On A Grand Tour

The second leg of our trip to Norway took us further into the interior of northern Norway. We set our sights on Camp Tamok, a couple of hours inland from Tromso. Once again, the car ride out to Camp Tamok was a sightseeing trip in and of itself, full of fjord and mountain views—at least until the snow started. And never stopped. I will forever be impressed with our driver for navigating the rural roads amidst accumulating snow and near–white-out conditions.

It was against a backdrop of heavily falling snow that we arrived at our destination, ready to cross off an item from my bucket list. I have always wanted to stay in an ice hotel, and we figured that Norway would be just the place to do this. We booked a night at the Tromso Ice Domes and prepared ourselves for a chilly, fun, once-in-a-lifetime kind of night.

What looked from the outside like a long series of simple igloos buried in fresh snow turned out to be an icy and artistic wonderland on the inside. Rebuilt from giant blocks of ice and sculpted by a new set of artists each year, the Ice Domes that we experienced were unique and never to be seen again. Which was pretty cool.

Before settling in for the evening, we hopped into snowshoes for a hike with one of our guides. With the heavy snow still blowing sideways, in the words of our guide, we had the Jack London experience. We traipsed across the frozen landscape in the blue twilight, only getting freaked out once, when our guide told us, while we stood next to a river, that the river was actually mostly frozen over and buried in feet of snow, and that the river actually extended out ten feet past where we stood. Needless to say, we began sloooowly backing up. Given the weather, the bonfire we were supposed to make and enjoy out in the snow turned into a survival training session. I am proud to say that we were able to get a fire lit in the inclement weather—although I use the word “we” loosely, as my contribution basically consisted of holding the matches. While hanging out around the fire, the sound of a chorus of howls rose above the trees. Our guide told us that it was coming from the nearby husky camp and that there were only three reasons all of the dogs howl in unison: when they are about to be fed, when they were about to go for a run, and when there were northern lights. Sure enough, even through the snow, we could soon see the green haze light up the sky.

Back at the hotel, we got cozy in the hotel’s warm section, an awesome lavuu-inspired building with a huge open fire in the middle. We were treated to an amazing dinner cooked over the open fire full of all kinds of local ingredients: reindeer (of course), lingonberries, salmon, yum! We hunkered down for an evening of enjoying the fire, roasting marshmallows, sipping local beer, and chatting with our guides.

Soon after arriving, we discovered that we were the only guests who would be staying at the hotel that evening (one of the benefits of traveling during the shoulder season, I guess). This meant that instead of staying in an ice hotel, we were staying in our very own ice mansion that we had the run of. We got to choose our room from the seven uniquely decorated guestrooms, hang out in the ice bar surrounded by giant ice carvings, and play hide-and-seek throughout the hotel. We had lingonberry-flavored drinks out of ice glasses while admiring the reliefs depicting Sami reindeer herders, Viking warriors, and the Tree of Life from Norse mythology.

It took an hour of careful deliberation to choose our sleeping quarters. It was easy to rule out the scary troll and wolverine rooms, but the cuter Freya and arctic fox and epic Odin rooms were a tougher choice. In the end, the leaping Artic foxes won.

We settled in for the night in our Nordic sleeping bags on our ice-framed bed, though it was hard to turn off the giggling as we stared at the walls and ceiling of our ice palace. At a balmy 24 degrees inside the hotel, we had low expectations for the quality of sleep we would be getting, but we were shockingly nice and toasty all night.

After warming up with breakfast back at the lavvu the next morning, we got to enjoy the ice hotel in a whole new light—literally. The sun shining through the meters-thick ice cast the most magical turquoise glow over the entire hotel. The sculptures and reliefs were backlit by the mystical light, making them even more beautiful than they were the night before.

It was then time to head out for our next adventure. We followed the happy dog sounds to the husky camp and got dressed and ready for some dog sledding.

Our adorable team of huskies was the best! All of the fresh snow meant that we had our work cut out for us doing what they call “opening the trail,” or carving a trail out of the snow. And the fact that we were just behind our guide’s sled meant that we did a lot of helping to create the barely made trail. I had a great time the first half being the passenger while Kurt did the driving, and it was a rude awakening when it was time for me to take the reins. Dog sledding is a lot of work! You spend much of the time running alongside the sled, leaning, steering, and stomping on the breaks. But it is also a ton of fun, and watching the eagerness of the dogs to run was one of the best parts.

We were sad to leave Camp Tamok at the end of the day. Kurt may have looked at me like I was crazy, but I could have stayed in our ice mansion for a few more days! With a few final kisses to our amazing husky team, we turned our sights south for some different views. See you next time in Bergen!