Reindeer, Sami and Northern Lights

On 16 Feb it snowed like crazy in Tromso.

We decided to wait for the snow to clear a bit before we ‘hit the city’ after breakfast… well, it did not. It just got worse and we spent the day watching the snow come down at various speeds.

At 15:00 we went for a waffle downstairs and then got dressed as warmly as we could for our reindeer experience.

As we walked to the Raddison Blue hotel meeting point we wondered if going out and reindeer sledding in this blizzard is very wise, but when in Rome….  Sure thing, the guide showed up and around 16 persons joined us for the evening.

After kitting out in snow suits we drove to a small island (luckily the bridge was still open) and proceded a up-hill hike to where the reindeer waited. The uphill hike in the powder snow with a too long -snow suit was not what this PMS girl was expecting. I was hot, unfit and kept tripping up on the too long legs and eventually got there wheezing and coughing and with a splittin headache. I’m not sure if that was bloodpressure related or the combination of the heat of the snow suit and my heart condition acting up. Normally I would have not pushed myself that hard, but there was nowhere to go but up and nowhere to sit down in knee deep snow. The last time I felt that way was when I got altitude sickness high up in the atlas mountains in Morocco after a uphill hike and I ended up throwing up next to the road – I could just see that happening again.

I was still wheezing when we sat down in the sled-train. Each sled was pulled by a reindeer and the sleds were tied together in a train, so that the sled behind you had a reindeer walking next to your sled. No pictures (flashes scare the animals) and no touching the animals either…

By now the skies have cleared (WTF????) and the guide leading the sled-train pointed out some light grey streaks of northern lights as we went along.  It was all and all a much gentler experience than the dog sledding, altough at one point he did allow them to get up to a trot and our reindeer almost ran into the sled in front of it, so much did she enjoy the run.

While the other group has their sled experience we sat in the warm lavvo set up for the brave ‘over-nighters’… the ones who were staying the night. That was untill someone said there were Northern lights outside and everyone piled out – cameras in hand… tripod central.

Initially it was grey whisps and I thought – you got me out here for this??? PMS – remember. And then it happend – a show that exceeded my expectations – green moving lights all over the sky – you do not know where to look. As one boy put it so well – This is worth the cold feet. Even my little camera (without a tripod) got a few nice shots – the point was to experience the lights, not photograph them – for me anyways.

With the show above and the walk down-hill to the bus even my frozen stiff snow suit pants was funny in the end.

Chattering about our luck we returned to the site where we got the snow suits and went to a bigger Lavvo where we had a meal of Reindeer stew, bread and berry juice. Our sami hosts told us more about their way of life, showed us their traditional snow shoes, mittens and jackets and shared their propsal ritual – a sled ride now replaced by a more modern car version.

Outside the lavvo there were other reindeer that was more used to people and could be photographed and petted, if you so wished.

After hot chocolate we returned the snow suits, bid our hostess good night and returned in the once again driving snow to the city centre.

It was a lovely entertaining, informative evening – Thank you Sami Lapland adventures.

We had a cup of coffee on the porch outside the hotel and watched the snow fall down into the ocean.