Finnmark 2007 Diary

Kirkenes to Neiden… 45 kilometers over mountainous terrain, hilly, tough going, and exhausting. A magical landscape with the sun surreptitiously slipping over the hills –- pale, ghostly, and heart-breakingly beautiful as we swept alone into and out of the deep silences. A couple of great herds of reindeer in the distance, and meetings arranged with two of the distinguished local herders for the evening: Kurt Magge who’ has been a reindeer herder since the age of fourteen and has watched the seasons change with climate change; and Kåre Sivertsen, another herder full of traditional knowledge. Both herders are Sámi, and with Ellen-Anne Siri, our Sámi translator with us, we should be accepted as friends. We’’ll be going out to the herds in their winter pastures for the first time and hope to bring you back some good pictures of life in the early spring with the reindeer. The diary will appear tomorrow as we catch up with ourselves. The photos in this post present the landscape as we slip into nightfall - the Northern Lights are rising outside as I write…

This entry was posted on Sunday, March 11th, 2007 at 11:44 pm and is filed under week 1. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.