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Published: March 8th 2008
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Day 1
After taking off like bat out of hell the huskies finally settled down to a steady trot as we initially travelled through a picturesque forest with its snow covered fir trees glistening in the sunshine and then down over a frozen lake. Snow started fall and it started to get colder, in fact cold enough that I had trouble talking that is unusual for me. I had just started to relax when the dogs turned suddenly to the right - and I didn’t. But remembering the first rule of sledding, I hung onto the sled and as I fell off pulled it over with me. I quickly stuck my snow anchor in, righted the sled with my foot on the snow brake, pulled the snow anchor out and was on my way before the team leader, Torbin, even noticed my little mishap. I felt sure that this would be the first of many.
The first day was really getting use to the dogs so our first night was back at the same camp. Feeling knackered I was all for getting inside, lighting the fire and having a mug of chocolate. But of course the dogs come first
and the first thing you have to do is take the frozen dog food and chop it up using an axe into small pieces that you then place in a container. (By the way the dog food comprises of Reindeer meat, Moose, Salmon and about 30% fat that is high in protein for the dogs - yum, yum). During the preparation a number of the team go into the cabin and heat up some water that is then added to the dog food and then left to thaw (slightly). After about an hour it is then time to feed the huskies. What a din they make which I guess is understandable as they’re probably a bit more hungry than I am. One of the problems I found on the first night is remembering which dogs have been fed and which ones haven’t as they still keep howling even when already provided with their appetising bowl of thick greul. When you go to collect the stainless steel bowls it is now so cold the metal sticks to your fingers so I soon remembered to wear gloves. One other thing I haven’t mentioned is the smell of the dog food but I’ll
come to that later.
Anyway after the dogs it was time for the team to eat. This was followed by a sauna that we had to prepare with firewood. This is supposed to be a pleasurable experience. However you have to walk from the cabin to the sauna and by now it is about -20 degrees outside. The sauna is a sweltering +45 degrees so after 10 minutes you have to go outside to cool down by rubbing yourself with the snow. Of course all this takes place totally naked but as you can imagine there is not much to see in those temperatures and of course there is only candlelight anyway. The idea is that the sauna replaces having a shower and supposedly invigorates you for the next day. No chance! Once dressed and back in the cabin, the evening was finished off when one of the other team members passed round a bottle of vodka that was 50% proof. It finished me off!
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