Day 5 arrived in a little whirl of wind rain and cloud, however we had decided the day before we were going to hike Tjeldbergtind (dont ask me to pronounce that) so we layered up, whacked on our waterproofs and soldiered on!

The mountain we climbed is known at the table top mountain as it is flat (ish) on top.

Its starts of with a killer steep walk up the hill from the car park until you get to this sign which is the official start of the trail head. From here it is an upwards climb over smaller rocks. Its a tricky path that you have to take time thinking about where to place your feet. This path then winds all way up to the peak of the mountain.

Not long after starting the trail we were offered our first spectacular view. Looking back I think this is one of my favourite photos. Doesnt it look like a painting?

As we trapsed our way up the mountain with Liam helpfully playing us some peaceful music the rain started turning to sleet and then eventually snow as the peak got closer and closer.

The steps became slippery at points but we just put more thought and care into our footing.

Also, the recommended trail route is helpfully marked out by blue and white markings. So if there were points we we were sure which way up the rocks to take we looked around for the markings. If its blue and white, youre alright!

We reached the peak and the weather conditions were dramatically different. We had gone from drizzling rain to powerful winds that bit at your skin and snow underfoot.

From this point there were two further peak options.

The boys obviously climbed over to the further peak but feeling a little jelly legged about the prospect of the narrow path the girls stayed behind.

The views up here however were truly breathtaking (along with the wind). We got views of the island towns below and the mountains in the background.

By the time we had enjoyed the view, taken our photos and marvelled at our climb we were just about frozen and ready to head back down the mountain.

As the top was steeper and icy we opted for the “bum scramble” technique for the first few metres. A truly graceful and attractive mode of movement.

We quickly straightened up however and were on our way to the bottom! At the end we were grateful to be back on solid ground but feeling very accomplished!

After the hike we wanted nothing more than to dry off and warm up but we headed to the shop to get provisions for lunch first. We bought some carrot bread which turned out to be super tasty along with soup, crackers, ham and cheese. It was a lush picnicky lunch!

After this we had planned to visit the War Museum but oddly it didnt open until 18:30pm. So we decided to put the kettle on, wrap up in blankets and play some games. We were grateful we didnt have to venture out again for a while as the rain and wind were really whipping round our little Rorbuer. We were so cosy inside!

After our cosy afternoon in we headed out to the war museum.

Lofoten was invaded by the Nazis during the second world war. We learnt that the Nazis hadnt expected the islanders to put up such a good resistance against their invasion and actually managed to push them back into Sweden. It is considered one of the first victories of the second world war.

This is the typical outfit of a Norwegian mountain soldier:

There was so much stuff in this museum we could have spent hours in there. However whilst we were there our phones alerted us to high Aurora activity so when we finished up we drove to the outskirts of the city and looked skywards.

Once again though the clouds quickly moved over and the rain came again so we abandonned our search and went to grab some pizzas instead!

We spent the rest of the evening relaxing and intermittently looking out for Aurora activity. Our phones were telling us the activity was really high and we were in for a good chance of seeing them. However the cloud cover was still a bit too much.

We went to bed once again with our hourly alarms set to try and catch them through out the night.

At 2am Liam woke me up to say he wasnt sure but potentially we could see something. I raced into the front area of our cabin and looked up into the sky. Most of the cloud had moved and we could see stars.

After a few minutes of sitting there a light strip appeared down the sky. Behaving very differently to cloud.

We quickly ran to wake up the others and soon we were all looking out of the open windows with heaters at our feet.

We sat in silence for a short while waiting for our eyes to adjust to the darkness. After not too long we noticed something glowing across the sky.

From our research of the Northern Lights we had learnt that initially they dont always appear as bright green like in the photos. At first they tend to appear milky white or grey and slowly turn green.

We spent alot of time going is it…? Isnt it? But eventually it was unmistakable.

What we were looking at was the Aurora Borealis. After 5 days in the country and on Liam’s birthday they had finally appeared for us.