We are stepping back in time again today, day two of our Egyptian adventure to approximately 2600 BC and the time of the great Pharaoh Sneferu, a 4th Dynasty (Golden Age) Pharaoh who reigned for approximately 24 years and was responsible for building at least 4 pyramids, we were starting with the ‘Bent’ and ‘Red’ Pyramids at Dahshur necropolis.
The ‘Bent Pyramid’ is believed to be an experiment, the 2nd Pyramid built by Sneferu and likely transitional from a design perspective from step, to smooth sided (like the Red Pyramid constructed after), the angle of the top section changed due to visible instability during construction.
It was known in ancient times as ‘The Shinning South Pyramid’, most likely due to the way the sun reflected off the Limestone casing which is still quite intact. Despite being relatively early it was hot, the intense sun amplified by the barren stone surroundings.
Khufu was Sneferu’s son and heir, famous for his construction on the Giza Plateau, these historic monuments which were a precursor to the Giza structures are still nothing short of unbelievable. How on earth……..!
Our lovely guide Ali explained some of the history behind the mammoth structures we explored, both externally and internally, in the case of the Red Pyramid which was extremely hot, cramped, stuffy and mystical. How did they manage to construct such a massive structure, so long ago, with primitive tools, but such perfect work, it certainly gets you thinking!
The drive down to Dashur was as exciting as the previous days travelling, lots of honking horns, close misses, cars turning or getting in the way at the last second it was exciting to say the least. Although a Sunday, the roads were busy and people out and about working as Sunday is a normal day for the Muslim community.
The Red Pyramid is the third largest in Egypt, after Khufu and Khafre at the Giza Plateau, probably the 1st smooth sided pyramid and known locally as el-heram el-watwaat meaning the ‘Bat’ Pyramid. Its location is approximately 1km from the Bent pyramid as seen in the photo above top left. Typically of archaeologists, there is conjecture over the time to construct this massive structure but the suggestion of 10 – 11 years seems to be the most discussed.
We decided to take a look inside! A passage 3ft high and 4ft wide, 61 metres long was hard work in the heat as seen in the middle picture above, it lead to three chambers, the final being the resting place for the original sarcophagus, and seemingly broken up by robbers looking for treasure.
Our next stop was Saqqara, the location of the Pyramid of Djoser, the ‘Step Pyramid’ and close to the 1st capital of the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Memphis. It’s situated on a massive complex or Necropolis, an ancient burial complex which is this case, contains another 16 pyramids in various states of preservation.
Djoser is the oldest known complete stone building complex and was constructed in the 3rd Dynasty (2686 BCE – 2613 BCE, the Bronze Age), a long time ago.
Since our last visit over 20 years ago, a lot more work has been done to both uncover and preserve the ancient monuments and bring the site to life even more. It’s an impressive place to visit and deserves a lot more time to explore the various buildings, nooks and crannies. We had been lucky so far in missing other tourists, but, it was obvious at Saqqara that time was catching up with us as we noticed some coaches, and ‘people’!
Our last stop before returning to the Giza Plateau, our hotel and amazing view of the Pyramids was Memphis or Men-nefer, the capital during the Old Kingdom. There is an open air museum where the history of the city is explained, and many monuments and statues are displayed for all to see, it’s another impressive site for sure.
In the main building by the entrance is a massive (10 metre length), statue of Rameses II, carved out of limestone, it is just stunning and another ‘how the @£$% did they manage to do that, all those years ago’ moment!
It was time to return home, lunch was planned but my other half was back at the hotel suffering with bad knees and had stayed behind to rest them, so we skipped that part of the trip and headed back. We booked this and the Giza Plateau half day tours with GEM Explore Egypt on Tripadvisor, they are a London backed licensed operator and they were extremely good.
It only seems a few days ago that I was in the Northern Hemisphere, Norway, Finland and briefly Sweden, enjoying (massive understatement) the delights of Tromsø, Kilpisjärvi and Sørvågen on Lofoten with its stunning snowbound waterfall, and the fantastic Holmen Lofoten where I had spent an unbelievable few days with some like minded adventurers, having the time of our lives at ‘Kitchen On The Edge Of the World’.
The familiarity of Heathrow Terminal 2 was unmistakable, security had not changed since the previous week, the new high tech scanner lane that does not require liquid visibility, iPad withdrawal and the usual invasive activity was not open, but the officers on charge were polite and efficient, I don’t begrudge the activity to provide an extra layer of security, however mundane and troublesome it may seem.
