I'd only just fallen into a coma like sleep when Monika started bouncing around our small 2nd storey room yelling "they're out, they're out " ! With 1 or two brain cells free, luckily still on standyby mode, i gathered that Monika was talking about the Northeren Lights and not about the Australian Cricket debacle, so grabbing my clothes I started dressing on the run while trying to remember where the hell I'd put all my camera gear !
I needn't have worried about feeling tired beccause as soon as we ran out the front door on to our snowed covered path in the below zero temperatures i was instantly awake
Disappointingly the low intensity lights had started to fade leaving us with barely a glimpse. Thinking we could drive out along the coastline to check for possible further displays we piled the camera gear into the car and reversed down our snow covered driveway only to feel the driver side tyres fall into deep snow while hearing that dreaded wheel spinning sound that said " you're definitely not going anywhere tonight " !!!
Our day had started well enough when we took advantage of the suns appearnace to launch my drone on its maiden Norwegian flight ! Despite a few anxious moments when the prop pitch sound suddenly faltered (a probable sign of the battery charge struggling in the cold conditions) i was able to get either a) brilliant footage of the mountainous surrounds or b) some great footage of a white nothing - later editing will reveal the answer !
With the sun appearing to settle in we jumped into our VW hire care and made our way towards Henningsvear some 30 kms distant. Henningsvear is one of those "living" fishing villages that Lofoten is famed for with the coast off Lofoten having some of the richest fishing areas in Norway. The journey there was absolutely stunning. The mountainous snow covered landscape had seemingly come alive in the powerful sun as we twisted along a spectacular coastline eventually making our way across a series of bridges to Henningsvear effectively a collective of small rocky islands.
Exiting our car we were momentarily stunned to see a couple in a nearby campervan sunbaking in the radiating sun ! Surely they couldn't have been that depraved of Vitamin C to sit on lounge chairs in 1c temperatures and pretend that they were in the Bahamas !
Walking through the snow lined streets proved Henningsvear to be a quaint working fishing village with traditional Rorbu (fishing huts) and dried Herring racks as well as a touch of tourism judging by the number of gift shops and restaurants.
Heading back after overdosing on the magical scenery we experienced adverse driving conditions. While driving on ice and snow is scary enough the fear factor goes up another level when the snow starts to melt and the road turns into a giant "slurpee" - wet, icy and lethal !!
Taking it slowly we made it back safely to our accommodation after a few more photo stops, settling in for an afternoon of weather watching - snow, hail, clear, more snow, clear again etc etc !
We just made it past dinner with self taking a few night time shots to keep awake ! Finally hitting the sack Monika took first watch for the Nortern Lights ..... I think.you know the rest of the story !!!!
Sent from Samsung tablet
No comments:
Post a Comment