Northern Lights

Friday 11 October 2024

We’ve been back for a week and have caught up with all the family as well as a few friends. After chatting about our recent trip the question everyone asks is “Where’s next?”. We haven’t really given it a lot of thought yet but we are hoping to do a few short trips in the UK over the coming months. With one eye on the weather and another on various social media accounts we’re always looking for opportunities to see the Northern Lights and, as we approach ‘Solar Maximum’, now is a great time to see them.

There’s a large element of luck and a lot of science involved when it comes to seeing the Northern Lights or Aurora Borealis. But it’s never been easier to see them - taking advantage of apps, forecasts, social media and super smart smartphones.

The ‘Solar Maximum’ refers to the highest period of activity of coronal mass ejections (CME’s) which are clouds of charged particles, sunspots and solar flare activity during the sun's 11-year solar cycle. We are approaching the peak of the cycle with high activity expected.

I was lucky enough to see them every night of a four night trip to Arctic Norway with my twin sister Sue in February 2018. 

But you don’t have to go that far to see the Northern Lights and there’s no guarantee that if you go to Norway or Iceland that you’ll see them. Dave and I have seen them three times here in the UK over the past 20 years. The first time was in 2004 soon after we moved to Shrewsbury, a very feint display which we weren’t really sure what it was initially. More recently, in May 2024, we saw them from the hills above Aberdovey and last night we headed to Moreton Corbet Castle near Shawbury, Shropshire (a 7 mile drive from our house). 

So here’s a few of my own personal tips if you’re keen to try and see them:

Follow one of the Space Weather Forecasters who closely watch and report on solar activity, CME’s and flares. They will work out when we MIGHT see aurora. I follow Space Weather Woman Dr Tamitha Skov, but there’s plenty of others out there:

https://www.spaceweatherwoman.com/ 

Download a good App (my go-to is AuroraWatch UK) and set it up so you receive notifications from it. I have mine set for Red Alerts (but it’s on silent so I don’t get unwelcome alerts in the middle of the night). The levels are: Green (no activity), Yellow (minor activity), Amber (possibility of activity in northern areas) and Red (possibility of aurora anywhere in the UK).

Keep an eye out on the weather forecast. You really do need clear skies or minimal cloud. Ideally no moon or just a small moon.

On the day/night monitor the activity level and trend. AuroraWatch UK has an hourly activity index to measure ‘geomagnetic activity’. The value is updated every 3 minutes based on available data so the level may change during any given hour. Activity is recorded in nanotesla (nT) - a unit of measurement for magnetic field strength. In all honesty seeing a good Northern Lights display doesn’t happen that often so Dave and I decided we wouldn’t go out unless the activity was around 1000nT! This is because a) we are a bit lazy and b) we have a lot of light pollution where we live in Shrewsbury town centre so it means us getting in the van and driving away from the street lights. You need to be committed because the peak activity can be between 10pm and 2am, when most of us are happily snuggled up in bed not out aurora hunting!

If all the above indicate aurora might be visible from your region then get away from any light pollution (towns, street lights, car lights etc) and head for somewhere with a big sky and ideally with a view north. Consider in advance about where to go, think about where to park, your personal safety and also foreground interest. Bear in mind though that the aurora can shift around once it gets going! Wrap up warm as you may be outside for a while. Be conscious of others taking photographs nearby and try to avoid shining torches or bright phone screens around. Practice taking nighttime photographs without flash on a long exposure beforehand so you know how your phone or SLR camera works. 

Allow your eyes to adjust to the dark skies - initially you may just see a very feint green tinge to the sky. A good mobile phone will be able to pick up more colours and intensity than you can see with the naked eye. I have an iPhone 14 Pro which, on a 3 second exposure, captures some pretty amazing images. You need a steady hand or something like a GorillaPod tripod used with a release button or self timer. The grid of photos below shows how the skies changed over about an hour in Aberdovey in May 2024.

The colours can vary from pastels to bright green and red. At some point though just put your camera away in your pocket and take some time to look up at the sky and appreciate the display as it swirls around above you, changing colour and intensity. It is just the most amazing natural phenomenon. 

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The BBC has a page explaining the science much better than I can! BBC Northern Lights

And here’s a BBC webpage  with some great photos from the display in the Midlands on Oct 10th & 11th 2024.

Back Home Blues

Sunday 6 October 2024

There is something about the momentum of travel that makes you want to just keep moving, to never stop.”  Bill Bryson

We’re back home, unpacked the van and started the mammoth task of giving everything a good wash, ourselves included!

