10 Things I Learnt In Norway

1. There is nothing as heart (and stomach) warming as a bowl of soup after spending 5 hours at Heathrow, followed by a 2-hour flight to Oslo and a 4-hour bus ride in the dark to our final destination. Similarly, nothing tastes as good as hot chocolate and freshly baked cinnamon buns besides the open fire of a little wooden cabin after 4 hours’ trekking through snow.

2. Taxidermy may be a “dying art” elsewhere, but it’s alive and well in the wilds of Norway, as represented by the assortment of stuffed animals (including a polar bear, a couple of brown bears, several foxes, deer, a wolf, a lynx, a duck with ducklings and various birds of prey) on display in the Rondablikk høyfjellshotell.

3. Walking 5 km on (yes on!) two left snow shoes is a sure bet for blisters from hell and a knackered knee to boot.

4. Got that sinking feeling? It’s probably coz you’re sinking to waist depth in soft snow....now try dig your way out!

5. Tobogganing is brilliant fun....until you have to walk back up the hill dragging your sled behind you.

6. I am seriously crap at cross country skiing...but the boots and skiis are a load more user friendly than the instruments of torture reserved for the downhill version.

7. At the top of a snowy mountain, in -40°C temperatures, with a harsh wind blowing, icicles hanging from your eyelashes and out of your nose, the only thought going through your head is..... “What the frik am I doing up here when I could be on a beach in the Maldives?”

8. Dogsledding is not for the fainthearted and Siberian huskies are wild (and very flatulent) running machines....unrestrained, they’ll run until they drop dead of exhaustion.

9. A sauna is a brilliant antidote to cold, aching muscles... and Norwegians sauna in the nude.

10. After experiencing -40°C, the UK feels positively tropical at a balmy -2°C.