Norway Part 2 - Huskies!!!!

This morning after putting many layers on, we went to find our huskies. So these are Alaskan Huskies not Siberian Huskies which means they are basically any breed that doesn't freeze to death in the arctic and can pull a sled. There seemed to be a lot of Border Collie and German Shepard types. 

This is the sled. There is only a small flap of reindeer skin to sit on.  Not the most comfortable or warm way to travel

 

These dogs are seriously strong and keen to run. It takes all your body weight directed onto the brake to keep the sled still as they jump forward trying to run. There are two types of brake the hard and soft brake, fairly self explanatory. You need to keep one foot on either brake at all times or they would go too fast and run over the team in front. The hard brake is better to stop or slow down going down hill. And when travelling up hill, the dogs will actually look back at you to tell you to help out but most of the time they just dig in and pull. 

It's a fantastic way to travel. The dogs seriously love it. They got so frustrated whenever we had to stop and would start barking and yapping.  One of our team kept grabbing mouthfuls of snow as he ran. It is daunting to think how fast they would travel if we didn't have the brake on all the time. The sled didn't seem to hinder them at all. There didn't seem to be any way to really steer them. In theory the driver lent to help steer the sled but I'm not sure if it really helped. Any of the sharper corners were fairly deep in the snow and the dogs and sled just followed the path.  I suspect the group leader at the front was able to steer his team and control their speed better.

 This is the dogs having a bit of a break while we swapped drivers. 

 The scenery was also so stunning.  It was along the bottom of a valley with mountains either side so I don't think we got any sun in the bottom. It was very cold being the passenger on the sled. You aren't moving or keeping active just sitting down quite close the the snow in the wind. I was ok for a while but then I started getting very cold and had to get up and do star jumps every time we stopped. My fingers were so incredibly cold. I know I have complained that I thought my fingers would fall off from the cold before but I was seriously concerned this day. At one of the stops the guide gave me another down coat to put on. However, this involved taking off my top layer and putting a cold layer on underneath which made me much colder until it warmed up.

 ME!!

After the run some of the dogs were a bit tired.

 These creamy ones were the puppies of the team and were always the keenest to run and play 

 This black dog was in the middle and was unimpressed with the attention and the antics of the puppies behind him. 

 Everyone perked up for a snack or what appeared to be reindeer fat that you can buy in bulk and leave in the coldroom... 

 

Most of the dogs had their own little hut that they could go into when it was cold but they were also fairly happy to chill outside. 

 Some were in these coops that they shared with a few other dogs. 

 

 After lunch of delicious fish stew we went for a walk in the hills behind the camp.

 We happened to see the other group on their Husky safari which was cool to see. 

 

 "Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the road less traveled and that has made all the difference"

Robert Frost

Then after defrosting by the fire we caught the bus back to Tromso and saw some signs for moose but no mooses.

 All along the road there were these icicles that were formed by melted snow that had frozen again.

 Norway has some truly incredible scenery. At this time of year sunrise takes half a day and sunset takes the next half of the day so it's always beautiful. The road travels along this fjord and parts of it are frozen and covered in ice while others are still free but dusted with snow.

 Thermometers in Norway have a different scale to a thermometer you would buy in Australia. They range from -30 to 50 degrees.

 This is what I meant about Tromso looking like Sydney. Big arched bridge heading towards white pointy building.

I had just over an hour until my next tour so the lovely German people I met took me for an amazing hot chocolate then to a waffle buffet which was a bit of fun. Then I wandered to the next meeting point to go Reindeer Sledding!!