Lebesby

The alarm went off at 00:30 so that we had time to “layer up” before disembarking at 01:20. But backtrack a few hours, the evening before at around 18:00 the northern lights call went out, probably the best night yet! Back to the early morning 2 minibuses were waiting as we disembarked through the goods entrance, apparently a problem with the passenger steps, Karen and I in group 2. 5 minutes later we arrived at a small industrial building on the edge of Mehamn. The winter clothing was all laid out for each of us by name, although Karen initially went for Kevin. 10 minutes later all dressed we were being briefed on snowmobiles. Being identified as one of the 2 heavyweights in the party I was asked to use one of the bigger snowmobiles whilst Karen took one of the smaller ones at the rear. Then off!
Very rough terrain, lots of ridges and ruts created from previous rides had frozen into hard ice, which mean’t a lot of effort to keep straight as each one you hit threw you sideways in one direction or the other. 5 minutes in and a particular complicated manoeuvre for us novices, across a road, aim for a gap between the snow dunes on the opposite side and then a sharp right downhill turn immediately after gap. 100 metres further on the guide called us to a halt, there had been an accident, one of the rear riders had overturned hare snowmobile. 5 minutes later we resumed our journey to Kjollefjord, with the crashed skimobile abandoned and the unfortunate rider now travelling pillion with the guide. 15 minutes later we had the first official stop, the guide reorganised the order and I was relegated from 2nd (directly following guide) to 3rd as I was travelling faster and a large gap kept developing after me. Another 15 minutes and another short stop, attempted pictures but not easy wearing the thick gloves! Apparently our route was over the reindeer’s summer pasture ( apparently about 15000 graze there in the summer months), eventually a coach was seen in the distance, this was the end of the trek and the coach would take us the last 15 minutes of the trip into Kjollefjord where we were to rejoin the Nordnorge. A quick change in the garage by the ship into our clothes, those boots were really difficult to get off and then back onboard to resume the journey. We’re we cold ? Not particularly, the clothes provided were good against the wind, wet and cold, your feet were by the engine and heated handlebars kept our hands warm. Only bit that felt cold was where the cold wind crept between the helmet and the visor. The crash victim (fyi there was also someone in the other group who ended up abandoning the snowmobile and travelling pillion with their guide), declined to allow photos of the bruises sustained taken and published so photos are a bit limited.Read more