Then it was time to eat. King Crab is the most delicious crab I have ever eaten. What a great way to finish off our day.
Next day it was off to drive our own snowmobile. After dressing in a huge one piece padded suit complete with helmet, gloves and boots it was time for our five minute lesson before taking off on our own. It was quite difficult to control the accelerator with your thumb, forward and you go too fast and release, the snowmobile stops. But after all the hesitations it didn’ t take too long before we were zooming along the frozen fjord. What a wonderful feeling that was as the freezing air reddened our cheeks and our grins of success beamed all over our faces. Faster and faster we went, racing each other along the smooth surface. Then it was time for the next test, up through the forest carefully steering and accelerating until we arrived at our afternoon tea stop. Then it was time to return to base. Exhilarated and happy we returned to our hotel for‘ wine o’ clock’.
The next day it was cloudy and the fjord had thawed and became a deep dark grey with ripples gliding across the surface it was + 4- + 5 degrees and snow was melting everywhere. In the afternoon the sun glinted as were picked up to drive to tour the Snow Hotel, where gorgeous dog sled puppies were just so happy to be held and cuddled and Gabba the white reindeer ate reindeer lichen. The Snow Hotel is built from ice cut from the local lake in mid- December then the indoor walls are decorated with ice carvings of Nordic scenes and a Viking Ship forms an ice bar – quite spectacular. Every room has different carvings, Marilyn Munroe, penguins, polar bears, dolphins and mermaids to name a few. For those planning to stay the night they supply sleeping bag, woollen socks, balaclava and a sleeping bag liner,- not enough to keep me warm at night, and what if you needed to pop out during the night?
The next day it was a long drive to Saariselka, Finland with the border just a little green hut and no one to check our entry. The countryside was flatter with more pine trees lovely lakes all covered in glistening white snow. As we drove along people were snowmobiling and a couple of reindeer were sighted in the woods. After checking into our hotel we wandered the village and had a drink in the pub with the locals and met a young man with his huskies and his 5 year old daughter, they were delightful.
After dinner we walked to the outskirts of the town to view the northern lights, it was a lovely clear night but only stars winked at us.
There was further exploration of the village the next day led us to the national park where a variety of activities were enjoyed. Snow shoeing, X-country skiing was most popular with many different trails to traverse. Then it was off to the Sami Museum where there were interesting displays of tools and all sorts of implements and traditional beautifully embroidered clothing.