Page 21 - Seniors Today - Vol1 Issue 3
P. 21
The next day, we travelled even further up
north via seaplane to the Schmok Lake Caribou
Camp, to catch the caribou migration. The camp,
only reachable by air, was home to wolves,
wolverines and arctic foxes. The entire terrain,
in this last fall month, was covered with dwarf
shrubs and artic fauna in a riot of colours –
yellows, mustards, rust orange, maroons, reds,
pale and dark greens. Here I shared a room
with a friend but was a bit disconcerted when
I realised our room had no door. The owners
of the camp kindly obliged us by providing a
Hugo comes visiting
makeshift door: a shower curtain – to give us
Sky Light some privacy.
On that final night, I looked into the chilly sky,
hoping to see the Aurora Borealis. I knew that
the Northern Lights – caused when electrically
charged particles released by the sun enter the
earth’s atmosphere and collide with nitrogen
and oxygen – are earth’s own natural and
stupendous display of colour. Yet, nothing could
have prepared me for the flashes of brilliant
colour – green, glowing neon, shafts of red – that
lit up and danced across the northern sky as we
stared on, awe-struck.
Vibrant autumn colours aroung Schmok Lake Caribou Camp
The magic of the Aurora Borealis
Caribou antler mosaic
Around the camp, the area was spotted with
inukshuks – mini stone markers that had
historically been used to guide travelers and
native Inuits. Unfortunately, while we missed
the massive passage of the herd, we did manage
to see a few caribou, with their lithe, muscular
Flashes of brilliant colour lighting up the sky bodies and fierce antlers.
