The Team !!

Back Row:- Andy, Ann, Peter, Alan, Dave, Therese, Jeremy

Seated:- Lauri, Me, Karen, Sue, Simon, Tom

Brian doing the obligatory "team leader" pose on the floor

I'd been awake on and off during the night and it was incredibly light from about 3 am, the night time darkness didn't seemed to have lasted long before it was time to get up. Mind you I think it's from next month when they have the midnight sun up here. After last night's "loo" performance we decided to get up about 5 am and get it out of the way before anyone started stirring. As I reached to get our boots noticed the laces frozen and they were full of snow - we'd forgotten about "snowing" inside the tent due to condensation. Our inner boots were soaking and I was really worried about this as we'd have to spend the whole day in these until we finished about 9.30 pm. We didn't want to put our socks straight into soaking wet boots so Karen found some spare plastic bags which we tied onto our feet so we could nip outside for 5 minutes. Once outside the tent, our dogs must have thought great - time to get up and started to howl, lots of frantic Shusshing noises and patting followed to try and get them to settle so we could at least go in peace without waking the whole of the camp up. Mission accomplished it was time to get breakfast on the go (we had little pots of oats with apple and cinnamon, that we just added boiling water to) and then try and dry off our liners as much as possible over the stove.

Collecting water for cooking porridge & drinks

After breakfast we pottered around outside the tent, still not much movement around the camp. We chat to Jeremy briefly and then to Sue before making a start on what is to become our morning routine, packing away our stuff, putting down the tent, loading the sleds, harnessing the dogs, taking them off the stake out line and hitching them to the sleds. This doesn't sound much but it always seems to take at least 2 hours. It's a lovely morning; very sunny and we feel extremely warm doing our jobs, we are expecting it to be a beautiful day again.

Time to hitch up - walking my dog to the sled

Time is inconsequential, we go when everything has been done and we are ready, we will stop only if the weather permits and we arrive at our next camp area when the weather and the day's events permit. Tore and Tove have about three possible camp locations in mind at any time; a long distance one if everything goes ok, a mid distance one if the weather looks a bit doubtful and a shorter distance one if the weather doesn't look good at all. Today the weather looks as though its going to be really good and the plan is to maybe travel to the long distance camp.

Laurie, Anne & Therese

Alan and Peter (My dogs sitting nice and quiet for a while)

Whilst putting our tents down a chap came by on his skidoo; he was huge, and looked like something out of a Mad Max film with his long coat flying and very irate expression on his face. We later learned that he was part of a group of Sami reindeer herders who were moving a huge herd of reindeer to different feeding grounds. The reindeer were just the other side of the hill and racing down and due to be crashing through this little wooded area in as little as 15 minutes. Apparently a member of his team had been down and spoke to Tove and Tore earlier but he had said as long as we moved all the sleds to one side and kept hold of the dogs it would be ok, but this chap, most likely the "main man" was going bolistic saying (more or less) that was not possible and we all had to get out of there immediately unless we wanted to be crushed in a stampede.

Get the hell out of dodge - Mad Max with Tove and Tore

Lined up and ready to leave

Fortunately most people had done the bulk of their packing up at this point but it meant things were hurriedly getting thrown into sledges and the line up for setting off was a bit haphazard. It was rather a rush job getting the group out of the camp and what originally promised good terrain for a smooth morning start somehow ended up being the opposite with pandemonium ensuing. I was right at the front so it was difficult to know what exactly went on but looking back it seemed to involve two runaway sleds and a loose dog. This was the only thing I hated about the trip, seeing runaway sleds plowing into others with dogs getting all tangled or a loose dog on the run, your heart just sinks.

Today there were lots of mishaps amongst the group, sleds seemed to be overturning every 10 minutes - I'm not sure why, it was difficult to tell, this was supposed to be an relatively straight forward stretch. After the easy stretch there was quite a bit where we had to help by running uphill to help the dogs out, this was particularly difficult where the snow was extremely soft and deep. We got nowhere fast and embarrasingly did about 1 km in 1 hour!! Fortunately I only came a cropper once and this was due to a runaway sled ploughing into the back of me when I was going downhill. It turned out to be a beautiful, warm day and yet again the scenery was superb set against a lovely blue sky. We stopped for lunch break for 1/2 hour at the border point where Norway, Finland and Sweden meet. We saw some cross country skiers and took their photo and they took photos of us.

