Hurtigruten norsk tur: Del fire

We kept heading north today, and our main destination was Tromso. We had a few hours there and took the opportunity to venture out into the snow-bound countryside to take in a 'Husky Safari'. It was a fun way of spending a cold, clear late afternoon, verging into early evening as the light faded. Other than that, we were force fed on the boat. Over the course of three meals, I had 5 varieties of fish - herring, coalfish, salmon, mackerel and char - a few mussels and some shell-on prawns. It's a good menu for lovers of sea food. Probably not so good for anyone else.

Stand at the bow of a ship in freezing conditions, with the wind whistling around your ears, holding on to your camera and tripod for dear life, grappling with a cable release through gloved hands, wait for an hour and you might, just might, get a photograph of the Northern Lights. And they look better as an image than in real life. My first attempt and I think I've got the logistics sorted out. All we need now is a calm, dark night which we should get in a day or so when we move around the North Cape.

A composite of seascapes and mountains on the way to Tromso. Just a selection of many as we sailed through majestic scenery.

 At first sight, the areas we pass through might appear to be sparsely populated but this is not the case at all. All along the shore, even in the most outlandishly cut-off of places, there are small huts, clusters of houses and hamlets. Perhaps residential, perhaps seasonal.

The huskies getting ready for our 'safari'. In effect, a thirty-minute or so ride/drag through some spectacular scenery in the gloaming.

Ready for action. Mrs P seems to be looking forward to it more than me. I was more concerned about my right hand slowly getting frostbite.

In theory, it should have been easy taking photographs in the sledge. After all, I was lying down with both hands free. What could possibly go wrong. The humps and bumps, that's what. I reckon about 50% of what I took was useless due to camera shake or, more accurately, camera leaps.

But I did get a few that captured the atmosphere reasonably well. The light was fading but the autofocus did quite a good job. Using the manual settings was completely out of the question under these circumstances.

That dog on the left must have the most photographed rear of all of them. She was also wearing a very fetching set of red shoes.

Two lead dogs straining to get underway. Norwegian huskies are derived from the Alaskan variety and are lean, mean pulling machines. They are not the furry Siberian types normally thought of as being the archetypical husky. 

The dogs got noticeably faster as they neared the end of the run and their kennels. Apparently they get a snack when they finish and they are keen to get back for this.

Each dog has its own kennel and, to my untrained eye, they all seemed to be in good health and very well looked after. But I'm not really a doggy person so fawning over puppies was not my thing.

 And this one was really impressed with the whole affair.