Chapter 10 - Sail through the arctic ocean in search of whales

It was about 7am. I had just opened my eyes, but the view outside was breath-taking. The snow had almost descended to the levels of my window and I realised we were already late for the day’s exploration. We had to be in the city latest by 8 30 am. The sun is not showing up outside, our car is covered in layers of snow –but even the meticulous task of removing the settled snow from the car was enjoyable. The roads are thankfully being cleares frequently by the municipality, so, driving was not as tough as expected, but the rest of the roadsides stay immersed in snow.

1 hour drive to the ferry was pleasant, with little sun shine. The open lands were still covered with white layers of snow. We also some frozen rivers and waterfalls. Despite this chill weather, we noticed people jogging outside and children going to school.Interestingly, everyone has a reflector on their shirts because of the low visibility. And all the roads are just wide enough for 2 lanes to pass on either side. Compared to the snow in Lapland which was dry and dusty, the snow here was harsh and wet. This needs extra caution while driving.

The meeting point for the day was Scandic Ishavs Hotel at Tromso City Center, which is about a 20 min drive from our stay. The public car parking is expensive, rentals being 210 NOK ( 1700+ INR), more expensive than many European cities.The tour buses pick visitors from this point in an Airconditioned bus and drive us to the Ferry Port. This

As we arrived at the port, our ferry was ready. We took our time to suit us up better as the temperature would touch -18 degrees as we go inside the sea. The ferry operator provided us with shoes and suits , more like the suits that heavy duty construction workers would wear, but nothing lesser would fight the harsh arctic winds.

This ferry is a large wooden boat like a sloop. Its completely open and its going to be a sail through tuff winds. The sail began with us crossing small islands and we saw a lot of salmon farms. Everyone eager to see the wheals and looking around.Ocra or the killer whales are the main attraction.Okra is about 6 to 8metres long and 3 to 5 tonnes in weight. They attack the blue whales. Which means if the Ocra is around, your not gonna see the blue whales.

get to see the orca fully. Slightly disappointed because we waited that long for her sight, but nevertheless, witnessing her tail by itself is an adventure.But the wildlife is like that, we need to be lucky to see the best scenes. And today we are not that lucky. But I feel lucky because I reach this far. The ferry operators are constantly communicating with each other warning and signalling them of the whales they spot. Meantime, we were served warm soup and bread. As we were heading inside lined in our 4 layers of clothing, yet freezing, the captain of another ferry signalled that he saw an orca.Our ferry took a turn so that we will also get to see – all eyes looking into the ocean to spot the orca. We managed to see the tail , but we unfortunately we did not

We got back to the port and then back to City center and its around 3pm – pretty dark already. We strolled around and had some food. Tromso restaurants are expensive and hence supermarket food is a budget traveller’s choice.

we head back to our home to take some rest. Because, tonight we are not going to sleep. We are going to see one of the natures biggest wonder. Yha…. The Northern Lights. Will comeback with that amazing stories and