Unlike my trip the week before, our family flight to Cairo, capital of Egypt was scheduled later in the day, so many of the sustenance outlets, unlike the previous week were open, yipeeeeee! There are the usual high street options, but I really fancied trying Monsier Blutmenthals’ ‘The Perfectionists Café’, so, after the standard perusal of duty free, not really intent on buying anything we headed over to the restaurant, and with no queue were guided to a table immediately.
‘Hestons Gaff’! sits on the same floor as security towards, the front right of the terminal affording a ‘window shopping’ view of goings on, if you are seated in the right place, it’s great for people watching if that’s your thing. The terminal wasn’t manic but, I guess lively would be an apt description, it was 11:45 and I wanted to wait for the 12:00 bell when breakfast became lunch, and the menus changed to include different options. You can just see the location in the top right of the picture above.
Junior opp wasn’t hungry, the boss went for a Cheese Burger, apparently very nice indeed, I was the awkward bugger, so looking closely at the menu I found an interesting selection of ‘Snacks’ nestled away in the bottom right hand corner of the menu, almost hidden, please don’t choose us type of vibe.
That’s for me my brain whispered, I was too excited for a ‘big’ meal but something was telling me to think Tapas, were they, could they, are they.
So, with the waitress expectantly waiting off I went, Flats Breads, Nduja, yes please, Sweet and Sour Chicken Bites, yep, oh, and Blanchbait and Garlic Mayo, erm yes, ohh, mmmmm, Ragu Croquettes sound the business, yep, I think that’s it!
I can only say it hit the spot and I managed most of it, the truth being since I had returned from Norway I had hardly eaten anything at all so I was actually quite hungry, with a 4 hour 50 minute flight, and Ramadan under way so I was not sure what, or when we might get some refreshments, a decent fill was probably a good idea.
Getting onto the plane was ‘interesting’, my wife having some knee issues we usually manage to get some assistance, it’s never asked for as there are other people more ‘needy’ (no pun intended) but when offered, we will usually accept, if nothing else to help ‘human traffic flow’.
For some reason as we got to the plane with the other ‘challenged’ folk, the heavens opened and apparently water was getting into the plane so they decided to close the door! We then had to reverse, essentially being at the back of a queue of several hundred people as we filed to the other side of the plane, had to show our already shown boarding cards and eventually settled down for take off, amusing and frustrating simultaneously.
There is something I find interesting about food on flights, delivered in trays with more accessories than Batman carries in his utility belt this one was actually quite nice, but served hurriedly just over 1 hour 30 minutes before landing, Ramadan seemed to have jinxed the liquid refreshments and no coffee/tea was served, water was available if you pushed the ‘service’ button enough times, my record was 5!
Did I tell you my wife and I LOVE Egypt, I don’t believe so, this was our fourth trip, but the first taking our son, he had asked to go and I was more than happy to book something not having been since about 2003. We have done the usual Cairo/Nile cruise twice, but also the the very quiet Lake Nasser, all the monuments have been chopped into blocks, moved and put back together like a massive puzzle, they are all UNESCO sights, fascinating and if you get the Egypt bug like we have, well worth visiting.
Getting INTO Egypt was a doddle, don’t believe all the tales you hear about customs and visas etc., if you follow the guidance on the forthcoming website to the letter, it’s not difficult. If you browse to Egypt Visa (as of April 2023), fill in the form making sure you copy EXACTLY the details from your passport and pay the fee.
If you make a mistake, you still get charged and have to do it again. I managed 2 out of 3 so had to do my wife’s a second time as I missed a letter! On arrival, if you have done it correctly and got your confirmation email and PDF certificate they have you in their systems, just queue up and show your passport, as of writing its mentions diplomatic and something above the correct queue line, EGYPTIANS ONLY is to the left, and CREW to the right, it took us about 7 minutes to get to the baggage collection hall, result.
We met the local team ‘on the ground’ as they sometimes say, holding big signs and looking expectantly for lost tourists that are in their party, to be transported off to hotels all over Cairo but have actually forgotten who they had booked with, and end up in the wrong bus and at the wrong destination!
