Not the place for a good read

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After feeding the dogs and eating breakfast it was time to summon up the courage to go for a Number 2. The toilet is of course outside and is basically a hole in the ground. That’s not really the problem; it’s more the temperature in there. At -15 degrees and with the floor like an ice rink it’s not the place to take any reading material with you. When the cold air hits your bare legs and exposed derriere there’s a strong incentive to get this activity over and done as quickly as possible! And then it’s a case of washing your hands in the snow as water is precious. This results in you having a pair of nicely frozen hands that you then have to thaw out.

The harnessing was becoming easier although I did almost manage to harness up the wrong dog. But we were soon on our way heading north across the lake then up into the hills. We continued our ascent until we were quite high up and the temperature started to drop. Nearing the top we came to another large frozen lake with small huts on it. Evidently these are occupied by hunters who camp there and spend the day fishing and hunting. It looked pretty basic but they make fires on the lake to keep themselves warm and appeared quite happy. Eventually we met up with the chap who owns the cabin we had stayed in the previous night as he had gone ahead in a snowmobile to make it easier for the dogs to get through the deep snow. He showed us how to make a fire in the snow and offered round slices of reindeer meat for lunch. (I’ll never be able to look Rudolf in the eye again!) This bloke was ex Swedish army and explained how to survive in the arctic; the main thing is to keep your clothes dry.

Following this we headed back down again and some of the gradients were quite steep and yes, I lost it on a corner and managed to “stack it” again. But I hung on and even managed to retrieve my hat that would have been a bit worrying if I had lost. By the time we got to the cabin and we came to unharness the huskies the temperature was really plummeting and already down to -18. As we cooked tea the thermometer outside was nudging -25 degrees and it was still only early evening. The upside was that we witnessed the Northern Lights. They were not very bright like you are lead to believe, but gentle greens and hints of reds across the sky. Still at least I experience them and as I stood there in the crisp dark air looking up in the sky feeling totally overawed and humbled by the beauty of the flickering Aurora Borealis with the amazingly bright stars as a backdrop it was an experience I will never forget.

Anyway that night was bloody cold and was glad to climb into my sleeping bag. So much so that I woke up in the middle of the night and had to put my thermals on. But I was still cold so in the end I also put my fleece on as well. As it went below -30 degrees over night and of course there’s no heating once the fire goes out it was hardly surprising I guess.

The following morning as we set off it was snowing hard with a slight wind making it bitterly cold. In fact I had to put my gloves on and the thick mittens you are issued with over the top. The problem was that my gloves had frozen solid and it took about 15 minutes to thaw them out. Also with the snow falling hard I had to put my goggles on to stand any chance of seeing where I was going. Traversing a lake, it was the first day I felt a tad cold, I thought my nose was going to drop off. We finally stopped for lunch at a Sami Tepee and made a fire inside. Felt like a smoked kipper in there but the mug of hot coffee was much appreciated. By the way the Sami people were originally known as Lapp people from of course Lapland but prefer to known as Sami these days (no, in case you were wondering it’s not where Lap Dancers come from!). Traditionally, the Sami had a variety of livelihoods; fishing on the coast and inland, trapping animals for fur, etc. However their best known livelihood is reindeer herding.

Following lunch we set off again and made it to the next cabin by about 4 O’clock and I helped to get the logs for the sauna after feeding the dogs. During the sauna I decied to “take the plunge” and go for a roll in the snow. Jesus was that cold, but at least I can say I did it. Still not sure what it actually does for you! Slept well that night.

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