I
was so incredibly excited about visiting one of our winter destinations! I have
spent countless hours looking at some of the amazing photos we have from
Finland, Sweden and Norway. So when I was
told I would be visiting Norway
I was desperate to experience the place for myself.
From
the airport we picked up our car hire and set off into the Norwegian wilds
following the ‘Northern Lights
Route’ which weaved between the fjords and
mountains. Even in the darkness we could
see the imposing scenery surrounding us.
We then arrived at the Vollan guesthouse which was a lovely cosy, quaint
small hotel with just 13 rooms. It also
has a night club/ pizza bar in the basement for the opportunity to party with
the locals. We declined this opportunity
however and I can safely say I did not hear a single noise from downstairs for
the whole night that we stayed.
At
Vollan Guesthouse we met with some of our local suppliers and ate our evening
meal, which was really nice, tasty locally produced food myself and Jane had
arctic char while Ali chose leg of baby goat.
When our plates were cleaned (which didn’t take long) we set off to stay
at Camp Tamok which is a wilderness camp built
by our suppliers in the area. It
consisted of two large covered Lavvu’s and one open air area with fireplace and
seats etc. There were then two Lavvu’s
for guests to sleep in. This was a bit
of a shock at first going from my flat here in Newcastle to the middle of the Norwegian
wilderness in one day however it was a truly wonderful experience. At The White Circle make the effort to get as
many staff as possible to get out and visit the suppliers, take part in their
activities and stay in their accommodation.
This camp was the perfect reason why this it is so important to see the
destinations first hand because, to be honest, I did not have very high
expectations of the camp and was not particularly looking forward to spending
the night sleeping on the ground in a cold tent. However I could not have been more
wrong.
We
were very well looked after whilst being there and guide stayed nearby overnight,
the reindeer skins we slept on were extremely comfortable and I think the
sleeping bags would have kept you warm anyway regardless of the small gas
burner in each wooden lavvu and the hot coffee, basic continental breakfast and
few inches of fresh snow fall were very welcome in the morning and I bounded
out of my sleeping bag desperate to see this place properly in the light and
take many photos however it was still dark.
The only disappointment with the camp was that we did not get to try the
outdoor hot tub and sauna! Although Hans Olav, who is one of the owners of the
company did say that while worthwhile the (optional!?) jump into the frozen
river afterwards felt “like you were dead.”
From
our night in the camp we were then taken to the equipment shelter to get kitted
up for our first activity. Even this
building (which looked like a garage from the outside) was beautifully decorated
with reindeers skins on the wall and complete with racks and racks of all in
one snow suits and snow boots to fit every size, baskets of gloves, socks and
hats and also some (rather fetching!!) huge woollen, green jumpers which,
honestly, I was immensely grateful for several hours later. We were then taken on the minibus to meet our
huskies and our guide named Tom Froda.
The
dogs were SO excited to be going on one of their first outings of the
season. This started with one or two
whining to be let out of the transport which quickly spread to all of the 24
dogs whining and barking to free. Then
as each one was released and harnessed to the sleighs they instantly started
trying to pull (I quickly realised why each sleigh was either anchored into the
ground or to the nearest car or building) and the louder and the more excited
the dogs got the quieter and more nervous I became. Especially when Jane helpfully told me “If
you can hold on for the first 100 metres then they will calm down and you
should be able to survive the rest…” Brilliant.
Eventually
all of the dogs were harnessed in, the noise was deafening and I was starting
to feel quite nauseous at the thought of being pulled by these animals who, it
seemed to me, were very close to taking off with the parked van trailing
behind! Me and Jane were sharing a sled so she took the reigns first while I
sat in the sleigh. As she said we set
off at (what seemed like 100 mph) but once we survived the first rush then the
dogs settled into a rhythm and I started to look through my fingers at the
amazing mountain scenery as we were pulled across the frozen lake. With such breath taking scenery I was
perfectly happy to lean back, listen to the soft panting and footsteps of the
dogs and feel completely peaceful and immersed in this completely different
world which could not seem further away than my day to day. This was of course until we reached the other
side of the frozen lake and had to navigate the small forest on the other
side….
