Day 93. Innset weather and rest day
Posted by: James on April 3, 2009Distance 0km | Time 0hrs | Ascent 0m | Descent 0m
It was nice to have a lie-in knowing there was nothing better I could be doing to further my tour to Nordkinn. Consequently I did not get up until I was hungry at 0900. It was a beautiful day outside and it was a shame to waste it but I had to.
I made a few phone calls in the morning to try and track down the skis. Apparently they had just arrived in Tromso and would be sent to Setermoen very early tomorrow morning. Once in Setermoen the postal van would bring them up as long as they would fit in the small van. Otherwise they would be delivered on Monday.
Monday was not good enough so I rang a sports shop in Setermoen. They had what I wanted. If the skis don’t arrive tomorrow then I will abandon them in the postal system and get skis from the shop delivered. As the ones in the post are not paid for returning them will ruffle many feathers but I cannot afford to wait until Monday for skis which might not even arrive until Tuesday at this rate.
Once I had this clarified to myself I asked Bjorn for something to do. They were collecting all the frozen dog dirt and shovelling them into a bucket. The buckets were them emptied into a growing pile. This job was done twice a day and I joined in.
In the afternoon I had a long siesta. It was quite easy to sleep long with the sun streaming into the room. A bit of a luxury. Indeed being a tad bored and restless was a bit of a luxury.
Later in the afternoon I poured over the maps I had to try and work out a route to Masi. It would probably take two weeks to get there. It was roughly halfway between Innset and Nordkinn.
Just before 1800 the barking and howling of 60 excited dogs started. It was soon feeding time and their Pavlovian jucies were starting to flow. I went down to help Bjorn with this feeding by pulling the sledge with the large tub of meaty mush. It was facinating to watch the dogs being fed.
Soon after feeding there was the second round of collecting the dog dirt. 60 dogs produce a lot of it and there was a huge pile of it. This would all melt into the pit under it in spring and be covered over.
In the evening I read a little, wrote the blog, showered and waited for 9 guests to arrive in the guest house for the next sledging trip Bjorn was arranging. It seemed he was barely back from the previous one.
It had been a rather boring day. Another one like this would frustrate me. Hopefully tomorrow the postal service will deliver the overdue skis or I will get some from the shop by lunch time and set off for the next cabin.