12/30 ＊ Driving snowmobil ～アラスカ・オーロラの旅 Day５‐１～

We had told Mrs. Pat we hoped to drive a snowmobile if we could. She told us she could reserve it the night before, so we were supposed to take on the challenge of driving snowmobile during the afternoon!

この日は、出来ることなら運転したい！と話していた
スノーモービルの予約が無事とれたとのことで、
午後からスノーモービルに挑戦することになりました。

In the morning, we borrowed the snowshoes again and were off to the snowfield we had been interested in. It was a little distance away so we also used a sled.

午前中は再びスノーシューを借り、
広々として気になっていたとある雪原へ行ってみることに。
ちょっと距離があるのでソリを活用し、えっちらおっちら…。

We saw a beautiful sky when we started walking.
キャビン出発前に見た空。とっても幻想的できれいだった～

Then, we arrived. It was a beautiful sunrise!
到着！朝焼けも美しい～

We found many kinds of animal tracks; bears, moose, squirrels, or something like that.

クマ？ムース？ちっちゃなリス？いろんな動物の足跡を発見

We also walked around the snowfield where nobody had walked yet. It was refreshing.

誰も踏み込んでいない雪の中をずんずん歩き、気分爽快！

Mrs. Pat gave us small amounts of cat food when we came back to the cabin. We tried to feed wild birds! We had once tried it after breakfast the day before, but not succeeded. However, I succeeded this time. While I kept calling “Birds! Birds! Birds!”, a bird flew at me from a tree branch and landed on the palm of my hand and ate the cat food on my hand!

いっぱい遊んでキャビンへ帰ってきた私たちに
少量のキャットフードをくれたパットさん。
野鳥の餌付けに挑戦です！
昨日の朝食後に初トライしたのだけれど、
その時は成功せず。。。しかし、今回は見事成功！
「バーズバーズバーズ！」と呼びかけていると
木の上から飛んできた小鳥さんが私の手の平に着地、
パクパクとキャットフードを食べてくれました～。

I wanted to play with the dogs, but Mrs. Pat asked me a favor of leaving them as they were because they would soon pull the dog sled. When we were watching them calmly, a man who gave us a drive from our cabin to the place for snowmobile arrived. Because of him, we got to the activity center.

犬たちとも戯れたかったけれど、
これから犬ぞりのお客さんが来るから体力を温存させてあげて、
とパットさん。
ワンコたちを静かに見守っていると、
スノーモービルの送迎のおじちゃまが到着したので
いざ、アクティビティーセンターへ～。

These are the snowmobile we were supposed to drive.
私たちが運転することになったスノーモービル

We learned how to operate a snow mobile from an instructor at the beginning, and we practiced driving with the instructor riding behind each of us.

まずはインストラクターのお兄さんから簡単に操作方法を教えてもらい、
その後はお兄さんに後ろに乗ってもらって実際に運転を練習。

When we both finished and I started wondering if I could drive by myself, it was decided we each drove by tracing the instructor’s snowmobile. It meant the time for real was coming soon!

なんとなく感じは分かったかな～というところで、
早速インストラクターのお兄さんに続くかたちで一人一台を運転することに。
ここまであっという間で正直とまどった・笑

I didn’t know how fast it drove when I pressed the accelerator and was not used to the speed at first. However, I was getting used to these kinds of things and even felt refreshed! I sometimes stood up or drove intentionally into the roadside where snow piled up the same as our instructor did. I couldn’t do the latter well, though. We enjoyed an hour driving and seeing the beautiful scenery which we ran through.

最初はアクセルの加減が分からず、かなりスピードも出るので
怖かったけれど、慣れてくると気分爽快！
お兄さんの真似をして途中で立ってみたり、
調子に乗って雪の積もった場所へ敢えて突っ込んでみたりも。
これは見事にハマって動けなくなったけれど・汗
駆け抜ける景色も楽しみながら、約１時間のドライブを満喫！

When we came back to the cabin, we had fun by playing with the dogs who had finished their work.
I wanted to play with them as much as possible because we have to leave the next day.

キャビンに帰ってきてからは、
無事に犬ぞりを終えたワンコたちと戯れ、楽しいひととき。
翌日にはお別れと思うと寂しく、少しでも多く遊びたかったのです…

In addition, Mrs. Pat specially gave us some meat before we preparing dinner. Because of that, we could eat special meat at that night! We also ate SASHIMI and small King Salmon barbecued with salts. That's why we both were too full and satisfied with dinner.

また夕食の準備前、パットさんが特別にお肉を分けてくれたおかげで、
今晩はとっても豪華なお肉ディナーに！
キングサーモンの子どもの刺身と塩焼きもいただき、満腹満足◎

　

Then, the night was coming. It was the last night we could wait for auroras.
そして、夜。
この旅・最後のオーロラ観測の時を迎えたのでした。。