When my husband and I moved from Ontario to this our lovely island home in the dead of winter 2004, we came by train.
Crazy, some would call it. It was on January 6th that we began our sojourn to the West. That train ride was actually three nights through the frozen North Country of Canada. Not exactly tourist season. But it was breathtakingly beautiful.
The days are shorter in winter and the nights start early. We had lovely bunks. We kept the window blinds open and for much of it we lay side-by-side in the lower bunk with our heads against the outside wall looking up and out the large window.
We were treated to the best light show ever. The northern lights were spectacular undulating greens, then golds, then purple curtains weaving in and out as if blown by a cosmic breeze.
At times it seemed as if they were right there within reach. At others they were far above our heads expanding and contracting.
We imagined they were sheer fabric flags reacting to the breeze from our train. We imagined they were a good portent of our choice to travel far into an unknown future.
We imagined they were a cosmic blessing on our lives.
There had been a great deal of preparation for this trip. We had not yet sold our home in Ontario and were trusting that it would sell soon so we could pay off our new home on the Island.
We were worried and tired but excited and hopeful at the prospect of living in this island paradise.
A friend had told me that on Vancouver Island it rained only at night as it did in Camelot and it never snowed.
That is the home we were anticipating.
Though we had thousands of kilometers to rest up from the hectic days prior to our move, we had little enough sleep.
We were surrounded by the white winter land of northern Canada, the wildlife against the colorful backdrop of night’s curtains. It was a blessed dreamtime that was etched in our minds and hearts indelibly.
We were so refreshed by that beauty that we suffered no ill effects from riding this three night all-night train. Truly it was a fitting transition into our new life, where, unlike Camelot we were greeted by a winter wonderland of newly fallen snow.
Written by © Márta O’Reilly
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I was on Manitoulin Island N. Ontario many years ago and hadn’t even given a thought to the Northern Lights until this strange, weird sky began swirling around.
We were new immigrants on a camping trip, needless to say, we got no sleep that night and slept next day so we could watch again next night.
Never seen it since, but don’t need to, that memory is still with me.
Georgina Knight.
What a great trip ,Marta. I would love to have seen the northern lights, such unexpected beauty.
Thanks for such a lovely story, Chris Beryl
Lovely, so visual. I would like to ride that train that time of year. b