Border Point - Finland, Norway, Sweden

Quick 1/2 hour lunch stop at the border point

What a difference a few hours makes - the weather takes a sudden turn for the worst. There are some hair raising parts to this afternoon as we had icy blasts across the mountain tops and lots of steep downhill sections (sleds constantly overturning and resulting pandemonium). Due to our poor speed and the rapid change in weather Tore and Tove decide we can't make any of the usual camps and Tore felt the best option was to try a new route that they hadn't done before. In total disarray we finally stop. We are spread out all over the place. The wind has picked up and is howling more than the dogs. Dave & Sue's thermometer records minus 15 degrees.

There seems no good place to set up the tent. Although Karen and myself didn't have much choice where to put our tent, simply where out sleds ground to a halt, it turned out to be an ok spot after all. It was a bit of a pain setting up - the snow was extremely soft at this point and everytime you moved you sunk a good two to three feet. This meant a lot and I mean a lot of hard work stomping the ground trying to compact the snow before we could even think of setting our tent down. It took a good hour to do this and by the time we'd finished compacting the ground it started snowing quite heavily and the wind had really whipped up which didn't help when trying to peg the tent down with our "twigs". On more than one occasion we thought it was transforming into a kite!! Routine went a bit out of the window this evening, the dogs were given dry food by a few volunteers and they struggling to get to some of the dogs which were staked out high up on steep slopes due to the impossible deep snow. Dave got stuck in the snow and Tove spent 15 minutes trying to dig him out.

Team briefing lasted all of 5 minutes as by now it was getting near blizzard conditions. Mood extremely low, most people feeling pretty unhappy with the afternoon's turn of events, very quiet with tired and frustrated faces all round.

After an eternity went by setting up camp and all chores out of the way, we were ready to clamber into our sleeping bags and eat our evening meal - tonight another fish type stew, creamier than last nights but equally tasty. Wind is howling, tent is shaking vigorously, bit worried tent might blow away but as we'd managed to rig it up to the sleds thought it should be pretty secure. Feel human now snuggled up in our bags and having eaten a good meal. We have socks and boot inners strung all over the tent, looks like a Chinese laundry. We have plenty of fuel so keep our stove going so that we can dry all our things. We look across at all the other tents and they are in darkness, we think we are the only ones still up. After the little lesson last night of snowing inside the tent, I put my inner boots, laces in the bottom of my sleeping bag along with my camera, batteries, chocolate for tomorrow's snacks, wet wipes and umpteen other little things I don't want rock solid by morning. Around 11 pm we finally settle down to sleep.

Time to get mushing!

Another 4 am wake up call, this time it was the sound of 200 huskies howling !!! Now that is some experience, just to have heard that was worth the flight over - what an amazing sound, it makes the hair stand up on the back of your neck. Of course this was a sound we were going to become very familiar with as 95 huskies were going on the expedition with us and of course when one starts they all have to join in!!

After the dogs had finished their morning howl and quietened down we managed to nod off again for another hour before it was time to get up. No shower facilities so it was time to practice the wet wipe wash but at least there were decent loos for this morning. Breakfast was held in the shop/kit room; selection of cereals, ham, cheese, bacon, eggs etc all lovely and fresh. The leftover bacon & sausages we made into sandwiches to take for our lunch. After breakfast we made our way over to the kennels where our furry friends were collected and we were shown how to "walk" them to the vehicles ready for travel. Holding onto the collar and making the dogs hop along on their hind legs (the only way you would have total control) looked very simple when the pros did it but it required all our concentration to keep these excitable and extremely boisterous dogs on their hind legs as we walked gingerly across the ice trying not to fall flat on our derrieres!

The trick is to make the dogs hop along on their hind legs and not let them get their front paws on the ground - these may look like tiny dogs but they are extremely strong

One of the trailers for the sleds & dogs

An hour or so later the dog teams were loaded onto the transport vehicles and all the kit onto the vans then we finally hit the road. We were a rather subdued group, some quietly chatted, some slept and others just gazed at the lovely scenery flashing by; frozen lakes, towering hills and "Toblerone" looking peaks with turquoise ice flows glittering in the sunshine. After travelling for 2 hours or so we arrived at the start of our route at the foot of the mountains. There had been quite a bit of rain recently and the ground was quite slushy. The first job was to unload all our gear, and distribute shared items such as dog food, fuel, tents etc.

Getting all our stuff together ready for loading onto the sleds

With my "tent buddy" Karen - that tiny orange bundle on the floor is our new home for the trip !!

In my sled went the two large boxes of food supplies for both Karen and myself, my bolster kit bag, fuel, cooking pans and stove, the tent and the stakeout chains. The sacks containing the dogs' food were distributed across the group, Karen had a sack which weighed an absolute ton.

