Arctic Adventures

Having travelled into the Arctic it made sense to take advantage of some of the activities that we wouldn’t get to do at home. So the boys went dog sleighing. This involved sitting on a four person sleigh and being pulled by a team of Alaskan huskies across the national park.

The first thing to do was to ensure the correct clothing was being worn. Not such an issue for Polie who was completely at home in a woolly hat and scarf but Chris….

P/ Yes, you did make a bit of a fuss Chwis. Little bit of snow and we all thought the world had come to an end.

C/ Little bit of snow! It was knee deep in places which is very challenging for some of us. And the temperature was -10C which may be another day at the office for you Polie but some of us have a more delicate constitution. Then those dogs kept looking at me as if I was lunch. Very disconcerting.

W/ A little melodramatic Chris. But you took your life in your hands and climbed aboard the sleigh. What an experience the first 30 seconds were. The dogs are bred to run and that’s exactly what they want to do. Having stood harnessed to the sleigh for perhaps 30 or 45 minutes, raring to go, they took off at a pace. So much so every bump was felt as the sleigh crash over it. Then as they settled into the journey they slowed.

C/ Yes, I was holding onto you Polie as I feared you would fall off. I probably saved your life.

P/ Chwis, I was fine and certainly did not need saving. It was exciting to feel the wind in my face and hear the dogs barking as they pulled us acwoss the snow. It’s a wonder you saw anything with your scarf whapped around your face and those goggles.

C/ We’re not all Arctic hardened like you Polie.

W/ So we ran out into the park for almost an hour before stopping for coffee and…cinnamon rolls. It also allowed time to take pictures of the skyline which was somewhere between a sunrise and sunset with the sun lurking just below. For over an hour it was painted reds and yellows.

P/ This was your favouwite bit wasn’t it Chwis? 

C/ Yes I do like to be in nature and watch its wonders.

P/ No I meant more cinnamon rolls. I counted you eating eight.

C/ Well I needed to keep my energy up due to the cold, that was all.

W/ We also got an opportunity to meet the dogs close up. They are not as large as I had expected them to be.

C/ Looked plenty big enough to me. And there were those ones with the scary blue eyes that just looked right through you. I was glad to be back at the lodge.

P/ Chwis, they were fwiendly and just wanted to be made a fuss of. I don’t know what you were concerned about?

C/ Polie, this is a country where they eat reindeer. What was I not worrying about!

W/ To Chris’s relief we returned, safely to where we had started from. No one was eaten. No one fell off and was lost in the snow, and lunch was completely vegetarian.