Aurora search, night 1
Around 9pm we set off for the resort we visited earlier in the day beside Olkkajarvi lake.
There were a couple of coaches with tourists arriving for snow mobile or huski sled tours.
With a disrupted body clock from the travel, Miss H was less than enthusiastic about several hours in the cold.
So I took one for the team and left Mrs H and Miss H huddled up in the warmth of the car.
The path from the resort to the lake was icy and dark.
A bright digital display near the reception informed me it was minus-11 degrees.
I wondered if that was also the number of minutes before I froze to death.
The wind sounded icy as it hissed through the surrounding trees.
Alone in the dark my mind began to wander.
What if I run into a grizzly bear?
Do they hang around the resort looking for food?
In the darkness my ears were like radar, picking up any sound.
I couldn’t tell if the chill up my spine was the fear, the cold, or both.
It was then that Mrs H wound down the car window and asked, “Are you just going to stand there?”
And so I set off to walk the 200 metres or so to the lake’s edge.
From there I could see a miner’s lamp in the distance and just make out a group of people on the frozen lake.
The sky above was crystal clear.
Radiant stars sparkled like fairy lights.
But there was no aurora.
After a few minutes waiting, hoping, urging the sky to light up, I headed back to the car to warm up.
I reported my findings and the family was disappointed, but not surprised.
We stayed in the car for almost an hour, listening to a radio station we could only partly understand and eating enough chocolate to survive three winters.
Extreme boredom set in and I suggested we all walk to the lake.
The family agreed and we arrived to discover the guide who was previously with the group on the lake had started a fire.
She invited us to warm up and for about the next hour she happily let us sit with her group here...
The guide told her group, and us, the history of the area, stories of tourism booms and busts, and offered tips on where and when to spot the aurora.
Every few minutes someone would slip outside to check if there was any aurora activity.
We met a couple of guys from Perth and chatted with others in the tour group.
As the guide brewed tea for her group and grilled them sausages, I pondered the fact that we’d paid nothing for the experience and the only thing the tourist got for their AUD90 that we didn’t was the tea and sausages.
And none of us saw the Aurora.
I was disappointed, but with four nights to go, remained optimistic.