Short and Sweet in Lannavaara

Puffi and I admiring the view from Kungsleden, Abisko NP.

If you’re reading this and you have the right to live and work freely within the EU, then congratulations! I’m incredibly jealous of you. After spending two weeks volunteering in a kennel in Lannavaara, I’m in the midst of visa anxiety again.

2 weeks ago, Jessie flew to Finland to briefly see where I had been staying with Stefan, and we road-tripped back into Sweden. It was SO good to see her and receive a hug after 2 months, but I was also sad to leave the dogs (especially Glød!). We stayed in a cute Airbnb outside of Överkalix for a few days, and visited lots of places that we used to frequent in winter. We kayaked on a lake, did some hikes, saw lots of reindeer, had a campfire dinner, and celebrated Jessie’s 23rd birthday.

On the 31st of May, we packed our rental car and drove north to Lannavaara! Jessie is volunteering in the kennel for the whole month of June, and I decided to tag along for the first ten days.

The kennel set-up is great! It’s the first kennel I’ve worked in, that has feeding holes for the dogs. It might sound like a small detail, but this is truly a life-changing thing - it means that we don’t have to walk inside every kennel to feed the dogs (can be a back-breaking job while carrying a 20L bucket of slop). We learned all 58 dogs on the first day, and I got to be reunited with Martin’s dog Puffi, who I’ve known since she was a puppy. Martin talked us through his plans for the winter, including the possibility of entering my first race (the Tobacco Trail is a 150km/300km annual race in Lannavaara), and day-by-day, Jessie and I started to get more and more excited at the prospect of signing contracts. And yesterday, we did! So, pending visa, I will be working in Lannavaara from September - April.

We had some days of sunny weather, and paired with the midnight sun, made this experience really special (the only downside to Nordic summer is the relentless mosquitoes). Jess and I also managed to take ‘our’ dogs (Puffi and Hopper) for a night’s adventure to Abisko National Park. We did lots of hiking with them, and got a dog-friendly hotel room. It was a bit crowded in the bed, but the dogs were happy! And it was nice to see some mountains again - I even went for an icy dip in Torneträsk.

I’m writing this blog post in Kiruna airport, where Jessie just dropped me off, because I’m en route to meet my parents in Croatia today! I haven’t seen Dad for 18 months, and Mum for 15 months, so I’m super excited for the reunion. We’ll be spending a week on a catamaran in Croatia, then hiking and riding bikes through the Swiss alps, then I’ll be spending a few solo days in Montenegro, before meeting Amy and Lara in Albania. In July I’ll meet up with Jessie again, because we’re doing a farm-sit in northern Sweden for a few weeks. Bring on summer!