Matheo picked us up in the morning for a 4 hour dog sledding tour with Green Dog Svalbard. He drove us to their base about 10km from Longyearbyen.
On arrival I said a gentle hello to Power, a lovely old dog nestling on a jacket on a verandah.
We then were kitted out with polar suits, boots, mittens and safety gear. The suits went on top of our normal ski clothing.
Matheo came to us for a briefing on how to control the dogs and the sled. He sadly informed us that Power, a retired Husky that was his pet for a couple of years had just died. This was very sad.
Matheo helped us harness up the dogs and connect them to the sleds then we were off.
The dogs were really keen - barking and pulling like crazy. Matheo said to keep the brake on to make them work so the lead dogs would concentrate on running. The sleds required balancing when going downhill and across slopes.
The scenery was superb but it was very cold (-25C plus chill factor), particularly when I was sitting on the front of the sled while Roger was driving.
We did a circuit up the valley and back. I didn't take photos of the sledding due to the extreme cold.
On returning we helped take the dogs back to their kennels then had great coffee and waffles in a cabin.
After coffee we visited puppies with their mother to help socialise the dogs which was a lot of fun.
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A great day overall.
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