Finland Lapland March 17 – 21, 2016

Ice-fishing and picnic

I fall in love with Scandinavia after two most enjoyable trips spending 72 nights in Greenland and Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden last year. Polar lights, beautiful landscape and scenery especially in Lofoten Archipelago, the Scandinavian culture and people are enticing. I therefore decide to return for another Arctic experience and to watch the World Cod Fishing Championships to be held in Svolvær on April 1-2.Another Arctic Trip

Last September, I travelled from Helsinki, Finland to Rovaniemi (official residence of Santa Claus) by bus. My Finnish friends have told me to go to the Lapland, home of the Sámi. I like to check out new destinations and routes. So I decide to make another Arctic trip starting at the top of Scandinavia: I would begin my trip in Utsjoki, the northernmost municipality of Finland and the EU located on Teno River at the border with Norway and to travel toSvolvær in the Lofoten Archipelago by taking the Hurtigruten coastal express from Kirkenes. In this way, I could have a leisure journey overland and by sea. After the World Cod Fishing Championships, I would continue my journey by sea to Trondheim and then by train to Oslo. I expect to see Norther Lights during my 18-day journey through the Arctic Circle.

The Arctic 4

For a change, I am not travelling alone. When I told Kylie about my Arctic trip, she decided to join. Kylie came with me to Yellowknife two years ago and to Hawaii last October. Then Venus and Ellen joined. I name our group ‘The Arctic 4’. The group would travel together from March 17 to 27 and I would be on my own again thereafter.

March 17 Thursday: Hong Kong – Helsinki, Finland – Ivalo – Utsjoki

We took a Finnair midnight flight to Helsinki. The Hong Kong airport was so busy that our flight was delayed for an hour till almost 2 am. As a result, we did not land in Helsinki till 6:30am and only had 45 minutes to catch our connecting flight to Ivalo. We did not want to miss our flight and asked the airport security staff to let us use the express line. No way! We also had to go through immigration service. It was 7:10am (5 minutes before the scheduled departure) when we arrived at Gate 30. We had a pleasant short flight and landed at the Finland’s northernmost airport around 9am. We rushed to put on warm clothes, pants, gloves and hat.

March 17 – 21: 4 Days in Holiday Village Valle, Utsjoki

The Utsjoki municipalityfounded in 1876 with a population of 1,265 and an area of 5,371km² in the Lapland. Located some900km from Helsinki, it has three main villages (Utsjoki, Nuorgam and Karigasniemi).

The Sámi people are an indigenous Finn-Ugric people who have been inhabiting the Arctic area of Sápmi encompassing parts of far northern Norway, Sweden, Finland and the Kola Peninsula of Russia since 10,000 B.C. The Sámi population is estimated to be between 60,000 to 10,000 with the majority living in Norway and around 5,000 in Finland. The Sámi languages are classified as a branch of the Uralic language family. Traditionally, they have pursued a variety of livelihoods including coastal fishing, fur trapping and reindeer herding. Today, reindeer is important both culturally and economically: about 10% of the Sámi are still connected to reindeer husbandry.

Day 1 (Thursday) – We booked a cottage for four nights for €580 at the Holiday Village Valle in Utsjoki run by a Sámi family. We also arranged a pick-up for €300 as our destination is about 170 km from the airport. We weremet by Andy on arrival who took us to a supermarket in Ivalo where we spent€82 on food for four days! We were so hungry that we had two fresh baked loaves in the car.

We enjoyed the snow white world and postcard view of pine trees and colourful wooden houses. It was sunny but freezing cold. The wind was very strong and Andy drove 40-50km an hour. I dozed off several times despite the beautiful scenery. We did not arrive at our cottage till almost 1pm exhausted and hungry. Wow, we could not believe we had a luxurious well-equipped three-bedroom cottage (over 200m²)with a sundeck and a sauna.

