When chasing the northern lights, you often have to be willing or able to travel to clear skies amongst many other factors. Understanding typical weather patterns helps.
So I booked the Havila Cruise to view from the sea
Tromso to view from the coast and
Kiruna to view from inland, attempting to increase the odds of a Northern Lights experience.
11 days in the Artic Circle, and Kiruna paid off. Faint wisps on the northern horizon, that improved to be visible to the naked eye. 3 hours standing on a frozen lake in -20 deg C, and below was the best of the photos from my Samsung S23u in auto-night mode.
The Northern Lights Photo tour from Camp Ripan, expertly guided by a photographer who also provided an SLR Camera to each participant, was the difference of chance and luck. I have to wait till I return to Australia however to retrieve those RAW photos of the SD card; so below is the phone’s camera frozen moments.
The city of Kiruna is also famous for being physically moved due to land compromises from Mining; along while being adjacent to the original Ice Hotel at Jukkasjärvi; started 34 years ago.
I advance booked Kiruna Private Guides for their Stejk Street Food & Ice Hotel visit, and all I can say is wow. Their service was above & beyond. I rarely make such a comment, but they well deserve the praise. Kiruna Private Guides took me to a few sites along the way, and the Stejk Street Food lunch was excellent. Cecilia offered a variety of local dishes; I went with a Moose & Reindeer Sub with a homemade Captain Morgan Rum sauce which was huge and very tasty. So much more than expected.
Then we got to the Ice Hotel. After the underwhelming Ice Domes at Tromso, my expectations were low. Perhaps that is why it blew me away to see the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjärvi. A seasonal Ice hotel attached to an all-year Ice Hotel, both serviced by warm rooms/cabins.
Below is a sample of the Ice Hotels and their uniquely themed and carved rooms, but if you are truly curious, you can click here for my page with around 300 photos of the very clever and artistic ice rooms.
Kiruna Northern Lights
Ice Hotel
WILT – What I am listening to ?
Don’t try to read too much into these WILT’s, it’s often just that earworm from my music library
I have to say, I think Sheena captured the essence of this song better
Sheena Easton
Steve Perry