I was sorting through my photo collection the other day and
found a record of a trip Mr EE and I took to Norway, Sweden and Finland a few
years (ok 10 years) ago. It was one of
the last holidays we took on our own before our family expanded to include the
children and we had a blast. We had been
meant to go diving but had been gazumped from our liveaboard so decided to
drive around the north instead.
Coming into the town of Ostersund after a long drive through
the northern Swedish forests we had a huge shock. While we were waiting at a traffic lights we
saw a bad collision between a car and an ambulance. I remember calling 112 to report it but was
unable to explain where the accident had taken place. I think I thrust my mobile at a local because
I do remember getting it back a little while later. Together with another man we were first to
the ambulance and were able to get the paramedics and patient out onto the road
and, at their instruction, get the oxygen away from the vehicles. By the time all the furore had died down and
the police had confirmed that there were enough local witnesses that they would
not need us to give statements we were a little late to book into a camp
site. Still rather shaken we gave
ourselves a treat of a night in a hotel, we must have looked pretty bad because
the hotelier, when we told him about the accident, mentioned he had heard it on
the news and offered us a brandy on the house.
 |
| Reindeer crossing the road |
The next day we wanted to take things gently, we had seen
signs for a moose garden and, intrigued as to what that would be like we decided
to visit. We had seen lots of herds of reindeer during our drive but no moose. The farm was closed when we
arrived but the owner was extremely friendly and took us to meet his moose (mooses, meese??).
Moose, it turns out, cannot be domesticated but they can be
tamed. A significant number of moose are
the victims of car accidents every year and some are nursing mothers. This gentleman takes any abandoned calves in
and hand rears them. Some stay with him
on the farm.
As we went round we got to meet Helge, a huge male moose who
was so tame he let us stroke his beautiful antlers. I thought they would be bony but they are
covered with a beautiful soft fur. We
were then allowed into the paddock with some baby moose who fed quite happily
from our hands. Any babies that are bred on the farm and are to be retained there have to be taken from their mothers at an early age or they will not be tame. It was quite a wonderful
experience seeing these two little babies, similar in size to a domestic calf
and know that they are going to grow up into gigantic, powerful beasts.
It was a very calming experience and we felt a lot better
about our brief stay in Ostersund.
Posted as part of the Animal Tales Linky
What is the plural of Moose? Lovely to know that someone cares for them if needed.
ReplyDeleteI think it is moose but I would love it to be meese!
Deletesorry your trip got off to a bad start. How lovely of this gentleman to take in orphaned Moose/Mooses/Meeses
ReplyDeleteHe was a really lovely chap and spent ages showing his animals off.
DeleteHeads up: in paragraph 2 you said you saw a collision between a car and an accident. I'm assuming an ambulance. Sounds frightening and I'm glad you had moose therapists and brandy-plying hoteliers to help you recover. Mind you, if they were in Scandinavia, they should be called elk, not moose, even if they are the same thing. Moose is both singular and plural, like sheep. We have a picture book that has one of those wonderful pyramid-style texts that features a moose. It goes something like "There's a moose on the loose, and a bad-tempered goose, and a pig who is big..." Also another book called 'If You Give a Moose a Muffin...' Turns out the consequences pile up on top of each other, causing more and more trouble and you just know the child who gave the moose the muffin is really going to regret it when his parents get home. I miss picture books!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the heads up! I did not know Moose were called Elk in Scandinavia, I thought they were Elk in the Americas and Moose in Eurasia but is it the other way round? The owner called them moose but that could be because it is the more known name.
DeleteI vaguely remember the moose on the loose and I love the idea of giving a moose a muffin!
Having just read the post above I am now peeved that the plural of moose is not meese - it so should be! Thank you for adding these wonderful "meese" to #AnimalTales.
ReplyDelete