Norway Trip - Part III (Tromsø Walkabout)

Really, I just wanted to show off the rest of my photos, just kidding. :p Tromsø is such a nice city, of course I need to share our general impression of the city and some useful tips, if you also decide to visit someday.

Tromsø is an island city, probably the only flat piece of land in the area big enough to have an airport. Lol! Therefore, the airport is only a 5-min drive from Tromsø Sentrum where all the hotels are. You can take the express bus that costs 90 NOK p.p. Or if you're travelling with more than 1, taxi fare is only around 160-190 NOK depending on the time of the day. *Notes: There are no bank ATMs, but some 'foreign exchange' machines at the airport. The rate is actually quite decent, and you'll need NOKs to buy the tickets on the bus, or from another machine. Our tour guide told us if you download their transport app, then you get discounts on bus tickets. It's a good idea to do that since the fare is ridiculous! 50 NOK for a single fare, which is about 5 euro! Since the city is so bloody small, it's not hard to walk between all the attractions.

As I mentioned in my previous post, winter boots are a must if you're visiting in winter! Duh!! I don't own any, and it really helped with keeping my feet warm and dry despite having 3 layers of socks on. Meanwhile, poor Graham got his feet wet when walking/playing in snow too much. :p The city centre is a little boring, given how small the city is. It still has everything you need though.

I think you get the idea, boats are everywhere! 

We really wanted to walk across the bridge to get to the Arctic Cathedral. I always come up with stupid ideas like that and think it would be fun, but I'm really really afraid of heights, and you can guess how well that went. The bridge is not that long but is quite narrow and curved. My main problem was that it did not feel safe at all; it shook every time someone else walked by, and the railing looked slightly thicker than chicken wires... Anyway, I died, so Graham took most of the photos for this leg of our trip.

Me staying as far away from the edge as possible! I think this was the halfway point.

Tromsø harbour close up

The other side is called Tromsdalen, our next destination is on top of that hill.

The Arctic Cathedral somewhat reminded me of the Sydney Opera House, they are both white with glass panels and pointy tops. Lol! We didn't go inside, but the organ can be seen behind the glass and is really tall (how it should be).

I guess pointy white things somewhat translate to 'Arctic', like glaciers, snowy mountains, icy tundra and polar bears?

The crazy bridge that I do not want to walk across again!

I don't really know why I keep going to places that'll make me sick, but our next stop was the cable car (Fjellheisen) that goes up the mountain with a cabin that sticks out over the cliff! It is about a 10-min walk from the Arctic Cathedral, there's also a nearby bus stop, which we had to take on the way back. Not exaggerating, I got so sick after all this I had to throw up and take heaps of tablets before we headed out for the evening's aurora hunt! >.<

I don't know, is the view worth all the puke and headache I had to deal with? You can be the judge.

The snow-capped mountain tops look like fluffy whipped cream! Yummmm! XD

The islands behind Tromsø we drove to the day before, not sure if anyone lives on the tiny one one the left.

Of course, these photos were taken by Graham on the edge of the viewing deck while I hid somewhere safe far behind.

There's outside area where you can walk along anywhere on the mountain behind us. There's a ski resort (Tromsø AlpinPark) not too far away from here, but you can totally just cross-country ski here or take your dogs for a fun walk! I think having a dog (or any pet really, since I prefer to walk my cats) in this part of the world is probably a must to keep you sane in the dark winter days.

I know the viewing deck doesn't look that scary, but the wind made it worse. Lol, I'm just weak!

Someone really likes the snow, I mean these mountains are pretty fantastic for snow sports. 

Never ending snow.  ^^

I mean Captain Squeaky is like the national mascot/food here, but I think he prefers travelling the world to getting clubbed...

We can't emphasise on how much we enjoyed this holiday and how much we like snow! Hope you enjoyed it through our photos and my silly/long winded commentary. Or if you're a fan of the Captain, he can't wait to show you all the other places he's been to in the future, so stay tuned. 

Norway Trip - Part II (Aurora Hunting)

Like I said in the previous post, I'm dropping it like it's hot! :p I've also decided to split the rest into two parts, so it's not too long of a post to read. 

