Dog sledding is our new favourite thing

Dog sled rest break.
Dog sled rest break.

We were absolutely wowed by our dog-sledding experience. It was one of those things you do that just leaves you with a huge grin on your face.

We had two sleds made of curved wooden struts and a reindeer-skin seat. Although it looks very original, the local Saami people never used dogs sleds – they used reindeer for transportation. Dog-sledding is an import from Alaska.

Our adventure started off with driving lesson: It’s not complicated but there’s more to it than we expected. There’s little you can do to steer left or right; you can shift yourweight a bit, but that’s mostly to keep you upright on the corners. The dogs do all the steering. The drivers role is to control the speed on thedownhils so that there is always tension on the harness and the help push uphill so the dogs don’t get over-tired. In that sense there was as much push as mush involved. Sadly Declan was too light to drive, you need weight to work the brake, but Callum had a go.

The sleds move surprisingly fast and it’s a very quiet, smooth movement. Declan and I, luckily, had the lead sled so we were alone with the dogs for much of the time. Our sled was pulled by a team of six Alaskan Huskies, all female. I had heard that sled team dogs were unfriendly, but ours were delightful.

After the sled-trip we had hot drinks around a huge open fireplace and played with some adorable Husky puppies.

Another great day. But still no Aurora.

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