Common People

It's day five and another breakfast of pickled herring in a variety of sauces - the plate looks so colourful. We're heading for Tromso and, for some of us, the Planetarium. But where do you put such an attraction? London and any major city's an obvious place - loads of people with money and time on their hands or somewhere where there's clear skies and total darkness for a few months of the year. The last choice is not that obvious since you've the best view of the sky outside and it's free -zing.

Late last night we glimpsed a tiny settlement down a very, very narrow fiord. There we were on deck cameras and phones at the ready as a powerful beam of light from the ship's bridge illuminated - well I don't know what. To me it looked like that illuminated deer Harry Potter thought he saw across the frozen pond in the "Prisoner of Azkaban". Our boat slowly and gently turned so the light beam and all our cameras etc faced down the fiord and at the settlement. For the boat it was quite a manoeuvre and detour from our route. I can imagine the settlement's inhabitants saying

" Oh fuck, Maja" (in Norwegian) "it's one of those bloody Hurtigruten boats. Close the friggin' curtains."

After such excitement we all went to bed but not before e-mailing billions of snaps across the globe. "Where is Hermann and what the fuck is this?" (in German) bemused recipients would say to each other.

Five days in and I've said nothing about my fellow shipmates. In general we're all quite old. The people I've met, on walks, on deck, at the dining table are full of fun and great company. The astronomical group is an especially mixed bag. No one under 50 , most over 70, I'd say, from across the English speaking world. Lots of Aussies - pleased to have escaped the heat and fires of their homeland. Quite a lot of Americans - no mention of Trump or how great he's made America. Quite a few ex civil servants and people who worked for NGO's.

We're in deep fog, with no sign of the sky. Up coming is a talk "Techniques for photographing the Northern Lights." It should be interesting given the total lack of visibility, up, down or sideways!

The talk was very interesting. My camera is pretty basic but in an automatic manner. All the tips we were given won't apply to me because I can't switch the camera into manual mode. The saving grace, however, is the best camera are your eyes and memory. Don't waste time fiddling with the equipment or you'll miss the Northern Lights - capturing the magic with your eyes so you can relive it later anywhere!

We spent half an hour in Finnsnes (69 plus degrees North) with its bridge connecting Norway's largest island to the mainland.  Heavy snow and everything is white and black - trees black against the snow - and it's cold especially on deck with people wrapped taking their constitutional before lunch.