Once all the kit was checked yet again, the sleds were positioned into two long lines ready for "take off". The dogs, refreshed from their nap and all clamouring to get going, were brought out, harnessed and hitched up to the sleds.

At the front - Frutti, Sekki, middle - Likdag, at the back - Saft and Te

My dog team consisted of 2 females and 3 males; Frutti & Sekki my boisterous and inquisitive female lead dogs, Likdag my middle dog and Saft and Te my gentle giants at the rear. All the dogs belonged to Tove, joint owner of the Villmarkscenter and guide (along with her partner Tove ) for the trip. Frutti & Sekki are two of the dogs that Tove took with her when she raced in the Iditarod last year.

Getting bored with all the waiting Frutti & Sekki roll around in the snow playing

Saft and Te

After a last final check of all the harnesses and dog lines, Tore took position on his sled and the first line set off - the dogs went bananas, the noise was absolutely deafening, you could almost feel the energy in the air. The switch from frantic barking to silence seemed instantaneous. Now the dogs were settled all that could be heard was the gentle sound of the dog's panting and paws on snow as we glided along.

For a short while things seemed to be going ok, we were following a narrow path winding its way up hill through pine trees with a steep bank to our left with the river running below, very pretty. But we'd no sooner got going when we started running into problems. It had been raining a few days previously and the snow was extremely soft, which meant the moment you stepped off the sled to try and help push it up hill in some parts you were sinking thigh deep, once off the sled all you could do in this instance was hold on and hope it didn't over turn. The breaks (which we didn't know how to use properly yet) were not taking a good grip which meant sleds were not being stopped in time resulting some getting too close and either knocking the sled in front down the side of the hill and go crashing into a tree or the dogs getting too close and ended up getting in a tangled pickle. I'm pleased to say I only came off once today and that was because I'd stepped off the sled to "help my flagging dogs" by pushing the sled uphill; I ended up stepping into a covered pot hole and once I was stuck in this thigh deep hole my dogs suddenly had an energy boost hundred fold and pulled me for what seemed like forever up the hill before coming to a standstill. Of course the moment you try to climb out of the snowhole and get your foot on a runner they're off like a shot again for another 100 yards or so. Throughout the day all of these things seemed to happen over and over again and each time it took a while before we got going. When we were stopped for long periods of time we put down our snow anchor a big claw grappling type hook, the rest of the time we kept our feet on a metal bar which was the break. However when my dogs decided they were bored of standing around more than 2 minutes they were able to drag me along as if I didn't have a break on my sled at all. Tore checked my sled and decided I was too light and my sled was too light for my strong team. She felt I needed more weight in the sled but for the time being a slight change in my team would help so she took one of my male dogs Likdag (who looked more like a St Bernard than a husky) and replaced him with Gypsy, a beautiful white female.

Frutti & Sekki

Weather wise it ended up being a really beautiful day, the going uphill meant our bodies were working quite hard and we felt very warm and thirsty most of the time. It was good to finally stop at our camp which we arrived at around 8 pm. There were quite a few scattered trees for shelter and which we could "stake" our dogs to and there was a little stream nearby where we could get fresh water. Our first job was to tie the stake out chains to the trees, take the harnesses off the dogs and attach them to the stake out. Tents were put up while the water for the dog's food was put on to boil. Then the dogs (95 altogether) were fed.

We had a quick 10 minute team brief by Brian and then Tore gave a brief on what to expect of the following day's terrain and how we should prepare in the morning. We're told we only did 22 km today - not very good at all, far too many stops and starts. Following this we all went back to our tents to unload our stuff and put on our own stoves to make our evening meal. All of this took a surprisingly long time, I think it was about 10 pm when we clambered into our sleeping bags and started to eat our evening meal which consisted of boil in the bag Baccalo (a reddish looking fish stew). The meal was delicious - restaurant quality. All the meals we had been supplied with were home made and then vacuum packed, not what we had been expecting at all!! After our meal, we set up our stove and breakfast things in readiness for the morning. After a quick discussion we confirmed that neither of us had done so much as a quick wee since early morning. We were really cosy tucked up in our sleeping bags and really didn't want the hassle of getting suited and booted to go outside but as we knew there would be no way we could make it through the night without going we really had to get this over with. We strained our eyes and ears to make sure the "coast was clear" and none of the guys were lurking about with cameras. Taking our "Shee Wees" with us, specially bought for the trip so we could go like the guys we each chose our spot somewhere relatively discreet but within easy sight of each other just in case either fell into a hole. But nothing happened!! We tried and tried and waited and waited but nothing, as soon as the chilly air had hit our nether regions we just couldn't go. Despite having practised at home before we came, being out in the snow with all our bulky gear was not quite the same. We just walked around a bit, fell all over the place laughing and decided to forget about our gadgets and give it another go. Eureka, finally we managed it and happily trudged back to our tent to clamber into our sleeping bags to try and get some sleep for our long day tomorrow.

