This trip was last year, around Easter 2014 so just getting round to posting a few pictures. I had an invite from a friend to go and visit her relatives just north of Kiruna.
Rog has a hut on the banks of a small lake Hárrejávri. The hut has been gifted to him as he is Sami and he has his own little part of the Lapland wilderness, He spends a good bit of the time here in winter and I can see why.
The initial flight was to Stockholm and an overnighter. We were staying with friends at a beautiful place called Sigtuna, which dates back to a medieval settlement. On arrival in Sigtuna a party was in full swing at the house and there were already several drunken Swedes to welcome us.
The next morning it was a short hop up to Kiruna from Arlanda Airport.
Ron met us in Kiruna, which is a curious place. The main industry is the Iron Ore Mine. The village is being moved several kilometres away to make room for the expansion of the mine.
The only way to get out to the hut was by snowmobile. Luckily there was still quite a bit of snow, but the daytime temperatures made it soft going and easy to bog the machines down if you lost concentration and went off the marked route. You can see how much the machines sank from the tracks I left.
The lakes were still thickly frozen and once we got onto them they made easy going. A decent gap is needed between the machines so as to leave plenty of time to react if the lead snow mobile breaks through the ice !
I was glad of my earplugs after an hour on a two stroke snow mobile and we made good time to the hut. The hut would be home for the week. Rog had been staying out there for most of the winter, so it was already warm and cosy.
First things were to sort out drinking water and firewood. Water is collected straight from the lake and doesn't need any purification. Plastic jerrycans are filled and left in the porch of the hut. A little effort is required to break the ice at the borehole, which refreezes every night.
The main lake has Pike and Grayling, with the higher lakes having Char. We would be eating fish to supplement the rations we brought with us (and stashed in the Bear safe). We set out to bore holes in the ice and set the fish traps.
Pike caught in the traps.....
...made the evening meal. Rog preparing the fish. (wearing his traditional reindeer skin boots).
The scope of the vast open space was pretty inspiring. Apart from a neighbouring hut thee is nothing around.
I tried fishing at the higher lakes using a technique called 'pimpling', but it was still too cold for the Char to come out of the depths.
Stockholm on the way home gave a good opportunity to be a tourist for the day. Coffee and cake. Stockholm Cathedral and the Vasa ship museum
Rog has a hut on the banks of a small lake Hárrejávri. The hut has been gifted to him as he is Sami and he has his own little part of the Lapland wilderness, He spends a good bit of the time here in winter and I can see why.
The initial flight was to Stockholm and an overnighter. We were staying with friends at a beautiful place called Sigtuna, which dates back to a medieval settlement. On arrival in Sigtuna a party was in full swing at the house and there were already several drunken Swedes to welcome us.
The next morning it was a short hop up to Kiruna from Arlanda Airport.
Ron met us in Kiruna, which is a curious place. The main industry is the Iron Ore Mine. The village is being moved several kilometres away to make room for the expansion of the mine.
The only way to get out to the hut was by snowmobile. Luckily there was still quite a bit of snow, but the daytime temperatures made it soft going and easy to bog the machines down if you lost concentration and went off the marked route. You can see how much the machines sank from the tracks I left.
The lakes were still thickly frozen and once we got onto them they made easy going. A decent gap is needed between the machines so as to leave plenty of time to react if the lead snow mobile breaks through the ice !
I was glad of my earplugs after an hour on a two stroke snow mobile and we made good time to the hut. The hut would be home for the week. Rog had been staying out there for most of the winter, so it was already warm and cosy.
First things were to sort out drinking water and firewood. Water is collected straight from the lake and doesn't need any purification. Plastic jerrycans are filled and left in the porch of the hut. A little effort is required to break the ice at the borehole, which refreezes every night.
The main lake has Pike and Grayling, with the higher lakes having Char. We would be eating fish to supplement the rations we brought with us (and stashed in the Bear safe). We set out to bore holes in the ice and set the fish traps.
Pike caught in the traps.....
...made the evening meal. Rog preparing the fish. (wearing his traditional reindeer skin boots).
The scope of the vast open space was pretty inspiring. Apart from a neighbouring hut thee is nothing around.
I tried fishing at the higher lakes using a technique called 'pimpling', but it was still too cold for the Char to come out of the depths.
Stockholm on the way home gave a good opportunity to be a tourist for the day. Coffee and cake. Stockholm Cathedral and the Vasa ship museum
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