Episode 23

Well, we flew up to Kiruna in northern Sweden, me being stuffed into the cabin bag, no dignity at all. Had to leave Arundel about 3am and encountered only two or three other vehicles on the hour drive to Gatwick where we saw a lot of people sleeping on the seats or with sleeping bags spread about on the floor. The airport wasn't busy at that hour though the shops were beginning to open for the day’s business.

Our flight left on time and we landed at Arlanda (Stockholm’s airport) a few minutes early. We had about 1.5 hours here until our connection to Kiruna in Swedish Lapland. All went smoothly and we arrived in Kiruna around 12.30pm stepping out into -10C. There was some snow about though it wasn’t deep.

Kiruna is an iron ore mining town boasting the largest underground iron ore mine in the world. The tunnels honeycomb the earth beneath the town and now much of the town is in the process of being moved because of subsidence and the threat of this getting much worse. There was once a large lake here too, now it has been partially drained, one end being damned and this being done by one of the supposedly most environmentally friendly countries in the world; money always wins out over the environment. Even all the fish were netted and relocated in the dam. The old train station is no longer being used and a small demountable has been erected some distance away as a waiting room. It is well heated, a must in this climate and a ticket machine installed. The taxi ride to the station has to be the most expensive in the world at around $60 AU for 15k’s.

Almost no where in Sweden can you buy tickets with cash so you must use a machine. Apparently the banks are discouraging businesses from using cash at all by charging them for handling any cash. Fortunately it was fairly straightforward to buy the train tickets for Abisko.

We did have quite a wait with the train being more than an hour late: At this high latitude, we are now above the arctic circle the sun had set by 2pm and it was beginning to lose light. By 4pm when the train finally arrived and we climbed on board it was almost dark except for the moonlight, the nearly full moon gave the landscape a silvery light reflecting off the thin snow covering. After arriving in Abisko less than an hour later we easily found the hostel we’d booked and soon I was out of the cabin bag and quickly installed by the window where I had a good view outside. I was not familiar with all that white stuff on the ground.

Over the course of the next week quite a lot of walking was done. My humans would wrap themselves up in all their warmest clothes and set out for a walk about the village. The village is divided into two parts, the one part where we were staying by Abisko Ostra train station had a supermarket, a number of houses, our hostel, and a bar and goodness knows what else. Nearly two k’s away was another train station, another hostel, a hotel or two and a short way further on the chairlift to the sky station.

Our first two nights here had relatively clear skies. On the second night we did see a band across the sky that was the aurora, it was moving a little and was slightly green in colour to those who had good eyes, but mostly it resembled thin high cloud. It lasted only a very short time, 5 to7 minutes. A few people had gone up to the sky station on the chair lift that operates between 9pm and 1am Thursday to Saturday, however at over $100 a trip (£62) my humans were not going to go unless there was something to see. Even a couple of those that did go missed seeing the aurora as they were sitting inside eating something and it had gone by the time they got outside. They were bitterly disappointed:

The next night we did what became a routine for the rest of our stay despite the weather. All rugged up we would walk down to the lake shore away from the lights of the village and wait to see if any aurora appeared. It did on that first night, a small showing for about 10mins: That is what L photographed: One night it was snowing heavily and it kept up all night so we didn’t venture out. The remaining nights my humans would go down and find a place to sit on the rocks and just watch the sky until it completely clouded over as it did each night then they walked back the 1k to the hostel and enjoy a cup of hot chocolate before going to bed mostly after 1am. Not another glimmer of an aurora did they see. L had made a big mistake by booking this trip when the moon was full, she had forgotten to check that:

One day we went looking for reindeer. There had been some snow overnight and the National Park trails had quite deep snow on them. The Saami (the native people of Lapland) had informed the village that they were bringing a herd of reindeer through over the weekend but gave no specific time. Although with the overnight snow there was now deep enough snow to run the sled dog teams this couldn’t be done in case they encountered the reindeer and upset them, so sledding was out until the reindeer had moved through. We walked miles, or felt like it, me tucked in L’s new heavy down jacket, and didn’t see any reindeer. Some people saw a fox or two and others a hare but we didn’t even see them. My humans claim that it is quite hard work hiking through snow 100mm or more deep, and this activity kept them from getting cold, they even got too hot at times.

Because the train to Kiruna arrives there in the afternoon it doesn’t connect with flights to Stockholm so we had to have one night in Kiruna on the return journey. We stayed at Yellow House Hostel and there we met a couple from Romania whose company we all enjoyed, me too.

The evening we were in Kiruna the sky had some clear patches, so everyone, this being the last opportunity to do so, went off walking to the local vantage point, a high hill outside town to see if the aurora would show itself, meanwhile I stayed in the warm hostel room alone. They walked quite a way and then climbed up the ski slope but before reaching the top found that the cloud covered all the sky. They waited a good while on the off chance that it may clear but it didn’t oblige so they returned to the warm room and me.

Of course the next morning was crystal clear with an outside temp of -5C in the town and -25C out of town so we were told by the taxi driver who took us to the airport. We, well not me, I was again stuffed in the carry on bag, got a lovely view of a snowy landscape as we fly back to Stockholm.

We had a good flight back to Gatwick and then a cold draughty wait on the station platform for a delayed train. When we reached Arundel the automatic door wouldn’t open so we ended up at Ford station before we could get off. Heather collected us from there in her little Smart Car, one human at a time, her car being just a 2 seater.

Once again I am installed on the sofa at Heathers with Trevor for company at night. I’ve been told that we are likely to be heading home soon, another trip in the carry on bag I expect; no dignity:

© Lynette Regan 23rd November 2013