fjords and mountains
Our third day in Tromso (well, second full day) we got up at a reasonable hour, had another great breakfast watching boats in the harbor, and then piled into a second van to head out to try our hand at dog sledding. We arrived at the place they keep all the dogs, which was in a big open valley area between mountains, and looked around a bit before getting snow suits and warm hats and mittens.
The gear shed
The dog houses
Once we were all suitably geared up, we were ready for the debrief. The guides spent no more than three minutes giving us our instructions:
1. do not step off the brake when changing drivers
2. don't run over the dogs with the sled
3. don't pass people
4. lean left to go left, right to turn right
This was about it, and then they led us to the dogs, who were all harnessed to the sleds and raring to go. As soon as we crested the rise and came into the view, 50 dogs went crazy, barking, howling, standing to go...Each pair of visitors was given their own sled and team of six dogs to drive. Yes, their own - so my mom and I, neither of whom have any experience at all in dog sledding, were given six dogs and a sled. She sat on the sled and I drove to start with, and we all set off in a long line of dogs and sleds led by the guides and ending with us (we both speculated that perhaps it would be sensible to have a guide at the front and one at the back, so that if we were to fall or tip we wouldn't be just left behind, but oh well. It worked out.) How fun! We set off, wind in our hair, dog poo flying at us, dogs barking, going, going...stopped. Snarling, growling ahead. There was a dog fight. Two minutes in, our cousins' dogs decided to have a massive six dog brawl, which the guide, sprinting over, disrupted. Once the dispute was settled, (turns out the issue was that one dog was so dainty as to want to stop to go to the bathroom rather than doing it on the run, and the others had no patience for this rookie move) we set out once again.
It took a little while to get used to driving the sled - it's harder than it looks. You have to stay balanced, and a lot of that is arm work, so the arms get tired. But, once we got the hang of it, it was great! I say we got the hang of it - have you ever done a horse riding trip where the horses are all used just for visitors, and are brought to you saddled up, know the route, and follow one another? And you just sit on their backs as a passenger, while really they are directing themselves along the known route and doing all the real work. This is probably how we were doing - the dogs knew the route and what to do, and we were just passengers. But oh, how fun to be a passenger! That said, there were some repercussions to our passenger actions; the trip was not without mishap, as you will soon learn. For the first half of the trip, things went very well. We drove along the snowy tundra, cradled by the mountains, looking out at the trees. We saw a moose (huge!) and a skier being pulled behind a horse. It was great. We grew to like our six dogs, especially the one in the front who kept looking back at us whenever we slowed them down, as if to say "come on!! Let's go already! Why are we slowing?"
This is me driving the sled! Notice the two middle dogs howling away? This was a constant for them whenever we stopped moving - they were funny!
I did commit a few faux pas, such as running my sled (accidentally) into the group in front of us, sometimes to the point where our lead dogs pushed their heads between the driver's legs so she was forced to awkwardly straddle them both. I apologized for this later, and she was very gracious and said she didn't mind at all! She also didn't mind that we ran her over...but that story's coming.
The first mishap, following the dog fight, involved the sled in front of us. We were driving down a small hill, and they dropped a glove. I managed to stop our sled (an impressive feat!) and my mom salvaged the lost mitten. She waved it triumphantly to the group ahead, who turned back with a thumbs up. Their turning must have unbalanced them, for not two seconds later they were down - sled tipped over, passenger sprawled in the snow, dogs charging gleefully ahead with driver being dragged unceremoniously behind - she cleverly refused to relinquish her grip. The passenger, who had said before we left that she had a bad back, was not moving much in the snow, so my mom (very carefully) left our sled to go check on her. Turns out she was totally fine (phew), the dogs had stopped ahead, and the driver was back in control. We all resumed our positions in line. While we were heading back down the hill, I remarked, before we took off, "hmm, I hope we are ok starting on a hill and the dogs don't just take off." Famous last words. As soon as I said that, they took off. Here's a shot of us nearly tipping over at the same place as the other group did:
See the dogs' eager bliss? Their joy of running? I'm very impressed my mom managed to catch this photo and not either drop the camera, fall off the sled, or both.
The mishaps continue. As it happens, when the guide ran back to check on the woman with the bad back, something happened to the people behind him. I'm not sure exactly what happened, as we were occupied helping the first casualty in front of us, but one of the front sleds lost its passengers and the dogs took off. As we recovered from our own near fall, as pictured above, I said, "hey look, there's a sled with no people on it disappearing around the corner!" And indeed, the dogs were running joyfully away with the sled. We asked the owner of the place later if it was common to have so many accidents, or if this was more or less than usual, and her response was: "the sled dogs have a sense of humor." I can see that this likely true, and the dogs running home were probably thinking, "Freedom!!!" Anyway, they were eventually caught and we continue with no problem, until our sled had its own problem. First, one of the dogs somehow got loose from the harness, and so was attached only to the neck of the dog next to him rather than to the neck and the the center line. We called over a guide who helped us. Then came a minor loss of control, which luckily the guides did not notice. You will recall rule #3, do not pass other sleds? Our dogs either didn't get the memo or were too fed up being slowed down in the back, so they decided to ignore us entirely and take off. They burst ahead, with me clinging on behind stomping on the brake with both feet and screaming "I think our brake is broken! Our brake is broken!" as my mom clung onto the bouncing, racing sled. In this stylish fashion, we ran over the girl in front of us and clipped two other sleds before the dogs decided to fall into line behind our cousins. The remainder of the trip passed in joyful non-event, and all too soon the trip as over. We were invited into one of the teepee huts for coffee and cake. Yum! Overall, this was an amazing experience which makes me want to dog sled more and more, and both my mom and I thought we could have continued all day (or at least for a few more hours). The guides were great for the most part (one was rather grumpy), the place was beautiful, and the dogs (Alaskan huskies) were so friendly and willing (and patient with their inexperienced passengers...)
the fire inside the teepee
After the dog sledding, we went back to the Tromso center, to our hotel, and then out to a fish dinner. The waitress was hilarious. We tried cod's tongue, fried, which is a Norwegian delicacy I believe. It tasted just like fried fish to me. I also had lobster for the first time, which was good. After dinner, we went to the ice cathedral and heard a traditional Norwegian concert done by a singer, a pianist/organist, and a cellist. The singer was absolutely amazing, likely the best I've ever heard, and the music was beautiful.
fish tongue!
the lobster half
I created a little video of our time in Norway, so here it is, hope you enjoy it! This is the first youtube video I've created, so please ignore the choppiness and the mistake I made with the music (imovie wouldn't let me access my itunes for some reason...).