Snowmobile Safari
The reason for going out at night was to hunt for the Northern Lights.... but we were out of luck. It was quite eerie being out so late, in the dark, on snowmobiles, in the middle of nowhere – but it was also great fun to be able to open up the throttle along the frozen river once Karesuando was in sight again. As it was below zero standing still, you can imagine how cold it was with the wind chill factor at speed, but the snowsuits did their job and kept us cosy.
The next day was our snowmobile safari – out for the whole day! We travelled a pre-planned route further North, deep into the Käsivarsi Wilderness Area where we stopped at a vantage point. You could where the Norway, Sweden and Finland borders meet and for miles around. We also stopped for a spot of ice fishing to while away some time whilst lunch was being prepared. It’s harder work that you would expect to drill through the ice and none of us were successful at catching anything. It’s a good job we weren’t expected to provide the fish for lunch!
Although this is a wilderness park, there are plenty of people who pass through on snowmobiles in the winter, or just hiking in the summer months. The snowmobile tracks are marked and if you step off the snowmobile and off the track – you’ll be waist deep in snow. The snow drifts can be metres deep and you soon realise that what you thought were bushes are actually the tops of buried trees!
There are many mapped travellers ‘huts’ in this 2,206 square kilometres of wilderness where you can shelter and prepare a meal. They have bunks for around 8-10 people and there’s also a peat toilet in a smaller hut nearby. There’s a supply of wood that’s topped up by the rangers, so you can always get the stove going and keep warm through the night.
Whilst we were there we also had a go at snowshoeing. It’s not as easy as it looks! You’d think the snowshoe would sit ‘on’ the snow but it often compresses down to 8 or 9 inches... and then the tail of the shoe picks up snow and twists as you lift your foot and the next thing you know is your other foot sinks further – so it’s a bit like walking through deep mud! Most of us ended up rolling around in the snow at some point, but it was good fun.
The safari day over, the rest of the time was our own. There were optional excursions available to visit the reindeer camp and do a sleigh safari, take a cross country skiing trip, take a husky safari or opt for a night in an igloo, but we decided to explore the village by day and do some more late night walks in search of the Northern Lights by night. This time we weren’t disappointed. There’s a mountain track behind the village with a keg of hot glögi (mulled wine) at the top. For the next two nights we went out stargazing and were rewarded with a light display each night.
Overall, the accommodation was a bit basic, but spacious and perfectly adequate. We had plenty of hot water and a warming rack for our clothes to dry out. We felt that the food was more ‘homely’ than Scandinavian but we weren’t expecting gourmet food and there was plenty of it. We went for the snowmobiling and to see the Northern Lights in the village was a bonus.