Author: admin

Our first full day here at the lodge started off with a delightful breakfast, a farewell to our new Hong Kong friends and a day ahead of not being sure what to do.

Michael, our host, organised for his neighbour to take us on a horse ride through the valley which was for mid-afternoon. In the morning, we had a nap (we were up late with the lights the previous night) and then went into Alta to get some cash and a coffee.

We arrived at the horse stables at 2pm and were greeted by a super nice family who have lived here for all their lives. The owner, Vigor, introduced us to his family and his horses – a mix of Fjord Horses (special breed of horses) and more typical horses we’d see at home. We got a full tour of the farm, where they do grains, sheep and a whole bunch of other stuff – was really, really cool to see true locals doing what they do.

So – horse riding. Imagine the movie City Slickers and that was pretty much us. Had difficulty just getting onto the bloody horses! The people were super nice though and didn’t make us feel silly – we had that covered!

Off we went for about 90 minutes through the valley, crossed a couple of streams and had a great history lesson from Vigor about how things have changed and how some things have stayed the same. He was an American car fanatic (he’s also a mechanic) and he was very interested when he learnt we were from the home town of Holden which he knew all about. We also spoke about the Lights experience from the night before and even Vigor said it was something highly unusual – he said in his 65 years of watching them, he’d only seen them that spectacular once before… so you know it was a good one when you hear something like that!

The horses were very docile, friendly beasts to us. Soph’s was a bit wilful and stopped to eat whatever grass she could get near, but there were zero issues and it was amazing to be out in the wilderness on the back of a horse. On the way back, we got into a canter in the fields which was absolutely hilarious as two city idiots tried to use Norwegian words to bring the horses back under control. 

Just an amazing time and a huge highlight of the trip.

Back to the lodge for dinner and hopefully another Northern Lights show. I was out in the cold checking every 15 minutes and not seeing anything. After a great 3hr chat with Michael, we decided we’d just go and take photos of the stars. And what do you know… at 11:45pm out of nowhere we had another, possibly even more full-on spectacle. The great part is – it was just Soph & I and the lights. We tried for photos, but really it’s the memories that matter.

   
    
    
    
    
    
    
    
   

Today started off with the best, and I don’t say this lightly, buffet breakfast we’ve ever had. And for Glen in particular, that’s a big call as i do consider myself a bit of a consissuer of hotel’s buffets. You name it, they had it. Breakfast small meats were there of course, but have you seen not one, but two types of salmon available? Custom smoothies? Soft boiled eggs (as well as scrambled and fried)? You name it, they had it – it was just incredible. Well done The Grand Hotel, Oslo – you made up for your poor attempt at providing wifi.

I’ll skip the boring bit where with the air travel as that was smooth as silk – but this part of the trip is where it gets super interesting, at least to us. This is where we’re hoping above all that mother nature is kind to us and puts on a light show in the form of the Northern Lights.  We’ve done everything we can to see them, we’ve come at the right time of year,  and to the place where the most lights are seen anywhere in the world – Alta, Norway. A very northern town 1.5hr flight from Oslo.

The place we’re staying is a forest lodge 25 minutes out of Alta. To get to it, you go through 2 tunnels, pass an enormous fjord, go off road for 4km and go over 3 wooden bridges. It truly is in the middle of nowhere. It’s also cute as a button.

Michael, the host, is an ex-Irishman who has spent many years in Sweden and now  Norway. He makes dinner and breakfast for the guests – of which at this time of year, there aren’t many. Last night it was just us ana Hong Kong couple. Michael is very obliging so he’s leant me his tripod, head lamp and a  map. 

After a delicious homecooked dinner,  I was super anxious to get outside and check if the lights were out. Ahead of schedule, they were out around 20:40 and we were on the viewing platform in a flash. And what a site it was – like nothing we’d ever seen before or likely to again.

My best explanation is as follows: it starts off with a light glow in the night sky, white which turns a hint of green as time goes on. Then in another part of the sky, a brighter light begins which then starts to move across the sky. Last night, which is very unusual apparently, it swept from one side of the sky to the other in one continuous band of light right over our heads. Similar to a laser light show mixed with a smoke machine, the lights literally dance up and down, fade from one colour into the next and almost wave to you with a “hey down there!”. Also what was unusual was the pinks and reds mixed into the colour wheel – just incredible!

It’s impossible to photograph as the lights move constantly and therefore blur with the 25 second exposure, but with the naked eye, the colours are a lot more separate and well defined. 

Anyway, on with the photos that do it no justice whatsoever, but it’s a nice momento if nothing else.

 

 
 

  

  

 

 

  

  

  

  

  

 
We’re obviously hoping for more the next two nights, and now with a night of experimentation done with the camera, hopefully we can get some more great shots!

But even if we don’t – it’s seriously a bucket list item checked off. Both of us feel super lucky and fortunate to not only be here for a night when it’s so amazing, but that we can in fact do this kind of thing in general. 

Bit of a traveling day today… We dropped the car off, had a couple of hour wait at Reykjavik airport and somehow we had premium economy seats on our way to Oslo, Norway. Plenty of legroom, free meal + extra seat – it’s no business class but it was pretty nice!

Oslo and their airport have their shit together. By the time we reached the bag carousel, our bags were just coming out and we were on our way. Again – no passport required and we even stopped at an information booth to ensure we weren’t doing anything wrong. More importantly, no stamps in our passports! We look like amateurs with a pretty much empty passport!

The train from the airport into Oslo Central Station is super nice, super quick and runs every 10 minutes. That’s public transport done well. No ticket needed, just swipe your credit card at the turnstyle and you’re through – that’s it!

We didn’t have much time in Oslo, but our hotel is rather ritzy which is a nice change. We dumped our stuff and went for an explore through the city. Found a cute restaurant for dinner where they serve local, organic beers. So you’ve heard Oslo is expensive? You heard right. My 500ml beer was $21. There was one beer on the list for $42 for 500ml. My salmon dish was $41 which was one of the cheaper items! And this was at a place considered good value… Both our meals (Soph had an organic barley veggie risotto) were delicious so we couldn’t really complain.

Afterwards, we stopped in at a craft beer bar. This is turning into a bit of a beer tour, but they can’t really grow grapes in this part of the world so beer is massive and all the cool places do beer really well. They had hundreds (no exaggeration) of craft beers available. They even have a short novel-sized booklet that explains what each beer is, where it’s from etc. Sadly/understandably it’s all in Norwegian, but the idea is stellar. Heaps of people were here, all locals from the conversations we heard, so we kicked back, enjoyed our $20 drinks and had a couple of rounds.