Northern Lights Hunt 7-9th March 2019
On Wednesday 6th March we flew out to Tromso in Norway from Gatwick on a 3 day trip to hunt down the Northern Lights. The flight was fantastic in a little over 3 Hours we landed in a very snowy Tromso. After picking up the Hire Car from Hertz it was a small drive to our hotel in the city and out to Bardot restaurant for a bite to eat. Conditions for Thursday 7th were looking very good both in Norway and Sweden where we were headed with a KP3 to KP4 expected and clear skies forecasted in both locations. Having already commited to Abisko we set off nice and early around 9am for the 280km drive South East towards Sweden via roads E6, E8 And E10. The drive was very picturesque with crystal clear blue skies and snow capped mountains and iced aqua waterfalls along the way. We stopped a few times for pictures and spotted Moose and other wildlife. Turning east near Narvik we picked up the E10 which snaked us through the Mountain pass and the border with Norway and Sweden and then onwards to Bjorkliden where we would have our base for the night. Skies were completely clear and all was looking good.Amazing Views Along the Route
Our View from the Room near Abisko (Sweden)
We ate early around 5pm and headed out to shoot the Aurora, hoping we would nail what we came out here for on the first evening. The Aurora started slowly but soon got its act together and we had constant Northern Lights for 4 hours, with a couple of very intense bursts for around 5 minutes each time and one Corona Burst overhead. Here are some of the following pictures I took.
I have around 100 others which I will upload eventually but it really was an incredible event and these pictures do not do it justice just being there watching it is the best feeling ever.We awoke on Friday 8th to snow in the air and forecast of deep cloud cover for the next few days in Sweden so we took the journey back 1 day early to Tromso and retraced our steps from the previous days drive. When we got to the border we could see blue skies to the north so were hopeful for another Aurora this evening but this time near Tromso. Cloud cover was encroaching north from a LP System which had crossed the North Sea a few days earlier so it was a race against time if the skies could remain clear for long enough. I picked a location for tonights shoot about 45km North West of Tromso at a little Village called Skullsfjord and when we got there skies were totally clear overhead and gin clear to the north, one thing that was not looking good was the Aurora forecast which had gone from KP2 to a KP0 and geomagnetic winds dropping below 300km/s. We waited it out for around 3 hours but nothing at all was pictured even on long exposures looking north, cant win em all I suppose and if it was this easy then everybody would be doing this.Saturday was return flight day so we spent the day driving around the Fjords of the Tromso area and looking around Tromso itself. Some of the locations we found were stunning and will be used for future trips. I will put a few pictures up here to end the blog of Tromso and the surrounding Fjords. All in all an amazing trip that I would urge everyone to have a crack at 1 day.
