If our first trip to see the Northern Lights was special, then our second was spectacular!
The weather forecast for the last week has been suggesting that Boxing Day would be the best night for the Northern Lights. It was clear and cold, and there was no moon to light the sky.
We loaded into our arctic suits armed with the experience that comes with a second night… extra socks and extra gloves! Again, we headed to the Finnish border where there was a promise of strong lights during the evening.
The driver pulled over about an hour into the trip. Andrew and Alex had been looking out the window convinced they could see the lights, and sure enough they were faintly lighting up the sky.
The spot that we settled for the night was in Lakselvbukt, a little farming community on a fjord. The mountain and the water provided a stunning backdrop for photos, and was a contrast to the remoteness of the Finnish border.
Our guide, Marcos, was a photographer from Portugal. It seems that photography skills are a key selection criteria for this job! He was able to share some additional tips to the night before, particularly on how to take advantage of the new location.
As the night progressed the lights got better and better. We watched them dance and move many times, often so rapidly that they looked like flames in a fire place. We managed to see all the different shapes – the patches, arcs, rays and coronas, with a background of millions of stars. They strengthened to vivid green over and over, often with tinges of red showing activity in the higher atmosphere.
Andrew’s photos are stunning…
While Andrew took photos the girls and I laid in the snow. The night sky always captures me and makes me feel like a tiny being in an enormous space. It reminds me that we are just custodians of the planet for a moment in time… sharing the space where people have been for thousands of years, and responsible for caring for the planet for thousands more to come. What a privilege.
Love M, theBunch & R x
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