The
first time we fell off I just decided to roll off the sleigh and keep rolling
as fast as I could off the track in an attempt to not be run over by the 4 dogs
and their musher behind. This did work
however I think Jane was so shocked I had abandoned the sleigh she promptly
fell off also. We lay in the snow and
started laughing at each other until Jane looked up and w every quickly
realised the dogs had not stopped and were still dragging the (now empty)
sleigh across the next frozen lake. Chasing
5 fleeing huskies in a snowsuit, snow boots, hat and gloves whilst howling with
laughter was not the easiest thing I have ever done however Tom Froda (I can
only guess how!!) had managed to stop our run away sleigh whilst controlling
his own and very soon we were off again.
I wish I could say that was the only time we had to complete the run of
shame but I think the final tally was Amy and Jane – 6, Ali – 4 and even Tom
Froda fell off once! And yes, I did get
my chance to take the reins for myself on the journey back and as tranquil and
as vast as the scenery had seemed on the journey out controlling or ‘Mushing’
the dogs was a completely different exhilarating thrilling experience which I
am still trying to describe to everyone who asks me! It was just awesome.
Over
breakfast that morning the guide explained to us that during this time of year
they only have a few limited hours of ‘daylight’ now this may put many people
off visiting (lets face it we get enough long dark days here at home) however
as the week wore on I was amazed at the different types and colours of daylight
they experience and at no point during the day is it truly pitch black. There
is blue light, then day light and then a few hours of pink light in the
afternoon (and then hopefully the northern lights at when it does get truly
dark). Trust me it’s an improvement on
any light we have in the UK.
After
stopping for a late lunch we then went back to the Vollan Guesthouse, Hans Olav
had told us the day before that the company had organised a surprise for us and
we had spent most of the day trying to guess what it could be. Our guesses ranged from a special meal, night
time snowmobile safari, horse riding, ice fishing to a reindeer sleigh. So you can imagine our surprise when a lady named
Tove met us who revealed that we were going to a nearby wellness centre for a
water massage and to try a flotation tank.
Well after a very long day travelling, a night in camp Tamok
and then a day dog sledding she was instantly mine and Jane’s new best friend!
Ali did look a little less convinced however.
Tove
took us to what looked like a normal house a short walk away where we she told
us they did acupuncture, aromatherapy and massage. It was a lovely centre with state of the art
facilities and completely what I needed to refresh. We all slept very well that night indeed!
The
next day we spent in the car travelling to visit Sven Engholm at Karasjok where
we planned to spend the night. It was a
very long journey at just under 500 km, not helped by the fact that we got very
lost and when we rang Sven and read out the names on the nearest road sign he
told us ‘Just carry on, you cant get lost its one road’ unfortunately we had
already gone wrong and we were actually heading in the complete wrong direction
to Karasjok. In the end we ended up
around 280km away from Karasjok and, thankfully, near one of our main suppliers
in Finland
so we were able to stay there for the night and we set off extremely early to
ensure as much time as possible with Sven.
During
this journey we stopped at a small town in Finland called Kilpisjarvi which
Ali has always wanted to visit and hopefully develop a programme in the
area. We were only able to stay for an
hour however this was probably the most beautiful place I have ever been. The views from the cabins there were
astounding and every window looked like a picture someone had painted. It was breathtaking.
It
was so so worth the early start to be able to meet Sven Engholm. His reputation had already preceded him and
every musher you speak to know’s Sven and you can see the respect on their
faces. He has won the longest dog sled
race in Europe 11 times and he is also a top
ten finisher in the ‘Iditarod’ its over 1150 miles of the wildest Alaskan
terrain you can imagine. It usually
takes the mushers between 10 – 17 days! Jane was so excited to meet Sven she
introduced herself as ‘Hi, I’m Amy.. erm Jane.
I’m Jane’ We stayed with Sven for several hours after looking round each
of the cabins he had made and I hung off every word he said. He was such a genuinely nice guy and I felt
honoured to have spent time getting to know him. His cabins were an absolute work of art! Each
one was built and designed by Sven and each one is slightly different. They all have different quirks for example the
dining table is suspended by old chains from the ceiling or the stools are made
out of tree stumps so they all look unique.
In each cabin the three of us just stood and looked and pointed things
out to each other. It was very hard to
make me leave!
From Karasjok we drove to Alta, checked into our hotel and went out for dinner with
Henrietta who is our rep in this area.
None of us really knew what to expect from Alta and after the previous
few days it definitely had a lot to live up to and it definitely started well!
