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Your adventure begins as we meet you at airport in Luleä, before we venture deep into one of Scandinavia's largest remaining virgin boreal forests. Covering over 13,000 hectares, this extraordinary eco-park has no roads, no buildings beyond our operational cabin and has never been commercially logged. Once inside, we'll establish our woodland basecamp and spend the next eight days learning to become at home in one of Europe's last truly wild landscapes.
This expedition is centred around living well in the forest. You'll create your own lightweight wilderness camp using the shelter system that best suits your style, whether that's a tarp and hammock beneath the pines, a bivvy bag under the stars or a lightweight tent tucked amongst the trees. Throughout the week you'll refine your campcraft, learning how to select beautiful campsites, organise your equipment efficiently, cook over the fire, source clean water and develop the small habits that transform wilderness living from merely enduring to genuinely enjoyable.
Bushcraft is woven naturally into daily life. Harvest birch bark from the forest and transform it into a beautiful stacked-bark knife handle for your own field knife we'll make together. Learn practical firecraft, identify edible and medicinal plants, read animal tracks, forage the changing season and understand the rhythms of the boreal ecosystem. You'll also build your own traditional fishing rod as we're surrounded by secluded lakes and quiet forest creeks to catch fish using one of the simplest and most elegant fishing methods.
As your confidence grows, so does your freedom. The expedition is carefully designed to develop your competence step by step until the forest begins to feel familiar rather than expansive. The culmination of the experience is a remarkable personal challenge: a two-day, one-night solo wilderness journey. Equipped with everything you've learned, you'll venture deeper into the eco-park to establish your own remote camp with a team-mate, navigating, living and making decisions independently while remaining discreetly supervised from afar by our instructor team. For many participants, this becomes the defining moment of the expedition: a chance to discover not just what the forest has to offer, but what they themselves are capable of.
The old-growth boreal forest is one of Europe's richest wildlife habitats. Moose browse silently through the woodland, beavers shape the wetlands, capercaillie move through the undergrowth and Siberian jays often accompany quiet travellers through the trees. Golden eagles patrol overhead while loons call across mirror-like lakes. Spending eight days living within this ecosystem allows encounters that simply aren't possible on shorter visits, revealing a landscape that changes with every hour and rewards those who slow down enough to notice.
This bushcraft expedition is an opportunity to recalibrate your relationship with wild places. By the end you'll leave with practical wilderness skills, handcrafted equipment, greater self-reliance and the confidence to venture into remote landscapes with knowledge, respect and comfort. It is an experience designed beyond the bushcraft, to foster a lasting sense of belonging in one of the last great forests of northern Europe.
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Meet at Luleä, after a 2 hour drive we arrive at the end of a gravel track with an expense of untamed nature ahead. we'll travel into the heart of the eco-park where your new home awaits. The first task is establishing your own woodland camp, choosing how you wish to live for the coming week. Whether beneath a tarp and hammock, in a bivvy bag beneath the stars or from the comfort of a lightweight tent, this is where your relationship with the forest begins.
Once settled, we'll explore the immediate surroundings, introducing you to the wildlife, ecology and etiquette of this extraordinary landscape. Learning how to move quietly through the forest and observe without disturbing becomes the foundation for everything that follows.
As evening approaches, you'll construct your own minimalist fishing kit before trying your luck in the surrounding lakes and creeks. Fishing quickly becomes an optional daily ritual throughout the expedition, a chance to slow down, reflect and immerse yourself in the rhythm of the forest.
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Reading the Landscape
The boreal forest is generous to those who understand it. Today we begin learning its language.
A guided foraging walk introduces edible plants, medicinal species and the characteristic trees that define this ancient ecosystem. Along the way we'll discuss ecology, seasonal changes and how indigenous peoples have lived with these landscapes for thousands of years.
During the afternoon we'll harvest natural materials to weave your own traditional basket, learning techniques that remain as practical today as they have been for generations.
As darkness settles around the fire, we'll share stories of the region's fascinating history, from Sámi traditions and early woodland communities to the unique conservation journey that protected this remarkable forest from logging.
