Aurora Borealis

Notes from My Trip To Norway on September 24th 2015

I am dictating to one of those mobile voice applications at 2:43 am. The days been a little exhausting, and I don't really have the strength to enter anything by hand. Just about to head to bed when I saw a missed call from my friend Bianca. I'm a little worried. A call at midnight? In Norway? Something seemed off.


I called straight back, and all was fine - thankfully. Apparently, a photo on Facebook had alerted her to an impossible, if highly unlikely event: that there were northern lights dancing in the sky at that moment. Her Uncle (who resided in Norway) were standing in his garden taking it all in from his backgarden. I put on all my clothes as quickly as I could, and me and the rest of the group bolted outside. Four kilometers cycling in the Norwegian cold and lonely night. No more no less. 4000 meters we cycled, and not another and not a soul aside from ourselves. It was a little unerving. But the aurora borealis was worth it.

AURORA BOREALIS Early evening

              The night was starry, so bright and yet so dark. The Milky Way and its hundreds of constellations only accentuated its immensity. About Hanguren is a strange glow. Very whispy and strange, like it wanted to turn green without actually going green. There were arches of white lights across the whispish green, they grew in intensity before the descending fog clouded them  

AURORA BOREALIS 

Northern lights in Voss (Norway), September 8, 2015

I remembered the words of my friend Yves, arctic guide last winter, a northern lights experienced hunter. "People often are disappointed to see the Northern Lights," he would say. Retouched photo so impossible that create expectations that the does not always correspond with reality. At least not with the reality that the casual viewer expects.

AURORA BOREALIS Coming To Dawn

When the cold became intense, and in view of the Northern Lights did not appear to grow stronger, we decided to leave. No one in the streets, but a green glow from the rooftops. Pale, strange, new. 

Northern lights in Voss (Norway), September 8, 2015

Homecoming. Four kilometers north pedaling in the shadow of Lonahorgi (1411 meters) and under some rare drawings in heaven. They was a strange tone, white as tattered night wanting gently tear the dark. At one in the morning it was not the sunset, nor even twilight. And there she was again, the aurora borealis.

My first aurora borealis was different to my expectations, perhaps because it really wasn't expected. It came without warning, and went the same way. And while it did not film the sky with green and colours, I go to bed happy because I experienced something rare and beautiful. 

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