We were taken to a local hotel to which is an option for the last night of our
programme in Alta. I can not recommend
this meal highly enough! It was one of the best meals I have ever had in my
life! King Crab starter, Reindeer steaks main course and sorbet for desert!
Amazing!
The
next day we had a whistle stop tour of everything Alta has to offer. We visited the local musher Eric and his
huskies. The dogs here had the most
amazing names, in order to associate the dogs which were related the called
them all similar names for example Gin and Tonic or Apple, Banana and Orange,
Robbie and Justin (Robbie Williams and Justin Timberlake) I thought this was
such a fun way of naming the dogs! Especially after you have used all the
conventional ones such as frost, snow etc. We then went to visit where the snow
hotel is built in the winter months.
Unfortunately they had not started construction however we did see the
restaurant, changing rooms and other facilities there and had a very exciting
meeting about the possibility of using it for winter weddings. Here we had an equally amazing lunch (by this
time we had noticed that everywhere we went we seemed to get fed! There were
absolutely no complaints from us).
We
then travelled to Alta
Museum where we were
shown around by an extremely knowledgeable guide named Hans Christian. He had a genuine interest and passion for his
museum and he spoke about the ancient rock carvings found round the fjords at
Alta and the ancient Sami lifestyle again we were all fascinated. There was also a short exhibition about the
Northern Lights and the observatory which was set up near Alta to monitor the
lights hundreds of years ago. We then
ate again (obviously!) and chatted about the museum which won the European Museum of the year award in 1993.
Next
on our itinerary it said pool inspection in Alta. We assumed this would be a possible activity
for our guests in the evenings and I even cheekily hoped we may be able to test
the facilities ourselves! This view quickly
changed when they handed me a hard hat, steel toe cap boots and a hard
hat. The 250 million pound development
should be open for the next winter season but even in its building stages you
could see it was going to be very impressive complete with 25 metre swimming
pool, gym, climbing wall above the pool and kids area! This job does take you
to some strange places!
We
went from the pool to meet some local Sami’s who had set up a centre for
visitors to come and learn about their culture and the way they have survived
for hundreds of years in the extreme conditions using reindeers to
survive. They had clothing made from
reindeer skin, shoes, cribs for a baby and clothing. We visited their Lavvu and ate reindeer stew
(in case we were hungry!) It was very interesting and unbelievable looking at
their clothes and protection against the elements when sat there in my state of
the art duvet jacket how they survived.
From
here we were taken back to the hotel and a few hours later we were picked up by
Trygvor who was our guide to take us ‘Northern Lights Hunting’ He gave us a short description of what the
northern lights are and how and why they are formed. He also told us about some of the ancient
beliefs of what the northern lights were.
Trygvor then produced a detailed weather forecast for Alta and the
surrounding area and as we chose which direction to travel based on cloud cover
and snow conditions I felt like a small child setting off on an adventure, it
was very exciting and driving along I was craning my neck out of the car window
looking for any sign of a shimmer of light.
After an hour or so of driving we stopped at a small café for coffee and
waffles. Unfortunately when we emerged
half an hour later it was to a blizzard and we had to accept defeat and start
the drive back to Alta. Alas we did not
see the northern lights that night however the stories and knowledge of our
guide plus the excitement of exploring the new snowy dark landscape (stopping
every now and then for the reindeer on the road) was an extremely memorable
experience in itself.
The
next morning we drove back to Tromso for our final night in Norway. It was a very long drive and despite Ali’s
snores from the back seat I thoroughly enjoyed the last few hours of the
breathtaking Norwegian landscape out of the window with the imposing mountains,
the vast beautifully coloured fjords and the adorable little houses which all
looked so idyllic and warm and welcoming with their Christmas lights in the
windows. When we got to Tromso we had a
few hours to explore by ourselves before meeting Hans Olav for our last meal. Tromso is quite a large town or small city in
comparison to the few clusters of houses strewn over the countryside with many
shops. There were lots of shops, bars
and restaurants and the walk along the riverside was beautiful at night. So after yet another amazing meal of local
delicacies and wonderful new friends we had to go to bed for our very early
flight in the morning and our time in Norway came to an end.
The
visit was everything I expected, hoped for and couldn’t have even
imagined. The landscape was so
breathtaking (There was a reason I took over 400 photos during the week), the
people so friendly (I am genuinely excited for our clients to meet the people
we met and to have the experiences I did) and the experiences were ones I will
remember forever.
-Amy Griffiths
-Amy Griffiths