Exploring Lapland - in search of the Northern Lights

Hello!

It's a long way back to London..

Last week, Trig and I embarked on a snowy Scandinavian adventure to Karesuando. The little town, which is tucked away 140 miles into the wilderness of the arctic circle, nestles between Sweden and Finland, and has an other worldly panorama which doesn't feel too unlike standing inside a stunning photograph. The snowy surroundings transports you straight into an alternate universe full of reindeer, icicles and eerie forests. The phenomenal sunrise and sunset alone, only five hours apart in late January, filled the sky with a multitude of colours during the day, brushing the landscape with bluish, pink, red, and golden flecks of light.


It's always been a dream of mine to see the Northern Lights, but I had no idea how much else there was to look forward to in this part of Scandinavia, too. Having semi prepared for the prospect of surviving in up to minus 40 degrees (we were provided with thermal suits and boots, luckily) we were both soon exploring, and destroying perfect blankets of snow by jumping in feet first! The snowballs were surprisingly difficult to compact, but apart from my hands turning to ice, the cold didn't affect me too much, thanks to the thermals that were provided as part of our package deal. They weren't very fashionable, but they were incredibly warm. Which was lucky for me, as I'm pretty sure most people expected me to turn up in open toed shoes and a cardigan!

One side of my body an hour ahead of the other!

Karesuando is not the biggest of towns, and to walk from our base in Finland over to Sweden, which is just across a little bridge, took about 10 minutes. Sweden is an hour behind Finland, and this meant we could have each leg in a different country and time zone, which was pretty good fun. On our exploratory walks in Finland we found a little cafe that sells reindeer burgers, and a DIY shop run by a local man called Marcus, who seemed to stock almost anything imaginable. Our adventuring into Sweden also involved walking across a frozen lake, stumbling across some colourful yellow houses, and the Church that's featured in the Coca Cola advert....













On another experimental mission we also found a strange looking igloo made entirely of bottles!

Our first excursion was to embark on some snowmobiling at night, after a hearty Finnish meal! Snowmobiling is illegal in Finland without a drivers license, and as neither of us are drivers, so that nearly excluded us from participating. Luckily we were paired up with an older couple, Gill and Allan (which is also Trig's name). Allan and Allan were secretly pleased that they could jet off at full speed into the distance, whilst Gill and I were rather more apprehensive. Gill took some time to find her feet, especially seeing as 'the speed limit is only 35 mph in Guernsey!' but once we got into it, there was no stopping her.

On the second day, we visited a local reindeer farm and went on a long sleigh ride. We chose the grumpiest looking reindeer to travel with, they really all did have very different personalities, and we opted for an opinionated, sassy companion! We soon became very acquainted with the reindeer pulling the sleigh behind us, who unexpectedly popped up next to us (and too often very close to my face) to keep his eye on us throughout the journey.





Afterwards, we huddled around a roaring fire in a teepee, nursing our frozen fingers and drinking a hot 'Glögi', a spiced fruit concoction, and took the opportunity to ask the reindeer herders questions about their lives in Finland.  We were curious as to who owned the reindeer, and most importantly, if they really ate carrots (The answer to that is no). Each reindeer belongs to someone in Lapland, mostly the Sami people who own plots of land, so there is no such thing as a wild reindeer.   The reindeer are considered very important, and the Sami natives have a philosophy that if a Reindeer has to be killed, that not one bit of them can be wasted. They are therefore used for a whole host of reasons, including clothes, skins, food and boots, as well as tools.






Unlike other northern lights excursions, where you travel out on a bus for an hour out of a main  city and keep your fingers crossed that the skies will be kind to you, we had the luxury of being able to walk straight out of our lodge to skies free of light pollution - which greatly increased our chances of a sighting. The staff from the lodge lit candles each night along a winding path in the forest, and we followed this nightly to a vantage point on a hill, where we could see the horizon perfectly. We heard stories from lots of people who had been in search of the lights and not been fortunate enough to see them, so we understood that it was largely down to chance. Luckily, we were blessed with a truly magical display on our third night, some of which we managed to capture on camera. It was very strange to consider that what we were seeing were charged particles from the sun, exploding in the earths atmosphere and dancing across the skies. :)

 One of the highlights to the end of the week was most definitely visiting a husky farm, where we rode our own husky sled. I was very worried about doing this initially, seeing as I cannot even ride a bike, so Trig took the reigns first. You have to stand on the back of the sled, resist the urge to say 'mush' and keep hold the top handle, no matter what, even if your legs are akimbo behind you, in order to save your partner being dragged off into the wilderness. The sled was equipped with a metal brake, which was handy, as you very quickly learn how to operate it. The dogs absolutely loved running, and they were very vocal when they were made to stop, pawing at the snow and tangling themselves up in one another in frustration. We got a sense that they were very much cared for and looked after by the way the guides spoke about them. We were then given a short tour of the farm and met the father of half of the husky farm, Roy,  (below) who was very friendly!









To end an absolutely perfect few days, we caught a final sighting of the northern lights that night before our long journey home, and pondered life over a few warming drinks. The landscape was just surreal on our journey back through Sweden. We passed glistening trees, which seemed to me like a strangely calming sculpture-like snow forest, and left the reindeer behind as they grazed in the woods. Karesuando gave me a sense of seclusion and simplicity, and much needed time to reflect, but this was balanced with exciting experiences and opportunities to connect with local wildlife and people, that definitely left me with the sense that I'd been in some kind of dreamy reverie.

Notes: We went on a package deal with Transun, on a January half price deal from the UK for £400 each. This included our flights, transfers, half board accommodation for four nights, plus lots of amazing excursions!