Post-Expedition News# 1 - Direct from sunny Australia! Our expedition updates were composed on our sub-notebook computer, powered by solar panels courtesy of UNSW, and sent using software from Global Marine Networks, over a satellite mobile phone provided by Landwide Satellite Solutions. Thanks very much to all involved! Date: 11/12/05 Time: 11:00pm Position: 33.625 Deg S, 151.331 Deg E Summary: Post-Expedition News #1 Location Map: Click the map to the left and a new browser window will open, directed to Google's new satellite maps feature. The map view will be centred on our current location. Zoom in for more detail. You can see where we live! Weather: Sunny, a few lazy clouds... Temperature: 30deg C (yes, 30 ABOVE zero) Message: G’day everyone! It’s bit grey today, and the sun keeps wandering through a veil of thin cloud here in Sydney, Australia. As it does, the temperature plummets to a chilly +26 deg C. Rather than let this poor weather depress me, I decided instead to call our good friend Doug Stern in Cambridge Bay, Victoria Island. He reported that it was currently -31 deg C, and perpetually dark. For a laugh I visited Cambridge Bay’s online weather forecast where ‘Sunrise’ is listed as ‘N/A’. I feel much better about our weather now. Thanks Doug! As is inevitably the way after returning from any holiday, life is gradually slipping back into some of its normal routines here in Sydney. I am working 9:00 -> 5:00, and my final year of university is looming around the corner. However, while Clark and I happily let go some of the effects from our expedition (the feeling has now returned to our fingers and toes) – we will savour most of them forever. We are still very busy writing articles, organising media, writing testimonies & product reviews (take a look at www.Leatherman.com.au – they’ve stuck one online!), writing speeches, preparing slide-shows, thinking about intro’s for a book, reviewing our video footage, and of course going to parties. One such party that definitely deserves a mention was thrown by Air Canada here in Sydney: A very classy cocktail party with a winter theme – the bar was made entirely of sculpted ice & illuminated by seemingly interior blue lights! Clark and I were the guest speakers for the night and we spent the hour beforehand hiding in the cloak-room practicing our speech (which we’d only just finished on the bus on the way in) as the room noisily filled up with guests outside. At last convinced we knew most of our speech we slunk back inside to receive sideways stares from everyone. This was either because we were wearing our expedition jackets (which perhaps still smelt a bit?) or because a few of our expedition photo’s had been playing on the big screen up the front. Thankfully it was the latter. Miraculously we managed to cover up the few slip-ups in our speech / slideshow, and it was well received. People even laughed at the right parts – always a relief. =) With that out of the way we spent the remainder of the night chatting and enjoying food and drinks that were not only unrationed, but free!! Awesome. We should go on expeditions more often. UPCOMING LECTURE: If any of you happen to be in Sydney for no apparent reason (Doug? ? ) on Tuesday 21st February 2006, Clark and I are giving a public lecture / slideshow on our expedition for the Australian Geographic Society, at their headquarters - 321 Mona Vale Road, Terrey Hills. It starts at 7:30 pm and should be approximately 1hr - admission is $15, which goes to the Australian Geographic Society to help fund other sponsored projects. Bookings can be made online at www.AustralianGeographic.com.au (we are listed as ‘Young Icemen’ down the bottom), or by calling Australian Geographic on 1300 555 176. We intend to have one of our PACs there on the night - hope to see some of you there! Any of you in the Australian division of the Explorers Club, Clark and I are giving a similar lecture / slideshow at their next 6-monthy dinner, with the date tentatively set for Fri 10th March. I’ve just finished writing our article for the Australian Geographic magazine, which has become an 11-page feature! We saw the draft layout last week and it looks great – Good-work Ken, Chris, Warren and everyone else involved in straightening out my tangle of words and photographs! It will be in the next magazine, the April-June 2006, Issue 82 I believe. That’s about it … sorry this update’s not as exciting as those written crouched in my sleeping bag with the unknown lurking just outside the tent… but rest assured Clark and I have plenty of ideas for future adventures simmering away in our minds… Be sure to have a very merry Christmas, and that you set for yourself some suitably unreachable goals & resolutions for the New Year, remembering what Sir Edmund Hillary said: “People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.” (Clark and I at Air Canada's cocktail party) (The fancy bar at the cocktail party, sculpted from ice!) (We couldn't help buying this 'kangaroo' from a souvenir-type shop in Vancouver. Please tell me Canadians don't think this is what roo's look like?!?! (Ok, so we added the teeth, but still.. look at the eyes!!! It looks like it should be crouching over a kill! Hilarious!) Back to updates list To send us a message, please contact us anytime!