Our 5-star cottage (Above); Norway opposite the holiday village across Teno River (Right)

After lunch, our host Henry, son of the owner of the holiday village came to greet and explain the activities for the next three days. Despite his young age (27 years old), Henry is handsome, mature, efficient, multi-skill and easy going. Before arrival, we had already booked a full-day ice-fishing and snowmobile excursion. After Henry’s explanations, we decided to sign up for two more activities namely cross country ski to see fish trapping on Teno River and chasing Northern Lights with reindeer. We paid €380 each for three activities. Not bad!

At 6:30pm, Henry took us to a Sami timber hut by the river for a traditional dinner (€78 each). He lit a fire and served us berry juice with reindeer meat and fish cakes followed by traditional coffee. During dinner, he briefly told us about his people and the traditional nomadic lifestyle.

Henry, our young Sami host

The night ended with a Sámi song about Northern Lights. Henry hoped his voice would bring us the magical lights. His call was partially answered: we did spot some faint Northern Lights at our doorstep before 10pm. It was not impressive and I did not bother to take my camera out. Snow began to fall and we went to bed early.

Day 2 (Friday): Ice Fishing

We all had a good sleep and I was the last to get up. My friends had already prepared a sumptuous breakfast with bread, egg, oatmeal, fruit and yogurt. Today we had our survival lesson: how to dress properly for ice-fishing and the Arctic weather. With the help of Henry and Andy, we put on a heavy warm overall, a halmet, two pairs of gloves, a pair of thick woolen socks and boots with double insulation. We could hardly move and got clumsily into the sledge! Off we went on a truly winter experience over the rolling hills and valleys.

The weather was changing all the time. It was very windy with low visibility. At one time, I wondered whether we might have to turn back in case of a blizzard. We were excited when seeing a herd of 20 reindeer which ran away when we got too close to them.

After a brief toilet stop in a rustic public mountain hut for hikers, we finally descended onto a frozen lake where Andy drilled holes for ice-fishing. We each had a hole with a line and hook. With a blue sky and sunshine and light wind, I found the cold bearable (or even lovely). We fished for half an hour without success.

Andy drilling a hole (Left); Standing by our fishing hole (Above)

In the meantime, Henry had a stove going: he was grilling sausages and making coffee for us. We also had a roll with reindeer meat inside. It’s amazing to see Andy caught six small Arctic char from his hole while having lunch and coffee! The grilled char had a wonderful taste!  After lunch, I put on the snowshoes and walked for over half an hour. The snowshoes are well-made and light (very different from the pair I had in Yellowknife, Canada). I moved with ease and walked up the gentle slope for panoramic views of the lake and surrounding areas. Beautiful!  I enjoyed walking with the snowshoes so much that I asked Henry to allow me to walk ahead of the group. At the end, I walked over 1.5km before Henry’s snowmobile caught me up. End of my happy wandering in wilderness in snowshoes.

We had a beautiful ride with sunshine and a clear sky. The wind had dropped and it was nice and warm! The scenery was stunning: everything was covered by fresh white snow with no trace of human intrusion. The reindeer remained where we saw them in the morning.

We had a pork stew with potatoes for dinner. Shortly after 9pm, Norther Lights (in whitish and greenish colours) appeared in all shapes and directions. We had almost a full moon and this made photo taking more challenging for novice photographers like me. It’s the first time Ellen and Venus saw Northern Lights. They were excited and totally satisfied with what they saw. Kylie and I stayed out till midnight when it became cloudy.

Day 3 (Saturday): Cross country ski on Teno River

We had plenty things to do while feeling most relaxed. One of the major tasks was to prepare three meals a day. Then we had an outdoor activity each day and watched out for Northern Lights after dark every night. Ellen took the chicken out to defrost it before we joined Henry on a cross country ski hike.  We met Henry outside the equipment store by the river at 1:30pm. He reminded us not to overdress as we would get hot soon. After sorting out our ski and poles, he taught us how to ski. I had taken a couple of lessons on Alpine ski in France but cross country ski was new to me.I managed to walk without falling for the next two hours but Kylie fell three times. I think with a few more hours of practice, I can move with ease and faster. and walked most cautiously. Henry showed us how to set up the trap for catfish on the river. Only one trap had caught a small catfish. Henry was getting cold as he did not move much while waiting for Kylie to catch up. He remarked that our group was the slowest one he ever had!

