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Day 19-20: Tromvik Lodge

We arrived in Tromsø a little groggy, but the excitement of a country lodge, the northern lights and meet ups with Umz, Niklas, Jenny and Issy took over. An hour of confusion trying to work out our car hire arrangement allowed us to meet Jenny and Issy’s incoming flight, and we all set off together towards the lodge in a sexual new Volkswagen Golf diesel.

"Just like a Golf"

The lodge is in Tromvik, a very small coastal town about an hour drive west of Tromsø. The journey out gave us equal doses of bewilderment, joy and stress as we battled between dodgy directions, an unfamiliar gearbox on the wrong side and some slippery icy roads. It was hard to worry though, as we drove through some stunning mountain scenery, under the longest and most beautiful sunset we’d ever seen. The region is so far north that we only had 3-4 hours of daylight per day - all of it in a beautiful red/pink glow.

We arrived at the lodge under a pink twilight, thrilled at what was to come over the next 2 days. In the end, we found the most difficult part of the trip was trying to get the car, ourselves and our heavy luggage up a completely iced over driveway. We made it up - the car did not, our Australian brains in a panic as we slid back down the slope on our first attempt, brakes ineffective.

It was getting late, so we headed back in to shop for food and supplies and pick up Umz and Niklas from the airport. Driving back under darkness at 2.30pm was surreal and exciting, as we shot hopeful glances at the sky in anticipation of our first chance of seeing the Aurora Borealis.

As expected, the menacement began early, as we blasted music, downed some “cheap” (AU$30 for 6) beers and fired up the sauna and outdoor Jacuzzi.

We had been watching out for the lights on this website - http://virtualtromso.no/en/northern-lights/138-live-northern-lights-activity-and-forecast.html - the graphs give an idea of activity. 

High activity over a later night

Despite a steady flat line early, the more hopeful souls were found on the balcony in jackets, looking skyward for any sight of the mystical green we were here to see.

It happened around 9:30. Tal and Umz spotted the faintest touch of green, so faint we had to confirm on the camera whether it was real.

First confirmed photo

Everyone came out on to the icy balcony, celebrating our early success with a bout of primal yelling and dancing in horned viking hats. 

Still, while the bucket list was ticked, it wasn’t *that* impressive. 

Yet.

The show that followed in the next half hour was something that none of us will ever forget. Two huge sheets of billowing green light started at each horizon and met in the centre, shockingly bright and clear, moving silently across the sky like smoke. This is what we were here for. We made it!

From that point we were hooked, and made quick plans to meet with Coppo’s uni friend (a local) Jon to head to a more remote spot and keep photographing. We headed in a small convoy to a nearby beach to catch the lights coming in over the sea in the North.

There seems to be two types of Aurora, the bright sheets that we’d experienced earlier, and a more faint but even glow of green that sits in the north of the sky. We had most of the latter for the rest of the night, which was less impressive in person, but made for some fantastic landscapes.

After some cloud cover rolled in, we returned to the lodge late and satisfied.

We jumped in the Jacuzzi and cracked a bottle of Moet in celebration of our beginner’s luck. To our disbelief, the clouds cleared and the lights turned on again.

In spite of the biting cold, this Kodak moment was not to be missed, with Tal jumping inside to grab camera gear for a quick snap of this ridiculous moment. We made it!

The Jacuzzi’s heat wasn’t able to last in the cold air as we moved onward to the Sauna and some more beer before collapsing late to bed.

We woke up hungover to solid cloud cover and a bleak forecast for the rest of the day. Tal made a few quick edits on the laptop and posted our Jacuzzi photo to Reddit, hoping for a few supportive comments and upvotes.

What happened next was crazy, as we ascended to the top of the front page for 3 hours, raking in over 30 thousand upvotes (reddit’s version of a ‘like’) and 1.6 million views.

Internet Famous

In the pandemonium, we were contacted by a local news site NRK and ended up in a news article based around the image. 

We also had a local redditor from Tromsø invite us out for some beers, which we planned to take up after we headed back from the lodge.

Despite a fun night of drinking games and more viking helmet action, we found ourselves by the end of the night in heartbreak as we missed one of the most ‘active’ nights of Aurora for the year under a relentless downpour of sideways rain.

Sitting, waiting, wishing

We woke late under more clouds and somehow it was already time to leave, packing up and heading back into Tromsø to stay in a hotel for the remainder of the stay.

Having heard countless stories of disappointed tourists missing out, especially during this wet European winter, we couldn’t be happier with our luck in seeing a full show of the lights on our first night out. We returned back to town humbled but desperate for more as we looked forward to another 3 nights of chasing nature’s beauty.