Lapland Day 7, January 16 2023

Moose – Scenery – Night Time Dog Sled

Unfortunately I don’t have any more photos of the dog sleds… So if that’s why you’re here, soz…

Today was a bit of a drive around. We thought it’d be a good day to go Moose Spotting. Not something people do every day. Apparently it’s not something that is always successful. We’re driving on a road, and there are forests everywhere. We can hardly trek into the snow for kilometres looking for moose who can hear us a mile away and would quickly scarper. But we had super guides David and Peter… I swear they just make a phone call and tell whomever is on the other end of the line… “Okay we’ll be up in 30, so if you could tie the moose to the usual trees by the road and we’ll see you shortly, just hide their leads. Good chap” I am sure that is pretty much word for word what happens.

We headed north past Kiruna into some long roads and forested areas about half an hour. There were plenty of small towns around here and always a nice straight expanse of bitumen between them. The roads lined with trees, and the occasional house and apparently moose. All in all we saw 9 of them, or so we counted. Probably 5 were on their feet, with the others laying down in the snow. The first one we encountered was with 2 calves, who were quite camera shy as they moved around hiding from view. The remaining moose (over a distance of about 2-3 kilometres) were proably 30 metres from the road. Some behind houses, others just chillin’ between trees or in the open.

When we saw one, we would stop quietly on the road. I was on the side facing them (they were all on one side conveniently) and I would very stealthily open the sliding door of the van, lean out, and eventually leave the van without making as much as a single sound doing so. Need not have bothered. They couldn’t care less. They were out “People Spotting”. Being very very quiet sitting in the snow, camoflauging themselves so they wouldn’t scare us away, as those funny 2 legged animals moved around the cars pointing big long bits of glass toward them. What a show we gave them. I’m sure they have some lovely memories.

And like many other days, the morning sun was beautiful. Peter took us to a couple of different places including some boat sheds (there is a river in that field of snow) and we wondered around taking some quite pretty landscapes in that very pretty place.

We moved on to a bridge with a river winding toward, under, around and away. We were probably there for something more than and hour, but not two. People in their own zone taking their own photos. Some landscapes were obvious targets and likely photographed by everyone, but not two images would be really the same, as we all have our different styles. Some people found a path under the bridge, whilst others like myself stayed in the close vicinity and worked the camera from there. There was no pressure to shoot, it was just such a delightful place. Sometimes the fog would roll past, the cabins and houses in the exact right place, needed to ground an image in scale and construction. The river winding in different locations, either wide and expansive or winding and compressed with the lens choice. The perfect snow with shadows caused by a shielded sun, or the twigs protruding that would otherwise be just everyday ground cover. All in all, just Wow covers it pretty well.

And to that few hours, comes to an end as we returned to camp, but the day wasn’t over.

For many, including me, the absolute best bits of travelling isn’t about the scenery, although that can’t be underestimate on this trip. But it is about culture and people. It’s about they way they live and the things they do. So it should come an no surprise, that despite the Dog Sled trip at night, for me at least, the best part was listening to our Dog Musher, Nora tell her stories about the dogs, and what they mean to her. To hear about her adventures in a 1600 kilometre dog sled race in Alaska just as the world was shutting down with Covid. Having contacts that enabled her to get her dogs back home via a U.S. Air Force cargo plane, or risk being parted with them for many months, if not years.

The group met at the Dog Sledding Kennels and were shown the area in which they live. Each dog has a quite a large space, but share it with a couple. The pups are off in their own pen, with an experienced dog to show them the ways of their early life. Everyone needs a good example, right?

Like the earlier trip on the sled, we travelled in two groups with our sled leading the way. Through the forests on a track, across a bridge that we used earlier in the week for our Aurora photographs, through a swamp with water making it’s way to the surface and onto the river and leaning the opposite way on the sled to stop it cracking, and ended on a frozen bank of the river where another Lavvu was already erected, waiting to be used for a photographic opportunity at night.

The dogs were happy just laying for an hour or two, occasionally making some noise when something was creeping amongst the trees. Once one goes off, the rest follow, but they were quiet for the most part.

