Toasty warm

I will never, ever, ever again complain about being cold in this country. Having spent a week in 'proper cold' I feel quite guilty about having whined about being cold on the Suffolk coast - at minus 1C.  Our average was in the region of minus 37C. with some mornings being minus 40, in fact we found ourselves not even referring to the minus! The dogs were amazing and so tough, I have even more admiration for them than I did, and I didn't think that would be possible.

Sara and Uno waiting to be fed

I've been home for 2 days now and it all seems a little flat, having spent the last 6 months fundraising and preparing for the trip. It lived up to my expectations, in fact it surpassed them in many ways and so now I am thinking about "what next?" Perhaps a little further North? I friend asked me what my overriding memory will be, and whilst there are many things that will live in my mind for years, like the wonderful team of humans and dogs I had the privilege to work with and the cold, the most tantalizing sensation was the silence. I had a tiny taste of what the people of the North live with in the vast snowy wastes and I feel I could do with more.

Working with the dogs was such a joy and once I was comfortable with the harnesses and sled mechanics it became second nature to fling the ice anchor down when I needed its security, even though I had been frightened at our briefing by the idea of the blade cutting through flesh...

I began to look forward to jumping onto the back of the sled with my willing team of dogs to set off across the snowy wastes without a care, other than whether my fingers and toes would make it.

The only problem with our photos is that we couldn't take the at the really challenging times, as this was when we needed our wits about us, so the most beautiful landscapes are missing. Here is a link to a short video of our team and some of the easier terrain we covered: http://www.youtube.com/user/verycoldclaire#p/u/0/kJHO-0fGuaw