Lovozero is the cultural capital of the Kola Sami, though capital is a generous word for a village of about three thousand people on the shore of a big, cold lake in the middle of the tundra. The lake itself stretches north to south, flanked on the east by the Lovozero Tundras, a range of rounded, flat-topped mountains that rise to over a thousand metres and are famous among geologists for their rare minerals. Some of the rocks here exist almost nowhere else on earth.
The people who made this place their home are the Sami, the reindeer herders of northern Scandinavia and the Kola, and the village has a small museum that shows their history, their costume, and their ways of life. Many of the residents are also Komi, who arrived in the nineteenth century with their reindeer, and the herds that graze the tundra are still managed by both communities. In the 1920s and 30s, Soviet policies forced many Sami into collective farms and moved some from their old settlements, and the traditional way of life has changed a great deal. Today a cultural centre keeps alive handicrafts, songs and joiking, the Sami chant, and the local reindeer meat is good.
For a rider, the road from Revda is a long, quiet northern route through tundra and low birch forest, with a fair surface and big views across the lake. The mountains rise in the distance, snow-streaked well into summer, and reindeer sometimes walk across the road, so slow down. Wind can be fierce, and the weather is changeable, with fog, rain and even snow in summer. Midsummer brings continuous daylight, and in September, the tundra turns red and gold, with the first aurora appearing in the sky. Mosquitoes are bad in July.
Fuel and services are better in Revda, about twenty kilometres away, than in the village, so fill up there. In winter, the road can be icy, with drifting snow, and conditions are harsh.
The mountains hold sacred places for the Sami, and a lake called Seidozero is the best known, so treat the landscape with respect. Walk down to the shore, and listen to the wind in the grasses.