Northern Lights
So, ten years ago, some friends of mine and I decided to visit Finland, above the artic circle to try and experience them for ourselves.
It was late November, and we caught a flight to Kittila Airport via Helsinki arriving mid-afternoon. On arrival we were met by our driver Helga who advised us the journey time was about 45 minutes and the roads were in good condition. (It’s all relative). We put all our luggage in the boot of the car, and we headed off. On leaving Kittila, the roads soon became snow covered with tyre marks where everyone had been driving on the same bit of the road in each direction, but Helga was a good driver and familiar with snowy driving conditions even if from an outsider’s viewpoint it didn’t always appear so on the surface.
We arrived at our accommodation in Äkäslompolo in the early evening and decided to drop off our luggage and head into the centre for some food. We were located a 15 minutes’ cautious walk from the centre. After dinner, we walked back to where we were staying whilst admiring the scenery and smiling when the occasional reindeer wandered across the road.
Accommodation was a spacious log cabin with its own wood burner, sauna, living room and kitchen on the ground floor and bedrooms upstairs. It was warm, nicely laid out and had views of the woods to the rear of the property with no garden fence so periodically we could hear the bells from a reindeer as they wandered past. It had a balcony, which was covered in snow. Not ideal for sitting out on but good for chilling a bottle of wine quickly.
Now it might sound bizarre, but we weren’t quite sure how easy or difficult it would be to see the Northern Lights so the second evening we headed away from any light pollution to see if we could see them. Unfortunately, we didn’t so after a couple of hours we headed back to the cabin to relax.
During our stay we were out most of the day visiting various places of interest, the temperature varied between 0 degrees and -20 degrees. The views were amazing, the air had a stillness to it and although it was cold, with the right clothing you didn’t really notice too much. There are plenty of activities to keep even the most adventurous person happy. You can explore a lot on foot or enjoy any of the following activities (weather dependent), snowmobile safaris, cross country skiing, reindeer farm, Husky sledging, Snow Village, e-Bikes for cycling on the snow, Horse Riding, and Ice Swimming.
In the evenings there are several pubs serving food or there was a local supermarket for those that like to cook. We worked out on day two it was easier to take the sledge to the shop to help carry the bags back to the cabin.
It wasn’t until day five of our weeklong trip that we finally saw what we were hoping for. We needn’t have bothered try to find the Northern Lights on previous nights, as the moment we stepped outside our front door they were visible. Like a river of green flowing in the sky, the sight was magical and such a beautiful setting to have seen them for the first time. We stayed outside watching them for well over an hour as they meandered across the sky.
What I particularly liked about this part of Finland, was that it felt very local, not geared up for mass tourism, a really authentic experience, and simply breath-taking. If you’ve never seen the Northern Lights and I know many people don’t see them, I can definitely recommend Äkäslompolo as a place to visit.