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Crafting Your Companion
Today is devoted to one of the most rewarding projects of the expedition.
Using a traditional hidden tang blade, you'll create your own knife by harvesting birch bark from the forest and building a beautiful stacked birch bark handle. Layer by layer, your knife becomes something entirely personal, a tool that reflects the landscape from which it came.
The pace of the day is intentionally slow, allowing careful craftsmanship and quiet conversation around camp.
During the evening we'll introduce the philosophy and practicalities of travelling alone in wilderness; discussing judgement, decision-making, risk management and the mindset required to move confidently through remote landscapes. These ideas lay the groundwork for the journey later in the week.
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Finding Your Way
Navigation in the boreal forest is about far more than using a compass.
We'll explore how to understand the landscape itself, reading contours, water systems, vegetation and natural features to build confidence moving through unfamiliar country.
The afternoon takes these skills into the forest as we navigate practical routes through woodland, bog and lakeside terrain, building the competence needed for independent travel.
Later we'll welcome a local conservationist or environmental specialist, offering a deeper understanding of the eco-park, its wildlife and the ongoing work to preserve one of Europe's last virgin boreal forests.
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Stepping Beyond Basecamp
Today marks a shift in the expedition.
After preparing lightweight packs and refining essential equipment, we'll leave the familiarity of basecamp behind and begin our journey deeper into the forest.
Travelling steadily through this vast landscape, you'll begin applying everything you've learned so far: camp-craft, navigation, observation and woodland judgement.
By evening you'll establish a remote camp far from our starting point, surrounded only by forest, water and the sounds of the wild.
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Living Independently
Confidence grows through experience.
Today you'll continue living in the eco-park with a teammate, making decisions together, improving you campsite, managing your time and adapting to whatever the forest presents.
Although our instructor team remains discreetly nearby throughout, this stage of the expedition is yours. You'll experience the quiet satisfaction that comes from relying on your own skills while living comfortably in one of Europe's most remarkable wildernesses.
Another peaceful night is spent beneath the pines, where long Scandinavian evenings encourage reflection and a growing sense of belonging.
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Returning Changed
The final day's journey leads back towards basecamp, though few people return feeling quite the same as when they left.
After unpacking and settling back into camp, there's time to relax, fish, swim or simply enjoy the forest that has become home over the past week.
Our final evening is one of celebration. We'll gather around the fire to share stories, enjoy good food and finish the expedition with a traditional Swedish sauna: a fitting way to reflect on everything you've experienced before one last night beneath the northern sky.
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Farewell to the North Woods
The final morning arrives quietly.
After breakfast we'll strike camp, ensuring every trace of our stay disappears back into the landscape. Equipment is packed away, goodbyes are shared and we leave the forest carrying more than just handcrafted tools and photographs.
You'll return home with practical bushcraft skills, a handcrafted knife, memories of wild places and, perhaps most importantly, the confidence to seek out wilderness with a new sense of comfort, curiosity and belonging.
The Highlights:
DETAILS:
Travel and arrival - Detailed joining instructions will be sent out to you well in advance of the expedition.
You will need to make your own way to Lulea, Sweden. Mostly we find our participants enjoy flying in a day or so ahead of the trip to see Lulea and spend some time in the town.
We will collect everyone from Lulea via minibus at 9am on Day 1 and drive you to the trip start point of the trip. This journey is a couple of hours drive.
Accommodation - All wild camping.
Food and Drink - This expedition is catered with food provided for breakfasts and evening meals. Food will be typical canoe camping fayre. We take our catering seriously and we aim to make the food one of the highlights of the trip. We can cater to vegetarians and some medical intolerances but vegans, severe allergies, and more unusual food requirements can be tricky when group cooking. We are always happy to chat about this before booking. You will need to bring your own lunches and snacks.
Weather/conditions - Sweden at the time of year can be changeable, warm days with cold nights. Please make sure you read the kit list thoroughly.
Age requirements - 18+.
Fitness/ability - You need a basic level of fitness to attend this expedition. No previous bushcraft experience is necessary, although you may get more from the course if you have completed a course with us previously. We suggest that being able to walk 10km at least each day is a good minimum bench mark. We want you to enjoy the expedition so please contact us with any questions on this.
