This is the ski village of Kiruna in far north Sweden.  It’s not really that lat – about 4pm, but the sun doesn’t rise here in winter.  We got kitted out for our husky trip here.  Check out Chez’s funky boots.

When we woke the next morning, this was the view from our window.  Everything was pastels.  The hills reflect the hidden sun and turn luminous pink.  Even the snow looks a pale blue because it reflects the purple sky.

That day we met up with our team leader and were introduced to our dog teams.  We thought that we’d be just sitting in a sled and be dragged about for three days but it turned out that each of us had a team of four dogs that we were responsible for harnessing, feeding, housing and cleaning up after.

These are our teams.  Each dog had it’s own personality so we ended up getting pretty attached to them after three days in the snow.

We thought that we’d have the big fluffy versions, but many of the dogs were pretty small.  But they were REALLY strong.

This is an example of the facilities up north.  We quickly learned that at -25C, your wet ones freeze before you can use them when you go to the toilet.  The secret is in the timing.  Only pull them out of your pocket just before they’re needed!

There was a sort of display Sami village in the town near the Ice Hotel and they had some reindeer, so we decided to give them a feed.  What do you feed a reindeer?  Moss.  Go figure.

At -30C, a furry nose comes in very handy.

In some of the remote Sami villages, they still use teepees.

This was the Church in Jukkasjärvi, where the Ice Hotel is.  Wasn’t really interested in the church, just couldn’t get over the colour of the sky!

Entrance to the Ice Hotel

The Foyer.  Outside it’s -25C but inside it’s a balmy -5C.  Thermal underwear recommended!

The Chapel.  You can actually get married here.

A number of rooms are designed by artists and each has a theme and name.  This one is called “Dragon’s air”  It’s all made out of ice and the lights are actually embedded in it.  Our room wasn’t quite this fancy, but similar.  Chez actually slid off the bed because her reindeer skins weren’t on the solid ice bed properly.  I had to laugh.  Chez wasn’t happy.

Can’t remember the name of this one, but you get the idea. You’re sleeping inside a whale.

The Ice Bar.  All the ice glasses for all the Ice Bars around the world are made here. The ice is collected from the river that runs next to the Hotel.  Because the water is slow moving, it squeezes out all the air byubbles and creates ice that is crystal clear.

We had a laugh at this.  This is wha the locals use to cart around groceries instead of shopping trolleys.  This one was secured outside a supermarket with a bicycle chain.

Forgot to put this in before.  Dog sledding is tyring and the dogs were a lot fitter than I was.

Nearly forgot to put up the reason we went up north in the first place – The Northern Lights.  They weren’t this obvious to the naked eye, but even so, pretty cool to see them.  Damn, it was cold though.  The camera froze up, one set of batteries died and the head of the tripod froze solid!