501 Places

At the tip of the American land mass, Ushuaia is a busy little town in southern Argentina. We spent a few days exploring the town and the surrounding part of Tierra del Fuego. The autumn colours were stunning, and the almost hourly shift between warm sunshine and snow blizzards is reminiscent of the Scottish Highlands.

One abiding memory was stopping talk to a couple of cyclists who were on their final day of a bike ride from Alaska – 18,000 km through the whole of N and S America. What a feeling it must be to come to the end of such a journey! (and how sore they must be…)

And what a treat our long flight delay turned out to be! Only a short walk from the aiport terminal into the town centre, and a fantastic cake shop in which to while away the time…

(April 2007)

Those who have witnessed the Northern Lights in their full glory will agree that it is an experience that defies description. Beautiful, mystical, mesmerising – no words can do it justice.

The picture on the left is at Kattfjord, near Tromso in Norway, taken in 2002. We had travelled up with the main aim of seeing the aurora, and struck lucky on the first two nights there. Standing on the porch of our cabin, overlooking a tranquil fjord and seeing the green curtains of light dance over our heads, we were speechless. (Incidentally, it is a beautiful part of the world, and even without seeing the aurora we would have loved the place)

The image below was our first full sighting of the aurora – I was working in the Shetland Islands in 2000, and looked outside in hope around midnight. From a faint red glow on the horizon, the whole sky was soon lit up. The show lasted for nearly two hours, and covered almost every colour of the spectrum. The picture is over-exposed and as it comes from my pre-digital days, I learned the hard way how not to photograph the aurora. It still captures a little of the magic of what we saw.

Solar activity goes through 11 year cycles, and we are currently in a lull. So if you want to maximise your chances of seeing the northern lights, plan your trip to Alaska/Canada/Greenland/Norway to coincide with the next maximum, which is due in 2013 and 2014.

It was with the help of a little white lie that I persuaded Sam that six days across Russia and Mongolia by train was a great idea. I told her there was a shower on board (oops!)

But once we started our journey, there were no regrets. Every day a new vista opened in front of us. From bustling Moscow to the increasingly cold and desolate Siberian steppes, we sat watching the landscape change while enjoying dubious cuisine. By time we passed Irkutsk and circled Lake Baikal, we observed men fishing through the ice on the lake.

Mongolia was bleak, yet the warm welcome we received in Ulan Bator station made up for the blizzard we experienced there. And then China! As soon as they attached the Chinese restaurant car we indulged in a full blown banquet – we didn’t care that it was 6am!

I hear that nowadays the journey can be done in a lot more comfort (even luxury!) – for us, this was a journey that was so rich with wonderful experiences that I would happily do it again.

(April 1995)