There are many reasons to visit Norway in the Autumn. Amazing trails and scenery with mountains that plunge into fjords, some great local hosts who have turned cooking seafood into an artform, and the possibility of experiencing the Aurora Borealis at night. The Northern Lights.

Summer in the Arctic is lovely and green but absolutely no chance of seeing the aurora because it’s not dark enough at night. Indeed the further north you go there may be no darkness at all. Spring and Autumn offer enough daylight plus dark night to make the best of both worlds. From September onwards there is always a chance of getting lucky.

There are three things you need for a great aurora showing. Clear skies, dark skies and a little luck. If you head to Tromso in the far north of Norway for a week, you have a better than 50% chance of seeing the aurora. Sometimes they show right after dinner, sometimes you wake up at 3am and there it is outside your bedroom window. Sometimes the lights are storming away in silence above a layer of clouds, so none of us standing on the shoreline can see a thing.

There are nights also when the skies are dead black and totally clear and the lights simply don’t show up. That happens. There’s so much luck involved. I’ve spent over a decade running tours in the Arctic, often in the middle of winter. One trip was saw three pretty good showing in two weeks. Another trip we saw them every single night for 19 nights in a row. Yeah that happened. It’s never happened since mind you!

I can tell you that every time I see the aurora it’s special for me. I never get tired of it. I stand out there in absolute wonder at how amazing this planet is, standing in silence beneath the electrons firing miles above our head. It thrills me like the first time, every time.

I am a photographer, so there is a special challenge involved. But once I setup the camera and let it roll, I just relax and take it all in. You never know if the show will last ten minutes or ten hours. It’s precious and elusive. The one thing that makes it better is sharing the moment. Not just on the camera, but with a group of excited souls. It’s wasted to keep it to yourself. When the aurora turns up it’s usually my job to wake everyone up. That’s easier said than done of course, but most people are full of joy even when standing outside at minus 5 degrees wearing nothing but pyjamas.

While we can’t be sure the northern lights will make an appearance, we can be sure to be ready when it happens. The coastline around Tromso happens to be one of the best places in the world for sighting. Even a modest aurora event here can fill the entire sky in every direction. It’s no accident I keep going back to Tromso. Yes the hiking is wonderful in Autumn, but the fun doesn’t end when the sun goes down.

– Ewen