Baggage took a while but we soon connected with our driver and 24/7 contact, if we needed anything he was a WhatsApp call away. Off we drove and 45 minutes later, after the maddest ‘whacky races’ you have ever seen, we where at our hotel in Giza, a stones thrown from the majestic Pyramids and the new Museum just over the road, the driving is hilarious if you have not experienced it before, 8-10 lanes and no traffic rules at all.
Our son was in hysterics and so was I, so comforting to be back in Egypt, in Cairo, one of my happy places..And we could see the Pyramids from our Balcony.
I couldn’t sleep, to be honest I was still buzzing from Norway and now had the added emotions of Cairo and Giza to deal with so I ordered some wine on room service and watched the Battle of Narvik which I had downloaded on Netflix to my iPad. I had headphones on so the family could try and sleep. It was a fascinating historical film covering some courageous action during WWII in the Nordics with a whole bunch of countries involved. I finally got to sleep about 03:15!
It was sunny and already 12 degrees when we rose from our slumber, it was going to be nice and warm today. Breakfast was calling and I had booked a private tour to the Giza Plateau, to take the pressure of having to join an big coach with unknown travellers from who knows where, I wanted us to control the pace and make it special for everyone.
Being an (very) eccentric foodie, I don’t travel 2197 miles to another country, with different customs and culture to eat a british fry up, it drives me nuts, I want to try local food, experience what the locals eat, so breakfast was Ful Medames for me, rich, hearty, tasty and nutritious. It’s a bean based dish with ‘toppings’ if you like, Olive Oil, Chopped Onions, Cumin Powder, Chilli Powder and Lemon Juice it was very tasty and served with fresh local bread made the same day, yummy. For dessert! I had some Sesame Seed Halva, and Honey and of course lots of tea!
Ali, our guide and Farouk, our driver had already sent messages early to confirm pickup time and location, it was going to be a great day. We were soon on the Giza Plateau, getting some education about the history and dynamics of an ancient world, steeped in mystery, who, how, exactly when it was fascinating (as always).
I had picked up a book written by Toby Wilkinson, an eminent Egyptologist before we left the UK called ‘The Nile – Travelling Downriver Through Egypts Present and Past’, I have quite a few books on the history of Egypt but this one seemed different, approaches things from a different point of view, and within the first 6 pages I have already learnt so much, it’s a captivating book.
Ali was brilliant, asking our son (and the rest of us), questions about all things Giza Pyramids and it drew our son into the mystery even more, he loved it, fantastic I thought.
This afternoon is relax time, well for the rest of the family, I have been writing this post and thinking back across the last 24 hours and the adventure that stands before us. Tomorrow we are with Ali and Farouk again, off to Saqqara and Memphis, to see some older structures. More about that another day.
It was the start of a new day. I have this problem, had it for years and not yet found a way to solve it, sleep, I can’t, it takes me hours, i have an overactive brain, could be ADHD I have been told but when I was a youngster such things didn’t exist, or at least had not been discovered.
I was watching the light show at 02:00 the previous evening and had managed to get some light rest but I was excited, it was a new day and we had a lot happening on our first full day at Kitchen On the Edge Of the World.
As we settled down to breakfast there was a lot of discussion about the previous evenings light show, which was amazing. The breakfast menu at Holmen provides some recognisable options including local Bacon and Eggs and some more local delights such as Waffles with Brunost, the local Goats Cheese Whey that is boiled down to provide a brown Cheese which is both sweet and savoury, it’s extremely nice, especially when served with Gooseberry Jam, Sour Cream and berries. It was my intention to avoid anything that looked ‘british’ and experience the Norwegian way as much as possible.
Richard Bertinet is a friend of mine, I hope he doesn’t mind me saying as I actually haven’t been to his cookery school since before Covid, but having met him 10 times prior we know each other enough to joke with each other and play tomfoolery! My 1st session of the day is with some other guests and Richard, learning (in my case re-learning) how to make bread the traditional way, it takes a lot of effort to really do it properly.
I won’t describe the method, get his book(s) or go on one of his awesome courses at his Bath Cookery School. It was great fun, he is a brilliant Teacher and everyone had great fun trying to master the process of getting air into the dough mix, Flour, Salt, Yeast and Water, nothing more, nothing less the results are yummy.
