Karelia Husky Safari

My bags stayed behind in Helsinki but my good memories came with me. A week out there in Karelia close to the Russian border with over 20 sled dogs and only a few people - that's a very special experience.
Some tracks were prepared. On other occasions Valentijn, our guide, had to navigate his experienced dog team through deep snow and creeks. We crossed countless lakes and Patvinsuo National Park and stayed in log cabins with wood fired saunas attached. These saunas should of course warm you up after a day's sledding in quite cold temperatures but more importantly the stove provides boiled water to defrost dog food.
In all our trip was about 190km long, mostly on frozen lakes and a few quite tricky "single" track fun wood trails. A few trees were in the way but both sleds and trees are flexible enough to survive. My dog team was quite well behaved - a noisy barking concert before the start in the morning however is always an impressive wake up call. Melon, my young lead dog, had all sorts of fun in store for me. Like taking a wrong turn, freeing himself from his harness and then running backwards - he will learn it one day. My dogs really enjoyed hard trails and picked up good speed when the conditions were right. And they got stronger as well towards the end of the week.
All in all the week was pretty much what I expected. However, I thought that dog care was going to be easier. Boiling water, chopping and defrosting frozen meat, inspecting and nursing sore dog feet and a few other chores after a long day on the sled have to be done and only then you can thing about your own sauna and dinner.
Now back home most of the dog smell should be off after a hot bath. However, I haven't seen neighbour's cat since I have come back. I wonder why...

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