Tag Archives: winter

A day trip to Narvik in Norway

Norway, , , , , , , ,

We spent most of yesterday in the apartment in Katterjokk, doing exciting stuff like washing clothes, catching up on what’s happening on the interwebz and cooking a delicious dinner of pulled pork and vegetables. We tried to buy more pulled pork at the supermarket today but they have sold out. Now we’ll be looking for it every time we go into a Swedish supermarket. We ventured out last night to do some aurora-watching, but even though it was a very clear (and cold, down to -7C!) night, there wasn’t much solar activity and the aurora weren’t all that exciting.

So today we were ready to do some exploring and decided to drive to Narvik, which is 45kms away. It still amuses me that we can do a day trip to another country, which probably just means I’m easily amused. As soon as we got across into Norway, the countryside changed – it became more mountainous, and where this part of Sweden is mostly unpopulated outside the towns and villages, in Norway there are houses, huts and holiday cottages dotted all over the place. The sky was full of pink clouds that look like sunrise/sunset clouds, even though it was 11am and at the moment the sun doesn’t rise or set at all. I did find out that the sun will rise in Narvik on Tuesday for the first time in a month … and then it will set 30 minutes later. We’ll be watching for it  on Tuesday, but I’m not sure when it actually rises here. We’ll let you know.

We drove to Narvik and on the way I remembered that Greg had really enjoyed Lefse, a Norwegian pastry, when we were here 6 months ago, so we made it our mission to find some for him. Except that all the shops are closed on a Sunday and we had both completely forgotten that. So we walked around the city centre for a few blocks, trying to walk on grit and not to slip on the icy footpaths. It’s warmer in Narvik than in Katterjokk, and not as snowy, probably because it’s located on a huge fjord which gets warm(ish) water from the Gulf Stream. As we walked, it started getting dark and we loved looking at all the houses and lights perched along the sides of the fjord. Very pretty. There is a ski slope just above the town and we saw people skiing, but the real ski season doesn’t start for another month or so when there is more snow. The checkout operator at the little supermarket here told us that it can get down to -40C, and Greg has just read that the snow around here can last from late September to May!

We drove back to the apartment with the 63 Norwegian kronor ($12) in coins that I had brought from Australia, so I guess we can regard it as possibly the cheapest trip to Norway ever! We’re planning the next part of our trip, and the choices were to go to Norway or Finland. Just those few hours in Narvik reminded us of how expensive Norway is …so we’re heading east to Finland. We want to stay inside the Arctic Circle, in the hope of seeing more Lights, and have booked a cottage just across the border for a few nights.

Dawn at 11am – except we will not actually  see the sun rise over the horizon for a few more days. We last saw the sun a week ago.
Going for a drive is a twenty minute operation. Get the car started run it for 15 minutes in the -7C temperature then scrape the rest of the ice of the windscreen, so you actually see out of the car.
The studded winter tyres that came with the hire car. The metal spikes improve the grip on the icy roads
Main street in Narvik. Carefully walking down the very icy footpaths. Many of the locals were wearing spikes that fit over their shoes and give them better grip in the ice.
Reminding ourselves how expensive Norway is.The large pizza at the top equates to $40 Australian Dollars for just one Pizza.

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Christmas drinks Glogg which is alcoholic and drunk warm, and Julmust which is non-alcoholic and drunk at Christmas and Easter
Christmas drinks in Sweden- Glogg which is alcoholic and drunk warm, and Julmust which is non-alcoholic and drunk at Christmas and Easter

Katterjokk

Sweden, , , , , , , ,

After our 2 nights camping/sleeping in the car, we are now happily indoors surrounded by lots of creature comforts – electric lights, central heating, beds, a kitchen, a bathroom with cold AND hot running water. Ah, the luxury of it all. We are regular patrons of the little supermarket downstairs, but haven’t yet ventured into the restaurant/cafe just down the hall, other than to pay for our apartment for the 4 nights we’re staying here.

It’s so nice to be able to unpack some of our stuff from the car (not the tent stuff, it’s all sitting frozen in a duffle bag in the back. We’ll get to it later) , do some washing, have a second (or even third!) cup of coffee without firing up the gas stove. And, of course, an early morning trek to the toilet is so much easier indoors. We cooked dinner last night – meatballs AND mashed potato – juggling any more than one thing on a gas stove is tricky, so we usually just heat up a can of something when we’re camping. But the warm, canned ravioli we had the night we were in the tent tasted very good!