Imagine the picture above was your classroom, it was a stunning location, a tad cold but we had gas heaters providing enough warmth to not feel cold or hot, so just right for working our dough. Once we completed the dough making session we went into the main kitchen were there is a wood fired oven, some previously prepared dough had risen and was ready for shaping and baking, which is exactly what we did next. Fougasse all sorts of different forms as well as a flat bread, smothered in garlic butter one of the Holmen chefs had prepared for us, the results were crunchy, fluffy, garlicky, buttery and delicious. We made enough to go with the lunch that was to follow later.
The next session was all about Cod, and more importantly how to make the most of this regal and majestic beast of a fish, one of my favourites when not overcooked to destruction! With the help of the lovely and extremely hospitable Holmen owner Ingunn, our chef Val Warner took us through the process of breaking down the fish to extract as many different parts as possible, explaining their use in a number of different dishes, it was really enlightening to see how much is unnecessarily wasted, which is tragic considering how much can actually be used.
Let’s go Arctic fishing, hell yes….. After lunch we had our fishing trip and after making sure we had enough warm layers on, we donned flotation suits which also acted as an insulating layer, and set off in metal ribs out into the cold (very), to see if the sea was going to provide us with some jewels in the form of fish. Our skipper Daniel was young but well travelled and experienced using a sonar to try and find elusive shoals of fish.
After some searching we found an couple of spots and the bites started, I fish in the UK, but have not managed a trip for some time, my fishing budding being of an age now where its just not possible for him to venture out onto the sea, the delight in getting a rod tip bending was the start of a few hours of cold weather sea fishing the likes I had never experienced before. In the end my tally was 5 Coley, they all went back into the sea for another day, it was a thoroughly enjoyable, but a very cold experience.
Nick Strangeway is a God, the master of drinks both alcoholic and non-alcoholic. His knowledge is beyond reproach and we were going to be treated to a masterclass, all about Punch and Cocktails, it was absolutely fascinating and delivered with some comedy and amusement we all laughed as he provided some accurately corrected history about how drinks had developed from time immemorial. Nick was to provide us with treats during various meals over the days, they have all been glorious so far with unique blends and flavours to tickle all taste buds.
It was Ricks night to delight food wise, and boy did that happen the food was so delicious, subtle, punchy, flavourful I will say no more other than having eaten as his Seafood Restaurant, St Petrocs Bistro and attended a 2 day Seafood Class at his Cookery School he can still cook the most tasty food, it was sublime. As the night before we were treated to some more of natures fireworks and this particular shot of the mountain ‘on-fire’ is one of my favourite. Thanks Rick for bringing seafood to the attention of the British public all those years ago, and being such a lovely bloke, joining in the conversation, signing stuff and providing such lovely stories which will remain forever at Holmen 🙂
I have been up since 04:45, yesterday was busy but not so much that I didn’t have a chance to post the story on The Northern Lights Chase, which actually took over 3 hour to compose, blogging isn’t easy, believe me! I got up at a sensible hour after landing in my pit at after 02:15, the chase had been cold, exhilarating and mesmerising all at the same time, the results were worth it and I guess that’s another bucket list item done. The different colours that you saw in the pictures are based on what gases are in the high atmosphere that charges particles from the sun energy, just like how a florescent tube works, different gases create different colours.
Science lesson over, today is going to be a bit more relaxing due to last night. I had planned a couple of museums but my back starts to really create if I overwork it, so I postponed one visit to the next time I am here, hopefully with the family and we can all enjoy Tromsø together. In fact as I sit in Bodø airport waiting for my plane to Leknes (Lofoten Islands) on Thursday, exactly that happened today, my back started to moan at me so I had breakfast at a local artisan establishment, visited the aircraft museum and then back to the airport to relax and be creative, well as much as I can!
I would describe Full Steam as ‘quirky’, in that it serves as a local museum of Sami culture and history, Whaling, and various maritime subjects covering the great wars and also the development of the early fishing industry to today, it’s actually fascinating. The fun part is that I had lunch first, more of that in a minute, I mentioned the museum, the staff added the cost to the bill and almost like Mr Ben, took me behind the bar to a curtain on the right and directed me up the stairs!
I was so relieved, almost to the point of having the sweats which then dissipated in seconds! I had picked Full Steam for one reason…….Whale. It was on a previous menu that I had seen and I was mentally torn as to the morality of eating such animals, luckily it wasn’t on the menu so I opted for the Reindeer Stew instead. Hey, before you start saying that is just as bad, Reindeer in Norway (and Finland) is no different to Beef in the UK, except they are treated better, not locked away in cages for months because of the cold, and they are typically organic and not fed artificial feed to ‘beef’ them up. I have since discovered it’s an evening starter option!
