Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Glacier Museums
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Arctic North
Ifthefjordshavedrama,Norway'sArctic Northhasanirrevocable senseofmystery.From
Svalbard, almost equidistant from the North Pole and Norway's Nordkapp in the north of
the mainland, to the expansively beautiful Arctic Highway (
Click here
) that carries you
from the south into Arctic Norway, Norway's far north is rich in phenomena that seem to
spring from a child's imagination.
The first thing you'll likely notice is the endless horizon that never quite seems to frame
a landscape of austere, cinematic beauty. In its most extreme form, this disorienting sense
of a world without limit is known as Fata Morgana, whereby all sense of distance and
perspective is lost. Or perhaps what you'll remember most is the astonishing night sky in
winter when the weird and wonderful aurora borealis, also called the northern lights, can
seem like an evocation of a colourful ghost story writ large. The midnight sun and seem-
inglyendlesspolarnightcanbesimilarlydisorienting,addingastrangemagictoyourNor-
wegian sojourn.
FATA MORGANA
If the aurora inspires wonder, the Fata Morgana may prompt a visit to a psychiatrist.
The clear and pure Arctic air ensures that distant features do not appear out of focus.
As a result, depth perception becomes impossible and the world takes on a strangely
two-dimensional aspect where distances are indeterminable. Early explorers meticu-
lously laid down on maps and charts islands, headlands and mountain ranges that
were never seen again. An amusing example of distance distortion, described in the
enigmatic book
Arctic Dreams
by Barry Lopez, involves a Swedish explorer who
was completing a description in his notebook of a craggy headland with two unusual
symmetrical valley glaciers, when he discovered that he was actually looking at a
walrus.
Fata Morganas are apparently caused by reflections off water, ice and snow, and
when combined with temperature inversions, create the illusion of solid, well-defined