Here’s a link to the apartments we’re staying at – Katterjokk Apartments. There is a train station and a ski-lift just up the hill. The lift isn’t working at the moment, not sure why, maybe not enough snow yet. The restaurant manager told us that there would be a lot of snowmobiles here today as it’s Saturday. We think it’s the Swedish equivalent of guys riding their dirt bikes at home.

We will go in search of aurora tonight. The lake near Abisko seems to be the pick of places to view The Lights, so we’ll drive there and take lots of warm clothes so we can sit and watch. It’s a bit overcast, but there are patches of sky amongst the clouds. It’s currently 12.30 and the clouds are turning pink because it’s getting close to ‘sunset’ here. In another hour it will be dark.

Pink "Sunset" except the sun never got over th horizon, but it is setting south of us
Pink “Sunset” except the sun never got over the horizon, but it is setting south of us
Snow mobiles getting ready to ride
Snow mobiles getting ready to ride
Katterjokk River
Katterjokk River
Judy standing on the balcony of the apartment we are staying at Katterjokk
Judy standing on the balcony of the apartment we are staying at Katterjokk
Judy's possum fur and marino wool gloves
Judy’s possum fur and Marino wool gloves
Don't you think the shopping trolleys should have skis instead of wheels?
Don’t you think the shopping trolleys should have skis instead of wheels?
Katterjokk village
Katterjokk village

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Inside the Arctic Circle – in winter

Sweden, , , , , , , ,

Before we did our Scandinavian road trip to Nordkapp to find the Midnight Sun, I couldn’t really get the whole ‘sun never sets’ concept. Same with the Arctic Circle’s seasonal opposite, where the sun never rises. It sets in late November and doesn’t rise again until late January. I thought it meant that it just stayed dark the whole time. Well, it’s close to that, but thankfully for the locals it does get light for a few hours during the day. It starts getting light here in Abisko at around 8am, and is totally dark again by 2pm. The light is dim, but all the snow reflects it and makes it seem brighter. I keep wondering how people managed to live here before the invention of gas and electric lights and figured that they must have just gone to bed for the winter, then stayed up all summer to get stuff done.

We have seen some Lights! The sky is very clear tonight (it’s currently 7pm), and there are aurora over the lake. They look like long green curtains, flowing and moving along from north to south.

We are camping in a hollow near the railway line, just off the main road. Greg brought an extra tent fly which we have put over the tent, and anchored all around with snow. It’s very comfortable inside the tent, we brought compresed foam squares to make a floor inside, and then use a lightweight inflatable Thermarest camping mattress, 2 sleeping bags and a thermal sleeping bag liner. All that plus a layer or 2 of thermals keeps us warm. We slept in the car last night because we got here in the dark and couldn’t find anywhere suitable to set up the tent. A lot of people go snowmobiling beside the main road, so we had to find somewhere that our tent woudn’t get mown down by snowmobiles – not so easy as very few side roads are cleared by the snowploughs that keep the main road clear. We got lucky and found a clear side road this morning. It goes up to a power sub-station, and there is just enough space to park the car off the road, with space for the tent not too far away.

A couple of vehicles drove up the road while we were there, and no one stopped to tell us to leave. We think that maybe they thought if we were crazy enough to camp in the snow, they would just leave us to it.

We are now spending a few nights in an apartment at Riksgransen, which is very close to the Norwegian border. There is a supermarket downstairs and a restaurant/bar. The barman told us that a lot of Asians come to this part of Sweden to see the aurora, and that it will be very busy tomorrow because snowmobilers like to come here to do their thing. We found Santa’s reindeer on the way here, in a stockyard. It was -1 outside and they didn’t look particularly cold – I guess they are used to it, must have good cold-repelling fur!

Reindeer in stockyards
Greg clearing the tent site in the snow
The tent set up, as it gets dark at 1pm
The tent set up, as it gets dark at 1pm

 

Cooking dinner in the shelter of the rear of the car
Cooking dinner in the shelter of the rear of the car

Happy New Year, 2014

Sweden, , , , ,

To all our family and friends reading, and to anyone who just happens to find us here, we wish you all a very Happy, healthy and rewarding 2014. I hope it’s a very good year for us all.

We spent New Year’s Eve staying at a hotel in Lulea, a town near the top of the Gulf of Bothnia. We have been driving up the east coast of Sweden, and will head inland and go north-west today. Our destination is the Abisko National Park, which is a very good place to see The Lights because of its proximity to a large lake with mountains behind it, and it’s isolated so there’s no problem with any artificial light pollution. Greg has been watching websites that monitor solar activity and it’s all looking very promising for the next day or so.

