Day 6 (5 April 2007)

Our huskies had had to sleep outside through all of the bad weather. Their technique is to walk in small circles, digging a hole in the snow to sleep in.

Another superb morning, with blue skies, little wind and excellent visibility. This was to be another very long day, as we needed to catch up on our schedule. The first part of the day was delightful, as we came off the mountain into the forest. The highlight was a sharp left turn, followed by driving the dog team over a very rickety narrow bridge over a small river. The bridge wasn't very long, but icy water below and the gaps in very low side rails made it even more exciting! We stopped for a lunch break after crossing another, more substantial bridge.

The second half of the day saw us travelling across about 10 frozen lakes, with an average size of around two km. This improved our average speed, but we did have to cope with a very cold wind.

We travelled over 70 km today, and stopped overnight 1 km from the Ice Hotel in Jukkasjarvi. This was a very difficult overnight stay, as we were all very tired and the dogs had to be tethered in the forest in snow over two foot deep.