Frost-bitten Aurora in Kalfatjörn

Last night was rough in many aspects. The Solar activity level was hitting rock bottom and the clouds were covering most of the sky in West-Iceland. I knew from the start that it would be difficult to see the lights tonight, if we would see them at all!

We started the tour by heading towards the Reykjanes Peninsula, where the clouds were supposed to be thinner than in other places. We stopped just a little bit south of Keflavík and had a look outside. There were indeed many clouds, but the Northern sky was mostly clear, which is of course always a good point, but there were still no Northern Lights to see.

After driving around for maybe an hour more, we stopped by the church at Kalfatjörn and walked by the beach. The wind was really violent and it was painful even just to stand but we nevertheless walked to the even windier beach. There we could see some very weak glow…the kind of faint Light that you would not all associate with Northern Lights unless you have some experience. This wasn’t much indeed, but it proved that there was some kind of solar activity. We decided to stay at the place a bit longer in the hopes of seeing the Lights flare up and they did!

After maybe 10 minutes or so our driver Bennie looked out of the window and told us to get out! The Northern Light was there! We jumped out of the bus and we saw some faint Light approaching from the East:

We decided to move a bit away from the light pollution of the church and took shelter by a little house nearby. There we were able to see more clearly the arch-shape of the Aurora unfolding:

Still, The Aurora was a bit weaker than average and everyone wanted to see it flare for real. And, surprisingly enough, it did! It lasted for maybe 15 minutes max but we saw the flickering of the Aurora rising over the clouds! That was a mighty sight to behold; so much that most probably forgot the frost-bitten winds!

After that the Aurora died quickly and we drove home, happy to know that despite the rather gloomy predictions, we indeed did catch a sight of those elusive Northern Lights!