Finland in Winter

For as long as I can remember, I’ve wanted to see the Northern Lights. I travelled to Iceland a few years ago but with no luck, and whenever they’ve been visible here in the UK I’ve always been away. At the beginning of this month my partner and I flew to Finland for 5 nights, and, WOW – they were visible every night. 💚  We stayed in accommodation that had a glass roof and a couple of nights we were able to lie in bed watching them dance above us. What a fantastic experience!  In addition to seeing the Aurora, we had booked various activities during the daytimes and they were great fun, despite the cold snap that sent temperatures plummeting to -36ºc. (-32.8f)  It was so cold that the hairs inside our noses froze which was a very odd sensation 🥶  Whilst I was overjoyed at seeing the lights, what I hadn’t expected was just how stunningly beautiful it was everywhere. Words can’t describe it, nor can photos capture it fully, but I have done my best.

The main lodge of the hotel was typically rustic with lots of wood, a couple of fireplaces, and still displaying some decorations from Christmas.

Our cabin was a couple of kilometres up a hill from the main lodge and the hotel provided a shuttle service.  The photos below were taken near our cabin.  Stepping off the road meant sinking knee or sometimes thigh deep in snow!

We hadn’t expected to see the sun at all, but the day before we arrived it had peeked out for the first time since before Christmas. It didn’t ever get higher than in the photo below but for a few hours each day there were the most stunning orange colours on the horizon.

The first activity we did was a snowshoe walk into the forest and were rewarded by our first sighting of the lights 💚

After researching about the ethics of doing a husky ride to ensure they are treated well, this was our next activity.  The dogs were without doubt keen to run, and were barking with excitement and straining at the ropes to get going. A team of 6 dogs pulls each sledge which carries one or two people, and as soon as they were untied and the brake released on the sledge they shot off! It was great fun and the ride took us through absolutely breathtaking landscapes.

Here’s one of my ‘marmite’ photos! Motion blur created a rather abstract image.

The sun started to rise during the ride and the sky was spectacular.

After the ride we were able to say hello to the dogs. The hotel provided very heavy snowsuits, boots & gloves for the guests to borrow, and they turned out to be extremely necessary. I had taken my skiing clothes but they just would not have been warm enough without the borrowed snowsuit on top. Getting dressed to go outside took about 10 minutes each time 😂  Oh, one of the best bits about our cabin was a huge clothes drying/warming cupboard.  It was the size of a tall fridge but inside had racks and a fan that blew hot air.  Putting toasty warm clothes on was a great bonus.  We also had our own sauna which is very common in Finland.  What is also common but we definitely did NOT do was to have a sauna, then go outside and roll around in the snow or dip in freezing water!  Looking at me in the photo below gives an idea of just how cold it was.

One evening we were waiting to catch the shuttle down to the main lodge and there were huge streaks of green in the sky.

Finland has approximately 22 billion trees!  Over 75% of its land area is covered by forests, and it holds some of the world’s densest forestland with roughly 4,500 trees for every person living in the country. Google also tells me that’s 10 trees for every person in the world.

Due to the loan of all the warm clothes we were able to enjoy a couple of short walks around the hotel.

We had two snowmobile adventures. One at night in search of the Aurora, and one during the day.  Driving one was another new experience for me.

On the evening ride the lights put in another appearance for us and I just used my phone to capture these images below.

At a much slower pace and shorter excursion was a reindeer sleigh ride. Just like the dogs, the reindeer are well looked after and take several years to train as each summer they are set free to roam the forests with the completely wild herds.

I like the look of wooden fences and gates and even more so in a snowy scene.

Finally, on our last evening we were treated to another fabulous display.

Well, that’s another thing ticked off my bucket list! Everything exceeded expectations – the hotel, the food, the guides, the excursions, the scenery and of course the incredible Aurora Borealis. 💚