Another relaxing start with 8 am breakfast. Ate breakfast and then packed our bags before heading out for a final dog sled in the morning. Our one wild, young dog was swapped out for another as he had some “tummy” issues and could be quite messy. We got the dogs hooked up and headed out for our ride. We got a minute or two away from the lodge and there was a dog running towards us – it was the wild one with the tummy issues! I guess he did not want to stay behind in the kennel and had jumped the fence and ran after us.
A cooler morning today – around -27 I think. The wild dog got attached to one of the other sleds that only had 5 dogs but before they could get anywhere, it started fighting with the other dog. The guide had to remove the dog and let it run for a bit beside us. Then she attached it to ours and removed the older mother dog, who was allowed to run the rest of the way. Very blue sky today and some nice scenery with the snow and blue sky.
Headed back to the lodge to check out and get in the van to take us to the Sami reindeer farm, near the Ice Hotel, where we had lunch, which was a reindeer wrap. Lunch was in a smoke filled teepee type thing where they cooked the reindeer over a big fire in the middle. After our wrap we briefly (due to the cold) toured around the outdoor Sami museum and feed the reindeer some reindeer lichen. Thought there was only one in there but once I opened the bag of food a bunch came running from various areas and I was surrounded by 4 or 5 hungry reindeer, all trying to get the food! These were definitely a lot bigger than the deer in Nara and had horns so they were considerably more dangerous! Finished feeding the deer and headed back to the bus as my hands were freezing from the short stint outside.
Drove a minute back down the road to the Ice Hotel and checked in. Had some time to tour the 28th Ice Hotel, where our rooms were and then went over to the Ice Hotel 365, which houses the Icebar and ice rooms opens all year. Had some champagne in the Icebar out of an ice champagne flute! Then toured the rooms in the 365 building, some which looked very dangerous, particularly the one with the bed up a large flight of ice stairs! Wondered how many people crack their heads open going up and down the stairs. There were a few of the rooms closed and I suspected they had probably had accidents in the night and the staff still had to hose away the blood! 🙂
Then had another champagne in the icebar before heading to dinner. Had an early dinner reservation, which was kind of irritating as we only recently had lunch due to the snowshoeing in the morning. Walked the 950 m to the Old Homestead Restaurant, which was near the Sami museum. Had some parsnip soup and a reindeer burger, which was good but a lot of food too early. Also tried a local beer made with water from the Torne River, which flows (in summer) behind the Ice Hotel.
Headed back to the hotel and had a few different drinks in the Icebar. Was surprised at how empty it was. I would have thought it would have been packed after dinner but I guess some of the other guests either were wimps and didn’t want to spend any extra time in the cold or they wanted to maximize the time in their ice room and went to bed at 6 am!
As we were finishing up a drink, a staff member came over to tell us the Northern Lights were out!!! We ran down to the river and I tried snapping a photo with my point and shoot but it was no good so I ran back to the lockers and grabbed my DSLR, tripod and slipped into my snowsuit. Headed back out and managed to get a few shots. Not overly dramatic lights but they turned out more green in the photos. Then spent a bit of time taking some photos with the tripod around the hotel before heading in for the night.
Got changed for bed and grabbed our sleeping bags. The bed was a block of ice with a cushion mattress and some reindeer hides. The temperature was only minus 5 so it was pretty comfortable with the sleeping bag.