The simple life

There is a charm in returning to a world without electricity or running water. Sitting in a warm cabin, with a roaring fire and playing card games by candle light. The romance is lost somewhat when you need to go to the toilet. When we arrived at the first cabin it was -10, windy and snowing. The first thing we were shown was a tree with "Gentlemens" written on it, for midnight pee stops we were told. The actual drop toilet was 300m away and I assure you that in those conditions a toilet seat without heating is rather unpleasant, although it was made of polystyrene so heated up quickly.

Over the week our priorities became clear. As soon as we stopped for the day we had to get water and wood. Water had to be collected in 25 litre drums from a hole that had been made in the nearest lake or river. This was sometimes only a 5 minute walk, but at one cabin it was 700m away! Once at the hole we had to fill buckets with ice cold water and pour them into the larger container, inevitably getting our gloves wet in the process. Once full we had to drag it back to the cabin, knowing there would be another container that needed to be filled. Each day we went through about 150 litres. On our last water collecting trip Jason managed to make his own waterhole, going straight through the snow and ice, filling his boot with water. This was naturally at the waterhole 700m from the cabin meaning he had a very uncomfortable walk back, and the slight risk of frostbite each time he had to put his boots back on for toilet breaks that night.

Each cabin also had a wood shed where we would saw the logs down to size and split them with an axe. This was my preferred chore, although I am not a natural with an axe!

There were other occasions when the rustic nature of life was much less pleasant. B1 and B2 tended to engage in a bit of biffo whilst sledding along, and one day it became more serious. B1 had got her leg tangled in the rope and it took me a while to get her free, during which time there was a certain amount of growling and biting between the dogs. Later that day I noticed some blood on the snow and found a bite wound on B1's neck. Without proper medical supplies or vets handy this was fixed with the use of a staple gun.