I didn’t sleep too well. My arm is killing me! Whenever I moved in bed it refused to do anything so it needs a lot of help from my right hand. I cannot lie on my left side – it is impossible!
I have to admit I don’t have a lot of faith in Sanna. She’s very nice and very good with the dogs but she’s not that good with us. Actually she tends to treat us like the dogs: all nice when we do something right then all nasty if we stuff up. She didn’t seem very concerned about my arm yesterday and didn’t ask about it this morning.
Actually all of us are pretty sore from exercise we’re not used to but she seems totally unaware of it. Also yesterday she said it was a problem stopping in the road but only after we’d done it. Then last night she told us that the insides of the boots should be taken out each night and dried. She couldn’t tell us this on the first night? I suspect that deep down (or maybe NOT so deep down) she despises us soft, weak office working tourist types and loves to put us through as much hell as possible, and, hey, who can blame her.
The temperature today is -19 and it’s snowing lightly. We set off for our longest trek so far (about 20k). A lot of lakes to cross. Countryside as beautiful as everywhere else.
Stopped for lunch in a hut by a lake. Sanna made us reindeer burgers which were very, very nice. Macdonald’s should look at this as an alternative. The hut had a hole in the centre of the roof and a fire on a stone slab. On the slab was an excellent contraption that had four legs with four moveable arms attached at varying heights. This means you can swing the pots and pans over the flames. Very effective if you’re boiling two kettles and frying your slices of reindeer in a pan, all at the same time. The smoke rose very well. Mind you, I’m getting pretty used to breathing wood smoke.
Arctic Macdonalds
After a long break, we started again. Sanna was waiting for another team who are staying at the naked woman hut tonight. To avoid meeting them on the track. There’s NOT a lot of passing places. All of the tracks are just the width of the runners on the sled and the sides are piled up snow. But we couldn’t wait too long. And, naturally, we spotted them ahead of us, so Sanna headed off the track into the thick snow. Each of us had to bunch up so we could hold the harnesses of the dogs behind us so they didn’t go mad. Then, after about ten minutes, Sanna realised the others were doing the same thing about 300 metres ahead. So we set off again! Interestingly when we passed them, the guide didn’t wave but the other ‘trippers’ returned our cheerful greetings.
More lakes, not many hills, all nice and easy. We finally pulled up at our next cabin. We rounded a bend from a lake to a river, swung tightly round to the left and there it was. It looked fantastic as we approached it. All the other huts tend to be pretty sheltered but this one is just sitting on the edge of the river. It’s shaped a bit like the pentagon except a lot smaller and lower. Debs christened it the Pancake House. It being (sort of) round and (sort of) flat. There is a chimney in the centre and beds all round the walls. It’s called Suvasjangan.
From the front door we are looking at a range of hills that look pretty impressive. Our water supply is from a hole in the ice above the flowing river. It’s a bit different scooping moving water and being careful of the reeds rather than dipping into a very deep lake.
The cabin is very cosy. My arm is very sore. I’ll take some more painkillers. Jeez I could go a beer!
Shit! I’ve lost the left lens from my glasses!! It happened between walking into the hut and feeding the dogs. Because of the extremes in temperature they keep fogging up so I hang from my straps. We all searched but with so much glinting it’s like looking for keys on a beach! Good job I’ve got my sunglasses, mind you it’s very dim in this hut. There’s obviously some reason for the almost total lack of windows (I don’t dare ask because Dave would sally forth with a smug and long answer). I assume it’s something to do with keeping the heat in.
It’s very hot. Dinner was something with reindeer in it. Everyone’s a bit quiet tonight. A Dalwhinnie and bed.
