Gone mushing

Matinkämppa—Mati’s Hut—is a beautiful collection of wooden cabins nestled in pine forest at the edge of lake Torasjärvi. It is summer home to a local artist named Mati, and his work is all over. Including the most extraordinary fireplace I have ever seen. An enormous sculpture of a naked woman stood with her legs apart, the fire burning between them. In one hand she holds what may be a split open pomegranate. Or perhaps not.

Like all the cabins we stayed in, there is no running water so our first task after unharnessing the dogs was to fetch water from a hole in the ice on the lake. Then there was the meat to chop for the dogs. 10kg blocks of frozen meat were chopped with an axe whilst water was being heated to thaw it out. The dogs first got a meaty soup to rehydrate them, then a ‘porridge’ of meat and dried food. Once they were all fed we handed took them out straw for bedding—although Reikka told us it wasn’t really necessary on such a mild night (only -9°C).

By now the sauna was hot so the guests piled into it whilst Raikka set about cooking our food. Sophie and I decided we would have to try that most famous of nordic rituals—rolling in the snow. It really would have been a good idea to have put some shoes on to get from the sauna to the deep snow—the cold on my feet was the worst part of it. Not that being completely immersed in seriously sub zero snow wasn’t pretty extreme in itself. I didn’t stay long! It certainly made my skin tingle when I got back into the sauna.

Supper was simply delicious. Raikka took a side of salmon and pegged it to a board, then roasted in front of an open fire. It was probably the tastiest salmon I’ve ever experienced. Afterwards the Irish whisky that James and Freya had brought and the sloe gin that we took with us unwound us before bed.

Tags: arctic, dog sledding, husky, lapland