Our aurora hunting in Tromsø happened over two evenings. The first was with our own hired car and the second was with a tour company called 'Aurora Excursions'. We were lucky to see plenty of aurora in the first evening and not much in the second as it was snowing. We highly recommend you do both to increase your chance of seeing more aurora. As you know, to successfully see and capture aurora, you'll need three major factors in decreasing importance; 1) Clear sky with minimal cloud cover, 2) Strong geomagnetic and solar activities (high Kp index, see here), and 3) Have a decent camera and know how to get that shit working!

I'll again show you our routes on my adorable little map, on which the rainbow unicorn pusheen is where we saw the most aurora. I'll explain our experience and some tips and advices for future trips as well as I go. I know it's a lot to read but I think it'll be helpful, so deal with it. ;p

Evening 1: 

If you remembered the photos we took during the day, there was pretty heavy cloud cover around the islands. The weather forecast was cloudy in the Tromsø region, so we spent some time on the internet deciding where to go. One place that was recommended was Skibotn, but we thought it might be too far to drive and we weren't really confident driving in the dark. We we decided to try somewhere slightly less inland towards Breivideidet because we thought mountain roads might have less cloud and light pollution. That was about 8.30-9 pm, and the Kp index was decent, around 3-4.

The main road leading inland (E8) was brightly lit, and we couldn't really tell if the sky was clear or if it was completely covered by clouds. As we turned up the road to Breivikeidet (Route 91), we realised that it was not really the same as the one on Kvaløya, it had quite a few houses and there were no flat fields that we could see on the sides. We stopped over at the first place with no nearby houses, turned off our car completely to let our eyes adjust to the darkness. It didn't take us long to realise that we could not see a single star and this whole region was covered by high (altitude) clouds. We had another look on our phone for weather update and the map view for the road ahead before deciding to head back and take a chance back on Kvaløya. At least we knew that the mountain pass there definitely has no lights along it and has many potential camping spots.

We also had Ersfjordbotn and the northern part of the island in mind. Our other main concern was the light pollution from Tromsø, which you'll see in some of the photos. The lights were so bright it'll reflect off any low clouds in the area to give a bright orange glow, so it is better to head away from the city and the coast where people live.

As we drove along Route 862, we started seeing a green glow that was moving across the sky just above the mountains. We stopped at a pit stop on the 'wrong' side of the road to check, since we had no bloody idea what to look out for. As we waited, the aurora activity kicked off, it started to appear and danced brightly right above our head. Unfortunately, my camera was not set up properly like I thought, it was doing some stupid fancy noisy reduction HDR shit! So the important lesson of the day: Get Your Camera Working!! Fortunately, the aurora was strong enough to be captured by Graham's phone camera, hence the teaser on FB! Woohoooo!! 

We decided to drive further into the island away from Tromsø for a clearer sky. This time, the aurora didn't appear for at least half an hour, so we had time sitting in the car to get my camera settings right! If you have a Panasonic Lumix TZ camera, make sure you know how to properly turn off the automatic settings to freely access the manual mode, cos I clearly didn't! 

We got tired of waiting in the car and decided to just tank it out in the cold. To our luck, the aurora came back even stronger as soon as we did! So here are some better photos, slightly edited to reduce the blur and increase the contrast a little as it is much better in person. The settings are: ISO 1600-3200, ff 2.8-3.5 and ss 4-10s. Also, please use a tripod, the car bonnet really isn't that stable in the billowing arctic wind...

The massive orange cloud is the result of Tromsø light pollution. There are still some very light clouds but it wasn't obstructing the aurora. Love the reflection on the car bonnet.

So much aurora, so much blur, no tripod, still great! 

Facing away from Tromsø in the direction of Ersfjordbotn.

Alright, this was going crazy, the aurora across the entire sky, we could see it connecting the mountains on each end!

Cloud, what are you doing Dolan! At least it wasn't orange.

Proof that we were there and I did take these photos. I mean, who else wants to put up with not-so-good photos when you can just google search?

We wanted to stay out as late as possible to but we decided to head back around 1.30 am as we had another full day and evening ahead of us. We went home very happy that night! ^^

Evening 2:

Knowing that the weather forecast was snow for the entire Tromsø region in the evening, we didn't have much hope to see or photograph any aurora on our guided tour. However, there was also a geomagnetic storm predicted late in the evening (after 12 am) so we decided to go anyway. 

