Hanging about

I can think of worse places to hang about but it's still not my favourite occupation. Rob, Andy and Milos are sharing responsibility for food for the camp and over breakfast there was a discussion about meals and a long shopping list was written. I posted a blog by iPhone this day, explaining what had been decided upon and showing the images of the butchers and supermarket so I'll skip over that. Steve came back to the lodge and then set off on his snowmobiling session with Jan, returning exhausted and grinning from ear to ear just in time for a chicken kebab.

Once everything was sorted into boxes for the sleds and loaded, along with the equipment and clothing we'd need we set off for Soppero at about 4.30pm. The rest of us are a bit jaded today, not having any activity other than shopping made us all a bit grouchy and sleepy. Jan will bring the dogs and the rest of the sleds in the morning so that they can sleep at home in their huts tonight.

We arrived to a warm welcome from Per Nils and Brit Marie, and the familiar attic space with bed slots. No fire this time, just a little electric stove, a sign of how much warmer everywhere is. There are some gorgeous puppies here at the homestead, Per Nils said he wouldn't miss the one with the patch over his eye...



We settled in to a lazy Soppero evening of sauna, sunsets, salmon and songs with Gaynor valiantly attempting to get a tune out of a squeeze box that per Nils magicked out of thin air. Andy played the guitar and blew everyone away with his ability to listen to a track on an iPod and play it straight back at us.

This is our last day of communication with home and we will not have any signal until our return. In case of emergency we call 112 and this will connect us to the satellite, Gaynor said that we don't really need it as the most efficient back up is for the Sami people to be aware of your trip. Apparently they appear from nowhere when you need them. Let's hope we don't.