On our trip to Tromso, Norway in March 2008, my girlfriend got me a dog-sledding trip for my birthday.

Great experience, but a word of warning to anyone considering doing it – it’s not the most nasally pleasing thing you’ll ever do. They must feed the dogs a lot of high-energy food as they are continually relieving themselves at high speed which, from your ideal position behind them in the sled, you have the perfect view… Quite impressive though – we saw one of them run along for a few hundred yards on just his front legs while he was squeezing one out…

Another word to the wise – keep your legs inside the sled at all times. I had 2 people in front of me in a sled that wasn’t really big enough for 3. This forced my feet to stick out the side, which wouldn’t have been a problem if the dogs hadn’t headed for a massive wooden stake that had been driven into the ground. They narrowly missed it; the sled and my left foot didn’t. Incredible pain followed and I was convinced I’d broken my ankle (fortunately I hadn’t) but the most annoying part was that I screamed like a girl – mostly due to shock, I think, as I hadn’t realised till that point that my foot was even sticking out!

Anyway, I missed the obligatory photo op at the end, that everyone else got of them sitting in the sled, as I was hopping around trying to get some feeling back in my toes. I’ve still got a swollen ankle over 6 months later – I doubt it’s ever going to go down – so I guess that’s my memory of a (mostly) great experience.