Jeez it was really good, the Reindeer Stew, served with an ultra smooth pomme purée (mash), and some lingonberries it was tasty, filling and certainly hit the spot. I had a nice glass of Tomassi Ripasso to accompany and finished with a typically excellent Latte.
The restaurant is quirky, but with it comes charm and character as the building is old, and filled with all sorts of memorabilia and ‘nick naks’ to add some ancient atmosphere. I paid for the food, which is extremely reasonable and also the ticket for the museum and was shown to the door behind the bar, and up 3 flights off stairs to the starting block.
The museum/exhibition is on several levels, sort of open plan and showing Sami life as it was a long time ago through a combination of exhibits, pictures, stories and objects used in everyday life, some would say it was like an antique jumble sale but that would not be fair, a lot of trouble has gone into creating a natural time-line, taking you through the ages covering different aspects of life.
It was fascinating to wander round and soak in the daily life of Sami People, not those herding the Reindeer which is what a lot of them do. We met some in Finish Lapland many years, this covered the other aspects of Sami life, fisherman, farmers etc. it was really educational and not something I was familiar with.
The collection is huge and must have taken years to collect, order and work out how best to present to a multinational customer base, visitors from all over the world visit Tromsø. I heard accents from the UK, US, Germany and Japan and I suspect some people miss this really important record of history. It took me about 2 hours to cover the 2 or 3 floors and soak in the plethora of objects and mass of historic record.
Tonight’s ‘last night supper’, was to be at Emmas Drømmekjøkken (dream kitchen). It was one of the places I had researched and decided I wanted to experience, it looked pretty good and they did tasting menus, I pre-ordered the 7 course option which is, in fact 10 dishes, and a matching wine flight to accompany what I hoped would be a fantastic dinner, it was beyond all expectations, and some.
So, I asked not to see the menu up front (the lovely Ukrainian waitress asked me), I wanted surprise and wonderment (I think that geezer Heston Bluthmenthal uses that word). I certainly got both in buckets, what a stunning, delicious, tasty, thoughtful, inspiring menu. Its easier to show you the menu, they gave me a copy after, along with a description of the cheese course.
The little cheese course was really good, a small selection of quite young cheese, each with their own character. The marmalade was carrot and worked really well indeed.
The wine flight produced some very interesting, unusual and well matched wines for each course and then measures were generous enough to have some left over after each dish to savour before the next course.
I have to say I have eaten in a fair few restaurants in my years, up to 2 Michelin Star, boutique, a variety of cuisines and this was the best meal I have ever had, particularly mind-blowing good, was the Cod and Mussels, the cook was off the planet awesome and will stick in my mind for ever. There were 3 waitresses that took it in turns to serve both food and wine, describing each dish with clarity and passion. I love good food, this was beyond exceptional and deserves being recognised as such. If you ever visit Tromsø take some extra cash and treat yourself, you will be glad you did.
Jeez, what an adventure and its only day 2! Monday had been tiring but what a blast, and the best is yet to come. I was quite particular when choosing the hotel as there are quite a few to choose from, but I wanted a harbour and Fjellheisen view and boy, what a view it is when it stops snowing! Seriously though the hotel is perfectly located, very comfortable and clean, easy going and not fussy, the room size is great and the bed very comfortable, important as I usually have big problems with my sleep, I often can’t…..I have an overactive brain…..it doesn’t stop thinking…..
Ok, so I have a thing about Trolls, no, not the annoying dangerous internet ones, the mythical, no, they are real aren’t they? Yes, Trolls in my mind are ancient but did exist in some form, bathed in mysticism and ancient lore they first came into my imagination as a child 50 odd years ago when hearing “In The Hall of The Mountain King”, a piece of music composed by Edvard Grieg in 1875, incidental music for a play, the sixth scene of Act 2 in Henrik Ibsen’s 1867 play Peer Gynt. I can still recall the sounds of the old heavy doors closing as young Peer runs out to the mountain with his tail between his legs so to speak. It was a track on a record, yes vinyl, those circular black disks that needed a needle, turntable and amplifier, those were the days!
