Allez Andy!

Usually, I save Ride Happy for riding stories, but I thought the adventure-seekers amongst you would want to hear about this. My boyfriend, the lovely Andy (aka Mocky) has just finished the Arctic Circle Race in Greenland. The ACR is billed as the toughest cross-country ski race in the world. It's 180km of skiing around the Arctic Circle over 3 days in minus 30deg. The marshalls ride alongside the race with rifles to stop polar bears from attacking you; they give you seal blubber (that's right, seal fat) at feed stations; and at the end of the day you have to CAMP IN THE SNOW. And it's so cold that your snot freezes when you sneeze...

Bless you

It is a race for Hard Men and Hard Women only (like those on the posters in the Mountain Gym in Mt Beauty). Needless to say, I opted to cheer him on from the warmth of Australia. Andy is a pretty handy skier and used to spend his summers racing the world cup circuit in Europe. Back home we were very excited to hear not only that he had survived, but he had come 5th overall behind some eskimos and overall winner Ilya Chernousov from Russia. Allez Andy! The race organisers thought that Andy was from Austria, not Australia, so I emailed them to tell them. To make the email worth reading for them, I also told them that in Australia he was known as The Flying Kangaroo and had recently finished 3rd in Celebrity Masterchef behind Crocodile Dundee and Bindi Irwin. They didn't mention that in the race report though.

Just your everyday commute in Greenland

 Andy and his Dad get home on Friday. It's been 8 weeks since he's been home and he flies in a couple of hours before my flight leaves for Mersey Valley Tour in Tassie, hurrah! We'll be able to find out how seal blubber compares to airport coffee. 

Andy in a warmer climate