Ice Hotel Arrival

27 January 2018 and we are heading to Kiruna Airport Sweden for a once in a lifetime adventure and experience, that of the Ice Hotel and a nights sleep in a ice room.

Early start as the flight is at 1030hrs so at 0430hrs we were up and out walking Strawberry prior the drive to Heathrow. It’s always hard leaving her behind but know she is always extremely well looked after by my parents.

The drive to Heathrow went smoothly no problems and the transfer from the car park to Terminal 2 just as smooth. Flew with Scandinavian Airlines and as you would expected all the air stewards were blonde and beautiful. Served a cold meal with complimentary drinks and listened to the information about our stay from the Discover the World guide.

Sally on runway

After three hours we touch down at Kiruna into a winter wonderland of ice and snow, the temperature reads -21 and quickly it takes our breath away. Coughing hard as it causes us to cough as the air is so cold and dry. Quickly into the airport through Customs and baggage collection and onto the waiting coach transfer to the Ice Hotel. Twenty minutes later along snow covered roads we arrive and the setting is amazing. Snow drifts of twenty feet in height, snow covered log cabins, huge ice blocks indicating your arrival at the Ice Hotel.

After checking in we enter log cabin number five to the heat of a constant 25 degrees and a very pleasure surprise of what is provided. The cabin has two bedrooms, a sauna for a bathroom, plenty of space to store all the outdoor clothes you require and a spacious kitchen lounge area.

We settle in, unpack and head out to gather our additional outdoor clothing provided by the Ice Hotel. That of boots, mittens, balaclava’s and a complete all in one suit and we needed it all that night when out on the snowmobiles. The cold hit me like a sledge hammer in the face when you take in the wind chill factor. My forehead felt as if it was frozen even when a balaclava, neck scarf and helmet on.

Was pleased to stop in the forest at a lovely log hut for a rustic local meal of reindeer stew, hot lingonberry juice followed by blueberry pie though that was a little bland. Afterwards headed out again on the snowmobiles and luckily saw the Northern Lights, though only for 10minutes and only after the guide pointed them out to us !! Pleased it happened but not quite the impressive sighting we were hoping for, by now we were freezing as several of the group have gotten stuck in the snow and it took time rescuing them. On the move again through the snowy forest it felt warmer and this part was fun, even stopped to do snow angels in the amazing deep snow on route. Contined back to our start point arriving back around 2330hrs too a final temperature of -28. A great first day that did end with a mad dash back to our cabin and an impossible attempt to get through five layers of clothing plus a full body suit as desperate for the toilet now.

Local church

Warm cabins

Approach road to hotel

Kids sledge

Local shop

Sightseeing in Udaipur

Bridge over the lake

Taj Lake Palace

Diwali

Monsoon Palace

Jagdish Temple

Cultural Show

Taj lake Palace

Sunset over Pichola Lake

Roof top view

Found an old friend

Feeling at Home

After the initial shock that hits you over the animal welfare in India, I settled down to a routine in the shelter. I would wander around all area of the shelter but I mainly concentrated my time in B run. This is where the dogs with skin complaints are housed, mainly mange. There were all sorts of dogs here from young and old, to mums with there puppies all with mange.
Feeding time was always the hardest as at the end of the day these are street dogs and where the strongest survive. Some of the dogs were having special food which the other dogs wanted so it was a constant battle to make sure the weaker dogs all got fed.
Dogs with mange have to have regular baths to help heal the skin which was great fun when it was the puppies turn, as everyone loves a puppy, but also very sad that these pups should have such a bad start in life.
Some days the shelter got no visitors so we would go and help feed the calves and donkeys which I loved and was great fun. This is where I would go if I needed to smile as some days were hard and very upsetting. A donkey came in that I sat with all afternoon with his head on my lap and when I left him that afternoon I was hopeful that he would make it through the night but unfortunately he didn't.
A three day old goat came into the shelter after falling from a roof and we nursed it for 2 days then the vet decided the damage was too much and put the baby to sleep. These two incidents will always stick in my mind as I cared for these animals as if they were my own pets.
Our last day was very emotional as we were very sad to leave the new friends we had made and having to leave our special animals to other volunteers to care for them.

Our last day at Animal Aid

Day to Day

Morning feed for the donkeys

A 3 day old goat that fell from a roof but sadly died

This donkey had been worked so hard all its feet were damaged so badly that it later died

Exercising the disabled dogs

Cows waiting to die

A cow had been caught in a fire where her calf died

A pup that had terrible mange

Animal Aid Unlimited

We arranged for our tuktuk driver to pick us up at 9am outside the hotel and take us to the shelter. The ride took 30 minutes through the streets of Udaipur, the traffic is as we thought it would be HECTIC. Everyone beeps their horns, bikes weaving in and out of the traffic, going the wrong way, riding on the pavements, total mayhem. The air pollution is awful and quite choking at times, so pleased the shelter in outside the city.
Once inside the shelter we are greeted by Jim one of the co-founders, he welcomed us and chatted to us about the shelter. We were introduced to a volunteer co-ordinator Raj, he took us on a tour around the shelter. After the tour we sat and chatted with Gemma and she told us what sort of stuff we would be doing. No pressure is put on you to do anything, you can just sit all day and stroke the dogs or you can be more hands on like us.
Jim's wife Erika arrived and greeted us very warmly, like we were old friends and I liked that.
Jim, Erika and their daughter Claire came to India for a holiday and hated seeing the street animals hurt and in pain with no medical care in the city for them. So thats basically how Animal Aid got started many years ago. The shelter will help any animal thats needs help but mainly they deal with dogs and cows but they also have donkeys, cats, goats, water buffalo and a chicken that fell from a lorry taking them to slaughter.
So our first day we spent with the disabled dogs and feeding the calfs milk as they are all orphans. This was great fun as I had never been so close up and personal with a cow before and I must say they are a very affectionate animal. All the healthy cows are keep in a paddock away from the yard where the ill or injured cows and donkeys are kept. Also in the yard laying on mats are the cows that are dying due to what us humans do to them.
Like most places in the world when a male calf is born it is slaughtered as they are of no use to the farmer but in India the cow is sacred so the young male calfs are dumped in the streets. Also when a female cow no longer produces milk they are also discarded on the streets. With no one to feed these animals they result to eating the rubbish which includes the plastic bags. Their stomach's cannot digest the plastic so eventually they can't eat anymore and they end up in the shelter to die.
Very, very sad to watch these animals just lying there on the floor in the heat and flies all around them waiting to die of starvation basically.

Our daily ride

Cows are abandoned in the streets