I am sorry, nature has a mind of its own

Be sure to read my previous post first…

That’s what our guide for the night – Mikael told us after a good 3 hour search for the Aurora. We were almost near Norway, it was 12 degrees below zero and the disappointment started to set in. The weather forecast wasn’t good, you always knew that it was going to be a tall order.

Before all this happened, we have to rewind a bit….

Every adventure needs to have a good start, what could be a better start than this

After this lovely breakfast on the train, we were soaking in the winter scapes that  we were passing, watch the video here

We got off our train in Kiruna only to see it buzzing with activity, cabs, buses et all. Before we had time to sort our luggage the station was deserted with just a few tourists staring at each other wondering what happened.

Apparently, buses and cabs only arrive when there is a train arriving, and cabs take a good half hour to reach the station. This was actually a good thing, since we took a couple of snaps like the below while we were waiting for the cab

We reached our hotel only to find out that all the Aurora tours were booked for the  day and we went through all the snaps we clicked at the station and Mikael had four seats vacant, thankfully!

We spent the next few hours admiring this winter wonderland

Our ride arrived at 7:15 PM, he got us all belted into the trusty toyota, our ride for the day

Mikael told us that the chances were 50-50 today since it was snowing and cloudy. The best chance he told us was to drive about 125kms past Abisko. So, thats exactly what we need.  The four us, along with a Russian (who happens to work for a NGO in Theni, whats the probability of that happening!)  and her South American boyfriend.

The roads were icy and Mikael was a absolute expert behind the wheel. We would get petrified every time one of those massive trucks would just buzz past us at 100 kmph. You think your doing fast only until a bird decides to show what real speed is and buzzes past us!

Mikael got the conversation started as we driving along, he starts off with this

MK: It’s a nice warm evening at -8 today!

All : Laughing, thinking he was just kidding!

MK: A couple of weeks back, it was -40 and I had to literally drag an Hungarian couple out of the car to see the Aurora.

All : Total silence ( He was actually calling -8 warm!)

MK: Which part of India are you all from

Me: North and South, we have it all covered between the 4 four of us

MK: I came to India sometime in the 90’s before the internet, Calcutta and Pune.

Just think about that for a minute, travelling without the internet to find information off! Yeah, people used to actually used to survive without it!

MK: Nice warm place it was, colorful and great food!

We stop for a bit, at MK’s usual haunts. I get down and see the Aurora dance faintly behind the clouds. I was running around like a headless chicken to get the camera out, realize the I need to fix the tripod and groping around in the dark with gloves. Frustrated, I remove the gloves, trying to take snaps with the cold and me shivering the photos were all a blur!

Anyway, MK realized we were not doing anything much other than just pointing at the sky, every time there were faint colors in the sky. We get into the car to go further past the Aurora station and Abisko after MK checks his App.

It’s already past 10 PM, MK takes another break and stops on the side of the road and gives us some absolutely fantastic Glogg and ginger biscuits and  cookies. Out of the world they were, warm Glogg when its -10 is really a great feeling. A few glasses down, I could feel my insides better again!

All this while we waited for the weather to clear up, but it was still cloudy

MK finally decides to drive us another 25 kms further north to Ski resort to try our luck. The excitement in the car was slowly draining out, the weather was not improving. It was continuing to snow! The women decided to stay in the car while we got down to try to see it we could spot anything.

It was past 11 in the night and MK tells us that what all of us really didn’t want to hear -“I am sorry, nature has a mind of its own. I think we should go back now”.  Complete silence in the car follows as we head back down the hill and head home, dejected after coming so far!

20 minutes into our ride back, MK suddenly points out and says -” Hey that’s the north star, that’s a very good sign!”. All of us immediately start scrapping the ice off the windows and try to see if we can spot anything. When someone remarks, hey I can see a lot of stars. As luck would have it, there is no place to park in this section because it was an avalanche prone area!

We drive for another 5 minutes and finally find a run off to stop and this was how the sky was, A Million stars!

The clouds were finally parting, it was 15 below zero now but, we had scented a chance. All of us were out of the car and our heads rotating around trying to spot something in any direction!

MK keeps telling us to look north, It’s called Northern lights for a reason!

The hunt had  begun, and we had a scent now!

to be continued, Next Page