Finland - Northern Lights and Huskies

We headed north on Monday Feb 28th, taking a short flight from Helsinki to Ivalo where we were met by our guide from Aurora Service Tours. Canice (from Ireland), picked up the other guests and we stopped at the grocery store to get food for the next four days. After a 2 1/2 hr drive mostly on hard packed snow roads we arrived in Utsjoki, right on the Norwegian border. We settled into our very comfortable cottages - complete with wood stoves and personal saunas! Later when it was dark we climbed up the viewing tower  hoping to see the aurora, but it was too cloudy so we called it an early night.

The next three nights we met every evening at 8pm in the Kota - a round wooden hut with a very large fire in the middle. We discussed the nights plans with Canice and the other guests, Heather from Wales, and Lena and Noveta from Indonesia. The weather at camp was cloudy every night, but Canice knew locations typically within an hour drive that potentially had clear weather. We found the Aurora is not guaranteed and requires a lot of luck, driving and standing in the cold hoping for the clouds to clear and lights to appear. Luckily Canice took good care of everyone, including providing hot juice and cookies after a few hours of standing in the cold windy night! The first two nights we went south to a parking pull off and did see some good lights.

Our last night the Aurora forecast wasn't very encouraging, but Canice suggested we went north to the top of a pass that might have clear skies and we could hope to see some lights. So off we went in the minibus on roads that are all covered in hard packed snow. Every vehicle this far north has snow tires with ice studs which is critical to drive in these conditions. We arrived at the top of the pass and were met with a brutally cold wind - and also an incredible display of northern lights which Canice said were the best he had seen all year! Lesson learned, you can't rely on the forecast! After several hours of photography we started to head back to the camp, and saw another display of incredible lights that required another stop on the side of the road! We finally got back around midnight after a wonderful experience!

Wednesday morning we spent a delightful two hours snow shoeing in the forest and were lucky enough to see a few reindeer and of course plenty of beautiful snow covered trees.

Thursday 3rd we drove about an hour north east to Tana, Norway for the dog sledding adventure. After a very quick 10-minute briefing on how to control the dogs and the sled we set off with the other people, about 8 sleds. John was sitting on a reindeer hide on the sled, trying not to slide off and Sara was standing up driving, also trying not to fall off. The dogs were really excited and seemed to only know full speed ahead. Luckily, we were the last sled in the group, which meant no one ran up behind us when everyone had to stop suddenly the many times a sled ahead of us turned over.

We had the unbelievable experience of hurtling around the beautiful countryside for two hours. There was one bit of excitement when Sara fell off the back and was dragged about 200 yrds trying to desperately work out how to stop the sled. Good thing she remembered to hang on to the bar, otherwise John could be at the North pole by now! Eventually she managed to use one hand on the foot break and yelled stop with enough urgency the dogs stopped and looked back as if to say, “What’s up back there”. Unbelievably John caught the whole thing on video which we will edit and share later! Overall it was an exhilarating experience with beauty and a sprinkling of terror and we enjoyed every moment!

Friday was sadly our day to move on. We had found out Thursday that Avis had canceled our car reservation back in November. Who knew that a confirmation email actually meant the request was denied? This meant the rest of our trip was potentially ruined as we needed a one-way rental from Finland to Norway from a remote part of the country in the middle of the school break. After a lot of stress calling every car rental company and asking for any size car in a 200 km radius, we were saved by EuropCar, who had a small VW Polo at Kittila airport available late Saturday.

We had already planned to spend Friday night in Kittila, just needed to work out how to travel the 200km without a car. Bus was the cheapest option, but would take 8 hours, and required an overnight stop. Flying back to Helsinki and then north again to Kittila would work at $750, but tough to get last minute flights. What about a taxi? I randomly called a taxi company in Inari, a small village with a population of under 600 people. A delightful lady quoted me 350 euro, and then recommended a cheaper bus/taxi combination. We decided the money was well spent and took her additional advice to visit and eat lunch at the Sami museum, which has been on our wish list anyway. Inari is the center of Sami culture in Finland and also the location of the Finnish Sami parliament. After a fascinating wander around the outside museum, showing traditional Sami buildings and a lunch we were driven the 2 ½ hours to our Kittila hotel. I am still moved by how kind and helpful both the lady and her husband (who drove us) were.  The drive was beautiful, and we were happy to settle in our room – so celebrated with a beer!

Click here to view all the photos!