New experiences and memories
30.1.24
Early brekkie just after 7.30am. Sadly todays porridge was watery and salty regardless of how much sugar I put in it.
The rest was fabulous though.
Todays weather 2 degrees, feels like – 2.
We were picked up at 9am for Reindeer camp, just a 15 minute drive away.
The lady who welcomed us is decended from the traditional reindeer herders and has chosen to live their way of life.
We were in the first group to go in the sleds. Whereas the huskies were raring to go, the reindeers had expressions of “yeah whatever”.
They moved Mr Grumpy out of our way. No one can walk past him without getting antlered!
We were given instructions not to make sudden movements, not to touch them on the head and to stroke them on their hindquarters.
Carol and I got very delicately into the sled, some people fell in crumpled heaps, lots of laughter!
They really are a lovely group of people. Sadly no unusual characters to report. My favourite is the Turkish guy, born in Bulgaria, runs a shop in the Isle of Man and speaks all 3 languages fluently. His wife and daughter seem lovely too.
The reindeer behind me kept getting level with my side. As we pulled away, jerkily, his antlers were touching my head. I was a tad scared about that.
It was very slow, I don’t know what I’d expected. It was a once in a lifetime experience, but nowhere near as exciting as the huskies.
One reindeer was very naughty and caused an accident.
Whilst group 2 were having their trip we sat in the tepee and toasted marshmallows and drank some sort of alcohol free grog (hot ribena?) We learned a lot about these lovely beasts. They have no top teeth, they live to 10 years in the wild, 20 with the herders, they have their season around April and are pregnant for 7 months.
A fabulous morning.
It was lunchtime when we got back, pork schnitzel was ok, but I just had to eat Carols chicken and pepper burrito as it wasn’t a vegetarian dish, and more of the incredible coleslaw and crinkly chips.
No lemon cake today, but a perfectly acceptable apple pie.
After lunch we went for some much needed exercise. The church was open.
From Wikipedia :
The church was used in a 2009 Coca Cola advert.
https://youtu.be/WrHslVuqFyI?si=vcrjQj-GWTzEyLsN
Not sure about this psalm though!
We walked across the bridge to Finland. The Lapland shop was open.
Next stop was a visit to the sister hotel, Davvi Arctic Lodge. We sat in their bar area watching the sunset an the icicles dripping.
Next was the petrol station, shop and cafe, always mentioned as somewhere to visit.
Carol was keen to try some authentic Swedish food, but this wasn’t quite what she had in mind. She couldn’t bring herself to continue reading the menu.
The shop is a real treasure trove.
The sun was setting, the sky was so pretty. When it gets dark there is supposed to be a good chance of seeing the Northern Lights tonight, fingers tightly crossed.
Time for dinner.
Before coming I researched insurance policies because some just say ‘winter sports.’ World nomads give the option to select specific ones for the activities we were doing.
So my dangerous sports are all covered. The most dangerous today was sliding down the 5 stairs to dinner. Nothing broken but a bit of pride.
The underside of my fore arm is grazed. I think I’m old enough now to say I had a fall.
Dinner was good, pork fillet in a sauce with raisins that Carol accurately described as rabbit droppings.
Bumped into Mr Norway who is in Volvo Sweden attire today. ‘How is your hand?’ ‘Not as bad as my arm!’ I explained what happened. ‘oh yes, that’s happened many times before`I was so pleased it wasn’t just me.
Time to get togged up. We both said 4 nights of this will be enough. Off on the minibus to where we were this afternoon, gathered lots of people from the other hotel for the Forest Trek. It was a 10 minute uphill walk to the stop point. ‘Will all Islanders gather round the fire pit’ sprang to mind.
More hot Ribena and a bit of chat from the guides. Lots of stars out, a good chance of seeing the lights. Ooh, there they are. Everyone rushed to take photos of the arch of white clouds. A lot of confusion, most of us poised for the green sky. Others who had been before knew they aren’t visible to the naked eye and began getting great photos with their long exposures. Some lovely people helped us novices. Many black screens were taken until we found the setting that worked for our own phones.
Thank goodness we weren’t back in the Bonus Print days. These shots took a lot of frustration to achieve!
Honestly? Disappointing and just not what we expected, but as the guide said most people never see them.
Back to the hotel at 9pm where we got good shots from the library window with some others from the group.
We had good fun and shared frustrations with camera settings. Every phone seemed to have different settings which added to the frustrations! There was more deleted than saved.
Another great day and more bucket list items ticked off. ❤️
