Tentipi the folks that make our amazing Tipis, recently invited us to join them on a snowy wilderness adventure to experience the true Swedish Lapland first hand. A chance to see where the Tentipi Tipis are made, camping in the snow, ice fishing, dog sledding, the northern lights…..of course we were there! So back in the March the All About Me directors Andy, Dave and James packed their thermals and set off to catch their flights to Arvidsjaur, Sweden.
We all love the work we do, the awesome places it takes us to and the amazing people we get to meet. So were really excited about this opportunity as it truly was something totally new to us.
After the first night in the warmth of a traditional cabin, they were eased gently into things with a look round the Tentipi factory at Moskosel and a spot of sewing! Using the industrial sewing machines, they each made a Tentipi tote bag. Not that it was a competition or anything, but we think Dave’s wins the best bag award, although James and Andy had some pretty serious concentration faces on!
Getting to see the factory where all the Tentipi tipis are built by hand, was amazing and really great to see where it all happens. They are a truly skilled team of people who are passionate about their work.
The lads were in Sweden for 4 days and after the factory visit it was time to get the four layers (yes FOUR layers) of snow gear on, pick up the snow mobiles and set up camp in the wilderness for the first night. Their guide for the trek was wilderness expert Sonny Holmberg, Sweden’s answer to Bear Grylls, a local expert guide and trapper.
So they set up camp in the snow, erected the tents, built the camp fire and ate dinner under the stars before heading to bed, ready for the next day’s 25-50 km snowmobile trek to the ice fishing. Pretty amazing stuff.
Next day after a spot of ice fishing, having successfully managed to catch something for lunch, (well done lads!) they got to do a bit of dog sledding. Before finally setting up camp again for the last night.
At this location, right out in the Swedish Lapland, miles from anywhere there is no light pollution at all, just thousands of stars in the sky. They’d been told with luck, they may see the northern lights and it didn’t let them down. Utterly breathtaking.
The guys agreed it was just an incredible experience, but that the highlight was seeing the amazing Northern Lights, no words or photos can really do it justice.
Huge thanks to the Tentipi guys and Sonny for putting together such an amazing adventure, James, Dave and Andy have memories that will stay with them forever.