When we arrived at the hotel yesterday, in the middle of the night at 6pm, we chatted with the receptionist and she told us that it had only started snowing there yesterday, which is very late in the season. A guy in Stockholm told us the same thing – that is was very rare to have clear, fine days in December … and no snow. I guess we’ll go back to a very different, snowy Stockholm to the one we left a few days ago, where it was a bit cold and everything was damp, but still easy to get around.

Looking outside from the Scandic Lulea at 9am, dawn is 10am.

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In Stockholm

Sweden, , , ,

Exactly 6 months ago to the day, we arrived in Stockholm to begin our month-long Scandinavian road trip. It was just after the Northern summer solstice and it seemed like it was light all the time. We didn’t see any stars for a month.This time, it’s the complete opposite. We arrived yesterday morning and it was overcast, rainy and the light was dim. We went for a walk in the afternoon and by 4pm it was completely dark. Which was fine by us – we were ready for bed, although flying here this time was a much nicer trip. The first time, we flew Malaysian Airlines, stopped at Kuala Lumpur and Heathrow and arrived 34 hours after we left home. This time, we flew Qantas/Emirates, stopped at Dubai and arrived 22 hours after we left home.

We’re staying at the Hotell Dialog again. We stayed there night before we left Stockholm to start the Russian part of our trip. We know this part of town, it’s near the largest Ikea in the world and a heap of other shops – we need to shop for a few things before we head north in search of the Aurora. Food, snow shovel, more food, booze …. I’m beginning to understand why schnapps is popular in cold weather climates, it certainly gives one a nice warm glow.

It’s not actually very cold here, and there isn’t any snow in Stockholm. Yesterday the temperature range was 2 – 5C, and the forecast is similar for today. I haven’t quite worked out how to dress for both walking outside AND being inside heated shopping centres. Yesterday I wore a pair of thermals and a couple of other layers to walk  to the shops, then peeled most of it off when we were inside, and piled it all on again to do more walking. I guess I’ll just get it all worked out, then we’ll head north and I’ll just want to wear everything I brought with me, all the time.

Greg is watching the Space Weather website for signs that we’re going to get to see some lights soon. There is a lovely video which was taken on Christmas afternoon, from the lake we’re heading to, so we’re feeling hopeful that we’ll be lucky enough to see them. The customs officer told us that he had never seen any in Stockholm – too much light pollution in the city. Greg will do a post soon about the technical stuff, with some of the websites he’s following for information.

It’s almost 8.30am and there’s a glimmer of light outside. Time to get this day started.

One more thing, for Sam and Brianna … and any other Scrubs fans reading. We’re sitting having breakfast at the hotel and back-to-back Scrubs episodes are playing on the TV, with Swedish subtitles.

The Best Present Ever

Sweden, , , ,

Yesterday, on Christmas morning, we woke up at the decent time of 8am, reminisced briefly about all the years of early Christmas morning awakenings when we had little people in our lives, and then got down to the business of exchanging presents. I gave Greg a soft-sided, powered fridge bag, which he knew about and wanted, plus a signed limited first edition of Donna Tartt’s latest book The Goldfinch. We are both reading it at the moment and enjoying it very much. I also slipped in a copy of the South America on the Cheap Lonely Planet guide as we have been talking about going there next.

Greg gave me a book on the Northern Lights. Now, Greg is always a very good present-giver, so I had a suspicion that there might be more to it than just a book about something we thought we might like to do some day, but I didn’t want to seem ungrateful by shaking the book to see if anything would fall out. So I looked through it page by page until he gave up waiting for me to say something like ‘wouldn’t it be great to see this’ and brought out our itinerary. Oh. My. Goodness. Plane tickets to Stockholm this Friday. In 2 ½ days. In 60 hours. Unbelievable. Incredible. And probably the Best. Present. Ever.

He has been planning it for weeks – working out the best time to go in terms of the sun and moon cycles, the best place to go that will give us the best chance of seeing the Lights, car hire, warm clothes, guide book on how to camp in the snow. Because yes, we’ll be camping inside the Arctic Circle in winter … as you do. Well, actually most of you probably don’t … but we do. Of course we’ll let you know how it all goes, with pictures.

The soft-sided fridge bag will come with us …. but that’s so that we can stop our food from freezing, as opposed to keeping it cold! We have a small mountain of camping gear, clothes, tent, and assorted other paraphernalia to go through and pack. But that’s okay, we don’t fly out until late tomorrow night. Plenty of time.