Raphael Kessler

My most recent trip to Norway was a surprise organised by my wonderful wife. I only knew which country I was going to when we got to the airport. The main objective of the trip was to see the Aurora Borealis or Northern Lights.

Our first stop was to Trondheim. A lovely city with some pretty parts, especially the wooden buildings and cathedral. The view from the fort above the city was also lovely.

From Trondheim, we took a Hurtigruten ship north along the coast towards Tromso. We went through fjords and past some lovely scenery. On our first morning we crossed in to the Arctic Circle and kept heading north.

On the first night on board, an announcement came over the tannoy, that we were able to see the Aurora Borealis from the ship. We were very excited and rushed out (along with most of the other passengers) to see. With the rocking and movement of the ship, it was difficult to get sharp photos, though a few of these hopefully capture what we saw to some extent. It was somewhat blustery and cold, however getting to see the Lights for the first time was a special occasion for both of us. To start with, it was just a faint haze of green, however over the next few hours, it appeared in more defined bands and lines.

En route north, we took an excursion to see the world's largest tidal current at Saltstraumen. The flow of the water between the two sides creates whirlpools and eddies, as the two sides of the narrow passageway try to balance out, before the flow is then reversed.

We docked in Tromso, the largest city in northern Norway. We had a bit of a wander around, it isn't a big place (population 77,000), so got to see much of the town centre in our first afternoon.

In Tromso, my wonderful wife arranged for us to go Aurora Hunting with Creative Vacations. The company consists of a lovely couple Vidar & Silvia, who specialise in providing excursions for photographers looking to see the Aurora Borealis. Vidar collected us and warned us (and the group) that due to the cloudcover that had been in Tromso all day, the chances of seeing something were slight, so if we wanted to cancel, we were welcome to do so. We decided to take a punt, so headed off in the minibus to their home, to get our attire and cameras sorted. As we pulled in to their driveway, Vidar told us that the Lights were visible overhead, so we all got our tripods and cameras ready as quickly as possible and started taking photos of the vivid Aurora overhead. We were privileged to see multi-coloured bands and someone said what was possibly a corona. Whatever it was, it was spectacular to see. It is also possible in a couple of the photos to see the skiers descending down the mountain in the dark, wearing headtorches to see by.

After a little while, the clouds came back, so after some more information regarding the technical aspects of aurora photography, we drove for about two hours west, to Skibotn, which Vidar said generally has a microclimate, so could be cloud free. As we passed the small town, it did not look promising. However, the stars then started to shine through thin cloud and we found a secluded forest trail from which it was possible to see the clouds parting above and the Aurora Borealis in its spleandour, moving and dancing like an erratic, giant, transitory watercolour in the sky. Peculiarly, most of these photos were taken facing south, which is an indication of how active the Aurora was. We were obviously well within the activity area. Cloud cover remained to the north for most of the time we were there, though when it did lift, we also saw nice Lights in that direction too.

From Tromso, we went to the nearby village of Ersfjordbotn. It is some way from the city and so has less light pollution. It was a nice place to relax and unwind for the last days of our trip.

We were lucky to see the Aurora each night we were in Ersfjordbotn. Conveniently, we only needed to walk out on the veranda of our cabin to see it, which was much more civilised.

On the way home, we got to see the Lights once more from the window of the plane. Being above the clouds, it meant that they looked different again. Considering that the objective of the journey had been to see the Northern Lights and to surprise me with all that it involved, it was a great success. We also very much enjoyed meeting some lovely Norwegian people and exploring a bit of Northern Norway.

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The first time I went to Norway was aboard the Queen Mary 2 (QM2) at the time, the largest cruise ship afloat. The cruise left from Southampton and our first stop was in Bergen. En route, whilst at sea, there was a murder aboard the ship, when according to the crew I spoke with, a Philippino carpenter smashed his cousin, a Phillipino electrician around the head several times in the crew mess, before they were separated. The victim was airlifted to the Netherlands, although he apparently died as we was being boarded on to the helicopter. The assailant was kept confined to quarters until we docked back in Southampton where the Hampshire constabulary took him into custody. There was no need for the Belgian with the funny moustache who I saw moping around in his three piece suit. The murder mystery night was cancelled as there was no mystery except why this ship not even two years old yet seems to be so beset with disasters. Many of the crew confided to me that they believed it to be a cursed ship and couldn't wait to get off as soon as possible.

Anyway after that dramatic beginning, we got to Bergen, Norway's second city, through the picturesque fjords. We went for a wander and found the botanical gardens which were pretty. Then we went up a funicular railway to get nice views of the surrounding area from the top of a mountain. From there we walked down, with a bit of cross-country involved. We finally reached the bottom and had slightly achy joints from so much downhill, though it was well worth the walk as we found various pretty and interesting things to see on the way down. Amongst these was a traditionally turf-roofed house. I don't think the folk out to greet us looked like the stereotypical Nordic types, but in actuality, not many of the locals did.

We came across a tree that was reminiscent of a Dali painting. Although not as clear in the photo as in reality, there appeared a monsters face and mouth (which has the beam stuck in it). Much clearer is what looks like a naked woman in the roots, curled up with her back to a larger man. You need to use your imagination slightly.

There is a very old part to Bergen, which is made up of wooden buildings, which are now used to try and separate the tourist from his money.

In Flam we took a train in to the Fjords, it gave us good views of the mountains up close and we stopped briefly at a picturesque waterfall.

We changed trains partway up, which gave us a chance to look at the mountains a bit.

We made our return by tour bus, going along snaking roads, one of which had a number of hairpin bends.

We spent a little while at the Twinde falls, then we left Flam and set off back through the Fjords, accompanied for the first part by a couple of local boats, particularly one speedboat that did laps round the ship, whilst people aboard seemed to be taking photos.

In Aalesund we went for a wander, climbed up the nearby mountain for the views, then got a bus to the nearby islands. It then transpired that the next bus would be too late for us to get to the ship in time, however the bus driver was very helpful and actually drove us in his break to meet another bus, he had contacted by radio, which got us back with lots of time to spare. Nice people.

Throughout the fjords, the skies would change temperament and hue and were dramatic themselves, as well as framing the impressive scenery well. At times we would pass small villages perched on the side of the fjords or just isolated houses and shacks.