My musical influences have changes significantly since then and as I write this I am listening to the rock group ‘Yes” in particular their song ‘Awaken’ from the Album ‘Going for the One’, which is very apt for what happened last night, but more of that later.
It’s Jules the Troll. 🙂 The Troll Museum in Tromsø is a very clever museum as it caters for all ages, even us old gits. They have managed to include enough historical content to make it really interesting for the older generation, whilst making it fun for the youngest of children, playrooms allow interaction whilst numerous tablet pc’s spread around the exhibits really bring things to life in a fun sort of way. You have to enter open minded and imagine Trolls existence in some form and if you do, go SLOWLY around each exhibit as there is a lot of information available to the inquisitive.
The clever use of VR really does make a difference with Trolls popping out all over the place, this particular one is actually helping you work out where the troll is on the map, which was both interesting and fun at the same time. If you have children they should love it, especially if you have included the subject prior to your trip and maybe done some research about the history, or watched the odd Troll film as I have done recently. Anyway, it’s great fun and a good way to spend an hour or so out of the blizzard and freezing weather outside.
After a trip to the local tourist office to get a map I was desperate for a good coffee, and with a few minutes wandering around the beautiful streets, hardly a recognisable brand in sight which for me was awesome, I discovered Tøllefsenhjørnet, a coffee and wine café so entered and got myself a most beautiful Latte. Not in a posh cup with bells and whistles, just simply presented in a glass on a paper mat, jeez it was good, really good, I went for a double and it really hit the spot nicely.
Tromsø is beautiful, almost unspoilt by western brands I have only noticed a BK (you know the burger thing) and a Hard Rock Cafe in my wandering so far. There are lots of shops with character and individuality no two looking the same, it’s not dissimilar to when I visit some regions of France, keeping local and supporting small businesses. Yes, it probably costs a bit more but you are directly supporting the local community, local people, local families which I suspect makes for a much stronger feeling of belonging and connection.
Sorry, off my soapbox and it’s time for lunch no less. I had booked Bardus last year, months ago having trawled various platforms looking for recommendations, checking menus etc. to ensure that I stood a chance of eating well, I am fussy, I like good food, I hate paying for something I can cook better myself, cooking is my serious hobby so I am sure you can understand I am not being awkward, well not much.
My waitress was a lovely Portuguese lass who obviously knew her trade, well she was a delight. I had picked Bardus for one reason only; Cod Tongues….! Yep, that little known delicacy unless you recently watched well known Swedish Chef Nikolas Ekstedt on YouTube, cooking them on………. guess where…….. my final destination………Lofoten Islands.
We discussed options at the bistro, I wanted the cod tongues but they also hands an unusual (for me) special on, Rose Fish! It’s red and ugly but beneath its lurid Outer layer is a delicate white flesh, I was convinced and so I got a starter portion of Tongue and the main of Rose Fish with a variety of additions to tempt the palate, which they did admirably!
Wine, it would be rude not too as I was on a vacation so the recommendation was a Portuguese Alvarinho, apparently my new friend/waitress got her mum really drunk in Portugal one year on this stuff, so at least I know it has some alcohol in it, it worked a treat and matched very well.
I am not normally a dessert person being diabetic but i manage to control it well so can treat myself from time to time, this was it for today as there was to be no posh meal in the evening, a Chocolate Fondant with matching dessert wine was ordered and damn good it was too. If you fancy a decent lunch, try Bardus, it has a slightly funky relaxed vibe and the food and service was excellent. The wine grapes in the dessert wine are often used to make ‘orange wine’ where the skins are left on after pressing. It was sweet, spicy and slightly apple flavoured but worked surprisingly well with the oozy Chocolate Fondant, which was cooked perfectly.
I wandered back to my hotel and started to compose, if I don’t write my blogs up I forget the nuances and character I am trying to re-create. Surprisingly it was snowing (again) heavily, the phone popped, it was Markus from Greenlander Tromsø the Northern Lights people………bugger… I had come all this way and hoped it wasn’t a cancel message! Phew, nope, he wanted us all to meet earlier at 17:30 as the weather in Finland looked good, wait, we are in Norway!
