Aurora ignites icy Arctic sky
Head north to see a show like no other
feel only slightly ridiculous wandering around at midnight in -30 C temperatures, fixedly scanning the coal-black sky. The full moon, however, has lit up the snow-covered frozen lake and pathways like a centre-stage floodlight. With any luck, I and the 50 Japanese tourists who are also milling about under identical tour-supplied Arctic parkas with fur-trimmed hoods will soon witness a spectacle more elusive and ephemeral than a full moon -the Aurora Borealis.
Waiting patiently for the show, we retreat periodically to the spacious dining hall to shed our layers and indulge in steaming homemade soup, bannock and hot chocolate.
The only other North American visitor at Aurora Village, 30 minutes north of Yellowknife, is Artie. He drove four straight days from his Minnesota home to fulfil his dream of seeing the Aurora. He's also a fan of Ice Road Truckers, a popular TV show I have never seen. Artie knows more about Canada's North than I do.
The Japanese, too, are in Yellowknife in January to fulfil their Aurora dreams.
Earlier that day, I was the only Canadian with eight Japanese on a dogsled tour. With the daytime high never rising above -28 C, the sled ride lasted a mercifully brief 10 minutes. While some Japanese indulged snowmobile racing dreams, I kept warmer walking on a quiet wintry trail lined with jack pine and diamond willows to view Volkswagen beetlesized beaver dams.
We'd be snowshoeing, except this January's snow pack is the shallowest anyne can remember.
As a low, midday sun casts a golden light on the landscape, I asked my guide, Clarke, whose parents own Aurora Village, if many Canadians visit Yellowknife in winter.
"Nope," he replied. "Mostly Japanese, some Germans and Americans. A few from Ontario."
Adventure and natural riches have lured "southerners" north of the 60th parallel since the fur trade. In 1898, a prospector headed for the Yukon's Klondike Gold Rush discovered gold in Yellowknife.
From the 1930s through 1990s, gold mines flourished in the area named for the Yellowknives Dene band who crafted knives and tools from copper. "Old Town" was settled on the shores of Great Slave Lake's Yellowknife Bay, and Yellowknife became N.W.T.'s capital in 1967; an official city in 1970. Today the modern centre is home to 20,000, nearly half of N.W.T.'s 43,000 residents. Members of the of three Dene nations, the Chipewyan, Slavey and Tli Cho (formerly Dogrib), comprise half the population, including the government which operates under a consensus, rather than party system.
The last local gold mine closed in 2004, but diamond mines have flourished, making N.W.T. the world's third-largest producer. Like the gold, diamonds, and the mines' good-paying jobs, lure people north.
An Australian shopkeeper whose husband works in mine rescue explains Yellowknife is two different towns from winter -house party season -to summer, when 24-hour sunlight keeps folks outside round the clock.
"There are lots of Aussies here," she says. "South Africans too. We have really good rugby matches!"
"In winter," another local says, "The sun rises at the end of one downtown street then sets a few blocks over." |
發表於 2011-3-31 08:27
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