On the morning of day two we flew from the airport in Helsinki to the town of Kittila in Finnish Lapland, the town with a population of about 7,000. The temperature was “feels like 19” when we landed.
At the airport, we were met by a crew from “Lapland Safaris,” who took us into a private room where the leader, Vicky, explained what we’d be doing. First, we’d change into snowmobiling suits, wool socks, boots, gloves, baclava, helmet, and gloves they’d provide. After taking some advice on how many layers to wear, I went with long underwear and jeans on the bottom, two pairs of wool socks, a thermal top, wool sweater, and my puffy coat, all underneath the snowmobiling suit and other gear they provided. It took us a good 60-90 minutes for everyone to figure out what to wear and get changed.
From there we headed out to the snow-mobiles, where we got a quick lesson in how to drive them (really easy – gas on one-hand, brake on the other, steer with both, and that’s about it) and some safety tips. Some folks – like me – drove solo, while others drove with whomever they were traveling with.
After that – off and running. About a 90 minute ride, with one longer stop for a snack. We were in three groups, all following each other, all led by a guide, on a snowmobile track cut through the landscape, sometimes along a road or some power lines, sometimes across a frozen lake or through the woods. Mostly flat, with some bumps and divots along the way. At first, we probably averaged only about 10 mph, but during the longer stop I swapped with a woman in a different group, putting me in the “fast” group; our guide (who I was right behind) would stop and let the other two groups get ahead a bit, then we’d take off and catch-up – maxing out at around 25-27 mph. At one point, when we were stopped, I thanked our guide for the speedy take-offs – and she replied that she wasn’t just doing it for us! Across the frozen landscape of Finnish Lapland, the occasional cross-country skier and other snowmobilers, under a beautiful sky. The slow parts were too slow, but the fast parts were a panic!
Our hotel had individual cabins – what they called “Aurora Cabins” – each with laser-heated glass “roofs” to facilitate seeing the aurora borealis (aka northern lights). A bunch of us, though, kept wandering outside our cabins to watch the sky and – waddaya know – we were rewarded. Even if we didn’t see them again the rest of the trip, we’d at least seen them the first night we were here! Day three adventures follow these pics and videos from day two.
Day three was pretty much all outdoors with temps in the teens the whole time. We started with a short ride to a dog-sledder, who owns about 160 Alaskan Huskies, aged 13 years all the way down to puppies born last summer. We hooked-up sleds, two people per sled (no “staff” – just us guests in each sled, tho led overall by someone on a snow mobile), each sled led by five dogs. I paired up with someone else and I “drove” the whole time, while some pairs swapped about midway through. You stand in the rear, each foot on a wooden slat and each hand on a sled handle; the only thing you can really control is breaking (with your foot, pushing a set of metal teeth into the ground) and – when you hit the break – it’s cute, as the dogs look back as if to say “hey, what you doing?” They pee and poop while running, so I was glad to be the one standing and not my fellow-sledder who was seated in front of me and right behind the dogs. More fun than the snow-mobiles on day two – not the noise of the engines nor the smell of exhaust, even tho we didn’t go as fast, covering about five miles.
After that, it was a drive to a local reindeer herder, a long-time traditional role for both the indigenous population (Samis) and Finns. This family lived in a home built 100 years ago, and they served us lunch (reindeer stew, mushroom soup made from locally-foraged mushrooms) before leading us on a reindeer ride; again, two people per sled, but the reindeer go a lot slower than the huskies. The herders let their reindeer go into the forest during the summer, then gather them up (earmarkings denote which reindeer belong to which herders) for the winter months. The family we visited owned about 170 reindeer.
From there we headed to the home of a local artist, whose wife told us about their home and his work; he sat playing the mandolin while she talked with us.
From there, back to the hotel before dinner; after dinner, about half of our group took a walk in the complete and utter dark on snow shoes down to a frozen lake, where we had an amazing – amazing- northern lights display.
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