
A Reindeer Safari
"I have been all over the world and there is nothing that compares to this.� - Kent Ellis Lapland Reindeer Safari guest
The best meal of Kent Ellis� life wasn�t at Maxim�s or Jean Georges. It was aboard The Sampo, an icebreaker in the Gulf of Bothnia.
�We sipped the most incredible salmon soup in cream sauce while this massive ship plowed its own path through slabs of ice,� Kent recalls. �I have never experienced anything like it.�
Later the ship�s crew would lower a gang plank directly onto the ice for the travelers to disembark onto the frozen surface and feel the frigid sea churning beneath their feet.
�We were given thermal wet suits to put on over our clothes,� Kent says. �Then, we simply jumped into the water and went for a swim. I�ll never forget that.� Kent�s cruise aboard the icebreaker was part of Travcoa�s Lapland Reindeer Safari�a present from his mother for his 40th birthday.
�I have been all over the world and there is nothing that compares to this,� Kent says. �I mean, how many churches have we seen? How many tours have we taken? And yet, for adventure, you just can�t beat this journey.� A dogsled journey through the Lapland wilderness was also on the agenda.
�When we arrived, the dogs were tied to a nearby tree,� Kent recalls. �They were jumping and yelping and literally bending down the tree they were so excited to get running.� And run they did at a clip of more than 15 mph�a speed which Ellis claims sounds less than hurried unless it�s your �but that�s only inches off the snow.�
The dogsled commander steered the pack of a dozen dogs through a winter wonderland that Kent says was �just breathtaking.� �It was like a scene from a Christmas movie,� he claims. �The snow on the trees created shapes I�d never seen before, and the branches bent toward the ground like arrows.� Their dogsled ride led them to a native Sami tent for a wilderness lunch of moose and cloudberry juice spiked with vodka.
That night Kent slept on a slab of ice in a suite made entirely of ice. Sweden�s famous Ice Hotel is re-sculpted each year from the frozen waters of the River Torne whose pure water and steady movement combine to create the clearest ice possible. �The hotel has 88 rooms and sculptors from all over the world come to design its 22 legendary suites,� Kent says. �My suite was Moonlight Sonata. It featured three-dimensional animals, an ice chandelier lit by fiber optics and a headboard with a round orb that was backlit to make it look like the moon.�
Never in his journey did Kent ever feel uncomfortable or unattended. �Our Travel Director, Yvonne Buheiry, took superb care of us,� he said. �She was the first up and the last to bed. She even knew to have extra beds for those travelers who couldn�t make it through the night sleeping on ice.�
A horse-drawn sleigh ride through the Arctic wilderness and snowmobile riding over a highway system of frozen river tributaries capped off a journey that Kent will not soon forget.
�It is another world for a California boy,� he says. �If you want a winter adventure, this is the journey to take." |