Reindeers on slow-TV

• bentehaarstad

Bilder Selbyggen

Norwegian television had some success with what they called “slow-TV”. For hours, or days, we have followed trains, ships, or whatever you can imagine taking its time. On TV. This time it is something that really interests me; reindeer herding. The program started this evening and in the next week we can follow the reindeers walking to their summer pastures, in real time. Day and night.

This is not in my region, the land of the indigenous South Sámi, but far north, in Finnmark, the land of the midnigth sun (summer) and aurora borealis (winter). We are going with one of the herds, thousand of reindeers on the spring migration, 130 km through a frozen, desolate landscape. I am really looking forward to this. Since I can’t go myself this year. The event can bee seen on this link, by the Norwegian Broadcasting Company.

The pictures are mine, from one of the times I have been lucky to go with the South Sámi reindeer herders on their sping migration, and there are more pictures on this link.

There are more information about reindeer herding and this project on this link (in Norwegian). My former posts about reindeer spring migration on this link.

Bilder Selbyggen

40 thoughts on “Reindeers on slow-TV”

    1. Yes, it is very special. The animals don’t walk all the time of course, but it’s nice to just watch nature as well, especially how the light is this time of year. The sunset and sunrise is very, very long, with a lot of colours.

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      1. The snow in only white in grey weather, or maybe in the middle of the day. During the very long sunset and sunrise there are just so much colour. I haven’t been that far north this time of year, but I can imagine. I love the mountains around here this time of year, especially around sunset. Very far from white.

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      2. Same like a blue water or blue sea, we are seeing a reflection of the sky. And even funnier was, that the air itself is not blue at all, but while other color was bent, only blue came to our eyes. So, we feel sky is blue. 😀

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  3. I have it open in a tab in my browser now. I watched for a few minutes, and it was lovely, unusual, and strangely compelling. I’m going to watch from time to time. Thanks for letting us know that such a thing exists. It reminds me of the osprey nest I watched one year. The whole process was shown, of course, from nest building to hatching to fledging. I was lucky enough to see one of the babies leave the nest for the first time. Who knows that we’ll see on the trek with the reindeer?

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    1. Yes, who knows what we’ll see on the trek? It will be drama, without action. But I guess many needs less action once in a while. Watching a birds nest from hatching will be the same thing, and interesting too. By the way I looked quite a while last night and the people and the animals were resting then. But still interesting to see the landscape, the changing colours at night and listen to the Sámi music.

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    1. A train moving through the landscape or a ship travelling the coast of Norway for five days is more interesting than can be expected. But reindeer migration, I agree, that is the best.

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  12. I remember a programme, broadcast on UK TV a year or two ago, of a reindeer and sled moving through the frozen forests of northern Scandinavia. The programme lasted well over an hour, with no commentary, just the natural sounds. It was hypnotic and beautiful to watch. I just can’t remember the name of the programme.

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    1. There are many programs about the Sámi people and the reindeers, even if the sled is not used that much these days. And I can’t remember the one you descibe, with no commentary. This one lasts for 6 days, and in the end the animals will swim across a fjord to reach their summer pastures. Thank you Andy, and if you are interested, this reindeer migration is still going on, on this link: https://www.nrk.no/rein/

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  17. Wow, whoever came up with that idea definitely needs a pat on the back. Thanks for this post as it seems like something I would be interested in. Looking into it now!

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