The flight from Stockholm takes one and a half hours to reach Kiruna, the northernmost town in Sweden. This is where the “Sami Experience” begins. Lapland, the land of the Sami people, stretches from Northern Norway, through Sweden and Finland to the Kola Peninsula of Russia. The Sami have lived in this area for thousands of years and many still carry on the traditional way of life where survival depends on reindeer herding and fishing.
Finnish Lapland - The Ice Hotel
At Kiruna you will be kitted out with special thermal overalls, gloves and boots, plus a fur lined hat - you will be toasty warm as you climb onto your snowmobile and take off through the forest with the teams of Huskies yelping excitedly as they speed along the trails- destination the Ice Hotel at Jukkasjarvi, 18km east of Kiruna. You are now around 100 miles above the Arctic Circle, and it is cold.
The Ice Hotel is an amazing place, often described as the largest igloo in the world. Whether or not people choose to stay overnight in the hotel everybody goes to the Absolut Ice Bar where even the glasses are made from ice, carved from a special airless variety which doesn’t crack when filled with liquid. This is be your last taste of ‘civilisation’ as we know it. From here on it is life as the Sami know it.
Finnish Lapland - The Sami People
From here on you will stay overnight in turf huts, tents and simple cabins. These are all pretty basic and are where the Sami herdsman stay when they are out on the tundra for weeks on end, herding the reindeer. There is no attempt to provide facilities that the herdsmen themselves would not have; this is the real thing. Toilets are a trot across the snow to a small wooden hut and when you are on the trail it’s behind the nearest clump of bushes.
There is usually a small cabin near the sleeping quarters where the evening meal is cooked. The group leader cooks the meals which are washed down with lingonberry juice,which is delicious and is/was the only source of vitamin C for the nomadic Sami. Most of the meals are some version of reindeer. Even the breakfast ‘bacon’ is reindeer!
Finnish Lapland - Catch a reindeer
You will probably visit a corral where reindeer are kept after being rounded up. The journey there takes you through a mountainous area where the snow is deep and glistening white, casting long shadows over snowy dunes, and distant mountains were transformed into huge soft shapes on the horizon. At the corral you will have an opportunity to bring down a reindeer with a lasso - easy for the Sami, almost impossible for anyone else!
Finnish Lapland - The Northern Lights
When the snowmobile engines are switched offswitched off, the silence of the tundra is like a soft blanket wrapped around you and the Northern Lights slowly float across the sky above. This alone is worth the trip; a huge swathe of delicate silvery gauze, slowly changing shape and moving across this darkest of skies. There is something eerie about them, wonderful as they are. They are so enormous and seem so close. Sami children who misbehave are told the Lights will scoop them up and sweep them away if they don’t toe the line.
Finnish Lapland - Living Like the Sami
This is not a holiday for those who like their home comforts. You live like the Sami people lived. There are no showers or hot water and accommodation is as basic as it comes. But it does take you into a strange and beautiful landscape and gives you a glimpse of an ancient culture. which continues its traditional way of life. A true adventure.
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