„I gained a sense of why Grieg was so touched by the wistful, elegiac folk music of Norway, and what he meant when he said self-effacingly that his music had a ‚taste of cod‘ about it.“

Anthony Tommasini

 

Three nights. Three nights is a risk. Every night counts, but with weather in Norway, you might be faced with overcast sky. But not going to the polar circle at all moves your chance whether you can see the Aurora Borealis to 0%. So once a season, we take our chances, pack too much stuff and head north.

And then you are standing on the snow, feel the cold creeping into your clothing and start to realize that it does not matter that the weather is bad. You tried, that is everything that counts.

 

A unicorn!

 

Our reindeer herd was still great posing for us. Although they were disappointed a bit that we forgot to bring bread. Shame on us.

 

The unicorn seems to be accepted by the reindeer as a part of their herd. Or it hired the reindeer as a guide. Hard to say.

 

During the night you really do not like those big clouds that bring all this snow. But at daylight, you start to appreciate the sheer beauty of the landscapes especially if you are able to catch some of those precious beams of light coming from the low hanging winter sun.

 

Second night weather was even worse and Aurora forecast was zero. After dinner, we decided to stay in the hotel and have a nice bottle of bubbly water.

So only one night left. Weather forecast predicted an opening from 10-11pm. Aurora forecast predicted a Kp index of 3. Not much, but it was our last chance, so after dinner, we headed outside again. At first, it was quite cloudy and there was zero activity. Our spot already had two Germans and a few people from India, the best places are getting crowded and tourism is getting stronger and stronger. At first, there was a very small opening just over the horizon and some minor activity. Nothing exciting, but the people from India were getting heated up, they took some photos… and got back into their rental and drove back to the hotel. Zero patience, but apparently the display was enough for them to make a check mark.

 

Unfortunately for them, 30 minutes later the sky cleared a bit and there it was.

 

The clouds were a bit annoying, still allowed for enough space for the Northern Lights to show us their dance.

 

With moonlight, the sky will always appear blue, but it nicely illuminated the landscape.

 

Polar lights grew stronger and moved quite fast as well.

 

Then the sky went boom. For several minutes we got some fantastic Aurora Borealis.

 

Strong arcs and curtains, with some interesting movement. Luckily sometimes the moon hid behind a cloud.

 

The German camper got a little in the way.

 

The night turned out as a solid Kp of 5 and we got about 250 pictures, we have been incredibly fortunate. And it is a great distraction from work. Very happy, the next day we took the plane back home. With that small little thought in our minds, quoted from that famous movie: „I’ll be back“ (admit it, the voice in your head had an Austrian accent for a moment).