Chukka Caribbean's dogsled team journeys to Yukon Territory

The Jamaica Dogsled Team, part of the newest addition to the Chukka Caribbean Adventures' tour offerings in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, will have its sights set much further north this winter when Devon Anderson, Chukka's reservations manager and lead musher (dog trainer), heads to the Yukon Territory for the winter race schedule.

Anderson will train with Hans Gatt, the three-time former Yukon Quest champion, in hopes of qualifying for the 2009 Yukon Quest International Sled Dog Race, billed as the toughest sled dog race in the world...."

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Sun Dogs

Man and dogs struggle together in Andrea Stewart’s affectionate if slight doc, “Sun Dogs,” a straightforward portrait of the efforts of some scrappy Jamaicans to replicate the islands incongruous fame with team bobsledding — only this time, with dogsledding. Odds seem even longer with this sport than with the Olympic bobsled foray romanticized in 1993’s “Cool Runnings,” and pic’s unabashed profile as a booster for Jamaican tourism lessens its seriousness. Palm’s DVD rollout Oct. 2 should deliver fine fall and holiday homevid numbers…."

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Jamaican dogsled team sets sights on 2009 Yukon Quest

Consider it way colder than Cool Runnings: a dogsledder from Jamaica will come to Whitehorse this winter to train for the 2009 Yukon Quest.

And in case you missed it the first time, it's a dogsled team — unlike a certain other wintersport team from the same country that tried to crack
the Calgary Winter Olympics and was later immortalized in the 1993 movie Cool Runnings...."

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Jamaican musher sets sights on 2009 Quest

There was an unmistakable buzz of excitement in the air Thursday afternoon at the Yukon Tourism Information Centre.

“Excuse me, is that Frank Turner?” asked the tourist, pointing at the musher in front of the television camera. When told no, it was in fact Hans Gatt, the tourist turned into what could best be described as a giddy teenager, running back to his group of friends and snapping numerous pictures. You see, this tourist was from Austria, and it turns out Gatt, who originally hails from Austria but now lives in Whitehorse, has made quite a name for himself back home. In fact, during Thursday’s press conference, the three-time Yukon Quest champion was described as “one of the most famous mushers in the world....”

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Cool Runnings - With Dogs Jamaica Team Training to Tackle Yukon Race

Ya mon!

The Jamaica Dogsled Team is bringing the heat to northern Canada as they prepare to run in the 1,600-km Yukon Quest race for the first time in 2009.

But first they must compete in and complete two semis -- a 320-km race in January and a 480-km run in February -- before qualifying for the big tournament.

"If you don't do those, you cannot enter the Quest," said Danny Melville, owner and founder of the Jamaica Dogsled Team. "That is our goal...."

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Alternative realities in the Caribbean

If a film director were handed an unlikely cast of characters -- say, an Austrian farmer-cum-dog musher, an American recording artist and a middle-aged romantic dreamer on a tropical island -- one might worry that the result would seem, at best, contrived.

Throw in a plot involving a pack of stray dogs headed for the death chamber, polo ponies swimming in the sea and a legendary impresario making bets on obscure talent, and you have a real mess on your hands -- or perhaps a successful venture into the genre known as magical realism....

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Jamaica Operator Chukka introduces Polo Collection tours

Chukka Caribbean Adventures, based in Ocho Rios, Jamaica, launched its Polo Collection, a new category of its nature adventure tours.

Ten tours are in development for the Polo Collection. The following are the first three to launch....

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