. Our duty-free shopping was a single mega-pack of Daim! (which would serve to stave off starvation in a few weeks) and then in was onto the plane and back to Paris.

Northern Norway

It is rare that things that you dream about for large portions of your existence can live up to the expectations that you have for them, but Norway did that and then some. It has to be said that we had some luck on our side regarding the aurora borealis, the weather and the whales, but one never has much input into these things.

Now this will likely sound odd, but northern Norway is the only place I have been away from home where I felt comfortable, where everything “just worked”. The landscape, the culture, the attitude of the people; they all blend in a way which makes something special and it resonated with me. I can only hope I get the opportunity to explore more of this beautiful country in the future.