Lapland day 2

As it was dark when we arrived at the Wilderness Hotel, we only saw where we had ended up in the morning. 

We had heard the howling and barking of the huskies and saw they were just outside our window behind the wooden fence/screen. I had waken up in the night and the sky was clear and full of stars, but no aurora. High hpes though that today we would be in more luck, as the activity rate of the sun was much higher.

After breakfast we got our  special suits on to keep us warm on our trip with the huskies. They were being put in front of the sledges and ready to go. 

Christophe, the French guy, who owned the 70 or so huskies explained to us how to ride the sledge. He also told the Sami don't have a tradition of using huskies and sledges to herd and follow the reindeer. 

Dogs were ready to go, Robin had taken position on the sledge and I had cuddled up inside, so off we were. 

It was just amazing, the frenzy of the dogs before going and than the quiet once we were through the trees and on the lake. You just heard the dogs running on the snow and the sledge, making the nice crunchy sounds as only snow can do that and otherwise just so so quiet.

After a couple of hours we stopped for a rest and a bite to eat. Christophe built a fire and handed around the chowder like fish soup which he brought along. There were just 8 in our party, 5 sledges in total, so no big crowd. 

Just another perfect view from our little campsite.

The dogs did a little nap on the ice and snow while we ate.

Time to get going again and cuddle up in the sledge :)

Back at the hotel we spend more time with the huskies and found there were 2 puppies too, they were soon after my gloves. Perfect ending to our day out with the huskies.

I enjoyed a nice sauna before dinner. After dinner it was back in our suits and of to the lake again to see if we could spot the aurora tonight. As the clouds had shifted regularly during the day we had high hopes they would do so too while we were there. But no such luck. We could vaguely see there was a lot going on behind the clouds and when one of our companions took some pictures with an exposure time of 20 sec, the sky and snow was all green in the picture. If only they would shift, those clouds.....well maybe tomorrow.