Tromsø: We walked out of the hotel into the cold, cold air. What had we just done? We’re old, deaf, blind, unfit, overweight and have just agreed to go Snowmobiling in the middle of the night in the Arctic. Aging- a natural phenomena, can create a fuzzy brain. It was John’s 73rd birthday. Maybe that was it. What were we thinking? We were both filled with foreboding.
We were staying in a hotel with half-board- breakfast and dinner. I was confused by its name – Hotel Clarion Collection With (yes ‘With’- could be a Norwegian word?). They had an Information desk and Rafael was their man. We investigated three excursions for the five days we would be in Tromsø- snowmobiling, a Northern Light Chase and a Fjord Cruise. Rafael convinced us that by doing the snowmobiling and the Northern Light Chase we were doubling our chances of seeing the Aurora Borealis and I think we may have become over-excited and thought we were twenty-five again- and with rush of blood, we booked…all three.
Our excursion left at five thirty on a minibus that would take us an hour and a half away from Tromsø to avoid light pollution. There were ten participants. We discovered the only ones doing the snowmobiling were the two of us as the others were dog sledding. Firstly, we needed our protective clothing- a gigantic, padded onesie, massive heavy gum boots and for the super intrepid oldies a balaclava and a helmet. Johan Eirik (JE) introduced himself as our guide. Boarding the mini bus again we set out for an even more remote destination.
The waning gibbous moon lit the snowy landscape as our guide led us to our trusty steeds. They were bloody enormous!!! He was curious to know what experience we might have -snowmobiling? No. Jetskiing? No. Maybe quad bikes? No. So what inspired you to come on this tour? He was really trying to hide his incredulity. We were becoming more and more nervous. He went through the routine- parts of the machine and what to do. I became aware that I could not wear my glasses as they constantly fogged up. This was becoming even more of a challenge.
John was to drive first. Johan Eirik (JE) explained very carefully how to maintain an even pressure on the accelerator, but John was a bit um…jumpy. We followed our guide into the wilderness. It was remarkable. All the while we both kept wondering what the hell we were doing. I think it was very fortuitous that we were the only ones on the tour because we did start out very gingerly and our guide showed the patience of Job. We each had a turn driving and we did get better. In fact, JE was very impressed with our perseverance and fortitude.
Driving a snowmobile in the dark, is quite a challenge. It really tested our abilities and our courage. We followed our guide over rutted paths, through the scrub, in and out of gullies and around a lake. We even got to go through new snow which was so much smoother. We travelled over thirty kilometres and took around an hour and a half. Apparently we were within a kilometre of the Finnish boarder. JE encouraged us to keep the visor up as the evening was so mild – a mere negative three!!! Surprisingly we did as we were told, and it was mild! Our clothing was fantastic.
We returned to basecamp and made our way into the cabin where hot reindeer soup with bread and drinks awaited us. Just as we settled into our warm and cosy space and take a moment to reflect on our accomplishment, the bus driver nonchalantly sauntered into the room and announced that there was a significant amount of activity out there. It took us a moment and suddenly we were all on our feet scrambling for the door.
The night sky put on a show for us. It was not quite what I expected. The sky was streaked with what looked like gossamer veils thrown into the air but though our phone cameras lens we could see the colours. It was mesmerising. John’s birthday turned out to be absolutely phenomenal!
