It had been mentioned we didn't have to get up until about 7 am today but Karen and myself seemed to naturally stir about 4.30/5 am. The sunlight came flooding through the cabin and feeling very refreshed after our cosy comforts we happily donned our suits and boots to potter outside, taking photos, and simply enjoying the stillness of it all and feeling great satisfaction in just being there.

Because we were up so early it meant we could have a leisurely breakfast, not that we needed to take a while to eat breakfast, in comparison to the others we probably ate too little. We would simply have our little pot of porridge oats with a big dollop of jam in and a drink, as we really couldn't face eating most mornings and made ourselves have something. But this morning it was nice to be able to linger at the table and just chat. After breakfast it was time to get all our things together and straighten up the cabin to leave it as spick and span as we went into it. We found a guest book in a drawer, it was filled with entries in every language - Swedish, Finnish, Norwegian you name it, but not English! Karen wrote a long entry and we both added our names and addresses, no doubt some bemused fisherman will think crazy English people. Sue and her husband Dave were chatting to, I think the manager/caretaker of the place, and said they couldn't thank anyone enough for letting us stay, telling him we were spending our nights in our tents, he looked at her incredulously, making the crazy sign and laughed shaking his head.

After vacating the cabin, it was time to say a "mental fond farewell" to our little oasis. We met up with a couple of the guys and we all walked down to where we had left the dogs staked out for the next part of our morning routine of feeding the dogs, and shovelling up lots and lots of doggie poop!!

Because by now we'd had hours of driving the dogs and we had this huge expanse of flat, open land, setting off and leaving the camp should have been a breeze. Previously I'd been really apprehensive at this point and this was quite a stressful part of the day but today I thought great everyone will be ok and for once we'll have a stress free start to the morning. When it was time to go Tore and Tove walked the lines and the dogs went into a frenzy, clamouring to be on the run. With the dogs all suitably fired up Tore set off at the lead. We had been moving for literally about 2 minutes when there was the signal to stop. On glancing behind it was hard to see what was going on but it looked like chaos with what appeared some runaway sleds. This was not a good at all. Problem sorted we got going again, only to recur what seemed like ten minutes later. In fits and starts we eventually got underway.

In spite of the early mishaps, we ended up having a great day, the weather was beautiful and we were able to take in the surrounding scenery. We stopped for lunch today which was very pleasant. The guys decided to be all macho and pose bare chested for a group photo, needless to say the girls declined the offer to do likewise.

My tent buddy, Karen enjoying the lunch stop

Dog Tired - Taking a quick lunchtime nap !!!

The guys striking a pose !!

Tore produced his map to show us where we had travelled. While we gathered round we heard a low rumbling sound and a crack and the snow collapsed in with our weight, it was just a foot down but it made us all jump. We repositioned ourselves, choosing what looked like sturdier ground but as we started poring over the map the snow started creaking again and at this point Tove decided it would be good fun to jump on it for the vibrations to collapse the snow in again. It was so funny we couldn't help but laugh especially as one or two of the guys shrieked like girls.

Eventually everyone settled down enough for Tore to get to serious business of telling us about a tricky manoeuvre we would come to later where the track turned 90° through a narrow gap in a fence. To get through we would have to leave off braking as we approached the turn so that the speed of the dogs could carry the following sled around and not through the fence post.

Our travels would take us across some fairly steep downhill sections, icefields followed by a rollercoaster ride over snow moguls. After an extremely exhilarating day we arrived a our camp for the night, a really lovely spot with lots of little trees dotted about. Despite the abundance of trees we couldn't get a suitable one to tie our stake out to without getting to near anyone else's dogs so there was nothing for it but to dig a big hole again to secure one end of the line. The ground was particularly hard and it took ages to get deep enough, the others had their tents up before we even managed to get all our dogs out of their harnesses. After the dogs were fed, we had our team briefing and we were told we had managed 55 km today. Tore tells us that tomorrow we have long stretches on the ice fields and that it is so easy we will be falling asleep with boredom on the sled.

Everyone goes back to their tents to prepare their tea feeling quite happy. Around 9.30/10 pm we sit down to have our evening meal. As it felt really warm, Karen and myself decided to eat sitting on the floor outside the tent instead of in our sleeping bags. We must have become acclimatised as Sue noted that it was minus 10 at this point. We chuckled at Tove's earlier remark this afternoon - it's just like being in Spain !!