glenc
30-03-2010, 04:07 PM
This was a good read. http://www.smh.com.au/travel/into-the-light-fantastic-20100325-qyyq.html (http://www.smh.com.au/travel/into-the-light-fantastic-20100325-qyyq.html)
At 10.30pm, we're shivering by the sea. It's minus 25 degrees with the wind-chill factor. The moon has just risen above the southern mountain and illuminates the wilderness. But it's OK, the aurora dances from the north-west.
We're given a hot blackcurrant drink and a pastry of goat's cheese and cinnamon. As we shiver, a ghostly light appears scythe-like overhead. Green lights swirl across the apex of the sky and down to the fjord. They waver and fan and tunnel. They disappear, then reappear as flickering neon icicles that bleed into rose and gold.
I'm watching a silent symphony conducted by the goddess Aurora. Accelerando. Andante. Each movement contrasting the last.
For 40 minutes, 13 faces worship the sky. "It's like a pulse," the Irish guy says. "The fingers of God," the Italian guy says. I don't know what the Polish girl says but it's with equal reverence. We all forget to use our cameras but that's OK. Gunnar will email his photos to us. And he does
At 10.30pm, we're shivering by the sea. It's minus 25 degrees with the wind-chill factor. The moon has just risen above the southern mountain and illuminates the wilderness. But it's OK, the aurora dances from the north-west.
We're given a hot blackcurrant drink and a pastry of goat's cheese and cinnamon. As we shiver, a ghostly light appears scythe-like overhead. Green lights swirl across the apex of the sky and down to the fjord. They waver and fan and tunnel. They disappear, then reappear as flickering neon icicles that bleed into rose and gold.
I'm watching a silent symphony conducted by the goddess Aurora. Accelerando. Andante. Each movement contrasting the last.
For 40 minutes, 13 faces worship the sky. "It's like a pulse," the Irish guy says. "The fingers of God," the Italian guy says. I don't know what the Polish girl says but it's with equal reverence. We all forget to use our cameras but that's OK. Gunnar will email his photos to us. And he does