Once we were all ready to go and the dogs were in their teams it was hard to keep them still. The moment they realized  that the ride is about to start anytime soon they got wild, excited and start barking like nuts… the first start was a bit stressful as this was the first time ever and I had no idea how far and fast they will go ….

The sleigh has 2 ways to slow tempo down or to break- a rubber flap and metal claw. The space offered to stand on is not that big to be honest. 😉. All very exciting. We were so lucky as we had the best weather when we started: sunshine and a beautiful clear blue sky.

After a few hours we arrived at our first stop. Our task: to take off the dog “shoes”, ensure the leash is fixated, take the metal chain and fix it between trees, “undress” the dogs, put them on the metal chain, feed them, unpack the sleigh and bring stuff to the hut. But that time I was already kaputt.

Steffi and later with support of us prepared a soup. Soup is alway prepared first to warm-up. Someone put on the fire in the cabine and heated the sauna. We needed to get the water (lake or melt snow), take care of the fire, cut wood (I didn’t do that), and get out of our cloth to dry them.

I was sooooooooooo tired and exhausted that I skipped dinner. Outside temperature was -16C and insight the cabine it was even colder as it hasn’t been used for some time. Nice and cold , and somehow it took ages till the place was warm. No way that I wanted to undress even more to join the otheres in the sauna.

“I hope you don’t mind, I need to lay down for a while and please don’t count on me for dinner …”.earplugs in (for me the ones out of wax work best) and straight in bed. Next thing- 7 am next day- time to get up. I only woke up once and slept almost 12 hours, lol.

After breakfast it was time to do the dishes: water to be heated, dirty water to be collected, ash to be taken out of the fireplace, prepare the beds and ensure all is nice and neat for other guests to arrive. Everything we did, was team work. Great experience even so we didn’t know each as a group.