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Jakob and you had arrived at Rovaniemi the day before and spent the night at the hotel. After breakfast you'd spent some time just walking around and looking at everything. It was your first time at Rovaniemi, so everything was new to you. You were looking forward to one thing more than anything: the scheduled husky safari. You loved dogs and would honestly been perfectly happy to just see the huskies and get to hang out with them for a few minutes. But you'd get to go on a 3 km safari, in a sled pulled by the energetic dogs.
You arrived well before go time, and almost immediately you nearly lost it when you saw the dogs.
"Jakob, look at them all!"
you said in a voice that was best described as a very excited whisper. The huskies were barking and running around in their enclosures, some of them played together. You booped the nose of a friendly-looking grey and white husky. She was doing tippy-tappies and little zoomies on the other side of the fence. One of the staff members approached you and said that the husky's name was Kuura which was Finnish for frost.
"She's beautiful,"
you breathed out, hardly able to get your eyes off of her. Jakob soon joined you, and the two of you stayed there, watching the dogs until it was time to go put on the thermal outfits, provided by the staff.
You were then guided towards one of the sleds with six dogs already hooked up to it.
"Jakob, look!"
You pointed towards the front. There she was, the familiar grey husky. Kuura. One of the staff members quickly went over the rest of the dogs' names. Next to Kuura was a sable Taiga. Behind them a black and white Aki and a pure white Halla, a striking pair. And finally, closest to the sled were two red and white huskies, Kajo and her son Ruska. The two of you were then told how to drive the sled and what commands to give to the dogs. Mush when you wanted your team to start moving. Haw to turn left and Gee to take a right turn. And finally, Whoa as the stopping command.
"Do you want to drive?"
you asked Jakob.
"I guess. But you should know that I've never done this before,"
he warned as he took his place right behind the sled.
"Neither have I,"
you said with a laugh and sat down in the sled, under some warm blankets.
"Looks like we'll be disastrous, no matter what."
A few minutes later you were given the go ahead, and you headed out to the trail as a second team. You couldn't see it well even when you turned to look behind you, but Jakob was properly focused. He seemed to be doing an okay job as a musher, but roughly ten minutes after setting out he mixed the commands to turn left and right. There was a left turn ahead of you, but accidentally called out "Gee", then immediately followed by "Haw" which was the correct command. As a result of his mistake the sled tilted to the right, causing Jakob to lose his balance and go tumbling down in the snow bank. You saw this and called out a firm "Whoa!"
As the dogs slowed down and stopped, you hopped out of the sled and held onto it so that the dogs wouldn't run off with it.
"Jakob, are you okay?"
you called out just as he stood back up, brushing some snow off of himself and walking back to you.
"Yeah, I think so.. That sure was something,"
he said and you smiled.
"You ready to continue?"
you made sure and he nodded. The two of you then took your places once more and continued on.
The rest of the journey through the Finnish winter wonderland went without any further mishaps, and eventually you returned back to the starting location. Both your and Jakob's cheeks were a healthy red after the outing in the brisk weather. You were then guided indoors to warm up and enjoy some hot berry juice which both of you accepted gladly. It was just what you needed.
After having warmed up, you walked back outside. Your legs carried you right back to the huskies' enclosures as you wanted to see Kuura one last time, thank her for the ride and to say goodbye. You even snapped a couple photos of her so you'd never forget about her.