A candle was placed in ther Lavvu to provide some atmostphere in what was actually quite a bright night, half of the sky lit with nearby towns, or the waning crescent moon rising in the east, but yet to be seen.

It was a surrel location as I moved away from the Lavvu, as I thought whilst it was lovely, it was not my style to shoot something so, um… obvious. Not that it’s bad for anyone to do that, it’s just not my style.

I preferred the ridiculous scraggy trees that were just to the side.

To me, the background sky made it look like it was a studio shot, of trees somehow placed in this location. What an eery quiet night this was. If it wasn’t for the cresent moon, instead of a fullmoon, I would have been more on tender hooks.

We finished the night by having a nice traditional coffee in the Lavvu with a couple of small heated cinnamon buns warmed on the fire. The final ride back to the kennel was so quiet, excepting the occasioinal conversation with Nora. The trees lit up by the sky looking like figures from a Tim Burton movie. The snow looking like a hooded face of a stringy old man reaching out his white bent snowy fingers toward an oncoming sled, alas; we were too fast for it. I wouldn’t want to be alone in this forest at night.

Nora cooking over her fire and Christine in the backgound enjoying the warmth

I want to finish the Lapland Blog with a couple of other small, generally unrelated images to the trips we made.

My small, yet lovely placed “panarama cabin” at the Aurora Camp near Kiruna and the view I would wake up with.

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And with that, the Lapland adventure was about done.

Lapland Day 6, January 15th, 2023

In the immortal words of the Wiggles, “Here comes the reindeer“

So, I have been dreading and looking forward to this day for a long time. And I’m gunna give you spoilers. I fell off. 4 times!!!

They each get more spectacular as we move through them, and for good reason. And I will address each one and the reasons (yes, REASONS) they happened. They weren’t my fault, I promise (pinky lie). But I just may have contributed in some way, I am sure.

We drove out just after breakfast, maybe 9:15 am. By the way, we were ALWAYS early with our meet up times. If you are that person in the group who is always late.. Don’t be! No one appreciates waiting in -17° waiting for the same person to turn up 10 minutes late. In fact, I would like to say, our meet time was 9:15, but were were all there ready to go at 9:05am. And that’s the way it was all week, Coz we were the best group ever…. 😂

About 25 minutes from the Aurora Camp was the village where the Sami people who herd these reindeer live. It’s just past the Ice Hotel in fact. Nerves were creeping in at the point we drove into the reindeer camp.

Reindeer Moss with creme fraiche- Noma 2103

When we arrived we were met by the “tour guide” (and I don’t remember his name unfortunately), and he had 2 others with him. We all grabbed a handful of reindeer moss each from a larger bag. This is their cocaine, their sugar. They love this stuff. And again, like last blog, a flash back memory goes to restaurant Noma in Copenhagen (often known as the best restaurent on the planet) where we were given reindeer moss as a course. So I can see why they like it. It is quite sweet and when it is flash fried and served with some creme fraiche it is lifted to a new level. I recommend.

As I may have mentioned before, Sami people are the only ones allowed to herd reindeer. It is a both a privelege to do this, but also a right that has been handed down for hundreds of years. To be considered Sami or allowed to be given rights of a Sami, you must have Sami blood in you, or be married to one who has, and you must identifiy as Sami. Now as you know I am writing this a couple of weeks late, so I have missed out on the ability to recall some details like names, but the name “Chris” sounds familiar. He was one of the guides and actually came from Australia, Cronulla, New South Wales to be exact. He left the beach life of southern Sydney and moved to the Kiruna area and met the love of his wife, who is Sami. Thus he gets to enjoy the joys of reindeers and -30°. He’s a pretty handy guy to be fair, and a whiz on and off the snow mobile as you shall hear.

So we tried to get up close to the reindeer by bribing them with reindeer candy and become familiar with being around them. The guides herded them as they ran around the yard, using a lasso to catch their target. Then it was about hitching them up. Unlike the dogs, they are not as friendly and certainly not as compliant, but they are very strong, and very very fast.

