Abisko and Northern Sweden

The trek up north didnt turn out to be much of a Trek at all. One over night train that took 16 hours was all it took to arrive at a place called Abisko Ostra, inside one of Swdens biggest National Parks, Abisko. We were originally going to head to the town of Kiruna, but found that getting accomodation was impossible. Abisko was our next choice, and turned out to be the better one the more we thought about it. Our main goal for coming up this far north was to see the Aurora Borealis or 'the Northern Lights'. Abisko was far away from any major settlement, and so was free from major light pollution. It was also shielded by a large mountain range which helped to catch clouds and meant that the skies were more likely to be clear. All in all, good conditions for seeing the Aurora.

We had been told that it would be Polar Night while we would be up there, which means that it would be night for 24 hours of the day. We found out pretty much as soon as we got off the train that this was not entirely true. While you do not see the SUN for the entire 24 hour period, it is still quite light. Think of sun rise just before the sun crests the horizon. It gave us about 3 hours of light in which to explore the place and another 2 hours where it is still possible to discern the mountains in the distance. We managed to find the place we were staying in (the owner was kind enough to give us directions to the 'red house' over the train tracks but unfortunately neglected to tell us that practically every house in Abisko was red) and settled into life far up north. The hostel owner, Orjan, made sure we all knew how to 'dish' (wash dishes), take 'Swddish Shower' (Just to save hot water really) and ensured that when we go to the sauna (he loved his sauna a little too much) that we must 'Sauna in the Naked!' needless to say, we werent overly enthusiastic about this and prompty dubbed Orjan 'Mr. Sauna himself'. The hostel provided cross country skiis and snow shoes in order to explore the area, so we decided to bite the bullet and try our hand at cross-country skiing. This ended abruptly with both rishi and I declaring the attempt a complete failure. Instead we decided to hike to the nearby lake. this is a very large lake that covers a large portion of the park. It was frozen completely solid and was like nothing I had ever seen. The ice was multiple feet thick in places and quite safe to walk on. Some of the locals were ice skating as well. It was a very interesting experience walking on the lake. you expect everything to be very quiet without the lapping of the water, but the lake was alive with very loud and angry sounds. Unfortunately we werent able to linger too long because we had arrived quite 'late' in the day and it was pitch dark. It was 2pm. Much later that night we decided to head to the hills behind the hostel and take up vigilance in searching for any sign of an Aurora. While the stars were spectacular and shooting stars were abundent, we didnt see anything of note. We noticed a slight lighting of the sky at one point but decided it was jsut our minds playing tricks on us and left soon after. We had been standing in the cold from about 9:30pm and it was now midnight, so a nice cup of tea was too hard to resist. Unfortunately, some of our friends from the hostel said they saw the aurora at 12:30, but it was behind clouds. Unfortunate for us!

