I’m getting used to walking back from the gym in the dark. I’m getting used to layering up again as well. I was wearing shorts just last week, and tonight, I had a jacket on. The “Juliette is cold” season has started. Even though the leaves are still green and still mostly attached to trees, the temperatures are dropping fast, and the days are getting much shorter.
And so I was walking home from the gym tonight around 7:30 p.m. when I noticed lovely pink clouds in the midnight-blue sky. Two girls were taking pictures just behind the supermarket.
“Lovely sunset, isn’t it?” I said, walking by.
“I think these are northern lights,” one of them said. “We’re gonna go see them at the beach.”
Northern lights? In Ottawa?
Northern lights are one of these things Canada is famous for, but this unique natural phenomenon is usually best watched at far-northern latitudes. Basically, you have to find your way to Yukon and Nunavut for the chance to see energized particles from the sun slam into Earth’s upper atmosphere—and the amazing psychedelic show the whole thing makes.
I’ve seen pictures of northern lights. I translated tons of travel articles about the elusive aurora borealis. But I’ve never seen northern lights because when I travel, I go south, not north.
I kept on walking, paying attention to the sky. Yeah, this wasn’t sunset. Sunset was over. This was something else.
“Are you home?” I texted my neighbour who happens to be a friend, or maybe it’s the other way around. Anyway, she is my reference for all things Canadian. “Maybe northern lights.”
“Okay.”
I met her outside her house with her kids a few minutes later.
“I read you could see them in Ontario tonight. Definitely auroras.”
I ran inside our place and called Mark and Feng.
“Let’s go to the beach to see them.”
And so Mark and I jumped in her car with her two kids, and we drove to Britannia Beach, the closest place without light pollution.
It was pitch-dark and we weren’t the only ones chasing the rare aurora borealis.
“Kids! Stick around! Otherwise, I’m gonna have to call the police!”
“Is this trick still working?” I laughed.
“No, seriously, we’re gonna have to call the police if we lose them.”
“Oh yeah, right…”
I gave Mark my phone (he took the pictures below) and we stood there, a couple of metres from the water, just below the psychedelic show playing above our heads.
I know, the pictures look lame, and it’s not Mark’s fault—he did his best with my very old and very uncool phone.
But trust me, it was amazing. The lights were like claws tearing the sky apart, and the next minute, they were ribbons dancing in the dark before turning into rainbows. They were pink and dimmed, green and bright, then bright pink and yellow and more.
We stayed there for a while, mesmerized. Then we drove home because I was cold and even Mark couldn’t feel his hand.
I’ve seen northern lights for the first time after 20 years in Canada.
And I’ve just saved myself a trip to Nunavut, a fascinating place surely, but way too cold for me…
Je les ai vu dans mon NB natal il y a très longtemps… le ciel était devenu orange pendant l’hiver, c’était de toute beauté! Cette fois-ci, j’aurais bien aimé mais je suis trop frileuse. Tant pis! 😀
J’avoue, j’avais froid! Amie frileuse, je te comprends…
C’est inadmissible !
Les aurores boréales, ça se mérite ! Il faut aller se peler les gonades au fin fond du Yukon pour les voir sinon ça compte pas !
🙂
Nan, mais je suis à Fairbanks, Alaska, et on ne voit rien parce que le ciel est couvert. Pareil hier à Whitehorse.
Mais j’le méritais un peu, quand même. Je me suis gelée le cul des années à Otttawa *pour vrai*.
C’est joli, Fairbanks?
Non.
Mais en pire, il y a Prudhoe Bay.
C’est juste une grosse zone industrielle près de l’océan Arctique.
Et je remarque que maintenant, j’ai du réseau ici. L’année dernière je captais pas.
Ça donne pas envie, effectivement. Mais, c’est quand même brag-worthy d’aller en Alaska.
Ouais, enfin bon …
Au retour, une ligne de liquide de refroidissement a pété 100 km avant Fairbanks, et donc pas de réseau. Sauf qu’il y a un avis de tempête hivernale (je serai passé juste avant) avec pluie verglaçante, donc y a quasiment personne qui passe.
Zut alors. La chance, il y a un type qui m’a prêté son téléphone satellite au bout de 3 heures, donc j’ai pu appeler mon affrêteur, mais c’est embêtant quand même.
’fin bon, on rigole bien.
La galère dans un endroit improbable. Joli. Du coup, tu attends les réparations?
Et pis y’a pas à dire, c’est quand même vachement beau la route à faire.
Oui. La pièce devrait arriver dans l’après-midi, donc je devrais pouvoir repartir demain.
Une impression de déjà vu 😆