Chasing Gaps in the Clouds

When I started planning my trip the northern lights weren’t really on my radar. Once I’d planned where I was going I realised I’d be in Tromsø around the equinox which is meant to be a really good time to see the lights plus they are meant to be at a peak every 11 years which is this year although research is suggesting the solar activity actually peaked last year. It’s possibly my only opportunity to see them as I’m unlikely to come back to Norway.

There are so many tour companies here in Tromsø and you can do everything from a private tour to a large bus. I chose a small group tour recommended by the people running the Facebook group I got most of my information from - Wandering Owl. They have a success rate of 85% meaning over the season they see the Aurora 85% of the times they go out.
The Aurora is usually there, it’s finding a gap in the clouds that is the hard part. Often they go into Finland to find those clear skies.

There were 16 of us on the tour including a couple from Perth, they’ve taken a year off to travel the world. Others were from Argentina, Singapore, US and UK.
Our guide was from Bulgaria and our driver from Switzerland.

The evening didn’t start out that promising as it was raining and our guide explained there was cloud cover and rain just about everywhere but slightly to the north the cloud cover wasn’t as thick and that was where everyone was headed. Tromsø has many micro climates due to the mountains where as Finland is a lot flatter and the cloud cover can be consistent. The Perth couple were book on a tour the night before and both they and the company had cancelled due to the low chance of seeing the Aurora.

Every now and then they van would stop and our guide and driver would get out and check the skies through cameras as well as communicate with other guides to see what was happening. All guides have their favourite spots and we ended up at Kavlølyvagen which was about a 45 minute drive although it took quite a bit longer with the stops. There wasn’t anyone else there.

When we stopped there were gaps in the clouds and we could see some activity. It was fairly mild at first, to the naked eye it just looked like pale clouds. After a while the activity increased and I could see some pale red on the horizon although that came out as white on the photos and the red is higher up.
We were experiencing a “crown” which is where the horizon all around you lights up. This isn’t common so we we here quite fortunate to see it.

We were there for over an hour, the sky changing all the time. At times activity would die down, I’d get back on the bus as despite wearing thermal underwear, ski pants, a merino jumper, jacket, gloves and hat it was cold! The problem with gloves is it’s hard to operate the phone with them on. I have a pair of knitted gloves I bought back in 2012 when I did a trip along the Great Ocean Road with my sister. The index finger on one of them has a hole in it so I was able operate my phone with the one finger.
So the activity would die down, I’d get back in the bus then the driver would tell us the activity had started again so we’d get out.

Just as the activity was dying down again they started to get the campfire ready. Sitting around the campfire drinking soup and chatting is a big part of the experience, I think if you don’t see the lights you still get something out of the trip as there are no refunds for not seeing the lights.
They had just set the campfire up and were trying to light it when it started to hail. So no campfire for us. I don’t think anyone was disappointed as we’d all gotten great photos of the Aurora.
They were determined we’d get our soup though so we headed back towards Tromsø and pulled into a stop where we all stood around and had vegetable soup. It was really nice but I think we all would have been just as happy to head back. We had to go back to our original spot as our guide had left his camera bag behind then we headed the 45 minutes back to Tromsø. To top off the night we saw a reindeer on the road. He just wandered out and stood there for a while eating on the side of the road before wandering back. The residents view them a bit like we view kangaroos on the road. No photo as I wasn’t in the front seat.

Back to the hotel about 1:30am. In a few days we’ll get the photos the guide took on his camera so I’m keen to see those.

From low expectations it turned out to be a fantastic evening and well worth it.Read more