SCANDINAVIA - Clean Breaks: 500 New Ways to See the World - page 91

Need to know The trip lasts eight days and
departs mid-April. To get there from Oslo take the
train to Rena (2hr 15min; W www.nsb.no), where
you will be taken, by arrangement, to Engholms
Husky Lodge ( W www.engholm.no). For prices
and booking see W www.turgleder.com; T +47 (0)
9116 7303.

119 Join ThE SAmi
rEindEEr miGrATion,
norwAy

Travel like the Sami - with the
Sami. Norwegian tour operator
Turgleder offers a unique
opportunity to join Scandinavia's
indigenous people as they follow
the annual migration of reindeer
from their inland winter habitat
in the far north of Norway to
their costal grazing land. This
is emphatically not a made-for-
tourism experience: the Sami
use one or two snowmobiles to
carry their equipment but other
than that this is how they've
been herding reindeer for
centuries. So expect to eat and
sleep like them in their lavvus
(Sami tipis), cook over an open
fire and go ice-fishing.
The trip begins at Engholms
Husky Lodge, 6km outside
Karasjok, where guests spend
the first two nights acclimatizing
to the conditions and learning
about the Sami; you'll also tour
a Sami museum and the Sami
parliament. You then join up
with a Sami family and spend
four days travelling with the
reindeer, feeding and caring for
the herd and protecting them
from predators (wolves and
lynx) as they move across the
desolate landscape. Not only
will you witness the spectacular
migration of hundreds of
animals, but you'll also be given
a genuine - and privileged
- insight into the life of the
itinerant people of Scandinavia.

120 Group ToGEThEr AT
onGAJoK, norwAy

Often it's the hardest places to reach that are
the most rewarding. It's certainly a schlep to
get to Ongajok, a converted farm in Norway's
Arctic Lapland, but the splendid isolation of this
remote mountain farm is worth all the effort.
Ongajok is in the heart of Finnmark, land of
the Sami people: the kind of place where the
locals learn to ski before they can walk. Its focus
is on communal living, offering a range of low-
impact outdoor activities including cross-country
skiing, ice-fishing, reindeer-sledding and snow-
shoeing. Dinner is served around a large table in
the main dining area where you'll be treated to
regional specialities including reindeer, grouse,
capercaillie, salmon, trout and local mushrooms
and berries.
Alternatively you can spend an evening
crowding round a fire in a nearby lavvu ,
listening to traditional chanting and hearing
from local Sami about their way of life.
Afterwards you can lie in a large outdoor bath
tub heated by a firewood stove, gazing up at the
clear Norwegian night sky. Group bonding, Sami-
style.

Need to know The only way to get to Ongajok
is to fly from Oslo to Alta (1hr 50min; W www.
sas.no), from where you can be collected in a
minibus by arrangement - it's then a bumpy 25km
journey to the farm. Prices depend on group size:
approximately 1,790kr per person, half-board.
For details of activities and accommodation see
W www.ongajok.no/omsetraeng.html; T +47 (0)
7843 2600.

(From top) Sleighs and shiny noses; On the trail of
Norway's great reindeer migration; A lavvu (Sami
version of a tipi)