After months and months of planning and counting the days, the time has finally come - we're leaving on our Aurora 2012 trip tomorrow evening! Gareth and I are incredibly excited, especially since it has been more than a year that we last set foot abroad and we are starting to show withdrawal symptoms!
Here is what is on our itinerary for the next three weeks:
- Fly to London and spend one night there, visiting Madame Tussauds and hopefully the Sherlock Holmes museum at 221B Baker Street
- Fly to the Arctic Circle via Helsinki and Kittila and spend a week in Akaslompolo, where we will be learning to ride husky sleighs, making friends with reindeers and searching for the Northern Light on snowmobile and snowshoes
- Fly back to London and take the train to Cardiff and then to Caerphilly where we will spend the week with Gareth's family, celebrating both Gareth's 35th birthday and Christmas
- Hire a car and drive up to Scotland, sleeping over in Windermere one night and then moving on to Aviemore, where we will be seeing in the New Year and perhaps get a final glimpse of the aurora
- Fly back home to Johannesburg via Aberdeen and Heathrow
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| Packing for the Arctic Circle |
Since this is the first time we will be this high up north, we are very unsure of what to pack. Here is a list of clothes we will be taking with us to the Arctic Circle:
- Ski jacket and snow pants
- Thermal vests and thermal longjohns (or stockings, in my case)
- Thermal woollen socks
- Thin wool/leather gloves and ski gloves
- Waterproof boots
- Wool and faux fur hats
- Thermal and woollen scarves
- Thin woollen jerseys
- Softshell jacket
- Jeans and corduroy pants
Hopefully that should be enough to keep us warm, but I will probably have some feedback when we return.
In addition, we will also be taking along the following electronic equipment:
- Laptop
- Smartphones
- Kindle
- DSLR camera with 18-55 mm and 70-300 mm lenses
- Point-and-shoot cameras
- Tripod and gorilla tripod
Now all we need is for the weather to play along and those elusive auroras to make an appearance!
Since I am taking my laptop along (and if I have access to wi-fi in the Arctic Circle!) I fully intend to write blog posts while we are there, so expect some updates here and on Twitter and Instagram.
By this time on Friday we will already be in the northern hemisphere! Fingers crossed that we get to see this while we're there:
For more posts in the Winter Escape 2012 series, click here.Labels: Europe, Finland, Lapland, Scandinavia, Winter Escape 2012
