My brother and his girlfriend came to Tromsø for a short visit. The weather was stunning, and on Thursday afternoon we walked to Nonsbu cabin to spend the night there. We started from Tønsvik, where I’ve been many times in winter and in summer, but never in autumn. It was so beautiful! All the trees in full autumn colour and all the blueberry bushes a bright red. It was quite warm in the sun, we walked in tshirts.

It’s not a very strenuous walk, the highest point is about 380 m. There you find this beautiful lake with a cute little island in the middle…

From there it’s a short walk down to the cabin. We met many people on the way to the cabin, but everybody was out for just a day trip, and we had the cabin to ourselves. The thermometer next to the door showed 23 degrees in the sun!

We had dinner and when the sun had set, we built a camp fire. It took a long time to get really dark, but the evening light was beautiful!

We stayed up hoping the northern lights would show up. To keep ourselves entertained we took photos while we “painted” with fire, good fun!

It’s nice to be in a place where it gets really dark. The stars were amazing, we could clearly see the milky way and several satellites passing, as well as a few falling stars. I took this 7 minute exposure of the stars and the cabin which was lit by the camp fire.

It was now after 23:00 and we started to give up hope that the northern lights would come out. But then suddenly, a weak light at the horizon… getting stronger, moving and becoming an arc. So beautiful! I had been looking forward to the opportunity to take photos in a completely dark place, but found out it was actually harder to find something for the foreground as it was so dark. In the 30 seconds exposure, it looks like there’s still an orange glow from the sunset – we couldn’t see that with the naked eye however! My favourite photo is the one of my brother and his girlfriend standing by the camp fire watching the northern lights. Soon after I took this photo, the northern lights became very weak and we went to bed.

The next day was just as sunny, and we walked the same route back to Tønsvik. On the way back to town, we took the cable car up to enjoy the view of Tromsø island from above.

What a perfect little trip! Today it’s back to work for me, and they’ve left for a trip by car. They’re flying back to the Netherlands tomorrow. I will follow them a day later 😀 I’ll be in the Netherlands for a week to attend the wedding of a friend and to spend time with family and friends for a bit. It’s nice to spend some time back home, especially while Paul is at sea for the whole month.