We had coffee in the restaurant afterward and my friends all bought reindeer candle stands. I love candles but have no space in my tiny flat for decorative items. The roast chicken and potatoes prepared by Ellen was delicious. I stirred fry the vegetables. The chicken was juicy and soft. Kylie removed the bones and we had the rest of the chicken for several meals. It started to snow and we needed not wait for the Northern Lights. I went happily to bed early and had a quality sleep.

Day 4 (Sunday): Chasing Northern Lights with Reindeer

My friends crossing the bridge heading to Norway

It’s a warm Sunday with temperature above 0ºC. We set out on our own and walked to the village about 2 km away. But the village was dead quiet on Sundays: we only saw a lady with a pram and two guards when crossing the bridge linking Finland and Norway. We had a Sunday feast with the left-over (chicken, salmon, vegetables, noodles etc).

We all had an afternoon nap before dinner. When Henry’s younger brother Erik arrived at our doorstep before 9pm, we noticed he had a deep bloody scar on his left forehead. He was attacked by three Norwegian men in a pub at 4am that morning in Tanabru, some 70km from Utsjoki. He was rushed to hospital and had 6 stitches. We asked whether he was fit to take us on the ride. He said he was fine and had a rest. (Apparently he had headache the following day and had to go to Rovaniemi for check-up). We sat off in three sledges: Kylie at the front, Venus and Ellen in the middle and I was at the back. Kylie’s sledge overturned and she was thrown out. Fortunately, she was not hurt.

We had coffee in a tent where Alex made a fire. It started to snow: light snowflakes fell softly while I was enjoying the ride through darkness. At the end of the ride, the blanket over my body was covered in snow. As I was warmly dressed, I did not feel cold at all.

Northern Lights gradually emerged behind the clouds. When we arrived at our cottage around 11:30pm, I spotted stronger lights covering the sky like a curtain. Next moment, the lights shot across the sky with the full moon in the background.   We all watched in amazement and appreciated our good fortune. Kylie and I hanged out for another hour taking photos. What a lovely finale to celebrate our stay in the Lapland!

March 21 Monday: Utsjoki, Finland – Kirkenes, Norway

We had to catch our boat Nordkapp in Kirkenes which is about 120km from Utsjoki. We left our lovely holiday home at 8am. Henry drove along Teno River till we got to Nuorgam, about 40km from Utsjoki. Beyond this village is Norway though there is no real border or check point.

During the three hour drive, we had an enthusiastic discussions with Henry about how he could promote Utsjoki and Finnish Lapland as a tourist destination for an Arctic experience in Hong Kong. I suggest he take part in our annual travel expo.

We put forward two more business suggestions. We like quality meat and reindeer meat is lean and rich in protein. As his family is raising reindeer, we can buy a few reindeer and entrust his family to look after them for us. In this way, we can be sure of the health condition of the animal and the quality of meat we consume. Each year we can have one animal slaughtered and cured before he packs and ships it to Hong Kong for us. This would be good for personal consumption and nice presents!

The second idea came about when he talked about salmon fishing on Teno River. We love high quality wild salmon. He is a passionate fisherman and if he can ship some of the fresh wild salmon caught from the river to us, we are happy to pay him a fair price. I think he has been listening with amusement as well as bewilderment!

Remarks

When I planned this trip to Finnish Lapland, I did not know much about the land and the indigenous people of the Arctic. My brief stay at Holiday Village Valle and encounter with Henry have left a great impression about the Sámi and the enchanting Lapland.

While I was in Yellowknife, Canada in end March in 2012 for Northern Lights viewing, I had fished on ice, drove a snowmobile by myself and walking with snowshoes. Nonetheless, I enjoyed my time in Lapland much more because of the warmth and personality of our Sámi host. Henry is young and promising: I hope he can expand his business raising the profile of Utsjoki, the Sámi and helping his community. We have made three business suggestions to Henry. Will he consider? I hope so. Anyway, we shall recommend our friends to come to stay with him for an Arctic and Sámi holiday.

Finally, I pray for Erik and wish him a speedy recovery from the injury.