Christmas in Tromso, NOR
Dark, cold, shut (at least on Christmas Eve), quiet, often deserted...
Zan and I prepared our Christmas meal (on Christmas Eve) in our room in the Radisson Blu Hotel, Tromso, with food and champagne brought from the UK, everything shut. We lit a few candles, to give some festive cheer. We were brave, and we enjoyed it.
We failed to see the Northern lights (weather too bad), and hardly saw daylight - when did it get dark? 'In about October', said the taxi driver on our arrival.
But the trip lit up on Christmas Day when we departed for our two day husky-sledding adventure.
Led by the awesome Tore Albrigtsen, we each drove our sleds through the Arctic wilderness - on day one with four dogs each (and two Chinese girls who were totally unable to keep upright or hold on to their sleds - both teams of huskies disappeared into the blue (black) beyond on many occasions, disappearing totally on one occasion). An exhilarating but tiring day, inevitable arm fatigue, and a few head plants in the snow!!
Finally exhausted, and back to the main lavvo for a warming meal of reindeer stroganof and chocolate cake. We talked to Dan and Manisha, on their honeymoon and basking in the warmth of the Brazilian sunshine, on the beach. A stark contrast!
We slept in a smaller lavvo, with a roaring fire in the middle, good down sleeping bags and layers of reindeer skins to keep us comfortable beneath. All well and good - but the storm grew to massive proportions, the wind howled, the canvas walls flapped, the dogs (all 270 of them) 'sang', and sleep was hard to come by. When we eventually dropped off, the fire went out, and the snow and ice came in through the massive hole in the centre of the roof.
It wasn't fun waking up.
But day 2 on the sleds more than made up for it. I opted for the cosy ride in Tore's sled, with ten dogs, while Zan had her own, with six (all white).
And wow, what a day it was!
50km of arctic wilderness, with genuinely arctic weather in parts, ie horizontal snow and complete white-out to the extent that you couldn't even see the nearest huskies! When the snow drifts were deep, the lead dogs slowed, and the rest piled up (needed braking), and when the snow was less deep, they fairly whizzed along (needed braking)!
A good training run for Tore and his racing dogs for the 1000km Finnmarksloppet dog-sled race in March.
Zan rode her sled like a champion, never faltering, her dogs (and ours) were little heros. Tore offered her a job, and I know she would love it. He also spent time talking about his experiences with the dogs and in the mountains; how he has twice traversed Greenland on skis; we heard how he lost his finger tips to frostbite in the Andes, and he encouraged us each to seek and conquer our own 'Everests'. We were quite simply in the safest hands.
We fed the dogs afterwards; never once during the day did they stop straining to run - miniature hairy eager athletes with boundless energy and enthusiasm for the work, boundless affection and genuinely good natures. Every stop was greeted with howls of 'why can't we go on'????
Having eaten reindeer, seen reindeer (and an eagle), slept on reindeer and even worn reindeer patterned PJs (Zan) over the previous 24 hours, it was time for a change. We dined on excellent fish soup, and a fish main course. More chocolate cake though - no complaints!
The last night was spent warming up; hot bath, cold walk, cold beer, warm bed....
And then a brief moment for shopping, and the flights home - nearly missed connection in Oslo because stormy weather delayed take-off from not-so-brief stopover in Bode!
A memorable trip - sporty, Arctic, dog/mountain/snow-focussed.
And I loved spending the time with Zan.