The way this works is that you stand on the back of a sled with the reindeer hitched to the front. These sleds are quite rudemantary and they look like they are basically branches held together, but to be fair, it’s done very well. The reindeer have a long piece of wood coming from either side of its harness. And that wood connects to the sled proper. The reindeer also has a rope coming from it’s harness which I must hold on to. If I let go of that, the reindeer escapes. More on that later… The sled has a handle which I must also hold on to. If I let go of that, I let go of the sled and the reindeer escapes. More on that later… This is what it looks like.

So we set off, in a line of 9. The leader at the front and he sets the pace. Apparently. Like the dog sledding, we go off on a path already cut by a snow mobile. It’s safer this way because the reindeer know which way to go, and less likely (but not impossible) for the reindeer to go bush! As you can see above, he has 2 ropes which are used to guide the reindeer, but we only had one. They would just follow. Oh, I almost forgot, we also have a brake. We have to stand on a 2″ rail in our big snow boots and if we want to slow down, we lift one foot off the rail, balance on 1 leg, put our foot onto a metal bar that digs into the snow and slows us down. Sounds fun huh? How is 1″ of a rail, digging into snow going to stop them?

Fall number 1

I was in about 4th place I think. And my reindeer was a bit twitchy. Why did I get the twitchy one? So we start moving and my reindeer is going a bit slow, so one of the guides gives him a bit of a gee-up! I wasn’t ready for this and as soon as it took off, and jolted forward, I slipped off the rails, let go of the rope, let go of sled and fell. I really wasn’t ready for it. But I had a reindeer right behind me right? And he wasn’t stopping. So I quickly did my best Van Damme and barrel rolled to the left. My reindeer didn’t have anywhere he could really go as there was a congo line ahead, so he stopped just behind the one in front. I brushed the snow off and got back on.

Fall number 2

These was similar to the first in many ways and we had moved several hundred metres when mine was just meandering along, creating a big gap between itself and the heels of the one somewhere in the distance. So Chris decided he would ride up next to it in his snow mobile and gave it a slight slap on the backside, and it took off! Right into a Gallop! Those big hooves were high and it was catching up to the reindeer in front rather quickly. This was too fast! I took my right foot off of the rail and tried to plunge that brake into the snow. I must have done it too hard, or too quick (no detailed instructions were provided) and the brake bounced into hard ground, or hard ice or something. The back of the sled jumped up and I went flying! Oh, the embarrassment. I had let go of the rope and had no hope in hanging on to the handle in all the commotion, and Chris had managed to stop the reindeer. I brushed myself off again, and not being hurt at all (after all it’s only snow) and hopped back on. Chris did mention that I should hang on to the rope.

Fall number 3

So we managed to get on again, and my reindeer was behaving, if not going a little slow. He also likes to cut corners. I was well aware from conversations at our briefing that reindeer have their own minds and will do what they want, when they want if it suits them. So, we would go around a corner to the right, and he would cut it off slightly, with a small tree often at that corner. The long piece of wood would scrape against the tree causing the right side of the sled to lift up on the edge of one of its skis. I used my legs as shock absorbers and managed to put my weight to the left while balancing, and correct it when we got to a straighter bit. So it was going okay and I was getting the hang of it. It was all going at a quite nice pace. Maybe not as fast as the ones in front, but I was happy with that as we would get there in the end! Chris wasn’t. He slipped alongside on his snow mobile, gave the reindeer a slap on the bum and gave a lound verbal “Yip Yip!” Oh my God! Straight into a full gallop again! I hung on as much as I could, but as those who ride horses know, a gallop is a bunch of massive plods of the feet and the sled was bouncing around as much as the reindeer was, and certainly as much as I was. I tried to brake, but as I said, balance is a thing… My leg left on the rail, my right leg somewhere near the brake (maybe), but I held onto the rope for all it was worth. Surely I, myself could be a better brake than a piece of metail gouging into snow! I saw in the corner of my right eye Chris leveling up with the snow mobile. If I could only hang on! Then I saw Chris LAUNCH himself off the snow mobile, diving across and catch the rope mid air just as I let it go. What a save! I brushed the snow off of me and got back on.

We finally reached the half way, turn around point. We stopped for a few photos, whilst I caught my breath. I wasn’t in a massive photo mood but I did manage to take a couple before handing the camera back to Angela who had not really ridden a reindeer much as the rickety sled she had, had broken off at the start. I would have been happy to swap places.

