The original winter wonderland – Tromso

Sunset at noon flying into Tromso

Early start to the airport (with correct train tickets purchased) and I awake after a brief nap on the plane to what looks like icebergs floating as far as the eye can see. We have arrived in the Arctic Circle, right up the top of Norway – home of 24 hour darkness in mid-winter and the midnight sun in summer. It is 12pm and I take photos of the sun setting as we land and I am stunned by the beauty of the scenery, it is like nothing I have ever seen before and it is truly breath taking.

Tromso Cathedral

Tromso main street

And I thought there was a lot of snow in Oslo! We have to walk up a reasonably steep hill to our accommodation and I don’t think I will make it with my suitcase but my snow boots (thanks Mum) go well in the fresh powder and we are checked in and asleep in no time, ready for our Northern Lights tour that evening.

Fire on the snow covered beach

We find all you can eat pizza for around AU$16 (never want to eat pizza again either.) and then meet our guide and head out around ½ hour outside Tromso while he informs us that the weather conditions are some of the best for a while and we should see the lights at some stage during the night. No luck at the first stop and it is FREEZING standing out on the ice (only around -5 degrees and luckily no wind but still cold!). We head to the next stop – a beach. Yes, an icy beach – we stand in the snow on the sand while guide Gunnar builds a fire and listen to the waves – it’s amazing. Unfortunately the lights never make an appearance – we have a good time standing around the fire, chatting and marvelling at the surroundings but we are all surprised and disappointed when we finally head home.



View over Tromso from lookout

Next day we reassure ourselves that surely we will see the lights tonight – and head up in a cable car to a lookout over Tromso. What we see from the top is a picture perfect winter scene – snow, water, rows of little houses with lights on and the inky blue of the early afternoon dark. We would have stayed outside forever taking photos if we didn’t lose the feeling in our fingers and have to go inside for hot chocolate.

Ola and I in our survival suits

That night we do what is quite possibly the most amazing thing I have done in my life – head out into the middle of nowhere – the Lyngsfjord Alps – to go Husky sledding. We suit up in survival suits, thermal boots, snow mittens and fur lined hats and head out to meet the dogs. Our team of 4 is very keen to get going, as I climb into the fur lined sled I am convinced they will take off into the wilderness without the guide. Luckily they don’t and Ola is standing behind me “steering” (we don’t really have a choice where we go, the dogs are in charge – but we do have a brake) and as soon as the guide’s sled goes, ours is moving too.

Dashing trough the snow

My huskies

It’s not actually too fast and it is unreal – we really are isolated up here. Both of us have been half joking about running into polar bears – I hope the guide ahead has a gun. We fly through snow as far as the eye can see, past rivers of half ice and through a forest (that has quite a few dips and bumps – I’m sure the dogs go faster here on purpose) and there is snow falling. I actually cry a few tears of happiness and sheer amazement at what I am doing. Halfway through the 15km trail we swap over and I find that I only have 2 bits of skinny wood to stand on whilst the dogs speed us away. It’s quite easy to get used to but I don’t know how I stayed on through the forest – the driver of the pair behind us got thrown off – starfished into the snow! We get up quite a bit of speed on the last downhill part and I have to jump on the brake with both feet to bring us to a stop. We get to play with the dogs for a little while; they are so well trained and friendly.



We then head to a Sami (local people) tent for a traditional meal and make snow angels (I have always wanted to do that!) in the snow outside. We come to a realisation that we won’t get to see the Northern Lights as the sky is covered with cloud, but I don’t mind as much anymore – the trip up here was worth every second.

AMI Hotel left a light on for us

The snow falls all night and all the next day – big, beautiful flakes float down outside the window and pile up in front of it. Unfortunately this is not good news for our flight – the airport closes for an hour when we first arrive and our flight is delayed for 4 hours (which really helps my fear of flying. Almost as much as Ola talking about “oh you remember that plane crash last year when all the Russians were killed” just before we take off. She swears we were talking about Polish/Russian relations and didn’t even think about what she was saying. I think it was the “it’s snowing” in reverse).

Snow all around in Tromso

We finally leave from a gate that is normally used for flights to an island even further north and see two signs as we walk in – one warning of the Rabies outbreak on the island, the other depicting two polar bears mauling a man and warning of the real danger of polar bears! Glad we didn’t see that on the way in!






We land in Oslo after midnight and have to stay at an airport hotel as our hostel reception is already closed. This means we head straight to the other airport on our last day (missing out on ice skating and trying the elk burgers – but maybe that isn’t such a bad thing) for our flight to Krakow