Lapland Adventures for the Irish Over 60s

Reindeer Rides in Santa's Village in Lapland

Would we or wouldn't we take a reindeer ride? I felt like an American tourist down near the Handy Stores in Killarney. The only difference was the jarveys weren't out touting for business, cajoling me and tempting me to take a trip in the jaunting car through the National Park, only to then roll their eyes when I tell them I grew up on Main Street. These were Finnish jarveys/elves, these were Santa's reindeer and they were much too polite to ask you if you wanted a go. I just couldn't bring myself to be the typical tourist, so we skipped it.

However, I did learn some interesting facts about reindeer from a local noticeboard:

• There are more reindeer than people in Lapland

• Reindeer are semi-wild animals that roam free in nature during the summer and live in enclosures with easier access to food during the winter

• Each reindeer belongs to a reindeer herder around Lapland and all reindeer have a marking in the ear which indicates the owner

• Both female and male reindeer have antlers which they drop and grow back once a year

• Reindeer may be different colours ranging from white, dark grey to brown

• They are very adaptive to Arctic weather conditions and have a keen sense of smell, enabling them to find food even through really thick snow

• Reindeer are colour-blind, but they can see differences between dark and light and have excellent dark vision. Their eyes change colour with the season in order to adapt to the amount of daylight, being golden in the summer and blue in the winter

• Males live up to approximately 10 years while females can live up to 20 years.

Neither could I get myself to go on a two-hour bus trip to an ethical husky farm to get down and cold for a ten-minute husky sleigh ride with the baying dogs.

So that left snowmobiling. I was up for that as long as I was a passenger, I thought. What I didn't account for was the handing over of control to someone else (even if it was my husband) while we sped through narrow forest trails and across frozen lakes. We were in a group of five snowmobiles in line following the guide. We were fourth in the line. Seán claimed he had to do the speed (up to 70 km per hour, he admitted to me afterwards) to keep up with the snowmobiler in front. I was dressed in all the protective gear, able to sit on the back and hold two heated handlebars at the side when I wasn't digging Seán in the ribs to slow down. At the times I opened my eyes and when we made our two scheduled stops during the two and a half hour loop, the scenery was indeed beautiful. One vista up on a height outside Rovaniemi reminded me of a frozen Ladies' View from the Kenmare Road in Killarney, looking down on the meandering river going through forest and valley.

And then, of course there was the Northern Lights tour. Auroral activity is due to solar activity and depends on the season, weather conditions and brightness. In the end, seeing the Northern Lights is a matter of luck and we had the luck of the Irish that night. Even the guide was excited and he said it was the best night of the year so far. Some nights he has to chase the lights, driving up to four hours outside the town as far as the Swedish border and even then they may not be visible.

We went on the hunt in a van with eight others from Nigeria, Colombia and Kosovo and we barely had to drive twenty minutes outside the town and leave the artificial lighting behind us when the phenomenon was unreal. The sky seemed alive with movement and hues of various colours. The long-exposure camera that the guide set up on a tripod obviously picked up much more colour than the naked eye and even we were astounded at the photos.

The scientific explanations of the lights are mind-boggling to me. Earth's magnetic field protects us from the electrically-charged particles of the solar wind. However, some particles manage to penetrate and and the magnetic field directs them into the atmosphere. The articles collide with oxygen atoms and nitrogen molecules. Apparently, the colour of the aurora depends on which gas is exited in the geomagnetic collision and how much energy it receives. The primary colours of the polar lights are green, red, blue and purple. In the north, auroras are usually green and a ray structure is a result of the particles plunging towards the Earth's magnetic field lines. As I read more about the phenomenon, I realise just how lucky we were.

Traditional Sámi beliefs considered auroras to be living beings that talked and understood speech. This is why people were supposed to be quiet when auroras occur, the Sami even stopping their reindeer sleighs so that the sound would not attract the attention of the auroras. It was believed that the auroras could take a person away with them.

Aurora is the Latin word for dawn, which means it carries a deep connection to the natural world. It derives from the Roman goddess Aurora, who was responsible for announcing the arrival of the sun each morning. In nearly all languages, the name of auroras refers to light and the Finnish word revontuler means lights of a fox. It is based on an old story that a running fire fox strikes the surface of the snow with its bushy tail and sends sparks into the sky.

Naturally, I prefer this explanation of the amazing sights we were lucky enough to see.