Northern Lights at Kalfatjörn

Hello everyone! I hope I am not boring you too death with all my Northern Lights tales because here comes another one:

We were going to go out last night and the day had been beautiful in Reykjavik, Pretty clear skies, temperature just over zero degrees (Celsius that is!) and even the solar activity level looked quite promising! Then happened what always happens when you got a beautiful day in Reykjavik: you get an ugly, cloudy night.

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I still had to go out though, and do my best to try to find the Northern Lights otherwise my thirty-five guests would come home unsatisfied and saddened. We then drove South-West towards Reykjanes. I have been taking this road many times lately as it seemed that good weather (or not so terrible weather) is hard to find everywhere else.

The plan, as usual, was to attempt to reach the coast and hope that the sky would open-up. It had worked just a couple of days prior so maybe it would work then? This was at least my thought.

                                                     The Church at Kalfatjörn

That night, we stopped early on at the Kalfatjörn church, approximately half-way between Reykjavik and Keflavik. I know the place well because it’s one of the few places by the freeway that is free from Light-pollution. I therefore have stopped there quite many times but I never had had the chances of seeing the Northern Lights there.

You then certainly understand my surprise when, immediately after jumping out of the bus I not only discovered an almost complete clear sky on the North but also the elusive Northern Lights ! The Northern Lights were actually stronger than usual and quite high-up in the sky. At one point we even got to see a double one!

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Quickly afterwards, another bus, full with American tourists hailing from Seattle stopped by and joined us to gaze at the Northern Lights. They kept going on for maybe an hour, getting at time stronger and I time weaker (as Northern Lights always do) and sometimes around quarter after eleven it was completely gone. Gone, but certainly not forgotten!