The drive back through northern Italy, Switzerland, France and Belgium was a delight. We avoided the toll roads and pootled slowly along local and national roads enjoying the ever changing scenery. And the sun was shining on us for our last day in Brugge, culminating with the most stunning sunset in Dunkirk before we caught our ferry back home.

Looking back on our trip -  the Zagori region of Northern Greece and the island of Lefkada were wonderful. Some aspects of Albania really disappointed us but the natural landscape and archeological sites were impressive. And we enjoyed visiting some new places in Turkey as well as returning to some familiar haunts. We haven’t decided where our next roadtrip will take us, first I have to earn a bit of money to fund it. For those interested in the stats and costs …

7175 miles, 44 days away & total cost of £3014

16 countries (3 main plus 13 transited through)

Cost breakdown as follows:

Ferries (Dover-Dunkirk & Durres-Bari) £340

Vignettes & Tolls £203

Fuel £941

Food & drink in £363

Food & drink out £493

Campsites £214

Museums & Attractions £186

Misc (gas/insurance/data outside EU) £274

Overnight stops:

 5 nights with friends

11 on campsites

  1 overnight on ferry

27 wild camped 

I’ve taken over 1500 photos on this trip which I need to whittle down to allow me to create a 2024 Road Trips photobook (to include our Spring Spain and Portugal trip).

So that’s it for this trip - we hope you’ve enjoyed following our journey. Kath & Dave 

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Travel isn’t always pretty. 

It isn’t always comfortable. 

Sometimes it hurts, it even breaks your heart. 

But that’s okay. 

The journey changes you; it should change you. 

It leaves marks on your memory, on your consciousness, on your heart, and on your body. You take something with you. 

Hopefully, you leave something good behind.

- Anthony Bourdain

Build Bridges Not Walls

Thursday 3 October 2024

Walls create borders, bridges create solutions. 

Over the last few days in France we’ve visited towns with huge stark fortifications including Belfont and Laon. Throughout the trip we’ve seen many city walls and fortifications dating back thousands of years.

But my camera roll has far more images of stunning bridges than imposing walls so, as promised, here’s a selection of some of the beautiful bridges (and a couple of not so beautiful ones) that we’ve either deliberately sought out or unexpectedly come across on our trip through Turkey, Greece and Albania.

Turkey

The 1915 Canakkale Bridge was opened in 2022 and, at 2023 meters, it became the longest suspension bridge in the world. We previously used to take a little ferry to cross the Dardanelles Strait - although the bridge is cheaper and quicker, the experience isn’t half as much fun.

Northern Greece

The Zagori region is supposedly home to more than 150 arched stone bridges built during the 18th and 19th centuries. Many were funded by local philanthropists and master craftsmen used local stone to build them. Most are still standing, albeit many have been repaired and renovated over the years.

I’m going to throw the Santa Maura Floating Bridge in here which connects mainland Greece to the ‘island’ of Lefkada. Over the past 100 years the type of bridge/ferry used to cross the man-made channel has changed enormously. This particular floating/swinging bridge has been in situ since 1986 and swings open roughly every hour on the hour and stays open for about 15 minutes to let boats pass through.

Albania

Dragot Bridge, built in 1936, which crosses the River Vjosa was described on a tourist information board nearby as ‘probably the most beautiful bridge in Albania’. 

At the time we said to each other ‘We’ll be the judge of that’ as we’d already seen the beautiful ancient stone Katiu bridge and would later see Mesi bridge, with its 13 arches.

The Zogu Bridge in central Albania was built in 1927 and was hailed as a masterpiece of civil engineering for its time. It was designed by German and Swiss engineers and built using imported Italian materials. Sadly it hasn’t fared well - one of its six arches was bombed in WW2 and another column, supporting two arches, is sinking into the river bed. We walked over it despite reading that it was ‘in imminent danger of collapse’. It might have survived better if it had been designed by Italians and built with German and Swiss materials!

Heading Home

With a few hours to spare before our ferry home we parked up on the outskirts of Brugge and walked into the city centre. It is one of 37 towns and cities in Europe affectionately referred to as the ‘Venice of the North’ (8 of them being in the UK!). Depending on which website you read there are between 50 and 80 bridges in Brugge, some romantic, all functional. A real mix of wooden, stone and metal structures, some swinging, some lifting, some fixed. We managed to walk over quite a few of them in the very short time we were there.