| AS
THE TRAIN reaches the borders of Lapland
it slows, eventually coming to an
unscheduled halt. The passenger's eye is
caught by people wearing masks and hiding
in bushes by the track. Minutes later
these marauders are striding through the
carriages in mock ambush and offering
ladles of foul-smelling Hemkört, an
illegal alcoholic brew famed more for
strength than flavour For
those who have already spent several days
riding the Inlandsbanan (Swedish Inland
Railway) from Kristinehamn in the south
toward Gällivare in the north, such an
event comes as little surprise. The
fiddler and accordionist who boarded the
train, also unannounced, to entertain us
a few kilometres back in Dorotea, are
unmoved.
Those connected with the
line – the guides whose voices
crackle over an antique PA system, kids
in baseball caps who stamp the souvenir
passports, the fanatics who enthuse for
hours in broken English about its
delights – all seem intent on
wresting every last amusement from the
regions it crosses.
The route's first sleepers
were laid just before the turn of the
century, but it was not until 1937 that
the Inlandsbanan was completed.
Supporters of the line fought vigorously
for its survival during the financial
uncertainties of the Seventies. Nowadays
the money lost servicing local
communities is being recouped through
expanding tourist traffic. The
Inlandsbanan serves as the only link
between numerous activity holidays.
One can, for example, go
mineral hunting, with pickaxe and bucket
provided, at Langan where 300 kinds of
mineral have been located (and keep the
results). In Europe's largest bear park
at Gronklitt one can watch the beasts
roam about their 80,000 square metres
and, a little perversely perhaps, eat one
of the species at the adjacent hotel
restaurant.
From Östersund one can
venture on to the waters of Lake
Storsjön searching for the monster said
to frequent it. The lake, locals say, is
connected by tunnel to Loch Ness. Or one
might hire a horse and wagon and trot off
into the mosquito-infested wilderness for
two weeks.
For me the real pleasure
is simply stretching out and enjoying the
scenery and the informal atmosphere of
the train, which becomes festive just
south of Jokkmokk, where it crosses the
Arctic Circle and stops for about 20
minutes, giving travellers time to
scramble out and take photos of
themselves beside the tri-lingual marker
signs. It was at this point on my journey
that, somehow inevitably, some passenger
gave the driver a bottle of Scotch, so on
the final leg to Gällivare many a sober
traveller was reaching out for the
Hemkört.
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