There was a small group of suspicious Northern Lights chasing types outside our rendezvous, the Scandic Ishavshotel, a stones throw, or may be that should be a medium snowball distance from my gaff the aptly named Hotel Aurora. They were sort of mingling, it was difficult to see if there were couples, groups, singletons but as promised, just before 17:30 two ‘hunting’ vehicles appeared before us and two smiley types popped out and started to behave like guides! The groups made a beeline for the guides and before we knew it, we were assigned our vehicle and fellow hunters for the evening, a brief explanation and off we went into the sunset…. Nope sorry I should have said blizzard as it was snowing extremely hard again!
Matteo was a really cool guide, had a sense of humour and was well travelled. He explained to us the number one, rule for chasing the Northern Lights, clear weather and tonight Finland is the best option. So any of you that know the area (HaHa) the roads are at best, variable. I am not saying they are not good, but when you are forced to use snow tyres and its on/off blizzard conditions, the snow ploughs are tanking the E6/E8 trying to keep things moving and many of the roads are not lit you know this journey won’t be easy or quick!
So after about 1.5 hours we stopped for a fuel and 10 minute rest break to stretch legs, pee, catch a coffee or whatever was available at a garage much more sophisticated that any uk effort as you may see in the picture above, there was a lot on offer if you fancied ‘wiener’, kebab, or burger! The journey had only just begun but we were ‘following the weather’ as Matteo had told us. I was sitting next to Michele, a 3rd year medical student who had travelled from Hong Kong for a 3 week tour of Europe, we had a good chat about medicine, what she was going to specialise in (ophthalmology) and the fact she had done this the night before and since a glimpse of something, that was actually more than a glimpse, so tonight might be ok! Don’t believe the figure of 2 hr 18min above, it took about 3.5 hours to get to our final destination.
We crossed the border into Finland……….it’s a long way in blizzards, roads with no lights, snow tyres, the weather continued to look rather unpleasant and all off a sudden we pulled over, Matteo jumped out and proclaimed it’s starting, then a coach pulled up and we moved off, to a ‘secret location’ that now isn’t if you grab the co-ord’s above, I had my GPS on, my watch and phone recording when I took pictures you can see we were on a lake pretty much. The white line is the Swedish border and yes, we crossed over a frozen river too into Sweden, how adventurous.
Who has seen the film twister, seriously now, they look for tell-tale signs something is going to happen, then race in convoys to see who can get their first and record stuff, take pictures, get that amazing bit of kit into the eye so they can capture measurements. Yep, they was us last night. The human eye cannot really see Aurora, it needs a camera, approximately 15-20 seconds exposure, the right aperture, look closely and towards the lower mid right above you can see a slight green fog, to the eye in real life its like a grey mist.
All of sudden it seemed to ‘switch-on’ a bit more, and more, and more, and more. We had decamped onto the lake, donned our arctic suits and started to look skyward and see dancing patterns slowly emerging. Our guide set his Canon EoS 5D camera up, a quality piece of kit, tripod stuck in the snow and started to take some shots of us all, and helped us set our own cameras, those that had bought them along on the extra tripods we had elected Greenlander to provide, it helped a lot. It was -11 on the lake, very cold and the car had its heater running so we had the chance to warm up occasionally, if it got too much!
After about 30 minutes time melted into nothing, we were all looking skyward in awe, moving around to try and get different angles, views, colour bursts which the naked eye couldn’t see, but cameras could. I used my Leica D-Lux 7 to good effect early on and later moved to my iPhone Pro Max, which was surprisingly excellent being easier to manage in the freezing cold, despite having arctic gloves on!
Matteo lit up a fire in a metal open framed pit at some point and small seats were arranged in a circle so we could enjoy the warmth of the embers. Hot delicious carrot soup was passed around in individual thermos flasks along with some seed crackers, a bottle of Tabasco doing the rounds was soon empty. One of the group had acclimatised earlier by eating 2 ice-creams on the way up which didn’t work at all but was a cause of laughter and amusement. It was someone’s birthday and a small marble cake appeared with a candle on it, we all sang happy birthday, the cake passed around and we all were part of a nice touch, for a very special moment.
By the time we got back to Tromsø it was 02:15, we had set out at 17:30, these guys are more than dedicated, they do this every night in season and based on last night, they are the best, committed, we WILL find the Aurora, over 6 hours driving in the worst of conditions, like Ice Road Truckers with an added blizzard for good measure. I woke up at 08:00 and shortly after a message from Matteo with a link to the pictures he took for us, awesome.
