CFT Northern Lights - Kirkenes

Tuesday 13 March

We rolled and thumped all night, almost leaving the bed sometimes. At 3am I began getting bored with the motion and had to get up for half a cracker and drink of water to settle my tum. We docked at Vardo for a short delivery stop but it gave me time to get back to sleep in still water.

The next thing I knew - it was 6am the water was calmer and I was hungry! I had lasted the whole night with no sea sickness and no medication. This is a first ever for me!

Breakfast was delicious and I could actually eat it. We crossed slightly rougher water before berthing at Kirkenes.

A bus to our hotel and we all enjoyed lunch there then split into two groups. Our group went for a tour of Kirkenes in absolute white out conditions for much of it. The snow here is really heavy and everything is covered in a thick white doona. The locals just get on with life with their various forms of transport - the "sparke" (a snow foot scooter), dog sleds, cars/buses etc (that travel slowly and carefully and don't brake), spikes on shoes, snowmobiles, snowshoes, cross country skis - and all as a normal manner of transport.

One of the places we were taken was 15km away to the Russian border with strict instructions not to even put a toe across in jest.

After the tour we drove to the Snow Hotel where those going snowmobiling could be dropped off. It turned out that Barbara and I were the only ones from our group that did not go. Instead we had a long talk with Michael, our guide, about all sorts of differences between cultures and life styles.

Back to the hotel and dinner then at 9pm we were collected by Michael and another bus driver to go northern lights hunting. We drove some distance north west and bingo, the sky was clear and the lights were there with thousands of stars. Like many things, photos just don't do them justice, especially as I took my photos on normal settings.

The arc of lights stretched from east to west across the sky. They were pale and greenish, like vertical clouds that formed a slow procession and changed form as they moved.

Photo courtesy CFT

The snow clouds began to roll in to hide the lights so we all boarded the bus for home, ecstatic with the outcome of the night. We fell into bed at about midnight.