This is the story of perhaps the best, and certainly the craziest holiday we’ve ever had—five days of travelling by dog sled through the wilderness of Lapland. Exhilarating, exhausting, challenging, inspiring, humbling and, of course, freezing. Travelling through snow carpeted forests and across frozen lakes we moved through this magical arctic landscape in almost complete silence. Only the sound of the sled runners moving across the snow and the faint panting of the dogs.
Read through our diary, browse our gallery and hopefully you’ll get a tiny taste of the magic we enjoyed.
With the dogs fed and the travellers revived in the sauna we sat down to a meal of meat balls (with veggy ones for Sophie and I). It was a clear night and the temperature outside was already below -20°C. As we ate the conversation turned to the possibility of seeing the Aurora Borealis tonight—clear skies are an important factor in being able to see the northern lights.
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Tags: arctic, aurora, aurora borealis, dog sledding, husky, lapland, northern lights
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Our second day on the trail dawned bright and cold. The dogs were fed their hydrating soup, we ate a full breakfast and after shovelling up the poo and harnessing the huskies we set off north. Once again, the contrast between the cacophony of howling, excited dogs as we prepared and the total silence as we moved off was striking.
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Tags: arctic, dog sledding, husky, lapland
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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.
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Tags: arctic, dog sledding, husky, lapland
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After a hearty breakfast at Hariniva five of us assembled in reception to await the arrival of our guide, Raikka. Barry, Freya, James, Sophie and myself had spent the night in a small cabin a couple of km down the road. There were to be two French members of the party, but they had decided to join a different group that was largely French.
Raikka was a striking character who wore a Buff pirate style.
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Tags: arctic, dog sledding, husky, lapland
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Our journey began on a Sunday morning in Warwick, loading our rucksacks into the back of the car and setting off for Birmingham airport. A Sunday morning drive to Birmingham airport really shouldn’t be anything too stressful, but we’d booked off-site car parking, not realising just quite how off the site it was, nor that that there was a huge camping and caravanning show going on at the NEC.
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Tags: arctic, dog sledding, husky, lapland
Posted in Diary | Comments Off on Getting there
