Finland – Oulanka National Park
Date: 22 January 2018
Distance: 3 miles
Now for something completely different on my gap year adventure… snowshoeing in Lapland!
It. Is. Stunning. I’ve not really experienced this kind of snow or landscape before. I’ve seen films where the snow looks like glitter and always thought it was down to poor set design. I was wrong – the snow here twinkles and winks at you like it’s gleaming with hidden seams of gold. The low sun (it rose at 9.30am and set at 3pm) casts everything in a light that made me believe I was looking through rose-tinted glasses. The layers of clothing I had piled on made me look like a Nordic Winter version of the Stay Puft Marshmellow Man from Ghostbusters – but, occasionally cold finger tips and big toes aside, they kept me warm. Which is good because it’s been a chilly -18C here today. My eyelashes froze, as did any hair that wasn’t secured safely under my bobble hat.
I’d like to say I’m a natural at snowshoeing. I’m not; probably because of my ‘off roading’ , I sunk into some very deep patches of snow today with a regularity that no one else in the group managed. BUT… I loved it. Snowshoeing is definitely now on my list of things I like doing, and I’m looking forward to doing more of it next week – hopefully walking a little bit further than the three miles I managed today. Ace fun.
The Silka Roads 
Will you get to meet some of our favourite Suomi people? You really are living the dream! Siwan xxxx
Frozen eyelashes, that’s got to be a new experience! Looks stunning. X
You’re making me jealous again! I loved the time I spent in Finland, though I’ve never been in the winter. I’ve seen the snow diamonds too – I wrote this from a trip in the Berner Oberland some years ago now:
“on the snow patches the low-angled sunlight was reflected by a myriad of flat ice crystals varying in size from a few millimetres to a few centimetres across, and we were walking through a field of diamonds.” (see Day 5 under ‘Diamonds’ – I can’t post the link in a comment, but it’s www dot tonyturton dot com slash berner-oberland-02-2/ ). I had Lonnie Donegan’s ‘Diamonds of Dew’ as an earworm for the rest of the day!