Lappland Adventure by Lyn Hazell
We began our journey flying to Tokyo, Japan for an overnight stop before flying onto
Helsinki, Norway. Another overnight stop then on to Oslo then further on to, in a much
smaller plane to Kirkenes in Northern Norway, a lovely hotel by the fjord which was still
frozen. We were surrounded by snow white hills and wooden houses. It is a remote village
which was severely bombed during WW2, hence there were no old buildings. But we did
discover a derelict bomb shelter on the edge of the water. We wandered around the village.
It was Easter so many people had gone away for the holidays. The lovely new school was
brightly painted with lots of playground equipment scattered throughout the playground.
The only shop was closed and the churches also. There were some monuments to the local
heroes in the centre of crossroads. Further down the shoreline was a dock for the tourist
and supply ships t0 dock.
A beautiful sunrise began the next morning with snow white hills turning a soft delicate pink
and the glassy lake turned a soft silvery blue with plates
of fine ice floating, motionless. A light dusting of snow
overnight and boat lights winked and disappeared as the
sun began to rise.
As we wandered the town we saw a sled with a chair
perched on the skis. As we were puzzling about how to
use this contraption a man popped his head out of a
window and cried out “Have a go”. He then appeared
and demonstrated just how to go shopping with your
hands on the handles a child or shopping on the seat and
pushing the sled along. Going downhill was more
interesting as you put your feed on the rungs you slid
quite fast but then how to stop!! Skid your feet along!.
Then we dressed for a crab
fishing expedition. We rode a
snowmobile out along the
frozen fjord to where a hole
had been cut in the ice and a
net was lifted out full of huge
king crabs that grow to two
metres!! |They have blue
blood due to the copper in
their diet. The females are
returned to the water and the legs are cut off the remaining male crabs ready to be cooked
and the scraps are thrown back into the hole for the cod fish to eat. On returning to the
‘camp’ the legs were placed in huge pots with salt and boiled until cooked. While we waited
we wandered around an old Sami village, they were the original people of the area who
usually herd the reindeer.