Sorry this one is a day late guys...trying to balance writing/editing blogs and time with our friends. Is difficult.
January 3, 2017 - The trip begins. We arrived in Andenes and talk about a shock to the senses. In Oslo, it was sunny, no snow and a beautiful 30 degrees. How quickly your perspective about what is beautiful weather changes. Once we jumped in that airplane and headed to Andenes, I quickly saw the color in the landscape change. The further we went, the whiter everything got. Well, so much for my 70 degree dream.
We landed in Bodo (which is a huge city, surprised the shit out of me.), for a quick layover before we headed to Andenes. There was some sort of snow flurry / or storm blowing through. I thought they were going to ground the airplanes, but nope! We took off in that shit. In Texas they would of closed down the whole airport. Here, this was just another day at the office. I guess thats just like me and my sharks, some people see craziness and chaos… I see a dance. The game within the game, I suppose?
I met up with half of our group in Bodo, which is always great seeing old friends and knowing they made the journey safely. We traveled together to Andenes. As I remembered from last year, the scenery as we flew to Andenes is the stuff that dreams are made of. It is so damn beautiful here. Everywhere you look is like a postcard, just breathtaking. Snowy mountains as far as the eye can see.
Viewer discression...Don't think I am crazy because I laugh at myself in this clip. The weather is making me lose it. lol
We landed and drove to our hotel. It had just snowed the night before so there was fresh powder everywhere. The snow plows had already piled the snow up on the sides of the road. The town looks like something you would see in a christmas movie. You know the one; where no one believes the old man walking around is santa, except that one kid who everyone thinks is crazy as shit and in the end, they all praise the kid for not being crazy as shit. Well, Andenes would be the town the movie would be set in. Lol
We checked in and I met up with the rest of our group. Everyone except Tony had made it. His flight was not coming in till 10 in the evening. Anyway, we checked in with the dive shop, got the plans for the following morning. And well, we got good news and bad news.The good was that the orcas were seen and also humpbacks, fin whales and sperm whales. Which is great, but the bad news is the huge pods of orcas were late in arriving, AND the weather we were going to wake up to, for our first day in the water is one of the coldest they have had in a while, (minus 13 I think?) AND we have a couple days of shitty weather heading our way. Damn, “Welcome to the Arctic!”
We went out for dinner and then decided to check out a place, out of town where we could see the auroras without any light pollution. We took a taxi to a spot where the land owner allows people to shoot the auroras on his property, which is really great. A beautiful Fjord setting. We hiked though this wooded trail along with his big ass Rottweiler. It was pitch black and his bear sized dog was super excited running up and down the trail. The dog was friendly and cute, but the sound of him running at you in the dark sounded like a grizzly. Very unnerving.
When we got there the auroras were kicking. The sky was dancing its dance and the colors were just swirling as the flew by. We all had a blast. It was a great way to kick off this trip. I am only hoping the weather and the animals will both cooperate tomorrow?
