Finnish LaplandMay 3, 2009
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The ice bar!
Husky farm!
About to set off on our sledding adventure!!!
| We venture into Finish Lapland at mid afternoon. Its snowing lighlty as we drive and we have 5 or so hours to enjoy the country side. The landscape is soft and beautiful, huge fleets of tall, green, pines trees, with a few leafless non ever green varieties mingled in. There are hundreds of frozen lakes spanning off in every direction. At every bend of the road the surrounding views are consistantly flat and level. We journey past many small cottages and farm areas, signs that at some part of the year there is bustling and busy life here but for now its a snowy and sleepy place, a place where people are calmly waiting in hiberation for the end of the winter. As we approach our destination we start to notice large, rounded, rolling hills in the distance and soon after arrive at the town of Kittila, the ski village we are visiting today, or so we assume. We see the tourist informtaion i symbol on the top of a building and head towards it, noticing the roads of town are totally empty, no signs of ski baring Finns or holidaying Swedes here! We walk in to what is actually a pottery shop and quizzicly wonder round looking for a brochure or something, anything?. Hmmmn, so at this stage we are starting to get a little worried that Lapland is maybe not quite what we were expecting. As we head back to the car we have a brain wave, a sking town must be on a mountain mustn't it?? We scan the map and find a small triangle- L.E.V.I. Ok lets head there... 20 minutes later we start heading up a moderate hill, we reach the top and the road turns downwards... we are taken back by the sight ahead...the lost city! Our winter wonderland... our Atlantis! We have found it! Miscelin man type figures in thick, padded, neon costumes of every concievable colour, clomping around in huge, rigid boots and multi coloured googles dragging boards and skis along. Ahead on the horizon a huge mountain breaks the skyline, it is dotted with zipping, zigzagging little figures and a long, red cable car heading all the way up to the peak. We are again pleasantly suprised, $160 per night with buffet breakie and our own sauna! We check in and discover our room also has an awsome attic area above, reached by climbing up a wooden ladder. Inside the room is made entirly of pine, the triangular roof, the walls, the three tiny little beds, and the floor boards too, all made of pine. Its just perfect for the 2.3 kids of the average holdaying family... we make it our own private picnic area for the night and have some crackers and cheese and a glass of vino whilst sitting on the teeny little beds. We spend the evening in, going between the sauna and for cool down, instead of frozen lake, we have our bed room with cable TV and the crisp, clean sheets of our very, very comfy bed, kept icy fresh with the help of an open window and a -5 degree night. We wake up refreshed and overjoyed with the prospect of this mornings activities.... a hour or so later we arrive at the Huskie Farm for our sledding safari!!!! The sights of the park is an experince within itself, another group of sledders have just arrived back at the farm, the other dogs who were left behind are all rilled up and going crazy, 100 or so collosal and powerful canines all straining against thier chains and jumping metres into the air in excitment and anticipation for thier turn on the pull, thier chance to run. We pass Siberinan huskies, Alaskan Malamoot and many others but the most exciting specimen is Demon, fathered by an artic wolf and with a presence and auroa of pure power, wild and graceful. Will takes lead position on the sled for the first part of the run, I sit on the panelled base in front of where he stands, a reindeer hide is put down on the pine, wooden sled to save my arse from going numb :) The guide begins to attach the dogs, Will grinds his heels into the metal blade at the back of the sled to stop us from taking off. The dogs as pulling and tugging with all thier might 'let us run' let us run' they yelp and whine, springing high into the air in utter frustration in being held back. The man signals and we are off. We zoom down the path, my throat is caught and I can't breath, not fear... but pure and utter exileration, thrill, happiness. I wants to scream or cry or wake up but its all real!!! The dogs zoom ahead on the icy track, we slide right, then left, bam! We get a rush of air under the sled and crash back onto the ice with a wallup!! The country side streams along beside us... this is the best experience of my life... or so I thought, and then it was my turn to drive.... YYYYYYYYEEEEEEEAAAAA HHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAA!!!!! We celebrate afterwards with a pizza and pint for lunch, trying to budge that feeling of alconsuming depression that seems to take over after something so invigerating, as the adrenaline starts leaving the sytem and leaves you back on planet earth again. We spend the afternoon wondering around the cute little town with its A frame wooden houses and many bars all facing towards the monsterous mountain ahead. We watch in awe as the tiny little 3 and 4 year old kids whiz around on thier ski's like they were born with them attached to thier legs and have being doing it thier whole lives! We watch until the lifts all close then venture off onto the slope by foot to experience it for ourselves. We walk a side path through the forest for a little more stomping in the deep snow, getting stuck and laughing like hiennas whilst watching each other rith around like on the snow like slugs on hot bitumen. As we walk we uncover a few orphaned tabogans and decide to drag them along with us, when we arrive at the side of the mountain we lug them up with us to a half way point, squeeze our big bodies into our tiny plastic trays and push off, wizzing down the mountain and crashing onto the snow at the bottom. Our brave efforts are soon shown up as utterly shameful as some 15 year old boys head up to the top of the entire slope and push off, they zoom all the way down like speeding bullets streaking past at lighting speed.. down the mountain... onto the land way.. and into the car park! We decide we are far too old and fragile to even attempt that sort of activity and slink off back to our hotels to avoid any smug faces or the risk of staying and watching one of these teenage boys rip themselves to shreds coming in on the hard, unforgiving surface of the road. On the way out the next day we head past the ice hotel. A 60 room hotel complete with bar and resteraunt area all made entrirley out of ice. Its an amazing spectacle and we spend a few hours runninng around the frozen hallways, peeking into the many frozen rooms, each individually designed and totally original sculpted perfectly from huge blocks of ice. Over the next 8 or so hours we cruise the sights of Finnish lapland, past several smaller ski resorts and winter holiday spots. None however seem to have the same vibrance as Levi so we decide to bid farewell to Finnish Lapland and make our way across the border to Finnmark, the Norweign version of Lapland. |
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