The Main Event

Next morning, we shamble, bleary-eyed and not yet fully awake, downstairs for breakfast, which is rapidly followed by a half-hour driver's briefing. We're told all about the winter driving school, the lake, the cars we'll be driving (in our case Panameras), and the format the day is going to take.

Then it's on to the bus for the 45-minute trip to Lake Pasasjarvi and a day of driving sideways. It's fair to say everyone has now shaken off the last vestiges of sleep and is extremely excited indeed. In fact, the last time we were on such a boisterous bus, it was setting off on a school trip!

Soon enough, the bus stops at a large, nondescript building and, as the building's doors open, we're invited into one of the most expensive garages any of us has seen, because there are around 25 Panameras lined up, plus a couple of 911s. All of them have snow tyres with 4mm spikes sticking out of them. Get run over by one of these and not only will you be squashed, but you'll also look like a human teabag.

We're split into groups of six people, each of which has an instructor. Then we're paired into our cars and told to follow our instructor (Tobias in our case) down to the lake. It certainly is a unique and slightly disconcerting feeling driving down a track to what your sat-nav says is a vast expanse of water and then simply carrying on regardless.

Apparently the ice is between 45 and 75cm thick, but nonetheless