Jokkmokk – The Reindeer Race

Every year there is this race on the lake – and it is great fun to watch it. The reindeer are indeed not very tame, and they have to be handled rather like the wild creatures they are… But they seem to like this game – and the running!

Well…the last guy was really funny – and he most certainly enjoyed this game even more than the reindeer….No sledge, just his boots!

norrland-och-vasterbotten-239_copy

The reindeer are quite unstoppable as well, as you can see from the pictures. When they have finished the race…they will go on running!

norrland-och-vasterbotten-241_copy1

And walking them home can be rather tricky too – even more if they are two…

norrland-och-vasterbotten-325_copy

Jokkmokk – The Market Place

If you missed out on my first post on this famous market, click here.

For the big 100- year-celebration, 6th February in Trondheim – go to Bente Haarstad’s blog. Click here.

After a rather warm walk (only 9 degrees C below zero…the temperature at some of the markets over the years has dropped to -40-45 C) among the tents, eating well and buying some dried reindeer sausages, we went down to the lake for the yearly Reindeer Race. People from everywhere come and race two and two on sledges behind a reindeer. But that – you can see more of in another post! Maybe you would like to try yourself?

WPC: Against All Odds

Against the odds – my very special and wonderful friend, Mille, survived his severe illness and lived his last two years thanks to my daughter’s loving care. He was so close to death several times, but she managed to save him through natural medicine from the Japanese sea, and through loving care. No veterinary has managed to explain how this really worked – but it did. He was strong and lively throughout his life. And we are so very grateful to have known him. I have had some dogs in my life, but no one like him. I called him Iron Man.

Mille died in May 2014. This is the last picture of him, standing in his beloved water, the sea at our summer house. He had just turned 12.

Thursday Thoughts – Jokkmokks Marknad -412 Years Old

”Jokkmokk’s Market has a long history and is considered to have a four hundred-year unbroken tradition. Permanent marketplaces near the Sámi’s winter settlements were established by the Swedish crown at the beginning of the 17th century in all the Sámi Lappish territories on both sides of the Gulf of Bothnia. The purpose was to strengthen the state’s control of the population in the north as well as to collect taxes, hold legal court and spread the Word of God. Planning a market in the Lappish territories during the coldest time of the year had several advantages. The Sámi were gathered in their winter settlements in the forest area with winter grazing for their reindeer and the frozen waterways constituted magnificent roads for the merchants, state officials and men of the church.”

http://www.jokkmokksmarknad.se/visitors/history/

norrland-och-vasterbotten-125_copy

”Renrajden” is every year led by Per Kuhmunen and his family. It takes at least a year to tame the reindeer as much as needed to follow their leaders through the market place and let people touch them. At the Snow Scene in the middle of the market place, they sometimes let themselves be interviewed and photographed in the traditional Gákti. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G%C3%A1kti

The Sámi people have always led a harsh life, and today they also have problems with the global warming that hits hard up north. As the weather wavers between warm and cold, the ground will get icy and the reindeer cannot find food enough. Last year some 30000 reindeer starved to death in northern Russia.

norrland-och-vasterbotten-153_copy

Per Kuhmunen and his family comes back every year to Jokkmokk’s Market. Today they are met by film cameras and ordinary cameras, radio and TV. But they seem to enjoy it.

Between Old and New.

Travel theme: Eyes

Eyes for Ailsa – who doesn’t love eyes?

I met some interesting eyes on my trip to Galapagos. In the header, the intriguing Nazca Booby. Piercing.

galapagos-3-and-4-1143_copy

The Red-footed Booby has got red feet and marvellously blue eyes and bill.

Another interesting thing – the total metamorphosis of the Swallow-tailed Gull. Eyes like deep wells as young, and then….

Detta bildspel kräver JavaScript.

Art Suites – In the Rocks

When the first snow has arrived somewhere in November, artists from all over the world come together in the village to take part in creating the art exhibition of snow, ice and light that makes up Icehotel.

My guess is that they will spend quite some time in the cosy bar…! Here you get drinks in ice glasses…as they say – in the rocks.

From the beginning, the glasses were made by hand. But, as the guests started to get numerous, the capacity of three glasses a day became a bit too slow…so now they are machine made. Do you know that they last only for 30-45 minutes? Then the alcohol will make the ice melt and make your drink end up in your lap. Glasses made for fast drinkers like Hemingway then…

The selected artists who are invited to take part are not required to have worked with ice before. Instead, those who want to participate have to send in their ideas based on originality, and creating it in natural ice will pose a new challenge. Some 200 applications usually end up in some 40 artists coming here in November each year for the construction of the rooms. But this year they were about 60 – to decorate the new art suites.

The artists often work two at a time in the rooms, and when they are finished, they are allowed to stay one night in their creation…and only one night.

Let us walk down the corridor and peep inside some of the art suites!

In fact, should you spend the night here…you would get a mattress, reindeer skins and a sleeping bag for -28 C. My absolute favourite room was Living With Angels – artist Benny Ekman. I would have felt perfectly safe and secure.