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Photography · 3 February 2024 · 2 min read

Of Magical Ponds and the tripod hunt

On snowshoes we trudge through thickly snow-covered forests, past a reindeer and husky farm. Because Annina's tripod stayed at home, the evening turns into a tripod hunt through Ruka and Kuusamo, the very last shop has exactly one left. The northern lights still stay too faint for our cameras.

The glass igloo in the night forest with faint northern lights above

Sleeping in this Magical Pond cabin is simply wonderful. Waking up to a view of snow-covered trees is just brilliant. Today it’s quite overcast and certainly -10 °C, but that makes it all the cosier inside.

The Magical Pond cabin among the snow-covered trees

Breakfast is served in the main house, a delicious buffet with everything you could wish for. Afterwards we make the most of the few daylight hours and rent snowshoes. A couple of snowshoe trails start right at the cabin and, as we later find out, there’s also a cross-country ski track and snowmobile trails. We stomp through densely snow-covered forests and pass a reindeer and husky farm. The dogs get all excited whenever they’re allowed to pull a sled, while the reindeer lie comfortably in their stables. We don’t do a dog sled tour yet, hopefully that’s still to come on another day.

The snowshoe trail near Ruka running between snow-covered spruces A reindeer sleigh in front of the farm's log cabin A harnessed reindeer waiting beside the sleigh

In the afternoon we’re back in our cabin and take some photos of the accommodation. Towards evening we drive to the neighbouring village of Ruka to look for a tripod for Annina, since hers unfortunately stayed at home. When we come up empty, we continue to Kuusamo, and indeed, in the very last shop we try, there is exactly one tripod left! Happy that the northern lights can now be photographed, should they appear, we drive back to our warm accommodation, by now it has long since gotten dark. In the evening we make ourselves properly comfortable and eat in the dark so we definitely won’t miss any northern lights. Although it wasn’t cloudy, the aurora was unfortunately so faint that even the camera could barely capture it. Hopefully we’ll have more luck in the coming days.

The glass igloo near Ruka seen from a distance between the trees The glazed front of the igloo looking into the forest Icicles hanging from the glass front of the igloo

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