Honey-Bob - Week 3

right then, moving on.....

after leaving Urban and the dogs behind we headed WAAAAAY up North inside the Arctic Circle to stay at an organic farm/guest house.

the place is called Aurora Retreat - check out their website here.

it's run my Mikael and Maya who cooked us some really amazing food which you know we enjoyed!

here's a shot of the area from near the house:



that's the river which runs along the road in the village.

as it was the beginning of January the sun only just made it over the horizon and so it was weird light (for the short while it was light).

it got light at about 09:00 and then dark again by 14:00 - not much time to get stuff done but we managed.

here's the midday sun:



when we saw this it was the first time Mikael has seen the sun in over a month!

it was also COLD!!!!!

at one point it reached -31°C which is seriously cold (but not as cold as it can get there).

i walked outside for about 50m and the snot in my nose froze in that short walk - seriously cold!

after a good night's sleep it was time for our first outing - a visit to a Sami reindeer herd.

we realise now that we had an overly romanticised idea of the indigenous Sami folks as most of them now live almost entirely western lifestyles (cars, snowmobiles, mobile phones etc...) but it was still nice to talk to the guy about the things that do remain and how things were before we westerners came along and ruined everything.

here's a photo of Stefan's reindeer fur boots which Nikki absolutely loved:



and here's the fire in the Sami hut which stopped us from freezing to death:



the Sami are the only ones in Sweden allowed to 'own' reindeer and they still herd them in a somewhat semi-traditional way (albeit with snowmobiles).

they were very cool and we walked around the herd (the ones which tended to roam too far and so were corralled in the winter) and gave them some food (pellets of natural lichen).

here's a photograph which Nikki took which is out of focus but has a really nice eerie diffused feel to it:



the next day we went snow-shoeing in the morning and then spent the afternoon learning how to make felt.

again it was COLD.

here i am wrapped up stood on a little lake:



we walked up the river that fed this lake and studied some animal tracks and generally enjoyed the scenery.

to give you an idea of just how cold it was - Nikki's hair froze!



and Anita (another guest at the place) had frozen eyelashes - looks cool no?



after lunch we went across to the arts and crafts centre to learn the basics of felt-making.

not content to do the standard little projects they normal get guests to do me and nikki wanted to get a little more involved.

i wanted to learn not just how to make something from pre-carded felt but also how to card the wool as well and so i did that and then made us some nice little coasters which you can see below:



this means that we now know how to make our own felt fresh from the raw wool that we get from our sheep (we need to shear them twice a year - look forward to us blogging learning to do that in a month or so - should be fun!).

Nikki went a few steps further and wanted to make some felt boots for any small feet that might enter our lives any time in the future.

the woman said that this was entirely possible but that it would take a little longer than one afternoon.

so.....she got to work!

here's the big pile of wool to start with:



this is then layered into a very rough shape (not entirely un-shoe like but very rough):



this is then wet with warm soapy water:



and rubbed on a wash-board which blends the wool fibres together:



the shape is then repeatedly rubbed, rubbed and then rubbed some more to gain definition and shape (the more it's rubbed the tighter the fibres become and you shape it via focused directed rubbing):



eventually you end up with a more shoe-like shape:



this is then washed to shrink it further before being trimmed and laced to give the finished booties:



how cute are they?

damn good for a first timer - no???

that night we had a little extra treat with dinner.

i'd heard that a certain number of bears are culled each year to keep the population down and that despite the fact that the meat is perfectly edible no one eats it - so i aksed if it'd be possible to get hold of some.

so.....after dinner Mikael brought out some fried bear meat!

everyone expect me hated it but i thought it was bloody lovely. it had a real nice flavour (and i didn't get the feety after taste that put the others off) - not something you get to eat every day.

ok, the next day we went cross-country skiing.

not the high-tech version but on old wooden Swedish army skis.

it was more like walking on skis than actual skiing with us constantly going up through the woods and across lakes - very nice indeed!



you can see just how frozen everything is:



we got lost a couple of times (but not seriously) and it's easy to see why when everything looks like this:



the following day we went to spend a couple of days in a wilderness cabin (not content with how remote and wild things were already).

we had a 40 minute ride to the cabin (Nikki on the back of the snowmobile and me in the little trailer you can see below):



it's basically a Reliant Robin on skis!

the wilderness cabin is basic - no water and a fire to cook on and that's about it.

it had an outdoor loo and we had to drill a hole in the ice on the lake for drinking water.

we had some very nice Arctic Char for dinner and then had one of the warmest nights sleep EVER (as we heated the cabin up and didn't realise that as the bed was on the mezzanine it would be WAY hotter than down below.

at abut 01:00 Nikki had the window open and it was below -20°C outside it was that hot up there!

here's the cabin from the front:



and inside (taken from the mezzanine):



and here's our cooking stove:



one other thing the cabin had was a Sauna!!!

Nikki couldn't partake due to her being up the duff but i certainly could.

here's a view of the Sauna hut in front of the lake a little way from the cabin:



and here's me on my way to the Sauna (it was cold i can tell thee!):



nothing but a pair of boots, a towel and a head-torch - hardcore!

the next day we went snowmobiling.

it's an evil fuel-hungry sport but we had to give it a try.

FUN!!!!!

fast, powerful and frightening all at the same time - very very cool indeed!

we spent another night at the wilderness cabin before returning the next day.

we were leaving after lunch but we had just enough time to try our hand at some Ice-fishing before we left.

it's pretty simple really - you drill a hole in the ice and drop in a hook with some bait - and wait.

this is the lake we were on - really beautiful:



here's my first hole:



and here's me looking like a frozen gnome:



after about 10 minutes Nikki got her first fish which was a really good start!

then she got another and another.....

after a couple of hours (much complaining and many excuses) the final score was:

Nikki 6 - Gairy 0

not my finest performance but we were very pleased that Nikki had done so well as it meant we had some mighty fine Perch to eat for lunch.

here's Nikki's haul:



and mighty tasty they were too - genuinely the tastiest fish i've ever eaten!

after lunch we packed up and headed off but i think this post has been long enough and so tune in next time for more.....

adios!