The Aurora Excursion guys, Hans and Hans were very genuine, they said they couldn't promise aurora but will do their best to provide a pleasant evening outdoor, and they did. They also offered a full refund to anyone who didn't want to go last minute, since it was their last week of tour, the weather was not getting better and the nights were getting shorter and brighter. I even looked up the booking to see if they were lying, and they were not! I'm not going into much detail for this trip since we didn't have to do anything but enjoy a lovely winter evening. We were driven to Skibotn, the other place we thought about going the night before. As it is further inland at the bottom of a valley, it can potentially have a slightly different climate to Tromsø and the islands. There was another tour group at our destination, but we were totally better prepared than them in every way! Muahahahaha So yeah, we recommend these guys! Not putting up their good photos, they look too good compared to mine. Lol!

Due to the very strong aurora activity that evening, we were lucky enough to see some aurora peeking through the heavy snow and cloud cover, but for most of the evening it was just a green glow. We even had a short window of absolutely clear sky where you could see the stars, but it didn't happen in that window. :( This is why I rate Clear Sky above Aurora Activity. When you're this far up north in the arctic circle, you can see the aurora with Kp index < 1 (but > 0 of course)!

Probably the best photo of the aurora taken on the day out of all people on the tour. ;p

Most of the aurora was behind the mountain, which was  then quickly covered by snow clouds. :(

This was the most you could see after the first wave, and no more afterwards.

Bonfire was nice, food and marshmallow were nice, Hans would not stop making hot chocolate! XD Skibotn was also nice in the background, city lights didn't affect the aurora much actually.

This was when the sky cleared up entirely, so Graham just lied there in the snow with his warm suit looking out for aurora. He was also sliding down a small hill in the snow since he was warm and couldn't get wet! 

Taken by Hans, it was really nice despite the lack of aurora. I look super tanned and Graham was reflective. Lol! The thermal suits were definitely worth putting on. I was toasty warm all evening. ^^

Their photo of the aurora, better photo but I had the better aurora. ;)

Hope you enjoyed experiencing the aurora vicariously through us. Again, we'd recommend Tromsø to anyone who's interested in seeing the aurora and trying a lot of outdoor activities. We'd love to come back for some Reindeer, Husky, Cruises and Snowmobile experience. Maybe not cross-country skiing, we're a bit too unfit for that, but snowshoeing maybe.

I know I haven't posted anything of Tromsø city itself yet, so I'll put that up in Part III soon after I've edited some more photos. 

Norway Trip - Part I (Tromsø Coastal Driving)

Ok, I had to get this post out ASAP after our trip because all of our family and friends are eager to see the beautiful photos I've taken after seeing Graham's teasers on FB. Part I of this post is about our driving tour around the area, and Part II will be on Aurora hunting and Tromsø City.

First, we visited Tromsø in northern Norway mainly in hope of seeing the Aurora Borealis before the season ended. Why did I decide to pick Tromsø? It is not even on the top 10 destinations if you search for 'Aurora hunting' on Google! I didn't want to fall for those overpriced, potentially overrated tourist traps anyway, so I searched for the most populated cities in the Arctic Circle instead. After some internet research and Google Maps reading, it became more attractive to us as it offered many outdoor and wildlife activities, beautiful and unique landscapes, a good chance of seeing the aurora even with a really low Kp index (< 1), and it is not an overcrowded tourist destination. Here are some information on Tromsø and what it offers.

We hired a car to drive around the islands and fjords for a day, we highly recommend it if you like to drive. Fortunately the weather was good enough for us to have a pleasant and safe drive along the coastal roads during the day, and allowed us to see plenty of aurora in the evening on our own hunting trip. We only drove one day, since it was only a 3-day holiday.

As is my posting style, I'll be explaining the details of our trip with route information on some cutely edited maps. The roads are super windy and there are plenty of pit stops along the way for photo opportunities.

I have to also define what a Fjord is. We were super confused at what we were looking at and were calling everything a fjord, our Norwegian tour guide (not from this part of the trip) had to keep correcting us. Lol! Check out the National Geographic for fjords with nice photos and Wiki for Norwegian geography if you're interested in some extra reading.

