Return to the North

Winter in the north

Going back to my friend`s cabin in Sjøvegan, Troms, was my gift to my boyfriend when he celebrated his last birthday. None of us had ever been to the northern part of Norway during winter, and our biggest hope was to experience the Northern Lights.

The first day we took a roadtrip to Senja. The weather was just beautiful, almost too sunny, as we both like to make photographs in less bright light. But we took the scenic route along "Nasjonale Turistveger" and visited many stunning places.

This one is from viewpoint Tungeneset. The mountains are called "The devil`s teeth" and I guess you can see why.....

Overlooking the sea and the mountains, you feel really small......

A visit to polar park

About half an hour drive south of the cabin in Sjøvegan you find Polar Park which is a visitors center for wild animals. I absolutely recommend a visit, the animals have lots of space to roam but you still get to see them quite closely as they are accustomed to humans.

Enter the northern lights

Three out of four nights we spent up there, we had stunning Northern Lights. One night better than the other. We went out with our cameras as soon as we saw the first signs of flickering on the sky outside the windows. We were incredibly lucky to have perfect weather conditions; clear sky and cold temperatures. We went out during the day to search for places to photograph, as we wanted something in the foreground to make for a better perspective. We found a beautiful old wooden church with iron crosses outside, but when we returned there the same night the direction of the northern lights were all wrong. So we got in the car and found this old house instead. We spent hours outside and didn't even notice the cool air before we got back to the cabin. Minus 18 degrees make your toes quite stiff!

If you want to visit Melissa`s fabulous cabin in the North please visit her space at Airbnb.