Crossing The Arctic Circle August 13, 2006

We were up early and said our good buys to Gunnar and Sui as we continued our north bound odyssey. We drove for about an hour with Holly back on moose watch when her startled shout shook me from my road hypnosis. We were passing an area that had been logged and as I pulled to the side of the road and looked in the rear view mirror I saw a large animal cross about 100 meters behind us and go into the brush on the other side. Holly said she saw another on the side that the first one had come from. The area had been logged but still had brush and small trees and was open enough to get a pretty good look. We backed up to a side road got out of the car and walked up the gravel road hoping for a glimpse of the second animal. We were rewarded after a few minutes with a sighting of two, more not moose but reindeer. We stood watching as the animals moved in our direction and again we took some great pictures. We continued to see reindeer for most of the day. Holly was researching the guide books and found out that the reindeer are domesticated, and have been for a few thousand years, by the Sami people or what I believe we called Laplanders when I was in school. This all makes sense now as we are traveling through the Lapland district of Sweden.

We stopped in Storuman at one of the ever present ICA grocery stores for the makings of a picnic lunch before going to the tourist information office to find a place for our noon time meal. We were looking for a lakeside park in hopes of getting in a little more fishing but instead chose a hilltop lookout that gave us a great view of the town. The road passed by a park where the local kids were having a soccer game that was well attended by the parents. It must have been an exciting game as we could hear the cheers while we picnicked.

The highlight of the day came just before we reached today’s destination when we passed the Arctic Circle. This is a first for us and we had to stop for a picture under the sign and a high five. After dispensing with the ceremonies we drove into Jokkmokk where we are staying tonight.

We have a room at the Hotel Jokkmokk which is on the edge of the small town and sits on a lake. Very uncrowded this time of year as it seems, oddly enough, the big season of the year in northern Sweden is winter. The Swedes it seems love their winter time sports and we got an off season rate at the hotel. Holly and I sat on the veranda of the hotel overlooking the lake and tried to imagine what this must look like in January. At 65 Fahrenheit it is hard to imagine.