Payment - To book we will take a 10% non returnable deposit with the balance due 10 weeks before the expedition start date. See our full Terms and Conditions.
Insurance - We have comprehensive liability insurance and risk assessments. We strongly suggest that you have your own travel insurance policy that covers your kit and yourself for the planned travel and activity plans.
First Aid/Medical - The leaders are experienced in remote first aid. We will carry a comprehensive expedition first aid kit and Garmin Inreach device for emergencies. Please bring with you plenty of any required personal medication.
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Absolutely. We understand that joining an expedition is a significant investment, and we do not want it to remain one of those bucket-list ideas that never quite happens. You can secure your place with a 10% deposit and choose from several ways to spread the remaining cost.
Option one: Two-stage balance
Pay a 10% deposit when booking, followed by a further 15% within eight weeks. The remaining 75% is due ten weeks before the expedition begins.
Option two: Three equal instalments
Pay a 10% deposit to secure your place, then divide the remaining balance into three equal payments spread across the time between booking and the final payment deadline.
Option three: Smaller monthly payments
Pay a 10% deposit, then spread the remaining balance across manageable monthly payments. We will agree a simple schedule with you, with the full balance paid ten weeks before departure.
To reserve your place with the 10% deposit, add the expedition to your basket and enter the code DEPOSIT at checkout. We will then help you arrange the payment option that suits you.
We’re always flexible and happy to help
If none of these options quite works for you, contact Jamie at Howl Bushcraft for a friendly, relaxed and no-obligation conversation. We are fully committed to helping make your expedition possible and will be happy to discuss a realistic payment arrangement.
Unless otherwise agreed, all balances must be paid ten weeks before departure. Bookings made within ten weeks of an expedition may require payment in full and remain subject to our standard booking terms and cancellation policy.
Kit List
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(If you have your own of any of the following and would like to bring it please feel free)
Group Cooking equipment
Group Water filters
Group shelter
Food for Breakfasts and Evening Meals, with plenty of coffee too
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We recommend a comfortable rucksack, 75ltr would be the maximum we’d suggested for ease of hiking with.
Personal kit should be packed into durable dry-bags (Ortlieb or Exped make good ones), vital items to be double bagged i.e. sleeping gear, dry clothes.
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Brew kit- mug, spoon, tea/coffee/hot chocolate etc (a small camping stove is a useful extra)
Lunches
Waterproofs: jacket and trousers
Head-torch and spare batteries
Water bottle
Wooly Hat
Flask for hot water/ hot drink
Small First aid kit- plasters, painkillers, steri-wipes etc (should fit in a trouser pocket).
Toilet kit- tissues, hand sanitizer, lighter, wet-wipes
Sun-cream and insect repellent - Smidge or something with deet in it works.
Sunglasses
Midge head net - The ones by Smidge are good - most others have mesh sizes too large.
Warm Sleeping bag-in its own dry bag
Sleeping mat
Tent/tarp/hammock
A full set of warm, dry clothes for the end of the day.
Waterproof socks/ warm socks
Wash kit: toothbrush/paste, soap, small towel as minimum
Spectacles/contact lenses/spares
Plate/bowl and eating utensils
Billy Can (for cooking during your solo adventure)
One luxury item-a book, MP3 player, etc
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Waterproof whistle to be carried on your person.
A knife - you’ll make a small fixed knife on the trip but having a pocket knife or other fixed blade maybe useful prior to make your own.
Compass
Bribery Liquorice for the instructors
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JD has spent his career helping people develop the confidence to venture deeper into wild places. As founder and Chief Instructor of Howl Bushcraft, his passion lies not simply in teaching outdoor skills, but in helping people build a genuine sense of belonging in nature.
For JD, the boreal forest is the perfect classroom. Over eight days you'll learn to establish comfortable lightweight camps, read the landscape, forage responsibly, craft useful equipment from natural materials and develop the quiet confidence that comes from living well in a truly wild environment. His teaching style is practical, thoughtful and hands-on, encouraging participants to discover not only how to do something, but why it matters.
