Finding Warmth in the Arctic Circle

by Michelle Lim (Singapore)

I didn't expect to find Norway

“Drive slowly, take your time, don’t go beyond the red poles,” I continually reminded my husband as he drove through the thick blanket of snow-covered road. Our little red rental bobbed up and down the icy path, sometimes swaying from side to side as the menacing wind pounced on us. “We’ve entered Narnia!” my husband exclaimed as I continued to stare in amazement at the scenic view of the snowy mountains in front of us and roaring oceans beside us. “Indeed, we have…” It was the second day of our road trip and I was feeling more worried than I was excited with our new adventure. The weather forecast didn’t look promising. We flew a long way here, and its our second time in the Arctic Circle. Could we possibly catch the Northern Lights? Then again, that wasn’t all that was on my mind… The light powdery snowflakes have quickly turned into a squall. Even though it wasn’t our first time driving on snow, nor was it our first time driving on the other side of the road, the paths here are narrow and our visibility was drastically hampered by the snowstorm. “We should have gotten a 4WD,” I thought to myself, feeling uncertain about our choice of vehicle and the vastly different driving conditions. Crossing my fingers and heaving a sigh of relief , we approached the little town of Ramberg, (civilisation at last!). “But… I think we missed the Rambergstranda red hut!” Mr K slowed down the vehicle, pressing the brakes once, releasing it, and then pressing it once more before he decided to make a three-point turn. Thinking that it was a driveway towards a house, he slightly reversed the vehicle and turned the steering wheel until… I felt a bump, and then my seat inched lower and lower, I screamed for him to stop, but it was too late… The pull of gravity was too strong… We rolled in, and there was nothing we could do to stop the Skoda. And then we were, stuck in a ditch. It was almost impossible to distinguish between a road and a ditch. “I can’t believe we went past the red poles!” my husband sulked. “We have to get out!” I panicked. We both unbuckled our safety belts, he got out first before I climbed past the driver’s seat to get out of the car. We stared at our ride for a full 3 minutes, not knowing what to do. Reaching back into the now sunken car, I scoured for my phone. One ring, two rings, and many more later, I soon realised that it was Sunday and the rental company’s not picking up the phone. Mr K re-entered the vehicle to try to rev it out of the ditch but we were in too deep and had absolutely no control of the back wheels. A passing car stopped and tried to help, only to fall further back into the ditch. Another came and tried to give us an emergency number to call. That number too, was to no avail. Yet another local driver stopped to check if we were both okay. We wondered where all these cars come from, seeing how empty the roads were throughout our drive. Finally, we got hold of an emergency tow truck company (thank goodness for 4G!) but couldn’t converse with them in Norwegian. We held on the line until another car came by to help translate our disastrous situation. Fortunately or unfortunately, it was conveyed to us that help will come… in two hours. We couldn’t quite wait in the sunken Skoda because that would be too dangerous, yet the frigid air made it too unbearable to be outside. A presumably warm restaurant was nearby as indicated on the map but somehow our frozen minds took the better of us as we trudged on in the wrong direction. Mr K and I only realised that we were in serious trouble when the restaurant was nowhere to be found and our iPhone batteries conked out because of the cold. It was then when we saw a light, an electronic driveway door opening up, and we knew it was there where we can find…