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Saturday, 1 march 2008
Lapland 2008


An adventureweek with Hetta as our basecamp. During the week we made a ride with a Husky sledge, made a two day safari with raindeer, went on a snowscooter trip and did lots of other fun stuff.

If you don't have the time to read the story you can see a short movie on the left.


It is stormy weather and the rain is pooring down. But it is only 3 am, so i turn around and try to sleep. The alarmclock wakes us at 4:30. A quick shower and a small breakfast later we leave for Schiphol airport. It is a school holiday, but we manage to find a parkingspot close to the bus. Despite we checked in via internet yesterday it is not going very fast at the counter. They check everything in the computer, and the steward writes our gatenumber 4 times on our selfprinted the boarding passes. The moment we show up at gate B11 a familair face comes our way. It is Michel (from the trip to Suriname) he is also flying to Helsinki with this airplane. After that we split up, he is going with a Djoser group to Inari.
Because of the storm there are a lot of delays at the airport, we also leave 30 minutes late. While we are making speed on the runway we feel some heavy pulls to the left, but that is no problem for the captain. He corrects it easily and we have a normal lift off. During some turbulance we see Schiphol disappear below us. Later the captain tells us over the intercom that the wind gusts during our start were measured at 90 km/h. Soon after the start they serve a large breakfast. And soon after they ask if we want anything else to drink. Good service. Our next airplane in Helsinki is ready at the gate next to where we stop. We have 30 minutes though to stretch our legs. Finnair doesn't work with assigned seat on national flights. So we decide to enter as soon as we can, to prevent us from sitting far apart. But it turns out the plane is not fully booked and there is space enough. It is 75 minutes to Kittilä, the world under is white. And when the captain turns on the camera under the plane we see the runway is not entirely snowfree either. There are no gates at Kittilä and we have to walk down to the terminal. The boardcomputer displays -12° Celsius. Coming from +10° Celsius, it is cold.
But we put our woolen hats on and walk fast.
A taxi is waiting for us, he doesn't speak english but it is clear we have to get into a minivan. We are the only ones going to Hetta. It is a nice minivan but the airco is not working very well. It is too warm and very dry. The 150 km to Hetta are passing through a great landscape. Forests, frozen lakes and snow, lots of snow. It is only 2 right turns and 2 hours later we are in Hetta at the hotel Hetan Majatalo.
Tiina, the owner gives us a warm welcome. After dropping off our lugguage in our room she tells us about the week to come while we are having a warm chocolate drink with mintliquor. Everything is very good organised. Next to a map of Hetta we get tickets for the naturecentre and the icecastle. Today we have some time to visit the local supermarket and try the kicksledges. To ride a kicksledge is not as easy as it looks. Dinner is at six. A buffet with salades, salmon soup and a piece of meat, desserts and coffee/tea with a cookie. Time to have a relaxing evening on bed in front of the tv.

Sunday 2 march 2008

We slept in. Breakfast is between 8:30 and 9:30, at home we would have eaten much earlier. It is snowing a bit. When we pass reception after breakfast, Tiina is calling us. She has a water boiler for us to use in our room. That is nice, we decide to make a cup of coffee right away. After that we go out to discover what Hetta has to offer. It is not really much, but we have only one day. We start at the church. People form Hetta tell us it is the most beautiful church of Finland. The inside is nice to see, but is this really the most beautiful of Finland? Ofcourse we also visit the graveyard, as we usually do on our trips. In our eyes it is strange to see the tombstone completely disappeared under the snow with a candle burning next to it.
We walk to the edge of the frozen lake. The lake is a large white plain with some snowmobile tracks and cross country skiing tracks. But the cold wind forces us back to the road, just a bit warmer for our route to the nature centre. In the nature centre are some interesting displays about the Sami and Lapland. In the hall a couple is displaying his woodcarving. We recognise them from breakfast. They try to tell us a lot about the carvings, but we don't understand a thing. The receptionist is coming to translate some. It turns out all the carvings have a cultural background.
After the naturecentre we walk back to the ice castle. It doesn't look like much. But we have tickets and decide to go in. Inside it is much nicer and in the end we are glad we did visit. We skip the bar, we have a thermos with hot tea in our backpack. Back to Hetta, with the wind blowing from behind we take a route over the lake. A quick stop at supermarket to buy some teabags and instant coffee (and ofcourse beer...) and we are back at the hotel. In our room we make some hot drinks and eat the cracker we packed at breakfast. In the meantime they warmed the sauna for us. After some sweating there it is time to put moisture levels back to normal. Time for a snow cooled Finnish beer. Dinner is again a buffet. Tonight we have some raindeer liver. It tastes very good, especially topped with the berry sauce. End of a nice day. We are having no regrets of our choice to go to Finland, and the nice excursions still have to come.

Monday 3 march 2008

Tuula, our guide today, is somewhat late because of a traffic accident in front of her. She apologizes for the car. It is the dog car, but the van is in the shop. It is a 45 minute drive to the huskyfarm. The road is geting smaller and more white. We travel this week with two spanish ladies. When we arrive one of them says she is afraid for dogs. She certainly picked the right vacation...
The dogs are restless, they all want to go with us. But as we are only using two sledges they can't all come. Harnassing the dogs to the sledges is a noisy job. It takes some time too. Six dogs in front of the sledge, Gonnie in the sledge and Tom driving it. Tuula is driving the other sledge, with Aurelia in it. Celia is on the sledge that is tied to a snowscooter. There is snow, lots of snow, deep snow, new snow. Next to the track you easily sink a meter into the snow. But some stamping makes us a nice camp to have lunch. In the middle Tuula makes a fire where we roast some sausages. The snow is melting in a pot for some hot tea. We are having fun and think of not leaving, but the dogs are having a different opinion. The hot fire is sinking into the snow and distinguishes itself. The snowscooter is trying to find a track to make a loop, but there is too much fresh snow. We have to turn. That is a difficult task with six restless dogs, but we manage. In the meantime it stopped snowing and the sun is peeking through the clowds. Everything is looking a lot better. At the end of the route the snowscooter is taking a wrong track and we have to turn another time. But then the adventure is at an end and we return to Hetta in an icecold car that smells like the dogs. Back in the hotel Tom is forgetting time while talking to the local guide in the sauna. And when he returns to the room we have to go for dinner. Here we meet Jan and Saskia, they are joining us tomorrow for the snowmobile ride and the icefishing. While we are enjoying coffee in the lounche Tiina tells us to go to the video room. She is showing a video about our guide tomorrow: Antti, the hunter. It is a long movie about hunting white birds in white snow and it is Finnish spoken. It could have been a bit shorter, and we need some drinks afterwards.

Our next adventure in Lapland can be found in
part 2: icefishing with a snowmobile and the raindeer ride.