Day 65, 14 March 2016

Ian: The boots' on the other foot....

The weather hasn't got any better; windy throughout the night and constant fine rain and low cloud this morning. But we did start the day with a roaring log fire :-). First 10km was to a private "hotel" owned by a Swedish bank (they own the emergency shelter we used too). So we called in to say thank you and the very kind lady who manages it, called Elizabeth, gave us coffee and warm cakes. We entertained four of the Swedish guests with our tales of daring do for half an hour and then wimpishly went back out into the cold and rain. The next bit was not nice. Mr D said worst skiing so far. Imagine skiing along in 6 foot high, 14km long, sinuous Toblerone of dirty, gritty, soft, wet snow dumped by the snow ploughs - think the verge of the A66 across Bowes Moor in winter. Couldn't ski on the road; rain had washed all the snow off. It took only 2:10hrs to do the first 10km today. Took us almost 6 hours to do the next 14km along the toblerone. We were cream crackered by the time we reached tonight's hut. It is a very nice new Norwegian hut though (we have popped back across the border) and we have it to ourselves. We were both soaked to the skin when we came in, literally. All clothes came off. Log burner put on. Water heated on the cooker (yes, it has electricity :-). Multiple cups of powdered ribena made and drunk, tomato cuppa soup gulped down, followed by a large tin of spaghetti in tomato sauce with little sausages (takes me back a few years, remember those Heinz tins?) and tinned fruit cocktail to finish (more nutritional nostalgia). So as I write this we are feeling warm and stuffed! You'll be wondering what the title of today's blog has to do with any of this. (And yes the apostrophe is in the right place ;-) That's for us to know and you to guess for now. But buy us each a couple of pints when we get back and we promise you won't stop laughing for a long time.