Day 2 in Abisko proved to be exhausting for many different reasons, both good and bad. We decided to go hiking in the mountains on some of the well marked trails Orjan had told us about. Unfortunately, the weather turned on us for the worst and we were caught in quite heavy snow and high winds. we must have taken a wrong turning at some point because we were soon trapesing through knee deep snow (sometimes deeper) and were starting to see wildlife. We came upon 2 Moose (mooses, meece, meice???) who looked at us curiously for a while and then seemed to decide that we were doomed and of no concern, going back to whatever it was that Mooses do (maybe moosing?). We decided to follow a track towards the railway line to give us at least some direction. We later on found out that we were on a snow mobile track. I was walking a little further ahead of rishi through some deep snow when I heard Rishi cry from behind me 'Chris! Theres Water!' I looked back and saw Rishi thigh deep in snow, but then realised he wasnt in snow at all and had actually fallen through a frozen pond hidden by snow. I ran back as quick as i could to pull him out and managed to safely do so. His first words were 'its so cold!' and I realised we had to get back as fast as we could and decided to retrace our steps as quickly as we could. Rishi's whole legs were numb but he could still walk and we managed to find our way back to Abisko Ostra soon after where a good cup of tea and a change of clothes. It was a really scary experience but thankfully we made it out alright. After recovering at the hostel, we decided to make our way to the next town over to find out about the Aurora Station but everything was closed and the whole enterprise failed. We came back to the hostel and decided to repeat last nights vigil. We made our way out much earlier than before because a Chinese guy came running into the hostel at 8:30 shouting that they had seen it. We rushed outside but there was nothing to be seen and it was much more cloudy than the previous night. However, our patience was rewarded when at about 10pm we made out sometihing to our left. I wasnt sure what it was to begin with and kept watching until I nudged Rishi and asked him if he saw what I saw. No sooner had I said it than there was no doubt in our minds as the Aurora became brighter and brighter. it started out realyl faint and small but quickly grew, and joined up with one from our right. There were fantastic fireworks at about 10:30 where the Aurora began moving violently and became extremely bright. It was like a massive curtain shimmering in the sky. It was the most impressive thing I have ever seen in my life, and the crazy chinese next to us could not stop swearing in english at the top of their lungs. it was almost comical, but I was so excited and happy that we had actually seen the Aurora that I could understand. The whole thing covered most of the sky and it was impossible to watch it all at once. Unfortunately our cameras werent good enough to get pictures, but the Chinese had some good equipment and said they would send them to us. Needless to say after this we went back to the hostel. WHAT A DAY!!!!

We slept in the next day after the excitement and woke up quite late. We decided to take a hike down to a canyon we had heard about and made the 2.5km walk in a little over a half hour. there was a small path down to the floor of the canyon and enabled me to get extremely close to frozen waterfalls and beautiful ponds. The whole place was quite ethereal. A good reward for the effort! later that day we met a couple of other Auzzies at the hostel and tried to see the Aurora again but unfortunately the sky was completely cloudy this time.

The last Day in Abisko was the same day we were departing for Norway. We had managed to squeeze our way onto a dogsledding tour. Basically this was something we thought would be a really fun and random experience. It involved 2 hours of dog sledding in the Abisko National park where we were put in charge of our own 4 dog team and drove our own sled. We had to wake up fairly early by Abisko standards, and wrap up completely into a full body boiler suit. It made us both feel like walking snowmen, and we didnt look too far from it either. We walked up to the dogs and were shown the basics and pretty much were told that we had to be Indiana Jones for the day, doing 50 billion things at once while bouncing along at breakneck speed in control of 4 hounds from hell. Sounded like fun. We met some of the dogs who were incredibly patient and quiet while we harnessed them up and hooked them up to the sleds. Some were very eagre while others were a little hesitant but it soon became clear that all of them were ridiculously strong, pulling us off our feat at points. We drove in an 8 sled convey through fantastic terrain which ranged from thick forrests, arctic tundra and frozen lakes (much to our displeasure). The mountains were incredibly beautiful and the fact that it was permanently sunrise/sunset just made it feel surreal. Something directly out of a Salvadore Dali painting. Unfortunately, the task of driving my sled was made a little harder by the fact that apparently some of the female dogs were in heat and the other males of my team were hardly interested in keeping up with the rest of the group. Funny but frustrating, especially when Rishi was ahead of me in the convoy and had super fast dogs who were always dissappearing over the horizon while my dogs were just meandering along sedately. It was truly one of the most awesome things I have done, and I know Rishi loved it too.

We had this huge plan ready and in place to catch the train which was arriving literally 5 minutes after the dog sledding was meant to end, but unfortunately we went over time and had to watch our train speed off down the line while we were driving into camp. This meant that we had a few hours to wait before the next train, and decided to join the other Auzzie girls in searching for some Reindeer we saw from a distance a short time ago. We managed to find them but they were quite skittish and ran off really quickly. We tried to follow but we had no chance. We headed back to the hostel soon afterwards and enjoyed a nice cup of tea and reminiced about what a rollercoaster time we had had up in the far North. Definitly a highlight of the backpacking trip so far!