The crazy idea of biking under the cosmic aurora strip

(Photos of the diary entry can be found at the end of the text).

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In the morning, the sun creeps over the mountain ridge to the east of us under a blue sky and casts its warm light on the mountain flank to the west. The higher it rises, the further the rays travel into the valley until they slowly illuminate the fjord, almost as if in slow motion. We have breakfast, look out of the window and watch the panoramic movie that Mother Earth is giving us in consensual silence. “What do you say we go for a spin on the bikes tonight under the cosmic dance of the Northern Lights?” asks Tanja. “Hmm, an interesting idea. But it will be a frosty affair,” I point out. “Yes, but I think it would make me happy. Who has ever driven along a beach at night with the Northern Lights shining in the starry sky above them?” “That’s right, there’s something about it. It’s definitely not a situation you come across often. When I think about it, it’s like winning the lottery,” I start to get excited about Tanja’s idea.

We take the first day at our dream location slowly. While Tanja takes Ajaci for a walk on the beach and enjoys the peace and quiet and the salty air, I load the pictures from last night into the laptop, edit them and add the corresponding captions. This way, I’ll be able to find the right shots for our experiences in the archive with just a few clicks. During a trip, our extensive photo archive sometimes grows by 100 or 200 photos a day, so that we now have around 250,000 photos from numerous countries. The maintenance and updating alone takes an enormous amount of time. Then there are the short daily recordings of our experiences. After three or four days at the latest, we try to find a place like this to record the material we have collected, our experiences, encounters, events and adventures in words, lines and perhaps even in a book at the end. As ambassadors of Mother Earth, this documentation work is important to us, because when we do it during a trip or expedition, it is authentic, honest and unadulterated. Above all, our emotions, our momentary moods, fears or feelings of happiness are absolutely real, because we feel them at the moment we write them down.

In the afternoon, as the daylight fades and the cold descends from the steep, rugged mountain slopes, I get our bikes out of the bike garage and get them ready for our night-time Aurora trip. I hope that our plan will really work out, because the aurora does not always appear and depends on whether the sky is overcast and whether the electrons of the solar wind meet molecules in the atmosphere tonight and the energy exchange that is responsible for the aurora occurs.

At 8 p.m., we look excitedly out of the large panoramic window into the black sky. “Nothing,” I say, a little disappointed. “It’s still quite early. The northern lights usually appear much later,” says Tanja. “Yes, that’s right. Let’s just wait,” I reply, continuing to work on the caption. At 23:00, there is still no sign of the Northern Lights in the sky. “Uhhhaaa,” yawns Tanja tiredly. “I don’t think it’s going to work out. Maybe we’ll have better luck tomorrow,” she hopes, getting ready for bed. “If the weather forecast is correct, there will be storms and possibly even snow in the coming days. Then the auroras will be over for the time being. I’ll hold out for a while and wake you up if I spot anything,” I say, still hopeful. At midnight, my eyes close too, so I crawl into bed with Tanja.

Huuuiiiii! Huuuiiii! A mighty storm howls around our Terra Love, causing it to tremble terribly. It crashes, whimpers and groans and when another huge gust hits our expedition vehicle, it topples onto its side like a felled tree. “Uuuaaahhh”, I shout in panic and wake up. “What’s wrong?” asks Tanja, startled. “I had a terrible nightmare,” I reply, still quite self-conscious. It’s 1:30 in the morning. Now wide awake from my dream, I look out of the window. “There she is,” I say quietly. “Aurora?” I hear an even quieter voice next to me. “Yes.” “Do you want to see if it makes sense to go out in the middle of the night first?” “It was your idea to take the bikes out for a spin under the Northern Lights,” I reply, because it’s not hard to hear Tanja’s displeasure and listlessness. “What a crazy idea to go out into the cold in the middle of the night just to ride around pointlessly on the bikes,” she replies, pulling the blanket over her head. Now that I’m awake, I climb out of bed, get dressed and go outside with Ajaci. As soon as we reach the beach, the auroras disappear again. I’m just about to head inside when a green light shines behind the mountain flank to the west of me. I remain rooted to the spot, as if the slightest movement on my part could frighten the light and drive it away. “Wow!”, I marvel as the increasing light intensifies into a fierce aurora and gives the impression that the dark mountain is a cooled volcano from which colorful flames are constantly spouting. “Be quick!” I shout back at Terra. “There are phenomenal auroras out there right now!”. “Hmmm,” I hear a reluctant grumble. “Come on now! That’s awesome!” I don’t let up, whereupon Tanja rises as if in slow motion and tries with all her might to get ready for the cold night. Ten minutes later, she is standing next to me on the beach. “And where are they?” asks Tanja, visibly disappointed. “I don’t know. They were just there,” I reply somewhat meekly. “Hmmm,” I hear another grumble. On the way back to Terra, the imaginary, cooled volcano suddenly seems to come to life, spitting out a cosmic arc of light that arches over the entire bay of the stone fjord and disappears behind the other mountain flank to the east of us. “Thank you,” Tanja whispers next to me. “For what?” “For being persistent and getting me out of bed. The Northern Lights are absolutely stunning. Simply unbelievably beautiful.” “They are,” I confirm. “Shall we go on our planned aurora trip now?” I ask expectantly. “Absolutely,” Tanja replies, convinced that she has completely shaken off her tiredness. So as not to waste any time, we quickly get ready for our crazy little excursion. “Ready!” I shout to drown out the waves crashing on the beach. “Ready!” it answers euphorically next to me. “Wooouuuu!” Ajaci yelps enthusiastically, sensing our excitement. Our e-bikes set off just two meters from the waves rolling onto the sandy beach. The glowing green arch arches above our heads, constantly moving back and forth like a giant snake. Billions of white dots dot the sky like grains of sand. A cool breeze sweeps across the bay and catches in our helmets, howling softly. “Let’s drive to the end of the beach,” I suggest. A few minutes later, the beach ends at a black rock face jutting vertically into the night sky. We stop, marvel at the Northern Lights dancing above our heads and realize what we have just experienced in this remote bay on the island of Senja. Wom! Dong! Dong! Dong!, it suddenly booms not far from us. “What was that?” asks Tanja nervously. “I think a boulder broke out of the rock face and fell down.” “That sounded really threatening.” “Absolutely. Let’s get back,” I suggest, trying to get out of the danger zone as quickly as possible. We rush along the beach under the strange green light and the countless stars. The fully illuminated little village now shines in front of us, huddled at the foot of the steep eastern flank. Even at this late hour, almost every window of the wooden houses is illuminated and reflected in the water of the calm sea. Electricity costs little in Norway, which is why the locals can afford the luxury of lighting up their property all night with artificial energy. Back at Terra Love, we put our bikes in the sand and lock them up. “There are no thieves here,” I say. “Better safe than sorry,” answers Tanja. Delighted, we climb into the heated cabin and while our cold limbs thaw out, we have a lively chat. “What an unforgettable experience,” enthuses Tanja. “Yes, the effort paid off. I’m glad to have been woken up from my nightmare, otherwise we wouldn’t have had this experience.” “And I’m glad you woke me up. Thank you again. This highlight will stay in my memory forever.”…