So…the return and…

Fall number 4

To recap, we had reached the end of the trail and were about to set off. The end of the track was a tear shape U-Turn and joined up with the beaten path. Just at this turn there was a small-ish tree. We know my reindeer likes to brush up against trees as he did it constantly, but the sled is built in a way that, as it does, the timber just brushes along along and the sled doesn’t catch. Or that is the way it works on the right side, but apparently these rickety built sleds aren’t built to a specific ‘design rules’ standard, and my sled got stuck on a notch in my sled! The reindeer was pulling and I was trying to shift my weight to dislodge it. It wasn’t going anywhere. One of the guides came over and tried with all his might to free the sled, all whilst the reindeer was pulling pulling and pulling. Eventually he managed to jostle it free and the reindeer took off like one of Santas reindeer with both of it’s front feet airborne as it pulled away. It had taken off! Then came the inevitable lurch forward and it is already in gallop mode. I tried to hang on, but it was impossible. No one could have hung on to the rope and sled, but I managed to hang on to the hand rail and the rope too as it happens. I hung on for dear life. This thing was unstoppable and I wasn’t letting go. I could see Peter to my left, he was rushing over, and as soon as he grabbed the reindeer, I finally gave up my mission and fell to the ground. Well if you could have seen it… Well, you can! Angela who was in the snow mobile, camera in hand managd to get a shot. Proof of me try and trying to hang on.

Thanks for the photo Angela.

And with that, we had a nice ride home for 1.5 kilometes. No events, not falling off, I had finally tamed my reindeer. Once we got going, and went into a rhythm it was great. The reindeer got into a gallop a couple of times but I managed to slow it down using the brake. We had a nice little canter and I felt I had probably 100% 10% control of it all.

We returned to the reindeer camp, went inside of a Sami Lavvu. The Lavvu is basically what we know as a Teepee. It has a hole at the top to allow smoke to escape from the internal fire and gaps around the bottom for airflow. It was a relief to get out of the cold outside. It had actually gone down to -31° on the track. We had a lunch of salted dry meat, not too different from the meat we would have at the Kublai Kahn Restaurant in Adelaide, but of course freshly cooked on the fire alongside a nice hot Lingonberry juice cooked alongside.

That was my reindeer day done.

Lapland Day 5, January 14 2023

Dog Days!

A super cold day in Sweden with a high of -10* and a low of -17°. Of course, on the Torne River, expect to have a wind chill of considerably less.

Meeting after breakfast, as the sun was rising, we were met by 2 Dog Sleds and about 20 Dogs. I never in my wildest dreams thought I would be dog sledding. The way this works is, we have 8 participants split between the 2 sleds. We sit on the sled in front of the Musher, very tightly indeed. But it’s comfortable. I was right at the back which helped provide some kind of stability, I am told; and on occasion, myself and the person in front must lean to the left or right. In places on the snow/ice, there is a little bit of water rising to the top and this causes the sled to lean. We don’t want to lean into the ice or we could potentially cut through it. What??

This is what we saw as the sleds came around for us,

As you can see, the sky is still pink from the sunrise at about 10am, although this was about 11am I think.

So, no photos whilst on the Sled as I was holding on for my dear life. These dogs are amazingly strong and super fast. As you can see, they run in pairs (generally) but if there is an odd number, they are equally happy to be on their own. They don’t need to be paired with their fav, and move around quite a bit, but it’s super important to have an experienced dog at the helm. There are no reigns to steer the dogs, and they pretty much know which way to go, and that’s generally on a path pre-cut by a Snow Mobile, but occasionally these paths diverge. A single word instruction (don’t ask what is being said, but I expect it is Left or Right in Swedish, or Dog-ish) and the lead dog goes in that direction immediately.

The bond between the dogs and the Musher is unmistakeable. They are friends, although the Musher is still their boss. On race days, the Musher is the only one to take care of the dogs, or risk disqualification. The only other person who can help is the Vetinarian, who will give the dog a green light to continue. But the musher knows the dogs the best, and will not risk hurting them if they are unwell or injured. The sleds must be big enough for their supplies, plus a dog if they cannot run.

