Day 3: Moose Safari

This wasn't the room we stayed in but it was pretty all the same.

After a reasonable sleep on ice, we woke before our alarm call so returned our sleeping bags and drank hot lingonberry juice in front of a fire. After breakfast we headed out to the meeting point to go on a horseback moose safari. I had on my thermals, my snow pants, several layers of tops, the thermal suit we were given, big boots and two pairs of gloves. I thought I was well prepared. I was wrong.

When we arrived we were taken out in to the paddocks to collect our horses. We led them back in to the stable, tethered them, brushed them, put their saddles, bits and bridles on and prepared to set off. In the stables there were also two rather fat goats, they were really cute but in typical goat style they were determined to try and eat everything and generally cause as much trouble as possible! There was also a long haired tabby cat that had a run up to a hole in the top of the wall.

We trekked through snowy forests, the horses didn't need much controlling which allowed us to appreciate the countryside we were riding through. Towards the end of the ride I was getting really cold. My fingers and toes had gone so cold they were immensely painful. All I wanted to do was get back to the farmhouse for lunch. Then we stopped. There was pointing, there were whispers further up the line, there was more pointing, there was some "stage whispering" from the back of the line to find out what was happening. "Moose!" "Where?" "There! Between the trees". More staring. At that point a black shape moved and suddenly the giant frame of a moose rose above a bank of snow and stood up. It was magnificent. After that we saw several more moose and a reindeer. As we headed in to the farm we saw two young moose grazing on a large bale of hay. It was explained that if they didn't put food out for them then they would head in to the horse paddocks and disturb the horses.

After returning the horses to the stables, we were taken to the farmhouse for a traditional Swedish meal - reindeer meat. The reindeer tasted of lamb which I found quite surprising. After lunch we were taken back to the hotel where we checked in to our warm accommodation and unpacked before dinner.

Dinner at the restaurant was beautiful I had the arctic char and The Boy had elk. I'm glad I didn't go for the elk as part of the elk meat was served blue. The night was fairly clear but we were both exhausted so were asleep well before any possibility of seeing the northern lights.