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| 2 sides back to back with 10 kennels on each side, dogs are kept overnight here! That’s Henrik |
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| they were watching Henrik’s movements closely, and hoped to be selected for sledging for the day! |
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| like F1, u need to check properly before the race |
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| set.. ready.. wait for the boss |
8th March 2006 Wednesday Woke up several times as I was excited about the imminent activity. Henrik from Taube company picked us up at 0900 but there were no huskies in the truck. We waited patiently until we arrived at Kurravaara. We put on extra clothings provided by Henrik. There were snowmobiles and sleds but still no huskies. Suddenly, we caught sight of a moving object poking out of an enclosed kennel. Those were the huskies! We do feel sorry for them as they were locked up in individual kennel. They were 20 in total and we had to escort them out of the kennel and leashed them outdoor. Then, we were taught how to harness and handle the huskies and sled. The huskies’ enthusiasm to run was simply astonishing. They started barking, jerking and howling when Henrik the alpha dog (pack leader) illustrated signs of departure. Once we set off the brakes, they started running in full swing for 10 km. It was a splendid and priceless experience. Absolutely worth the quest especially for someone who has been living in a constant tropical climate and willing to chill out in a difference of 60 degrees celcius. We went through the forest and on the ice of Torne and Rautas River. There were no roads in that region and we essentially arrived at the camp and lived in the last wilderness in Europe for 2 days. We had the Lappish specialities – reindeer meat, bread and aromatic hot coffee. They fed us well but it was a trap! We accumulated energy and we had to chop our own firewood for our own hut and it’s not that difficult to guess who did most of the work 
Once that was through, we enjoyed the rest of the peaceful evening by partaking in cross country skiing, feeding the reindeers, saunter by the river, BBQ and wooden heated sauna. In essence, we had the best of everything – huskies, river, forest, skiing, sauna…I could not ask for more. Finally, the emphasis of the evening was glimpse of Aurora Borealis or Northern Light. It was like fireworks across the sky; mainly green. An amazing celestial phenomenon generated by the Sun that our Nikon couldn’t capture.
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| fast and furious, so u know why hp(horsepower) isn’t applicable in this part of the world |
they’ll ’scoop’ ice from side path with their mouth from time to time, their natural ice-blended sky juice |
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| eng - obviously, she thought the cabin had ensuite bathroom with unlimited flow of hot water |
i am standing on a frozen river! the surface of ice was at least 1m thick |
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| eng - i can’t believe this dwarf looking creature is me! |
this was our 15-yr old hut for the night |
Wow! Sounds like an experience to die for! Wondering if I will live to experience this… :p
The huskies are so adorable! Despite their looks, they seemed friendly.. yea?
and the dwarf, totally beyond recognition. Muahahaha!
Comment by laymank — March 20, 2006 @ 3:59 am
anyone can try it, why not u? very friendly bunch but some are a little timid…
Comment by Greedy Basset — March 20, 2006 @ 9:47 pm