Dashing through the snow...

Travel tales

The Captain announced we were ready to touch down. We descended through a blanket of clouds spanning three realms before catching the first glimpse of Finland. Our first thought was we landed in Narnia and not Helsinki, the capital of Finland.

Our primary reason to travel to Finland was to chase the Aurora Borealis, commonly known as the ‘Northern Lights’. The period between January and March is to go Aurora hunting due to the long winter nights. They are the coldest months of the year with temperatures dipping to as low as negative 30 degrees. However, Finland is an outright winter holiday destination and when we were not chasing the Northern lights, we exploited all it had to offer.

We began our quest in the Laplands and took off towards Oulu. From Oulu Airport, we made the 100 km drive to Kemi. The following day, we went aboard an ice-breaker cruise which took us out onto the frozen Baltic Sea by breaking through layers of ice and paving way for other ships. The high point was when we donned our thermal suits and plunged into an opening of the frozen layer in the sea. The whole experience took 4 hours but would last a lifetime in our memories.

The cruise set the bar high for the remaining part of our journey. We moved onto Rovaniemi. After flying, driving and cruising over snow, we decided to be Finnish and use their most cherished form of transport, the snow mobiles!! We signed up for a 5-hour- snowmobile safari. The wonderful guide had us riding 30 km each way through mesmerising landscapes of the Laplands culminating at the Arctic Circle Wilderness Lodge, a traditional lumberjack house nestled amidst the expanse of the forests.

Soon, it was time to meet Mr Claus himself! It is widely known that Santa hails from Rovaniemi in the North Pole. The Santa Claus village is every child’s dream. From reindeer sledge rides to meeting Santa, it offers the Christmas experience.

After a few action-packed days, we planned to spend the evening experiencing the flavours of Finnish tradition. The organisers picked us up from our cottage and drove away from the city to a private property. They had set up a ‘teepee’, a typical Finnish conical tent used in the olden days. A traditional dinner of grilled Salmon was cooking on the wood fire while we changed into our swimsuits. You read that right! We mustered the courage to go ice water swimming. This required us to first warm our bodies by sitting in a sauna. We then made a 100-meter-dash to an opening amidst a frozen lake and scaled down a ladder into the freezing water for as little as a few seconds, jumped out and stumbled back to the Sauna before we lost all sensation. Strangely, we did not feel so cold and were actually re-energized after the whole trial.

Our next stop was Inari. It was located up-north in the Laplands and was to be our crowning glory as we were praying to finally see the Northern Lights. Our hopes were rising along with the sun. It was a beautiful bright day with clear skies.  Instead of the famed Igloos, we found ourselves a relatively economical stay – mobile glass cabins.

These cabins were hauled by a snow mobile onto the middle of the frozen Lake Inari and allowed us to spend the night waiting for the Auroras within the comfort of the warm cabin. We first looked up and thought it was a mirage. A long trail of green lights stretched across the sky like the curtain raiser to God’s own magic show. And so it began. The lights started to tango gracefully in a serpentine motion and then began to waltz around the sky playing hide and seek. There are few moments in life you remember like it was yesterday. This was definitely one of them, the first time we saw the fabled Polar lights.

Waking up to the incredible Artic sunrise with deep orange splayed across the horizon felt like continuance of the unforgettable night before.  In the last leg of this adventure we chose to go on a Husky dog sledge safari. Husky dogs, also known as the Arctic dogs, are beautiful creatures raring to go once they are in their element. With us, firmly perched on the sledge and a final tug at the leash, these gorgeous beings took off into the Arctic wilderness. The landscapes of this mystical land dwindling behind us, we finished our odyssey of the Laplands.

How to get there

We travelled by Air France via Paris to Helsinki. The round trip came to Rs 45,000 for one.

Where to stay

Rovaniemi - Cottage for 6 persons cost Rs 9,000 per night organised by Airbnb (a portal).

Inari - Mobile glass cabin cost Rs 18,000 per night for 2.

Helsinki - Airbnb apartment for 4 came up to Rs 7,000 per night

(The author can be contacted on [e-mail])