Outdoor activites in Lappland!

We spend a week at Rémi & Aurélie's camp (GMaps). They are top mushers. Remi won several races. They breed and train their dogs in Lappland. She is a vet and they are fully dedicated to their mushing competitions. In order to fund this activity they sell multi activities stays at their farm/camp.

Open-air and diversified activites

Aurélie and Rémi will manage your activities schedules balancing your wishes, weather constraints, group capabilities and their own constraints. This means your schedule could change overnight. One sure thing: they will do everything they can to entertain you.

Selected activities may be:

• Horse riding
• Bike tour
• Early morning dog training
• Trails
• Kayak
• Fishing
• Houston (the dog with the nicest life in the world) cuddling

Horse riding

Aurélie's horses are not club horses. It means that unless you are an advanced experienced rider, you will not gallop. If you are intermediate, a group could be go trotting on horseback.

With children or beginner adults, horses will walk in the beautiful forest. Those walks will last for about 2 hours. Our 6-years old daughter who takes regular poneyriding classes was allowed to ride her own horse. That made her (and mommy) so proud. A younger child would go with Aurélie.

Even very beginner adult can take part in the activity.

Do not plan on riding Chamallow. This poney is too stubborn.

Bike tour

If you are nice, Remi could take the group with him when he trains his dogs for endurance.

Some will have regular bikes, other eletric scooters. Children will take place in a quad. If you are given the choice, do not use the tandem bike unless you need some workout.

Dogs strength workout

If you are a really nice guest, you may have the opportunity to train the dogs with Rémi at 4am.

Basically, 10 dogs pull a quad where you and Remi are sitting and braking.

Dogs responsiveness is impressive and Rémi has a lot to share about his experience with mushing dogs training.

It is cold in the morning and dirty but Rémi will lend you a dedicated suit.

Trails

This is the part where we are glad we had a local guide because we would not have found the two beautiful trails we walked. They are about 40 kms from the farm. Rémi takes care of the lunch. He may bring three dogs. It is really impressive to see the authority he has on them. No leashes, no screams...We wish we had the same authoriy on our offspring...

In summer, do not hesitate to swim in the small natural pools. Pay attention, shores are slipperly.

Eating

Before being a musher, Remi used to be a renowned baker: he is meilleur ouvrier de France. Every morning you will enjoy his delicious pancakes and jams.

He will take care of your lunch by lighting a fire and cooking a croque-monsieur or even prepare a nice salad with plenty of diversified stuff in it.

He will also cook nice fusion (french alps-swedish) meals. You even may enjoy the fish you just catched. Desserts are always delicious treats. This is not a place for fatloss.

Please note that Remi does this all by himself while still taking you on activities and training his dogs. Chapeau Monsieur!.

Sleeping & commodities

The three lodges are nicely decorated and the bus (if you ever sleep in it) is also a nice place to sleep in.

But some expectations need to be balanced. The price tag is neither low nor average. I mean you could easily find an very nice all in accomadation anywhere in the world at the same price. There you would get all the confort you may be used to. You may expect that same level of comfort. Do not! To be completely fair they do not advertise it that way so please manage your expectations so that will not be surprised and enjoy the unforgettable activites.

So basically what should you expect relating to comodities:

• There are 2 WCs and you must not flush the toilet paper.
• Lodges are in the goats courtyards, you may find some surprises under your flip flops.
• Rooster crows in the morning and morning is early in summer.
• Sauna is nice but not very warm because of bad isolation.
• Nordic bath may be a culture broth.

Other considerations

Here are some other tips:

• They do not welcome as many families with young children. If you plan to visit them, contact Aurélie and tell her you are interested. She might be in contact with other families and will try to have you stay at the same time. If you plan to do some trekking, make sure the other family is planning it as well. If both agenda match, your children will play together and have a hell of an holiday.
• Not much space in your luggage? Do not carry sleeping bags. The river trip with night in a cabin looks nice on paper. In reality with children, mosquitos, lack of confort, we stayed in the farm and carried the bags for 3 weeks for nothing :D
• On the farm area, there are not so many mosquitos.
• It is recommanded to plan arrival and departure on Fridays (please check with Aurélie)
• If you have food allergies, tell Rémi in advance because he buys groceries on arrival days.

Afterthoughts

We were very impressed by their kindness and flexibility. Their mindset and level of dedication are a life lesson to whoever has a passion.

This was a week all of us will always remember. Thank you Aurélie & Rémi. We look forward to hear about your competition successes.

Special bonus

Contact me on Instagram and I will send you a link to a private video ;)