Predator and Prey
Merry Christmas! Today’s post will be a double feature - because it’s Christmas and yesterday’s activity only lasted a few hours - didn’t feel like I had enough to write about.
On Christmas Eve, Larissa and I booked a half-day dog sledding expedition. We left around 10:30 and arrived at a giant resort filled with 300 Alaskan huskies all begging to be cuddled:
Immediately, I realized that Larissa was a goner. She just dropped to one knee and grabbed the closest doggy - and she didn’t let go until the guide called her towards the sled. What was about to transpire in the next 60 minutes was perhaps the greatest outdoor adventure I’ve ever done: driving a dog sled through the snowy hills of Norway!
They showed us how to hold the sled, how to “Yip! Yip!” the dogs into accelerating, and most importantly, how to brake. This was very important, because as it turned out, our team of dogs were beasts. We only needed 5 instead of 6, because our two leading dogs were so energetic that they caught up to the pack ahead. The brakes did little. They took shortcuts through untouched snow. They went from 0 to full-speed in 2 seconds. But the best part: they gave us the stink eye every time we slowed down, as if to say “Ummm, what are you two doing? You must be new here, aren’t you? Why don’t you let us drive this sled, while you play the tourist, pffff”. So awesome.
After 30 minutes, I gave the reins to Larissa and she drove. I got to command the camera, and a got a first-person perspective of the action.
After the ride, we went back inside where we -OMG PUPPIES!
As I was saying, we went back to meet some puppies, and then moved inside to eat some reindeer soup and warm up near a warm campfire. We met two amazing couples - Shelby & Marco and Jenny & Philip, whom we immediately befriended. We briefly shared our life stories, our Norway vacation plans, and exchanged numbers to reconnect! All in all, a fantastic adventure!
The rest of the day was uneventful - we returned home and binged more Christmas movies until we fell asleep.
Christmas day 2019 - a day filled with laughter, drinks, long walks by the beach, traditional Sami stories and reindeer sledding!
The day began with a group chat from our friends from the night before, in which we planned on celebrating a day of gift-giving by giving each other the greatest treasure - company, laughter and drinks. We found each other at around 2pm at the only open bar we found, and lost track of time until 5:30pm by being the rowdiest patrons Tromso had seen. Cheers guys, we love you!!
At 6pm, Larissa and I embarked on our evening activity: a visit to a reindeer herd, followed by dinner and traditional Sami story-telling and folklore. Action-packed, too! We first fed them their favorite food, aka “special grass and flowers that make them go crazy”, and were immediately shocked to see that indeed, it did cause them to make beelines straight towards our buckets of food. If you’re never seen a reindeer with meter-long antlers charging towards you, fear not, I’ve got you covered:
Santa must have been dozing off because his reindeer were getting frisky with each other a bit too eagerly… I swear, some of the males didn’t get the memo that mating season was long overdue, and they just went to town on everything that moved (We later found out that these males often get shunned by other reindeer for being rapists…)
In any case, after the feeding frenzy, we rode on sleds for a bit and then ate dinner inside the tents, where you guessed it - we were served reindeer soup once again. It felt weird feeding the reindeer, seeing them walk around and then eating them right after. I mean, not eating them right after, but still… Circle of life, I guess? Maybe the sponsoring company has an agreement with the huskies from the day before where they re-enact a scene from The Discovery Channel and just let all the animals loose and then gather the remains for consumption… Who knows? Anyways, I digress.
But who better to explain how exactly the reindeer behave than a traditional Sami? With our bellies full, we moved to a larger tent, where a joiker (folklore singer) taught us who the Sami are, their relationship with the reindeer, and then listened to a few songs sung in the traditional manner. All huddled around a big fire!
All in all, two fantastic days filled with adventure, wonder, warmth and cold, and interesting people and beasts alike!