Tromsø

10:30 at night.

It is eleven thirty at night in Tromsø and the sun is shining brighter than it has all day. I'm eating reindeer salami from the local co-op, washed down with apple juice because eating out is outrageously expensive. A burger costs £18 to £20 and a beer costs £8. But let's not quibble; I have had the most amazing evening.

My first sight of Norway was at mid-day, just south of Oslo, when we came in from the south. From above everything gets flattened out but I had an impression of pine woods with lakes and some dairy farms. As we circled to land it became obvious that southern Norway is really quite hilly. It reminded me very strongly of Minnesota with red farms sitting down there in the woods. That's no accident of course: Minnesota was largely settled by Norwegians who brought their architecture and cheese with them.

As you fly north out of Oslo more forests and lakes appear. I could pick out blueberry meadows and likely looking fishing rivers. There is quite a lot of forestry too, but the trees quickly start to thin out as bare, glaciated rocks start to dominate. Hard ridges and striations are etched out in white where snow still lies, even in July.

Beyond that, most of Norway lay under the Great Norwegian Cloud for the afternoon and it was quite nerve-racking to be approaching Tromsø with the wheels down but with no sign of the ground. However, we slunk down a valley and dropped straight on to the grey, wet runway. The plane came to a stop outside the rain-lashed terminal and there was absolute silence on board. Despite most of the passengers being Norwegian, I  guessed that they were thinking the same as me. "When is the next flight back to Oslo?"



Given that this was to be my only day in Tromsø, it seemed like a good idea to ignore the rain and get out and explore the area on foot. My eyes soon grew accustomed to the greyness and the temperature was comfortable as I strolled past the shops, the wooden houses and the church on my way to the harbour. Arctic terns streamed overhead constantly and little flotillas of eider ducks swam past. I even saw three red-throated divers flying over the port.

I started to spot familiar plants growing around the houses and on the verges of the roads. Most of the plants were ones that I last saw in Scotland but there were some surprises. Giant hogweed is very common in the town and has become a kind of corporate symbol. It's not native though. In fact, there are quite a lot of non-native plants such as lupins and other North American species. With the rain, the mountains, the sea and the wooden houses it could be the Pacific North West. Think of the "Twilight Saga" which is set in Washington State around towns such as Forks and Port Angelus. I guess Vancouver would be even more like it or Spielberg's California as portrayed in "The Goonies".

The botanical gardens are part of the University Campus, about 5 Km out of town. People only seemed to have a vague idea where it was and I walked past it twice before being put right. I dropped down into it by following the geology trail through some birch and willow woods. Arctic (or alpine) plants were growing naturally everywhere. I even found a sphagnum bog with cotton grass, sundew, cloudberries and blue-berries growing. Rocky outcrops had cranes-bills and dwarf cornels growing on them while the wetter bits had orchids, pink valerian, ladies mantle and meadow-sweet. My star find was grass of Parnassus which was my grandmother's favourite plant.

In that little bit of Arctic woodland I saw and heard two emblematic northern birds; fieldfares and redwings. I also saw willow warblers, green finches and great tits, but hooded crows and magpies were the most vocal.

I walked back towards town on the harbour road where common gulls dive-bombed me to keep me away from their chicks. White wagtails and house sparrows called from factory roofs and a pair of ravens had their home atop a water tower. Not a bad list for town, is it?

If you qwould like to see a slideshow of my Tromsø photos, click here.