Northern exposure

I'm a lot poorer now, because the travel company I booked my wilderness adventure this summer with confirmed that the tour was definitely going ahead - so I sent them the rest of the money. Which was a lot. Oh well, living on beans on toast isn't so bad either!

I'm really excited though! This trip falls into the category of "something I have always wanted to do but never plucked up the determination to actually go for it". Basically, I will fly to Stockholm and then have to find a way to venture the 900km north to the Arctic Circle. Apparently this isn't as easy as it sounds, as the faster trains (or trains at all, for that matter) stop about halfway from Stockholm to Sorsele, and then it's a choice of taking local buses that run once or twice a day, or a (great sounding) trip on a little wilderness railway route that takes regular stops to chase assorted wildlife off the tracks.

On arrival in the nature reserve in Lapland there will be a three day horse riding tour through the mountains (an all time dream of mine), a wildlife safari, canoeing and other activities. And the midnight sun! And then the same or a similar route down to Stockholm again, and back to England, at which point I will probably look and feel like a truck has run me over. All very exciting though.

So this also means that I now have exactly 12 weeks in which to get off my butt and get fit!! I doubt I will need arctic explorer levels of fitness, but getting fit is something I have been planning (and failing at) for... erm... years (I have lost count how often I have "started a gym routine on Monday"), and this trip will maybe give me an actual goalpost to work towards. Now, if my flatmate didn't keep bringing in those lovely bottles of red wine...