Huskies - the return journey

We spent the evening in the cabin playing cards, eating dutch liquorice and dutch drinking nuts.  I was very pleased that I'd chosen to sleep upstairs as the room was toasty warm.  So much so that I slept in and missed feeding the dogs in the morning - but I was on time for breakfast at 8am.

I volunteered to help with the dogs after breakfast.  What this means is that I scooped dog shit.  Frozen dog shit.  So you need a long metal rod with an ice pick at the end and then you scoop it into a shovel.  It was hard work!  Then we had to hook up our dogs to the ropes and that was quite hard work too.  They're very strong and it's difficult to convince them to go where you want them to.

I think we must have got on the sleds at about 10am and the trip was one of the most spectacular sights I have ever seen.  The sky was clear and as we started there was a pink hue around the horizons.  As the sun slowly rose, the trees caught fire.  Hillsides of trees bathed in white bathed in pink takes your breathe away.  We could only take photos when we stopped which wasn't often so I haven't got great pictures, but I don't think a photo would do it justice anyway.  As the sun got a little higher, the light turned a bit less pink and the trees turned a more yellow red.  I think I spent most of the morning smiling - one of those times when you just want to laugh because everything is so beautiful.

And then you hit a tree.  In a few places the track is ice rather than snow.  This was one of those places and there is quite a camber going the wrong way on that particular corner.  So I could see the tree.  I could see I was going to hit it.  But there was nothing I could do.  I think I threw myself off the sled at the last minute and landed splat on the ground.  I now have a nice bruise on my wrist.  The dogs and my sled kept going as far as the person in front of my and then the dogs started fighting so I had to trudge up to them and shout and clap my hands to keep them apart.  It took a bit of time to separate and untangle them, but then we were off again.

We stopped for lunch in a little lean-to and cooked our own reindeer or pork sausages over a fire.

As we headed out towards home, a mist came down and what had been a reasonably comfortable -30 degrees turned very very very cold.  We had to stop for about ten minutes to let another group through and for one of the dogs that had been hurt in the fight to be picked up by a snowmobile.  I had to jog up and down as my hands and my feet were starting to lose feeling.  I was quite jealous of the dog.

We unhooked the dogs and took their harnesses off when we got back to the hotel, and then we go a peek at some tiny three week old husky puppies (awwww).  A nice long hot shower was next on the itinerary which was bliss. 

Dinner here seems to be a five course affair every night so we had soup (sweet potato), salad, fish, chocolate mouse and a kind of cheesecake with a sponge base, followed by cheese.  They say that you need a lot of calories when it's so cold, but I think I may be overdoing it slightly....