One of JD's greatest satisfactions is watching the moment participants stop feeling like visitors and begin feeling at home in the forest. From carving a stacked birch bark knife handle and building traditional fishing tackle, to preparing for remote travel and overnight wilderness camps, every skill is taught with the aim of fostering independence rather than dependence.
Throughout the expedition JD works closely with Sweden's Jeremias Kinnunen-Levy, combining decades of bushcraft instruction with intimate local knowledge of one of Scandinavia's last virgin boreal forests. Together they create an experience that balances craftsmanship, ecology, adventure and quiet reflection, giving participants the skills, confidence and perspective to continue exploring wild places long after the expedition has ended.
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Born and raised in a small community in sub-Arctic Sweden, Jeremias has spent a lifetime immersed in the boreal forest. This ancient landscape is far more than the backdrop to his work, it is his home, his livelihood and a place he knows with remarkable intimacy through every season of the year.
For more than fifteen years Jeremias has worked professionally as a wilderness guide across Scandinavia, developing expertise that ranges from Swedish Mountain Leadership and Arctic winter travel to snowmobile expeditions, ski touring, hiking and dog sledding. Together with his wife, he runs a team of Alaskan Huskies, leading winter journeys through some of northern Sweden's most spectacular landscapes.
Outside the guiding season, Jeremias works on large-scale ecological restoration projects throughout northern Sweden. His work focuses on restoring rivers, wetlands and natural habitats that were historically altered by the timber industry, helping return waterways to their natural flow and creating healthier ecosystems for fish, birds and countless other species. This conservation work gives him an exceptional understanding of how the boreal landscape functions, from the smallest forest creek to entire watersheds, and offers participants a perspective that few guides can provide.
Living on his woodland homestead in the heart of the boreal forest, Jeremias spends much of his life fishing, hunting, harvesting and working within the very environment you'll be exploring together. His knowledge isn't simply academic; it has been built through decades of living with the forest rather than merely visiting it.
Jeremias is passionate about sharing the Scandinavian philosophy of simple, thoughtful wilderness living. Whether teaching participants how to establish a comfortable camp, read the landscape, identify wildlife, understand forest ecology or travel confidently through remote country, his calm and patient approach helps people feel genuinely at ease in the outdoors.
For Jeremias, the greatest reward is seeing guests slow down enough to notice the forest's quieter details, the movement of wildlife, the rhythm of the seasons and the subtle connections that make one of Europe's last great virgin boreal forests such an extraordinary place to call home.
howl expeditions ltd
The Biome Expeditions are organised and delivered by Howl Expeditions Ltd, a specialist expedition company established to manage our UK and international wilderness journeys.
Howl Expeditions Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales under company number 17388272. When you book any trip within the Biome Expeditions collection, your booking contract is with Howl Expeditions Ltd, the expedition is promoted and booked through howlbushcraft.com.
Our bushcraft courses, workshops, online training and shop continue to be operated separately by Bushcraft Training Services Ltd, trading as Howl Bushcraft.
Please see our Terms and Conditions for full booking, payment and cancellation information.
Professional Standards | Human Approach | Howl Expeditions Ltd
Wild places deserve thoughtful preparation. Every Biome Expedition is supported by structured planning, risk assessment and emergency procedures, with clear responsibilities across our expedition leaders, specialist guides and local partners.
Where applicable, our expeditions operate in accordance with UK package travel legislation, including the Package Travel and Linked Travel Arrangements Regulations 2018. Our overseas expeditions are planned and managed in conformity with BS 8848:2014, the British Standard for visits, fieldwork, expeditions and adventurous activities outside the United Kingdom. Our conformity process is formally documented and reviewed as part of our expedition management system.
High professional standards do not need to feel distant or stuffy. We want our expeditions to be warm, inclusive and full of curiosity, with approachable leaders and participants who feel comfortable asking questions. Serious planning sits quietly behind each journey, giving the group the confidence and freedom to engage fully with the landscape, the people we meet and the experience itself.
We welcome all questions about how our expeditions are planned, who is responsible for their delivery and the systems supporting participants before and during each journey.
