Day two in Tromso and some clouds rolled in. We were worried that our second night of Chasing the Lights would be impacted. But one of the reasons that we came to Tromso and signed up for these night chases is that the tour folks will drive you all the way to Finland if they have to in order to find a break in the clouds. So passports in hand, just in case, we hauled our tired asses back on that bus and kept hope alive.
Our tour guides for the night reassured us. Apparently low clouds are bad for aurora viewing. Middle clouds are a bit of a deterrent, but high clouds don't tend to cause any problems and that's what the majority of the forecasted clouds were. So off we went.
And before we were hardly out of town, at just 6:30P we all poured out of the bus to see our first little show of the evening. A very encouraging start. And off we went again to find more darkness.
We settled in on a nice beach with a lighted bridge in the distance and waited. The clouds actually cleared so it turned into a sparkling sky. There were little shows from time to time. And while we realize that some people travel all this way and don't even see that much, we tried not to be too whiny. There were even some little bioluminescent organisms in the water that would shine bright when the waves hit the sand that were trying hard to appease/impress us in the absence of stunning aurora displays.
Then when we settled in to have dinner, soups bowls in hand, just about 10:30P again like the first night, things got exciting and the reflections of the lights on the water just added to the drama:
All pretty damn impressive. We were all pretty happy. Then things calmed down and we just sat around the fire kind of waiting for the guides to pack up so we could go home and sleep. And then all of a sudden all living hell broke loose. I wish I had pictures to capture it. But it happened so fast and it was all right up above us across the whole freaking sky that I can only hope that the one guide managed to capture some video to send to us.
It was like fireworks exploding. Or even better watch this video at the 3:07 mark and imagine this kind of drama in colors in the sky above you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5SxEkRkkOU
(watch the whole video sometime because she is an amazing artist but that little bit for sure)
We were all just spinning in circles saying "look there". "no over there". "omg right above your head." Even the guides were going crazy. It was insanely impressive. Tears come to my eyes right now just writing about it.
Yup. We're so lucky.
Our tour guides for the night reassured us. Apparently low clouds are bad for aurora viewing. Middle clouds are a bit of a deterrent, but high clouds don't tend to cause any problems and that's what the majority of the forecasted clouds were. So off we went.
And before we were hardly out of town, at just 6:30P we all poured out of the bus to see our first little show of the evening. A very encouraging start. And off we went again to find more darkness.
We settled in on a nice beach with a lighted bridge in the distance and waited. The clouds actually cleared so it turned into a sparkling sky. There were little shows from time to time. And while we realize that some people travel all this way and don't even see that much, we tried not to be too whiny. There were even some little bioluminescent organisms in the water that would shine bright when the waves hit the sand that were trying hard to appease/impress us in the absence of stunning aurora displays.
Then when we settled in to have dinner, soups bowls in hand, just about 10:30P again like the first night, things got exciting and the reflections of the lights on the water just added to the drama:
There were even some purple colors showing up:
And crazy displays like this:
It was like fireworks exploding. Or even better watch this video at the 3:07 mark and imagine this kind of drama in colors in the sky above you: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=c5SxEkRkkOU
(watch the whole video sometime because she is an amazing artist but that little bit for sure)
We were all just spinning in circles saying "look there". "no over there". "omg right above your head." Even the guides were going crazy. It was insanely impressive. Tears come to my eyes right now just writing about it.
Yup. We're so lucky.
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