Travelling Diaries
2018 Swedish Lapland / Day 6 - Kiruna
Previous and next: Day 5 - Travel to Kiruna / Day 7 - Travel to Björkliden
7th February 2018
This morning a few of us went off to go dog sledding.
There is a dog kennels not too far away that has 48 husky type dogs that just love to pull human beings around on bits of metal and wood.
When we arrived at the place, the dogs were already harnessed up and ready to go and they knew when we arrived that their fun was about to start. As we greeted them, they started the most wonderful howling chorus and they were quite put out that we had to go off and get changed first.
We were all given bigger coats and boots (and trousers for some), even though we were already wearing pretty good snow gear. The reason wasn’t apparent, but we just followed instructions.
After changing, we climbed aboard our sleds. There were 13 of us, so we were divided into two groups of four and one of five and loaded up onto three sleds.
We were part of the group of five. Because of this we needed extra dogs!
There were four women and me on this sled. “We’ll need the man at the back for ballast.” said the guide.
“That’ll be me” I said in my most masculine tone.
“Why the deep voice?” asked Karen. “Sorry” I said, “I was just being a little husky.”
The dogs were now really excited and howled with anticipation when the guide finally let loose the brakes and off we went.
Our own gasps of delight soon turned into gulps for oxygen as the dogs excitement was expressed in waves of flatulence and worse!
In terms of dog sledding, I was a fan, but that didn’t give the dogs an excuse to hit the fan with that stuff!
However, the reason for the change of clothes was now clear, and all I can say is, thank goodness for my poor sense of smell!
The dogs soon settled down and the rest of the ride was exhilarating.
We drove over frozen lakes and marshes and through forests of heavily snow laden trees and finally stopped half way for a cup of coffee and piece of cake.
This gave us a chance to meet each of the dogs and thank them and we could see that this job was something they really enjoyed.
Very soon the dogs were getting restless and started howling for us to climb back on board.
We did, and were soon back hurtling through the landscape at a breakneck pace.
When we later returned to the hotel, we immediately joined the rest of the Tourettes and jumped on a coach bound for the Ice Hotel.
The Ice Hotel is located in Jukkasjarvi and is famous for having a brand new set of rooms carved in ice each year from blocks hewn out of the local frozen river. The rooms are then Individually decorated with ice sculptures and people pay to sleep overnight in them on reindeer skins and in double layers of sleeping bags.
There is also now a permanent Ice Hotel where you can experience sleeping at -5C all year round (Sounds like sleeping at our house.)
There
was one room in the Hotel with a huge stained glass window made of ice.
Apparently people were flying in to get married there. “And the bride wore a
white parka and matching snow boots.”
We had a quick walk around outside in the setting sun and then headed into the Ice Bar for a Laphroig whisky in a tumbler made out of ice. The glasses were only ever used once but were very recyclable!
I jokingly asked the barmen if he had any ice and he gave me a pleasant smile, the one that says, “Oh, that’s the first time I’ve heard that, this minute.”
We only bought one drink between us, but it was so tasty I went back and got a refill, which was cheaper as we already had bought the glass. Win win.
We finished the day off at a local Sami museum and exhibition centre were we spent a very cold half hour standing outside being given a talk on the history of the Sami people.
We did get a chance to feed the reindeers though.
We were then led inside for a hot meal beside a roaring fire.
On the way back to the hotel, we noticed that the sky had cleared.
Maybe it’s the night to see the Northern Lights?
We ventured out at 10pm when it was -20°C, only to just miss a brief glimpse of the lights.
By the time I had defrosted my camera, the short spectacle had ended.
I also managed to drop my phone in the snow and the battery went from 100% to 5% in the space of five minutes. It wasn’t so much an iPhone but more like a snow mobile.
Back in our rooms, Karen asked me would I have liked to have been married in the Ice Hotel.
I said no. Just think of the frosty reception?
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