camping by the rootfire

“Have you heard this story based on a true event?  – A radio commentator had gone somewhere to upper Lapland and he had interviewed a reindeer herder and the commentator asked the reindeer herder – what happens if you get lost? – The reindeer herder kept on answering that they never get lost. However, the radio commentator kept on asking -but if you get lost in a way or another. Eventually the herder answered – Yah, and then we go home.”

Root fire from nordic pine stubs, sausages, on a late winter family day out with the snowmobiles. Being able to light a fire in the snow and to find one’s way home without any worry is quite crucial in an arctic environment. The Sami people in northern Finland are packed with tacit knowledge which allows them to act routinely and in an everyday manner in situations others would regard life threatening.