A husky adventure in Lapland
Posted in Diary on Feb 24th, 2008
Our journey began on a Sunday morning in Warwick, loading our rucksacks into the back of the car and setting off for Birmingham airport. A Sunday morning drive to Birmingham airport really shouldn’t be anything too stressful, but we’d booked off-site car parking, not realising just quite how off the site it was, nor that that there was a huge camping and caravanning show going on at the NEC.
Posted in Diary on Feb 25th, 2008
After a hearty breakfast at Hariniva five of us assembled in reception to await the arrival of our guide, Raikka. Barry, Freya, James, Sophie and myself had spent the night in a small cabin a couple of km down the road. There were to be two French members of the party, but they had decided to join a different group that was largely French.
Raikka was a striking character who wore a Buff pirate style.
Posted in Diary on Feb 25th, 2008
Matinkämppa—Mati’s Hut—is a beautiful collection of wooden cabins nestled in pine forest at the edge of lake Torasjärvi. It is summer home to a local artist named Mati, and his work is all over. Including the most extraordinary fireplace I have ever seen.
Posted in Diary on Feb 26th, 2008
Our second day on the trail dawned bright and cold. The dogs were fed their hydrating soup, we ate a full breakfast and after shovelling up the poo and harnessing the huskies we set off north. Once again, the contrast between the cacophony of howling, excited dogs as we prepared and the total silence as we moved off was striking.
Posted in Diary on Feb 26th, 2008
With the dogs fed and the travellers revived in the sauna we sat down to a meal of meat balls (with veggy ones for Sophie and I). It was a clear night and the temperature outside was already below -20°C. As we ate the conversation turned to the possibility of seeing the Aurora Borealis tonight—clear skies are an important factor in being able to see the northern lights.
Posted in Diary on Feb 27th, 2008
I woke early and headed outside to be greeted by a quite breathtaking scene. The delicate branches of the birch trees surrounding the cabin were decked in a thick layer of frost. As the bright morning sun came through it glinted off the lake and twinkled on the frosty trees, creating the most magical arctic scene.
Posted in Diary on Feb 27th, 2008
In any long process there always seems to be a point in the middle where things go wrong. And for some reason it always seems to happen on a Wednesday.
Posted in Diary on Feb 28th, 2008
It turns out that Kuukkelinpesä is not far from a road, and on the road is a souvenir shop. It was the people from the shop who had left the beer on the table so naturally we felt obliged to visit.
Posted in Diary on Feb 28th, 2008
It was a short day, and relatively gentle with little climbing. My dog’s were starting to flag and getting them up hills was proving hard work. Sophie and I had rearranged our luggage so that my team wasn’t pulling so much, but it seemed to make little difference to the dogs. The lack of ballast made a big difference to how the sled handled though, and I had some hairy moments on bends on down hill runs.
I started the last day both sorry that it was coming to an end and happy at the thought of imminent rest! I had started the journey just getting over a nasty cold and it had been hard work throughout. There’s a lot to do to stay alive out here—fetching water, fetching and splitting wood, chopping meat for the dogs. And at these temperatures everything you do seems to require more effort.
We spent the last two nights back at Harriniva. We weren’t all grouped together this time—Sophie and I had a small cabin, with ensuite sauna, down near the river Muonio. On Friday night there was a big celebration feast for the whole group. Unfortunately, although on the trip itself there had been a big effort to cater for our almost vegetarian diet, the message hadn’t reached the hotel staff; it was a bit of meat fest. I did enjoy the pickled herring, but have a suspicion it may have played a part in some rather unpleasant moments when I got home 
Posted in Diary on Mar 2nd, 2008
You’ll recall how our taxi driver’s driving made us rather nervous on the way out to Harriniva, so when the same driver arrived to take us back to the airport we were a little alarmed. But as James pointed out (he and Freya had had the same driver on the way out), we weren’t likely to be late for the plane.
Since getting home I’ve not been on top of the world. I had a nasty tummy bug which opened up the sluice gates at both ends for the first part of the week. Whether that was from too much pickled herring at the Friday night feast, or all the handling of dog poo covered karabiners who knows.