Landed in Germany

Oh my, I can't tell you how tired we all feel. Words cannot describe it. Sleep is almost at the point of being involuntary, arriving at any moment and when we least expect it. 

Last night, before boarding we parked up in Trelleborg and let the dogs out one last time. They had been fed earlier but we took the opportunity to change their straw in the box (some of it was wet from the snow kicking up off the wheels and getting through the gaps in the box doors) and cutting their nails. It's just the first thing in a long line of "spa treatments" the dogs have to look forward to on the race. They get massaged, muscles stretched, paws moisturised and much more every day during the race, which I'm sure means they enjoy it much more than we do! Milos always lines up for his massage at the end of the day too but somehow he always misses out. ;-)

Once all that had been done we lay down in the back of the van for a quick one-hour nap before boarding. We were almost too tired to sleep so ended up talking about how fantastic it is to have our VW Transporter van for this kind of thing. We bought it from the winnings of LGO in 2011 and it was a great buy! Milos (randomly) bid on and won his first ever eBay auction item shortly after - a rock n roll camper bed - not realising it was in Wales and rather a long way to get a bed but we did it anyway and it's brilliant!! We can take it in and out with ease and also a cupboard with gas and small sink that we had made in Slovakia. It means the van can be used to pick up our guests (tourists) at the airport one day and the next it's a mobile home for racing! Such versatility is a necessity for us and the Transporter was a great choice with its high top and long wheel base. However, we did start to dream during our discussion and decided that the next upgrades would be a slightly larger van (that we could get a 12 dog team inside), a driver (volunteers welcome) and a handler to feed and care for the dogs during the drive! And if they have massage qualifications, all the better. Lol. Yeah, that would be nice. 

Anyway, we soon put those dreams to rest and got a few minutes sleep before the ferry. The journey went well and wasn't rocky at all - or perhaps it's because we were all comatose snug in our little cabin. This was a treat for us as we normally spend our ferry nights strewn across hard plastic chairs and wake with numb limbs from awkward sleeping positions. But weirdly we all woke much more tired than before. I guess our adrenalin crashed. Three or four coffees later we can now talk sense and we're on our way again. 

The dogs are doing really well. But now they're getting very energetic. They haven't run for a couple of days now and anyone with sled dogs will tell you that's a long enough break to get their motivation back for anything! Strangely, we find that their first run after being in the trailer and resting so much is usually pretty lethargic so we will visit our friend in Germany and rest there for one night to try and get one training run in to stretch their legs a bit. Only about 800km to his place and we're already a couple of hundred KM's down. 

Ooo... It's breakfast time for dogs so I have to go now... Updates later. :-)