This year there was 8 of use on are arctic adventure and we had a very good spell of the cold. Minus 32 was the coldest we had. Last year we had a freak warm spell which was not what we wanted, so it made this years trip even better. As you may have seen we used lavu mods last year, but this trip i thought i would take my british army comand post tent with a log stove. A friend of mine made it for me, as we thought it best to have a biggish hot tent for back up, Dave welch also went for the big tent and stove approach. On my trip to jokkmok 3 years ago i learned a lot from what i saw at the sami market and museums, Damian and Wayland gave us very good advice and getting local knowledge and having a good back up plan was allways the topic of conversation. Having this in mind and having new people on the trip we thought hot tents were a good plan. Having this type of base camp comes at a price, as the weight of my kit was a heavey 68kg with food but when it was on the tobogan it pulled like a dream and was no problom to pull for about 8k or 10k to base camp. Having saId that there are not many hills. At the start of the trip i watched a friend struggle to find his trueself, and he found it hard to cope with the cold. So we sat and had a chat with a cup of soup in the hot tent for a bit which helpt the situation a lot. From that he then started cutting wood, melting snow doing his pesonall admin and taking control and was at home with everything, as the trip went on he just got better and by the time we left for home he was planing his next trip. WELL DONE DAVE you did us proud. Young George did well also and learnt a lot from his experence i think. The dutch boys made this trip a lot of fun and that is allways good for morell, also we all learned from each other and shared stories round the fire. The fire was are meeting place and a place to eat so the fire became are home and we stayed up late many a night around it. I have always wanted to go ice fishing so when we found out from the locals the ice was a metre thick on the river we was on it like a bushcrafter in a charity shop. We caught no fish but useing lenarts orga was fun and drinking water from the river was a lot nicer than the melted snow we were living on. I stared to get a little cold sat fishing so i made a one man quinsy for fun and practice should i ever need to make one fast. I was supprised how warm it was with a candle inside. We also saw the northern lights and Matt managed to get some pictures of them as well. We went on moon walks and we saw wolf, fox, vole and hare trails in the snow all over the forest. Lenart and i made a finish candle and it was going for 3 hours and we melted snow on it. Susana Williams was on the trip but had to drop out because of pesonal reasons. She gave a lot of good input and advice, some of which was to go to the sami restarant so we did and it was the best food i have had. We eat reindeer heart, steaks, samon berries and much more and afer the banquet we where blessed by the sami with some old yoks. I like the reindeer yok the best. Next year there is talk of a trip to the sami market or norway. Either way i am going to try a light weight camp with a pluck and sami have shelter, others are thinking of a cabin, bring on the next trip 
Mad Dave ,Mat, Dave W ,Dave brom, George, Remco, Lenart. Thanks for an awesome time, sleep well my friends and always wake strong.
Mad Dave ,Mat, Dave W ,Dave brom, George, Remco, Lenart. Thanks for an awesome time, sleep well my friends and always wake strong.
