We arrived at Saariselkä on Monday. Tuesday morning we arranged a reindeer safari for that night. At 7 pm our guide ( I never did learn his name) picked us up at the hotel. We were dressed in all our layers as though we going to ski the shady side of Cannon Mountain. Our guide immediately had us don another layer on top of all our outerwear.
We then drove a little way out of Saariselkä and got into sleighs. We were with a French couple. Sophia and I shared a sleigh. I was glad of all the layers as we were pulled in the dark through the woods by our reindeer. The video doesn't show much, but you will hear the sound of a wooden sled pulled across snow.
Toward the end of the ride we stopped for sausage and coffee and biscuits. As always with food eaten outside in the cold, the sausage was the best thing going! When we returned to the reindeer compound we all went into the corral while our guide fed the reindeer some pellet food. When he first put down some food, the antlers started flying. You got an idea that the reindeer that pulled our sleigh was at the very bottom of the pecking order since we watched him follow our guide around with the food bag.
We had hoped for a chance to see the aurora borealis. Maybe next time!
My mom would be so jealous, we were scheduled to visit a reindeer area near Rovaniemi when we were in Finland about 15 or so years ago and had to cancel.
ReplyDeleteBarry