The best partygoers know how to make an entrance: come when it suits them, be dramatic and extravagant, and leave long before the end.
This is also the case when we arrive at Aurora Safari Camp on a snowmobile at night on the banks of the frozen and snow-covered Råne River in Swedish Lapland.
Jonas (boss) turns off the engine and without warning the northern lights appear. Just like.
The guest of honor, all swirling green shapes, miraculously spread vertically for miles, as if illuminated by a mountain range in the background. Dance like ghostly apparitions, changing shape, changing color and then disappearing again.
It’s fascinating and I’m not sure I’ve ever been so perfectly in the right place at the right time.
During a trip to Swedish Lapland (pictured), Kate Johnson takes a hot air balloon ride over blankets of pristine snow and silver birch and pine forests
It’s a warm welcome at this camp, built among pine trees about 40 kilometers south of the Arctic Circle. Last year she moved to this northern site upstream and in addition to the three “tent rooms” added two new buildings so that there are now ten beds.
Inexplicably called cones (they’re not cone-shaped at all), the new timber-framed rooms are warm, cozy and shaped like 50p blocks through floor-to-ceiling windows and a paneled roof, the better to look straight up at the starry sky. out of bed
The camp combines the best of solitude, tranquility and otherworldly wildness of the extraordinary landscape without being completely off the grid (you can still check your phone messages).
Kate stays at the pictured Aurora Safari Camp which is about 25 miles south of the Arctic Circle
It’s completely relaxed and cozy, with wood stoves always on, a kitchen that’s always open, and someone who’s always there. Sofas covered in reindeer hides surround the fire on the deck.
How could you follow the aurora’s welcome? Well, here’s how – with a hot air balloon ride.
While the northern lights can be seen from October to April, the window for hot air balloon rides, which require high clouds and clear days, is February to early April. In other words, start.
It’s strangely disturbing to watch the large, lifeless form gently unfold on the ground before being pumped with hot air and bursting into life.
Pilot Bjorn, Navigator Jonas and I climb into the little wicker basket – handmade in Oswestry, in Shropshire – and soar gracefully to 500 feet.
Björn is a fun-loving Swede who fell in love with flying as a teenager and has spent thousands of hours on airplanes and balloons over the past 40 years.
The timber-framed rooms at Aurora Safari Camp have floor-to-ceiling windows and a skylight so Kate can “look straight up at the starry sky from her bed.”
I’m in safe hands, which is a comfort, because I’m not sure it’s the best time to learn in the sky that no one can steer a balloon left or right (I hear “control”.’); Instead, the pilot uses the speed and direction of the wind.
We have heaven to ourselves. Below us lie blankets of pristine snow, silver birch and pine forests, and every now and then we see moose peeking through the trees.
It’s surprisingly warm – and dead quiet (when the crew isn’t blowing hot air into the balloon). You half expect the end of the world to turn away from you on the horizon.
Back at Aurora Camp, cheered on by two wonderful women vacationing there – one of whom is a dedicated ice bather and cold water swimmer – I sit in the sauna by the frozen river and then, to my great surprise, step inside. without hesitation into the ice-cold water. Two times.
It feels like another example of the wonders this ethereal land has to offer.
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James is an author and travel journalist who writes for The Fashion Vibes. With a love for exploring new cultures and discovering unique destinations, James brings his readers on a journey with him through his articles.
