I truly love autumn. It’s fascinating to watch how nature turns from lush and green into rugged and worn. And those colours! Yellow, orange, red, even purple. All leaves, grass, and even ground changes color in just a couple of weeks. Here, this season is called “ruska”, lasting from the beginning of September roughly until mid-October, when the leaves start to fall, and first frost and snow arrive. For me, this is one of the greatest seasons to travel to Lapland.

I started my drive towards the Aurora Village September 26th. Of course, I was also looking to see northern lights on my trip, but it was cloudy. The night at the Aurora Cabin was relaxing and I had a very good sleep.

Next morning the weather started to get better! The sun was shining beautifully over little river near the village. It’s amazing how different that place looks compared to winter!

 My friend Juha, the owner of Aurora Village, told me that there will be another couple joining our adventures, Heini & Mattia, who live in Southern Finland. They were really nice and approachable, and I quickly kidnapped Mattia to take some photos!

The Aurora Village has recently built the stairs leading to the river. I think this view should become famous, like one of the most instagrammable views in Lapland!

 We started to plan our adventures. One of the activities organized by Aurora Village is the fatbiking trips in nature. Fatbikes are really great to travel on rugged and uneven forest terrain. These bikes are electrically assisted, meaning that you can climb the hills much easier. These beasts of a bike are used throughout the year. They have fatbiking tours at Aurora Village even in winter time.

The day was really-really warm (for end-September) and I was enjoying the trip very much. Juha was guiding us around on the trails.

 While we stopped to drink some water, Juha grabbed some lingonberries right by the trail 🙂

After about 45 minutes of navigating the narrow trails, we ended up on a beautiful lake.

The best part of it was the silence. No one in sight. Just pure relaxation.

Unlike me, who took a bottle of water, Juha took his “kuksa” cup, and drank with it straight from the lake 🙂

The water was indeed pure and fresh. Quite cold already!

Heini & Mattia really enjoyed the colors and the place too (maybe we should have just let them alone there for a couple of hours! ?).

 Instead, something clicked in their heads and they have gone crazy! Maybe all that fresh air made their heads spin!

Time to go back! We did some more driving amidst the forest trails. Juha took us to some narrow forest track along the canyon.

 Fatbiking on a warm autumn day was an amazing experience. I just love those autumn colours!

By the way, you can see a short video clip that I shot with a drone on that trip: