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The Swedish countryside is so beautiful
it can bring tears to a visitor's eye. With over 100,000
lakes, 57 per cent of the landscape covered in forest
and just 8.8 million inhabitants, this is a natural paradise
waiting to be explored.
The Swedes love the great outdoors. Hardly surprising
since theyıve got a great deal of it, even in the
midst of their capital city, Stockholm. Built across a
series of islands at the point where the fairy tale mists
of Lake Malaren meet the cobalt waves of the Baltic Sea,
Stockholm boasts as much blue water, leafy greenery –
and in winter – white snow – as any city dweller
could ask for.
 About
a fifth of Sweden lies within the Arctic Circle. Otherwise
known as Swedish Lappland, it's home to the nomadic Sami
people who herd reindeer and to the elk, moose and bears
they traditionally hunt in the forests. Today itıs the
largest wilderness area left in Europe and spends eight
months of the year under snow. So if you want to know
what winterıs really like, this is the place to come.
First stop the Ice Hotel, just outside Kiruna, Swedenıs
northern-most town. Every November hardy locals carve
out huge blocks of ice from the frozen river and sculpt
a warren of bedrooms and reception areas complete with
icy furniture, frosty chandeliers and translucent pillars.
Guests down vodkas at the ice bar from (what else but)
ice tumblers before being tucked up in special sleeping
bags on ice beds covered in reindeer skins. You do sleep
remarkably well in the circumstances (no doubt the alcohol
helps) but one night is enough for most people. You
can then retreat to your cosy lakeside cabin and watch
the Northern Lights flicker and glow through windows
in the roof.
The Ice Hotel, like the frozen landscape, starts melting
in May but you can visit the new Ice Art Centre all
year round to admire ice sculptures and, if you really
want to, try out the minus 54 degrees C° human freezer.
'Early springtime is my favourite time of year', said
Jenny Söderström, who offered to show us around
the local villages. 'Thatıs when I go ice fishing on
a reindeer skin with the sun on my back'. As Jenny
described it, you tap a hole in the metre thick ice,
fasten your bait on a piece of string and wiggle it
around as you bask like a seal on your reindeer rug
with the bright sun light reflecting off the snow. 'By
March the weatherıs really warming up, itıs almost zero
by then' , she added with a twinkle in her eye.
Dog sledging is Jennyıs favourite way to get around.
By January the small trees and rocks and stones have
all disappeared under a thick blanket of snow and itıs
much easier to steer the huskies to the local supermarket
or the school down the road.
Jenny took us to meet Wilhem Seva, a 55 year old Sami
reindeer herder who was happy to reminisce about his
childhood days in the forest. 'Now itıs mostly snowmobiles
and warm houses in winter for most of us, but there
are still a few herders who spend all year in the forest',
he said. Here in Lappland the make of your snowmobile
is just as important as the newness of your Volvo or
Saab is in southern Sweden.
Wilhem had just brought the reindeer down to pasture
for one of the eight seasons on the Sami calendar. Winter,
for instance, is followed by spring-winter, and spring
by spring-summer. These seasons are dictated by the
reindeer cycle and vary each year according to when
the herd decide, for example, to migrate, give birth
or moult.
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Reindeers are very cute creatures indeed. Their wide-open,
saucer eyes give them a permanently startled look and best
of all, they grow soft, furry antlers you can stroke. When
they trot they bounce along on wide-padded feet, looking rather
unstable. Reindeers are reared for their meat, a great delicacy
eaten stewed, roasted or smoked all over the north.
Arctic Sweden is crisscrossed by six major rivers and thousands
of smaller tributaries and lakes. The peaty, dark blue waters
are practically dancing with salmon, perch and Arctic char.
So Jennyıs partner Torbjörn took us to his favourite
spot and within minutes weıd caught four pike which
we ate for supper that night.
We decided to leave in style and so tried our hand at driftingı
down the River Lainio. 'Driftingı is really a safe way to
do a bit of white water rafting for beginners. Encased in
canary yellow waterproofs with life jackets and wellies, we
drifted with the current in our large rubber dinghy until
we saw the white frothing water of rapids ahead. Then we grabbed
the paddle and, well, paddled straight through the centre
of all those churning waves.
In the world of rafting and canoeing, all rapids are graded
one to six according to difficulty. By the time weıd taken
a number four in our stride and suffered nothing more than
some very wet socks, we knew weıd cracked it.
We arrived on a tiny, tree covered island in the middle of
the river as the geese flew home for early evening. Roland
Henriksson, our gracious captain, was half Sami and invited
us into the warmth of his teepee for a dinner of smoked reindeer
and lingonberries.
Between the end of May and mid-July you can potter about on
the river in 24 hour daylight since the sun never sinks below
the horizon. Itıs the seasonal opposite to the brief
polar winter in December when the sun never rises and darkness
reigns supreme.
At midnight a glowing orange ball was sitting above the fir
trees in a sky turning pink and purple. By 2 a.m. the sun
had moved further around the horizon and was bathing the river
in a deep golden light.
Someone decided it was time for a sauna and started gathering
wood. Roland took out some rods for fishing and started to
tell us about the new Arctic snowmobile trail heıd just tested
out. 'Why not try it next time? ', he laughed. 'Itıs only
3000 km long and goes round in a loop through the whole of
Lappland'.
Sally Ramsden
(Excerpt from an article in LIVE WIRE magazine, Oct-Nov 2000
issue.)
About the author:
Sally Ramsden is a London-based freelance journalist
and travel writer. She spent four years covering
the Middle East conflict and is now busy exploring
countries and cultures closer to home as well as
more exotic parts. In the UK she contributes to
The Independent on Sunday and The Daily Express
newspapers, together with a wide range of magazines.
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See also Drifting, the Artic, Swedish
Lapland 
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