Make no mistake with these dogs. This is not Cruel. This is the life the dog wants. It is cruel to NOT let the dogs go on the sled. Those who have been in a location where there are dog sledding and they are barking like crazy, it’s not because they don’t want to be there. It is more like “I smell a rabbit“, or “what did you say” to another dog, or “hurry up, we wanna go!” If I dog doesn’t want to run, it doesn’t run. Not all dogs enjoy sledding, and in that case, it’s not for them.

Dog sledding these days is usually confined to either Racing or Tourism. They are generally not a working concern these days, as they have Snow Mobiles for that, which are far more capapable. But Tourism allows the dogs to get out and exercise, plus it helps pay the bills to keep the dogs to race. Musher (at least in this case) doesn’t have sponsorship, like in some other place (Alaska I’m looking at you) and it’s not a cheap sport. It’s purely for the love and the challenges.

Greenland Huskies in Iceland 2010

I recall seeing the Greenland Huskies in Iceland in 2010 on a Glacier. You can’t see it here, but the eyes were a bright blue, and I remember one staring at me and it was quite unnerving. Having had my career involve working dogs (Police Dogs) I would never go close to them, for fear of setting them off, or too close, who knows what will happen. But I thought they were similar, as they were working dogs right? No way. These dogs are soooo friendly. They love interaction, and by that, I mean being patted, or spoken to in a language they have no clue. In fact, out of both of these 2 groups of huskies on this cold day in Lapland there was one particular female dog (the only one in the group), who knew how to get attention. She was showing off to the boys, and was the first one to want to be pat by us. She was gorgeous and gentle. But to be honest, they all were. But this one was the only one, that when my attention was diverted somewhere else, it pawed my leg, saying “more…more…” Beautiful. But you should never have one as a pet, unless you were prepared to put in the work. They need a lot of exercise.

So, off we went. We travelled maybe 2 kilometres or so. Who would know? It could have been 5, but I felt it was a couple. For accuracy, we will say it was 2.4 kilometres. We made our way to what would be a lake. Now, I don’t actually know where the River ends and the lake begins, but there was a boat you see, and we were told it was a lake. It’s all under snow or ice or both so who really knows who doesn’t aleady live here. But this was our photo stop.

Walking into the snow was quite hard. There was a lake cabin (ah, that’s how we know), and of course we had to walk as close to that as possible. The snow falls away quite quickly and you need to have solid ground, otherwise, you could go down 30 cm, 50 cm, or a metre if it were off the edge of a mound. Or maybe even splash! Not gunna try. Just stay on the path of the person who didn’t go splash!

But the scenery was beautiful. The light was golden, still. Many trees were covered in snow, and there were lake/river cabins dotted alongside as far as the eye could see. Most were in clusters of cabins as roads moved in and out of the forest for access, which would be quite restricted, given the forestation of the area. It’s a fishing area. Even upon our return a little later, we saw people drilling into the river with a Ryobi One+ Auger (or some such device) making a nice hole to catch something for later.

But it was very very cold. To be honest, it was too easy to take a nice shot. Between the gold light, the snow, the boats, sloping hills, rivers angling away from the forest for nice composition. It was too easy. You don’t need a super expensive camera to take photos here as it’s too beautiful. Just use the iPhone if you have one, or just put the camera away and relax in the silence and enjoy the location. Just stay warm!

It’s funny to look at the images that are so serene, but I am reminded of the harshness of the environment. This is what -25° looks like on the River.

But lets not get carried away with that cold stuff. After our return and relaxation, dinner etc, in the evening some people went back out to the same location for the Aurora, this time by Snow Mobile with Peter. They had a nice one althouhgt it was often partly obscured by cloud but at times it wasn’t. I was actually pretty tired at this time and I needed some rest. Tomorrow was going to be Reindeer Day! Where we have to Mush our own reindeers I needed all my strength and wit just in case… Little did I know.

But to close, here are a few of my favourite images from the dog sledding day. Tbe final one is definitely my favourite. It’s one of Christine enjoying the locatoin.