Day 10 Winter Wonderland & sleigh fun in Ivalo

Day 10

31.3.2024

Easter Sunday - Happy Easter!

We don't notice any of the Easter hustle and bustle that was already going on in Levi on Friday. Pure solitude!

A look out the window shows that it has snowed (again). The snow plow is already in use and is increasing the mountain of snow behind our cabin.

While my son devotes himself to his social media obligations after breakfast, my husband and I go for a winter walk. However, it is not so easy to find a way because everything is covered in snow.

We choose the parallel road behind the resort and walk along it for a while (a car has already driven along here today, so we can walk in the tire tracks 😁), but the road eventually ends at a private property. Hmm, OK, so we go back. Halfway along the way we see a snow-covered path between the trees in the forest. It looks like it's a walking path. We trudge through the deep snow and make our way through the forest to the river, where the path continues on the frozen river, but in the wrong direction. We turn around, puzzle over two strange "footprints" of animals (birds!?) in the snow and finally take the shortcut across the Arctic River Resort grounds (over an embankment into the thigh-deep snow 🙈😱🤣), past the snow-covered BBQ house and the other small cabins.

The path to the garbage cans has been cleared, so it's easier to walk through the snow from there. However, most of the garbage cans are completely covered in snow. So we'd better not throw away our garbage today...

After lunch, even Sonnemann goes out into the fresh air. We catch short periods of sunshine, sled down the hill to the river (sledges and bum slides of all kinds can be borrowed free of charge from the restaurant), have fun sled races, son and husband climb the huge snow hills and slide and roll down until we really have snow "everywhere" and have to warm up again.

In the afternoon, my husband and I hike a bit on the frozen river parallel to the peninsula, then we follow the snowmobile and cross-country ski tracks and cross the peninsula to the other side of the river, where after a while we meet the exact same path we took this morning. Perfect, now at least we know how to get back.

After running through the deep snow, we are pretty exhausted. Unfortunately, the view from the window shows a beautiful sunset, but also a very cloudy sky. With peak temperatures of -4 degrees during the day, it is a little cooler than yesterday, but compared to our "-20 degree week" in Levi, it has become quite warm.

And - oh wonder - snow is forecast again. From this evening until tomorrow afternoon. Oh no... we're planning the next big highlight tomorrow...

Maybe things will change after all. So far we've (almost) always been lucky. Fingers crossed!

Key data:

Accommodation: Arctic River Resort (Aurora Cabin)

Weather: light snowfall / sunny-cloudy at -8 to -4 degrees during the day