The Call of The Wild

Woke up early on Christmas morn, dark as always and headed over for breakfast. Another meal of cold meats and cheese but pretty good really. I don't know who invented make-your-muesli but I'm sure they wouldn't have envisaged someone adding coco pops and cashew nuts. They certainly get good value for their Christmas lights here, you can leave them on 24/7. Last night's viewing of Love Actually has us in the right spirit. The snow had stopped but it was overcast. Yesterday our temperature range was minus 7 to minus 13 so we are getting used to the cold. We are also getting used to this civil twilight, the 150 minutes a day where the sun is less than 6 degrees below the horizon. This is when you do your activities, this is when you take your pictures. Crank up the ISO, increase the shutter speed and hope that last night's red hasn't given you the shakes. The pictures look brighter than the real event.

We had to check out of our warm room so we headed down to Cold Reception to store our luggage. Now I thought Cold Reception was what I got when I arrived home from the pub on a Friday night but this is where people book in to the Ice Rooms and pick up their free hired cold suits and snow boots.

Now I can't remember the last time I went Moose hunting on Christmas Day but at 10 we were heading west with Sami guide Anaska and heading out into the frozen forests. However, this was a photo tour and even the intrepid Joanie was armed with a Cannon complete with telephoto lens. 20 kilometres out we stopped and walked into the forest to a bird feeder for dome practice. After that it was back along the road with Anaska's eyes darting left and right looking for fresh tracks. It didn't take long until the two brown dots out in the forest  turned out to be our Christmas moose. It is hard to do stealth in knee deep snow but over about 20 minutes and 200m we got close enough for some good shots. Beautiful setting in the snowy forest as each Moose used their head to push away the snow to get to the grasses underneath. Joanie was particularly happy with her shots during this photographic tour.

Before heading back we had a Fika in a cabin by a beautiful river. You basically light a fire make tea and eat cinnamon buns and chocolate. Home past the massive Kiruna mine and now it was time for Christmas lunch.

Our timing was horrible. A bus had just disgorged its Chinese tourist payload and they moved in for the kill. Not bothering to take off ski jackets they formed a wall around the buffet tighter than the Terra Cotta warriors. And then like the great locust plague of the Ming dynasty they sucked the plates dry. All that was left was some pumpernickel bread and a couple of scraps of lettuce. Luckily our astonished waitresses found some more salmon, cold cuts and Swedish meatballs. Don't even ask about dessert. If you can't pronounce apple crumble, don't eat it!!!

There was a fair bit of trepidation leading up to our overnight excursion to the wilderness camp.  How could we travel into the wild in the darkness? Would we be warm enough? Would the dog's head torches stay on? What would the accommodations be like? Could we physically stand a 20km trip in sub zero conditions?

Anyway we met at the meeting post in pitch dark at 3.30pm, eight of us, two Americans, four South Africans and us. Some bloke met us and put us in a trailer behind a snowmobile and off across the river we went. Five minutes later we were in dog camp welcomed by 130 barking Alaskan huskies and 8 sleds hooked up raring to go. So it didn't take long to allocate people to sleds based on age and weight I guess. Jacob was our guide, seemed about 20 but was probably closer to 30. 8 inexperienced musher lined up, the ropes were untied, the snow anchors lifted and we were off down a steep hill towards the river again.

While it was about minus 11, clever preparation kept us warm. A good down jacket, several layers of thermals, woollen hats and gloves and those layers of fat I had been cultivating for years for an occasion such as this. Our navigation was by head torch and we followed a set trail. The first 10 minutes was along the frozen river, the dogs got into stride and it was easier learning to control the team along this flat stretch. The whoosh of the runners and the panting of the dog's was the only sound and boy was it dark.

I had a team of 7. Wormer (great name for a dog) was the alpha male  and leader of the team as well as the whole kennel. Alongside him was Furball and her job was to keep Wormer on task as many of the younger females were on heat. Nellie ran alone and behind her were two more females, Narla and Dotcom. These two buddies were such a mismatch in size with giant roan Narla towering over little black and white dot com. Closest to the sled were male Gaskar and female Punjoll.

Joanie only had four dogs, why do you ask?

Soon we left the river and started up the hill through the darkened forest. The pace slowed a bit and some more effort was needed on the brake to get around the bends without taking out one of the dark shapes which were trees. We passed by. A couple of illuminated farm houses, a pen of horses and then zoomed through a culvert under the main road. We had snowmobile assistance on our two road crossings to ensure our convoy didn't get collected by a vehicle.

So it was up and down hills on a magical trail for a while. Dotcom occasionally ran wide into snow drifts and all dogs took opportunities to gulp mouthfuls of snow from passing drifts in an effort to cool down. Cool down? Did I mention it was minus 11?

The team responded to a few commands, Gee meant they took the right fork and Haw meant they veered left. Luckily there were very few opportunities to get lost and all teams pretty much followed the lead team anyway. After about an hour came the hardest part, a steep and curvy section down onto a frozen lake. A few slides and brushes with snowy branches made this interesting to say the least. And then the real Christmas magic happened. As we came out of the woods onto the lake we noticed that the sky had cleared and we were racing into a glorious northern lights display. The ghostly green sky flickered and pulsed in welcome to Fjellborg wilderness camp.

We zipped up the slope and into he "parking lot". The dog's were excited and rolled in the snow to cool down. They had worked hard, we had covered over 20km in about 80 minutes, a fair pace for these energetic hounds. They knew their chicken based fish porridge reward was coming and decided to have a sing song. During this serenade we had a welcome hot lingonberry juice by the fire but it was now minus 17. Grabbing a beer it was down to the lake bed to witness the spectacular night show. Spidery streams of green seemed to be sucked out of the Earth and the green haze also formed a backdrop for the camp. The photos say more than words ever could. My beer got colder as I drank it, snow as a stubby holder is a wonderful idea.

Dinner was excellent, served in the rustic cabin. Not hard to guess that it was more reindeer, Arctic char and lingonberries but all beautifully cooked. The night was still clear and now a finger numbing minus 24. Mother Nature put on another light show, great but not as spectacular as the earlier "lime spiders". Eventually we retired to our cosy little cabin complete with wood stove and comfy bed and slept well at the end of a brilliant day. And right on cue the dogs sang us to sleep - this truly was the call of the wild!!!