Our "home" during the trip - our tea cooking in the kitchen area and our sleds positioned as wind breakers and screen in case we need to go to the "loo" during the night

Gypsy curled up for the night

After tea last night I met up with some of the others going on the expedition, needless to say the plan of an early night went right out of the window when we retired to the bar to have a chat and get to know each other. As the evening wore on the time of our departure from the hotel kept getting changed - the original plan was to be at the check in desk at the Terminal no later than 4.15 am which would have meant getting up about 3 am but every so often an extra 15 mins kept getting added so we ended up getting a 1/2 hour lie in and not leaving the hotel until 4.15. The guys had stayed in the bar till quite early on this morning (no surprises there) and came down looking extremely blurry eyed and red faced. At the airport we met up with the other 6 and found out at the check in desk that they were short staffed so the desk wouldn't be opening up until gone 5 am, typical !! When we were finally rid of of our bags and boarding tickets in hand things went quite smoothly and our flights to Oslo and then on to Tromso "flew by" (pardon the pun).

Descent to Tromso, Norway.

As the plane descends we get our first glimpse of Tromso; pretty little houses nestled in the hillside, very picturesque. At the airport we are met by Tore, owner of the Villmarkscentre and also our guide for the oncoming week. On arrival at the centre we are taken to where we were to spend the night as a group.- a Lavvo which is a large Sami tent with an open fire. The warmth inside the Lavvo was amazing very cosy.

The Lavvo

First we sorted through our kit into what would be going on the trip and what would stay behind at the centre. Following this we were taken to get kitted out in thermal suits & boots; although everyone had brought their own thermal snow pants and jackets it was thought prudent to take the centre's thermal suit as well to have as a back up just in case our own got wet.

All Kitted Out

Following our kitting out session Tore gave us lessons on putting up our tents, using the stoves and of course how to go about harnessing the dogs, of course making everything look so easy, hah hah !!! Lots of rules to remember - most important, numero uno - Don't Let Go !!!! We were shown our food rations for the trip and everyone was pleasantly surprised - our evening meals would consist of home made dishes put into boilable bags(mostly fish including Salmon and reindeer stew which we would be sampling this evening). Once lessons were over we pottered around petting the dogs and taking lots of pictures of them in their kennels until it was time to go back to the Lavvo for our evening meal. We were certainly ready for something to eat by this time as large trays of 2" thick, vegetable omelette and tureens of piping hot reindeer soup with chunks of bread were brought in, all extremely tasty.

Very Cosy Inside the Lavvo

One of over 200 dogs !!!

Although the dogs are working dogs they are incredibly friendly and attention seeking

Our sleds all labelled up with our names and dog teams ready for tomorrow

After our meal everyone just made small talk for a while, I think everyone was just so preoccupied with what lay ahead and throughout the evening most of the group checked their kit once, twice and yet again to be certain they weren't taking too much or too little, constantly referring to each other what they had decided to leave or take!! We get a final briefing from Brian our expedition leader mostly top tips for keeping warm and healthy. Of particular note we are told to drink plenty of water to avoid dehydration – wee should be like champagne, not lager, not bitter and definitely not Guinness!!! You can imagine what the conversation was like after that!

A fair few yawns from around the tent signalled it was time to finally put down the reindeer skins on the floor and our sleeping bags on the ground and finally try to get some sleep.

It's Time To Go - No Backing Out Now !

Well, this is it. Finally the time has come to set off on my travels!!! What a day to start the first leg of my journey - Friday 13th !!

I left home early this morning to spend the night here in London. Despite not having done anything apart from travelling here I feel pretty tired as I didn't sleep a wink last night. Hopefully I'll get a decent sleep tonight, its off to bed early about 8.30 pm as I have to leave the hotel at about 3.30 am. Had a quiet afternoon, pottered about the hotel, just had my evening meal (although I'm pretty sure all the goodness was grilled out of the chicken and boiled out of the vegetables - I'd have been better off eating cake for all the nutrition left in it!!) Never mind, it will stop me feeling hungry later and I won't feel as though I'm missing anything while I'm away whilst I'm dining on boil in the bag stew !!

It's strange I still don't feel as though I'm going, may be that's a good sign or maybe the nerves will sneak up later!!!