Travels with Kathryn

I have made it! I am now north of the Arctic Circle in Finnish Lapland.

Our train arrived on time, and I was a little surprised when my alarm went off at 8am as it was still pitch black outside… This far north, the sun never actually rises (as it were), so although you get a dusk level of lighting for a couple of hours from around 11am to 2pm, it’s generally just dark. However, we did actually see the sunrise this morning on our drive from Kolari to our hotel, which is apparently very unusual:

Our first stop was at the local tour opperator who run some of are activities to be fitted out with woolly socks, HUGE ski boots, mittens and very fetching body suits (I suspect it will feature in many photos over the next couple of days!). I feel like a cosmonaut in mine! It was then on to our accommodation, which is a small locally run hotel, about a 30-minute walk from the village of Äkäslompolo. It’s a beautiful place hidden in the snowy forest:

We were given our instructions from the lady in charge. A word on the Finns – they are a somewhat interesting people. On the surface, they seem very serious and stern, but their humour is between extreme driness and a slight mad eccentricty. The hotel owner is certainly a good example. There are rules that will be followed, and if they are not, she will stab us to death with her knitting needles. I liked her a lot.

After settling in, and in my case a shower to wash away the overnight train (my last of this journey, I am almost sad) and we headed off for a walk into the villages: (i) so we knew the way there; (ii) to be orientated once we were there. The big excitement when we set out was a member of our group spotted some colour in the sky to which our guide Katti was rather dismissive as it could not be the Northern Lights at this time, but then got excited as actually it was something known as a polar stratospheric cloud. These are very rare and only appear in Winter Poles above certain altitudes and below certain temperatures.

It only takes about 30 minutes to walk to the village where there are such excitements as shops, restaurants and a few too many British tourists. It’s almost like other British people have heard of holidaying in Lapland? Rovaniemi is going to come as a bit of a shock for me… The big draw of Äkäslompolo itself is a big reindeer. The largest in Finland, apparently.

Having visited a local Christmas market, which provided an opportunity to try Minttu-kaokoo. This is hot chocolate with a double shot of sweet peppermint schnaps topped with whipped cream. Oh my, utterly delicious, and tastes like it has no alcohol in it, but the Minttu is 50% proof. Suffice to say, 1 and I was a wee bit tipsy…

Everything here is remote (its almost like I have come to the forests of a sparsly populated country?) so after our taxi from Äkäslompolo to the market, we then took a taxi back into town for dinner where I had reindeer. I know I am going to be expected to bond with them this week, but they are actually the most sustainable meat to eat here as reindeer is what they have here. Lots of them. It was also rather nice.

Now, this part of the world is prime Northern Lights spotting territory. However, we are forecast a lot of 6 whilst we are here, and there has been much managing of our expectations… Tonight was agreed to be our best shot and on arriving back to our hotel last night I could see a slight haze in the sky, but it was the Northern Lights, and some people did manage to photograph it. The actual moment to be outside I was asleep, and 45 minutes later (having set an alarm) I was in my pyjamas in the snow staring hopefully into the sky without any luck a it had clouded over, but:

A quick aside about the cold. I knew that I did not really have all the right gear for this trip as Finland is not an obvious stop on the Silk Road. However, I did get a delivery of thermals and gloves. Perhaps because I brought these, it is not actually that cold – it’s cold (between -4 and -8), but managable. For our walk yesterday, I had on thermals then jeans and a coat and was fine – my only must wear item is my buff as my nose was rather Rudolf-y after walking. I am hoping that I will have fully acclimatised before the temperate drops to the -16 forecasted for Thursday.

This morning, I had signed up for a snowshoeing and ice fishing adventure (totally me, I know!). I have never done either before, but I was rather pleased with my snowshoeing abilities – it’s almost as though it is just walking… I was also quite smug at having been the only person who got the ok from our guide for turning up already wearing my spacesuit. Its as though other people don’t realise just how cool they look wearing them?

Just as I was getting into it, we had arrived at our destination to have a go at ice fishing. Now, not only have I never ice fished, but I have never fish fished, so my expectations were low. This is what you need to do:

• Just happen to have with you a big drill thing, and drill a hole in the ice.
• Clear your hole of snow with the use of a plastic ladle (which of course, you will also have with you).
• Get in position sitting next to your hole (did I mention you’ll also have a folding chair?).
• Take your child’s plastic rod get a Finnish man to attach a maggot to it (he had these with him too) let out your line all the way to the bottom of the lake, bring it up slightly and jiggle your maggot in an enticing way.
• Sit and stare at the hole, hopefully.
• If you feel something tug at the line, pull it up quickly and you’ll have a fish.

Guess how many I caught? Yes. None. I felt things tug, and my bait was taken at some point, but I completely failed. I think a new career as a fisherman is not an option. Oh, well. Even more upsettingly, I know there was fish because one of our group caught 3!!

Just as I was starting to get cold, we were invited into the warm hut with a blazing fire, fur padded seating, and bowls of more of the fabulous salmon soup. Now, this is my idea of being an outdoors person.

Warm and full, the walk back seemed easy – maybe I am now a snowshoe-er? I may even borrow some from the hotel for another trip. We shall see and am now sitting writing this looking out the window. It is 3pm and pitch black yet nowhere near bedtime. However, the sauna is being switched on for 4.30pm, so I have a plan involving sauna-ing and then running into the snow. Let’s embrace the ways of the Finnish.