Traveling in the north of Norway in March 2022, primarily in the hope of capturing Northern Lights again. And while that didn‘t happen, with one short exception at the end of our stay, the area itself was extremely photogenic. 

 

The village of Djupvik was located just around the corner from where we were staying, and featured some houses grouped together, as well as some that were more loosely scattered around.

 

 . 

 

Primarily, however, the area offers views into the Fjord, which, in the distance, opens into the North Atlantic Ocean.

 

 . 

 

If you want to go to the Administrative center of the Nordreisa Municipality - Storslett - you‘ll take the road that stretches along Rotsund, then passes Sørkjosen and finally gets you to Storslett.

 

The first view, however, looks like a road leading to nowhere…

 

 

While passing the Rotsund area, you‘ll see the island Uløya on the other side of the water. If you look closely, you can spot the Trading Post Havnnes, one of the oldest and northernmost trading posts in Norway.

 

 

The trading post is connected by a regular ferry - on the next photo, you can see the ferry that‘s just about to reach its destination across the water.

 

 

Of course, the ferry port isn‘t the only place where boats can land - you can find a jetty leading to the water every couple of kilometers.

 

 

To give you a better impression of the expanse of Rotsund… here‘s a panorama…

 

 

And just like everywhere, you‘ll find plants just waiting for Spring to arrive so that they can go back into action, start growing and blooming again.

 

 

Next, you pass a tunnel and, on the other end, you‘re in Sørkjosen. Not the biggest town around, however, it has an airport. Or maybe „airfield“ is more accurate, it‘s basically a short runway and a bit of an apron, with only a handful flights with small planes coming in and going out every day.

 

Next to the airfield, there‘s a small residential area.

 

 

On the other side of the residential area, you‘ll find the Marina.

 

 

On to Storslett - next, you‘ll cross a river called Reisaelva. As could be expected, when we were in the area, it was mostly frozen.

 

 

A bit upstream, there‘s also a historic pedestrian bridge that you can use.

 

 

In Storslett, you‘ll also find this beautiful wooden church, just a bit outside the town‘s center.

 

 

If you continue in the same direction and leave Storslett on the other end, your next sight is Straumfjorden, another inlet that eventually opens up into the Atlantic Ocean.

 

 

And, again, just for a bit of a better impression of the area… another panorama.

 

 

Back to Djupvik.

 

One of the features of the area is the possibility to see Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. However, that does have a couple of preconditions. The most obvious one being good weather, as you‘ll need clear views of the sky. 

 

Other preconditions are a dark night - not an issue here as there‘s very little light pollution around. And, of course, the sun storms that send particles in the direction of Earth, which then cause the Northern Lights to appear.

 

We had most of these conditions met. Most…

 

Except for one…

 

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

Not that the snowstorms didn‘t provide a beauty in themselves as well, but, let‘s face it, I can see snowstorms closer to home as well. The same doesn‘t apply to Northern Lights.

 

So we ended up enjoying our days and nights staying at… not sure if Hotel or Lodge is the right word… Lyngen North, which has Igloos that offer a 180° or 360° glass outside.

 

And, no, I‘m not being paid to mention them - we just really enjoyed our stay there. There are several other similar options available in Norway, Sweden and Finland, offering similar types of accommodation. We just ended up here - and were happy about it.

 

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

.

 

 

On our final night, we ended up having a bit of luck after all: for a couple of minutes, the sky opened up and we were able to see some faint Northern Lights through our glass roof after all. Not the light show we had hoped for, however, at least we did get a little bit of a view.

 

 

Then it was time for us to leave and head back to Tromsø, where we stayed for another couple of days. 

 

With that, I‘ll end this with my personal favorite of my photos from the area, showcasing the spectacular sunsets that we got to see almost every evening.