When I arrived to Korvala I was staying with two other volunteers who I immediately bonded with. Kathleen from North Carolina and Rosie from Manchester. We all joked about the fact that an American a British and an Australian were all living together. Two days into my arrival and we were all ready for an adventure. We planned to do a overnight hike Kayrastunturi. It was a 27km hike and as the sun wasn't setting until around 12pm we figured it would be a perfect opportunity to catch a glimpse of the Midnight Sun.
We packed our bags with cookies and sandwiches and headed out at 7pm. The journey to the fell was my first time exploring the surrounding forest and it was so beautiful (I have never breathed in air so fresh). Blueberries and raspberries grow from the ground in the summertime so if you ever get hungry you can indulgence yourself in tons of berries and that is exactly what we did! Also the water here is so fresh and clean that you can drink from lakes and rivers. If I was ever stuck in the wilderness I would hope it would be here.
The journey to Kayrastunturi took around two and half hours. After shortcutting up steep hills and nearly killing ourselves doing it we finally made it to the top woo! We saw the sunset around 11:30pm and the sky was lit up in colours of orange pink and red - it was amazing.
At the top we found a little log cabin with a fireplace, cooking utensils and a notebook where you can write a personal message and sign your name.
We ate all of the food we had in an hour and then had to settle with the fact that we would have no cookies for the next ten hours.We started a fire and then attempted to nap on the wooden floor of the cabin.
At around 1:30am we woke up to the sound of Kathleen yelling for us to come outside. We were all amazed to see a green light dancing around the sky. The Northen Lights came out to play! The show only lasted a few minutes but witnessing them for the first time was magical. We spent the rest of the night wide awake and buzzing about our encounter with the northern lights.
We headed back at 6:30 in the morning with blistered feet and zero hours of sleep. However, the hike up to Kayrastunturi was worth every minute as we got to witness nature in all its glory!
