Roadtrip to Norway

We took a little roadtrip with Dio and dear friends Enna & Muru (Hanishan Que Sera Sera) to Norway and Harstad INT show on Sunday 5.10. We started the journey already on Friday right after work, stayed overnight at relatives' cabin near Oulu and then on Saturday we drowe all the way to Harstad.

The show was held indoors at Kraftshallen on Sunday and luckily we didn't have any problems finding the place (well, took just one wrong turn before the hall and had to drive back). Ring was almost an hour late so we had lots of time to have the crates and other stuff ready and dogs were able relax for a while. The floor of the hall was artifial grass, which was very nice. Except on those spots where people had let their dogs pee...

There were seven basenjis entered but one was missing so only 2 males and 4 bitches in the ring. Dio was the only one in his class but he got Excellent with CQ and naturally won the class. He was showing himself very beautifully, I felt that he practically danced around the ring :) Dio won the males, received CAC and his first real foreign CACIB (after many reserves). This made him a brand new Norwegian Champion and now he is just one foreign CACIB from his C.I.B title!

Our travelling companion Muru did fabulously in the ring too: she won the champion class with CQ and finally beat all other females and receivec CAC and CACIB and become Norwegian Champion too! So there we were again, competing against each other in the BOB ring. Both our dogs showed themselves beautifully and BOB rosette was given to Muru and Dio was BOS. As always before :)

We got a bunch of rosettes to take home with us, most importantly the white CACIB rosettes, so it couldn't have gone any better. Enna and Muru also competed in the groups and they made the cut to the six best in the huge goup 5! Unfortunately we didn't have time for a bit of sparkling as we still had 10,5 hours of driving in front of us. The weather was beautiful sunny and warm and we were on cloud nine (or higher!) so first part of the driving went by fast. When the sun set, it was a bit harder to drive as the roads were curvy and narrow and of couse there was always the possibility of a reindeer or a moose on the road. With two drivers, some music and plenty of good snacks we finally made it back to the cabin near Oulu at 5am. Phew!

After couple of hours of sleep and some breakfast we started the final part of our trip and headed home to Southern Finland. I arrived home finally at 10pm and was greeted by two very happy tricolour boys Karma and Tao. They were sooo happy to get Dio back. Tao thought Dio smelled just marvellous (like our dear travelling companion Muru, I think) and tried to climb on Dio's back quite many times... So it was some time before we were able to settle down for much needed rest.

It was a fun trip with excellent results but I don't think I want to drive 2900km again anytime soon :)

(photos will hopefully follow)