A Fjord (inlet) is a long, deep, narrow body of water that reaches far inland, often ends in a U-shaped valley with steep walls of rock on either side. There are lots of rivers, lakes and straits as well, so it's really hard to tell unless you look at the map. Or it'll just be in the name of the town! Lol! 

Before we started, I had to hire some winter walking boots since my leather boots had no tread or insulation whatsoever! We asked the shop assistant and he suggested Sommarøy island as a nice destination. There are two ways to get there, through the mountain pass that cuts across the island of Kvaløya or the longer coastal road. We decided to check out Ersfjordbotn first and taking the mountain pass to Sommarøy first. It was the correct choice, as the mountain pass was more treacherous and was better navigated in daylight than no light at all if we came back late in the afternoon! The coastal drive was a little featureless, just mountains after mountains. Pretty, but boring.

At Ersfjordbotn, there's a little rocky outpost that is still covered in snow, so we walked all the way out to the tip of it. Not sure if it's as accessible when all the ice and snow melts. Be Careful where you step! Follow previous footsteps if possible, or you might end up in a wet rocky foothole!

Ersfjordbotn - this side of the land strip appears to be a boat/yacht harbour. The road ends here and our car is parked all the way back there.

The other side of the strip and around the U-bend valley is where most people live.

Half way there, aiming for the big rock in the far centre right.

Despite the heavy clouds and a glimpse of sunshine, this place looks pretty amazing!

At the rock, it has now been claimed by Captain Squeaky as the first Seal landing!

Finally reached the end, I don't think testing the water was a good idea.

Panorama of Ersfjordbotn! Must be nice to live with such a view!

Just realised how clear the water is even this close to the shore! More super clear, blue water to come!

The drive across the island was quite scary at first; the path is lined by some red light-reflecting sticks and a 1-2 meter pile of snow as your crumple zone. Fortunately, not many people drove at this time of the day, and we got used to the condition quite quickly. Until you have to pull so far off the side that you're just about to fall off the track to let some truck go past...phewwwwww

The next fjord we drove past was frozen halfway up the inlet! Apparently it's quite normal for that to happen, but it was a big deal for us since frozen canals are no longer a thing. :( 

Wonder if people actually just walk across it, maybe with snowshoes, would be so much faster than driving around it.

Can you see the thin line of water where the fjord is no frozen? These red sticks are not  really a good indication of the road, cos they're in the snow!

More panorama of the magnificent view! IMO, this fjord looks nicer than the last one. :p

As we get closer to Sommarøy, a unique mountainous island started to emerge from the background. It piqued Graham's interest when it was only an interesting-shaped peak behind all the other mountains along the coast. Then it turned out to be an awesome mountain island (added by Graham).

Here I present Håja, Graham's favourite landmark from this entire trip, aka. Graham's island!

The bridge to Sommarøy is one-lane only, so you have to wait at each end at the lights to cross. There's a little cafe for refreshment and a Hotel in the first section of the island There's a smaller second bridge that connects to the rest of the island where people live. According to our tour guide, this island is a fish receiving port from fishing boats. It is also a great spot for aurora viewing.

You can walk over this bridge just like most other bridges, but it's so narrow I don't know if it's a good idea...

The Arctic Hotel looks like it has some nice houses and a great view of all the small islands (skerries) in the area. It even has a rockpool/lagoon!

Really shallow water here, would be really nice in summer!

The last leg of the drive was along the bottom of the Kvaløya island. Because it was so boring and relatively more populated that the middle of the island, we decided to do a little detour to a small island of Håkøya between Tromsø and Kvaløya. Again, there's only 1 road in and out of the island and the end of it was big enough for a bus to turn around. We were pretty exhausted by that time and went home for a nap before more driving for an evening of aurora hunting.

Yeah, another bridge! This one is flat though.

This is the large bridge connecting Tromsø and Kvaløya. There's just too much incline on these Norwegian bridges!

Overall, driving allowed us to see a lot of interesting things at our own pace. We were interested in a tour that also takes you on this island, but it was booked out. We didn't see any reindeers despite passing several 'Reindeer crossing' signs. We did see a herd of cross-country skiers preparing for their adventure across the middle of the island though. :p