Norway - Part 8

Karasjok to Alta

We left Karasjok on yet another cloudy morning and drove southwestward across northern Norway through the region called Finnmark. For the first time conditions matched what I thought we would find above the arctic circle. It was a cold morning with temperature at about 21 degrees F. Soon the surrounding landscape was completely snow covered. We traveled through very sparsely populated country containing only thin forests of dwarf birch trees. Click on the following panoramic image to enlarge it.

Hints of blue sky began to appear in the cloud deck. We rolled along on a well maintained two lane road when, suddenly, the bus driver jammed on the brakes causing our guide to stumble up the center aisle of the bus. Reindeer were crossing the road just ahead of us and running through the woods beside us! We would see many more reindeer before the day was over.

Soon clouds were gone and we had a rare sunny day! Eventually, we arrived in the city of Kautokeino where a visit to Juhl's Silver Gallery was scheduled. I didn't know what to expect as we got off the bus and carefully walked down a hilly, slippery driveway to the gallery. The top of the driveway is on the left by the signs in the next picture.

At the bottom of the driveway we came upon the following interesting building. Click on the panoramic image to enlarge it.

Once inside we passed through an area where workers/artists were making jewelry. Examples of their beautiful work were displayed in the next room.

At this point I thought we were visiting just another gift shop/museum, although a very nice one. Then I noticed the following little side room with a cozy fire burning.

Perhaps you notice some stairs going down to left in the previous picture. I went over to explore and saw this inviting scene.

Huh? What's this? Of course, I had to go down! At the bottom of the stairs I turned left and saw a fantastic room.

Then I turned to the right and saw more surprises.

What in the world is going on here in the middle of arctic Norway? It turns out the founders and creators of the gallery had traveled to Afghanistan years ago and fell in love with the art and culture there.

The magical corridor pictured above led to another amazing room containing more eye popping sights. Click on the first panorama to enlarge it.

Walking around the room eventually brought me to this pretty view through decorated windows.

The sunlit view of snowy Kautokeino below the gallery was nice.

Juhl's Silver Gallery was incredibly original, interesting and beautiful. It was a completely unexpected pleasant surprise, one of the best of the trip!

After the silver gallery we stopped at a local hotel for a lunch of "game stew" very similar to the delicious "elk stew" we had in Karasjok. Then we boarded the bus and headed to our next adventure at a Sami reindeer herding camp. We were met at a remote roadside location in "the middle of nowhere" by a cheerful teenage Sami girl who took us walking about one kilometer on a slippery, snow covered dirt road to the camp which you can see in the next picture. Click on the panorama to enlarge it.

The teenage girl's older cousin operates the camp. The pair greeted us in their brightly colored Sami clothing in front of the lavvu we would soon enter in the background. Notice how long the shadows are in all the pictures. Here, at midday, above the arctic circle, the Sun was only 9 degrees above the horizon!

The camp operator took some of our group into the reindeer corral to give them each an individual reindeer to lead by rope. Then he went to capture a particular blue eyed reindeer at the back of the pen. He lassoed the beast, but, somehow, this feisty reindeer got away and took off running through the trees. A moment later the Sami guy was flying after the fleeing reindeer on an ATV, both of them moving at high speed through the dwarf birch trees. This was quite an entertaining dramatic scene! The fleeing reindeer was at least temporarily victorious because his pursuer eventually gave up and returned to our group. He told us not to worry. He would catch the runaway later.

Animal lover C soon had her own personal reindeer under control. At first, it resisted being led, but a few soft words and gentle tugs from C convinced it to go along.

After reindeer playtime was over we were invited into the camp lavvu to sit around a warm central fire where pots of coffee were kept hot. The burning wood was fragrant, but, in spite of the smoke hole above, it was slightly smoky inside. We were offered coffee and cookies as the Sami guy explained the rules of the lavvu. His 10-year old nephew, taking his work very seriously, carefully maintained the fire all the while by adding birch twigs.

Then it was time for the Sami girl to sing a joik, (pronounced like, yoik). As I understand it, a joik is not a song about something, and it isn't sung to anyone in particular like a loved one, or a baby. Instead, it is meant to evoke the spirit or essence of something. In the picture below our singer shyly sung a reindeer joik. You can hear a beautiful example of a Sami joik at this link.

After leaving the  reindeer camp we resumed our long drive northwest to Alta. Traffic frequently needed to stop or slow to avoid reindeer crossing the road or running along the roadside. At one point our guide announced, "These reindeer belong to my relative." We wondered how she could know this. She told us her relative owned all the reindeer in this particular area!

We arrived, tired, in Alta near sunset. After checking into our hotel room we returned to the bus for a drive to dinner at a remote restaurant some distance from the city. The halibut dinner was very good. After dinner clear dark sky outside tempted some of us to look for auroras, but no worthwhile aurora was seen. Then it was back to the hotel for our final night above the arctic circle.