Finland, Norway & Sweden

We made it today. Flight half empty flight so changed seats and slept most of the way laying down across three seats. Luxury.

Met by the lovely and helpful Michael who actually built the cabin. He relocated from Germany 15 years ago and built himself a cabin by a river 30 minutes out of town in the middle of nowhere.
No electricity or running water and often gets snowed in!

Kiruna is a mining town and they want to mine underneath the town centre and its surrounds so the whole area is being knocked down and relocated. What a massive exercise. All paid for by the mining company.

Anyway we did a supermarket stop, bought way too much food and then we set off in a sleigh attached to a snow mobile.

Our cabin is on an island with the river on both sides so we went right over the frozen river. It has electricity but no running water. For that you need to drill into the river and then bucket your water up to the cabin. Luckily we were totally set up with water but I did help!

Next was bringing in enough fire wood.

We were then shown how to use the wood burning sauna and hot water system. The idea is to have your sauna and then go outside and jump in the snow. You do that a few times then you mix the hot water with the cold water or snow and then pour it over yourself to wash. Alot of work as the water takes 45mins to heat assuming you make a successful fire.

There is also a little hut where you can make a fire and sit around it eating and drinking. You sit on wooden benches covered in reindeer throws. Very cosy.

Then we were left pretty much in the middle of the forrest.

So we had a simple lunch and then chilled.

Next I started the fire - successfully! Birch is so easy to burn.

I would go out every so often to check on the Aurora but nothing as too cloudy. Of course they appeared last night when we were stuck in Oslo.

Anyway life in the cabin is lovely!Read more