3 April 2018. Thursday.
Today was gonna be an exciting day because we booked a reindeer sleigh tour from a tour agency called Safartica in Rovaniemi! It's probably the most touristy thing we've done since we arrived in Finland and we've never seen reindeer before so we were really looking forward to it. 😄 The tour was in the evening though, and we woke up around noon so we went to get lunch first at our usual kebab place yet again!
kebab with fries this time
After that we wandered around the main part of Rovaniemi for a while before going to the Safartica office. While walking around we saw something funny.
the dad was dragging the kids on sleds! I guess that's a pretty good substitute for strollers in this weather 😅
It was pretty cold out today so we went there a little ahead of time to relax. Fortunately they had a lounge there I guess for tourists to sit and wait while their tour starts. We chatted a little with the tour guide and asked her how many participants there were on our tour and it wasn't that many, maybe about 8 or so.
They had hot berry juice at the lounge area so we had a drink while we waited
Once all the participants showed up, we headed into a van and set off for the reindeer park!
It wasn't that long a journey but it was pretty out from the main city, perhaps to protect the reindeer and make sure only authorised personnel like the tour operators and caretakers could access the park.
We had to go to the cottage locker room to wear special heavy duty snowsuits and boots first, I guess because it was much colder out here since there were just trees around.
The suits were really huge so we looked even fluffier than usual 😆
After everyone was dressed up properly, we headed to where the reindeers were!
Our guide led us to the sleighs and we saw our first reindeer! He really looked like a deer in the headlights when he saw us 😆
Our guide then showed us how to board the sleighs safely without falling over and gave us some safety instructions about riding in the sleighs - to keep our arms in and not move too much so we don't agitate the reindeer. She was a very informative and friendly guide. 😊
aw look at the deer all snuggled up
Look at me in the sleigh! don't judge me deer
tippity tappity
uh oh someone went potty on the floor 😂😂 😂😂
Our sleighs were all connected in a line with the reindeer in between and when we were all situated the guide led the first reindeer on foot. I initially thought she'd be on a sleigh too but I guess the reindeer can't really steer itself.
Off we go!
It wasn't a very fast ride since the guide was walking but it was pretty relaxing. It was also snowing quite a lot so we were soon covered in snow. Lucky we had our heavy duty suits on!
The ride was really relaxing and we just sat and enjoyed the nature and snow, with a reindeer butt in front of us 😆
Here's a video of our ride!
We rode all the way until a really wide clearing where we stopped for a while for the deer to take a break and for us to interact with them and take pictures.
Unfortunately the pictures we tried to take with the deer became pretty blue, I'm not sure why though. Maybe it wasn't bright out since it was really cloudy and snowy
Recreating a picture we took with another deer in Nara Park!
Apparently the reindeer like to eat bark so we fed them some from the trees nearby
It was really quiet out there other than the wind and the reindeer crunching on the bark as fed them. 😅 After about 20 min or so we boarded the sleighs again and started to head back.
We saw a white deer when we went back to the campsite! Look at him eyeing me suspiciously 😆
We were told he gets a little aggressive so I didn't get too close
As it started to get dark we went inside a small hut where the guide had set up a campfire. It was so nice to able feel some warmth after all that time outside in the snow. I didn't realise how cold it was until I felt the relief from the fire.
She also gave us a cup of hot berry juice and a cinnamon roll! Yummy 😋
As we sat around the campfire she told us about the reindeer business here, and about the reindeer population in Finland. Turns out there's more reindeer than people in the whole of Finland! How crazy is that! 🤣
We were hoping we got to see some Aurora while on the reindeer ride but unfortunately the weather wasn't that great and it was too cloudy to see anything. 😔 Oh well, it was still a very unique experience riding the reindeer sleigh anyway. It's definitely one of the highlights of our trip here and I'm glad we did it, and I highly recommend it to anyone going to Finland too! 😀
Thanks for reading!
To find out more about me, check out my intro post here!
Posted from my blog with SteemPress : http://tacocat.vornix.blog/2018/10/07/tacocats-travels-finland-11-dashing-through-the-snow-on-reindeer-%f0%9f%8e%85/
[//]:# (!steemitworldmap 66.502081 lat 25.733188 long d3scr)
 |