Axarquia adventurer takes on Arctic challenge

TORROX-BORN man, Manuel Calvo, set off on Monday April 6 on a trip to the Arctic Circle to undertake a journey with the help of a dog sled.

Mr Calvo left for his trip, called ‘Desafio Artico,’ from Malaga Airport and will travel across the historic Narval Route, accompanied by an Inuit Eskimo and using a sled pulled by 16 dogs as their only means of transport.

The expedition has been launched with the goal of promoting the figure of the sled dog and its link with humankind.

The organisers and sponsors (Purina Pro plan, Canon and the Marathon Dog association), explained in a statement that the trip would last 12 days from its departure point in Qaantaag, in the Thule region, located in the northern area of Greenland.

Thule is the most northern inhabited place in the world, and one of the few places to maintain the traditional Eskimo way of living.

Mr Calvo is to live the experience as it would have been carried out a hundred years ago, with fur kayaks, sleeping in typical Inuit tents installed on the sleigh and crossing areas with high icebergs, cliffs and frozen seas.

“The two men and dogs will be exposed to temperatures of up to minus 42 degrees,” read the statement, continuing: “These dogs are not only great companions but, in extreme conditions, they also serve as guides and warn about dangers such as polar bears.”

“This trip aims to display the ancestral figure of the sled dog as a surviving assistant and wishes to make routes like these a tourist attraction to provide the Arctic communities with a new business alternative,” finished the statement.