Expedition Update # 11 - Direct from the High-Arctic! These updates are composed on our sub-notebook computer, which is powered by solar panels courtesy of UNSW, then sent using software from Global Marine Networks, over a satellite mobile phone provided by Landwide Satellite Solutions. Thanks very much to all involved! Date: 2/8/05 Time: 11:00pm Position: 69.927 Deg N, 100.897 Deg W Summary: Settling in 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. Weather: Bright Sunshine, very few clouds Temperature: Nippy 3 deg C Message: I'm going to take this opportunity while Clark is off fishing amongst the pack ice to write you a proper update. Apologies for the last update, we were exhausted - no idea what I wrote. Now things have started to settle into the beginnings of a rhythm, we have started to work out efficient systems for doing things - such as what I’m doing now - sitting on a freezing cold rock in my icebreaker thermals, writing this email with our 'kayak' skirt draped over my head & the laptop so that I can actually shade & read the LCD screen in the bright sunlight... Before I move on to expedition life, there are a few things back in Cambridge Bay that I must tell you about. We had the most delightful 18 days there - so many friends - we were adopted by several families with offers for showers & washing clothes etc coming out our ears! Thanks again to Helen whom I mentioned in an earlier update - the lovely local Inuit who apart from feeding us, inviting us for dinners etc - organised a very special treat for us: Mary Kilaodluk - an Inuit elder donned traditional garments and performed an amazing drum-dance for us. Also, Yvonne Angohiatok, and (23) Charlotte Lyall (14) throat sang for us - it was such an experience! We were very spoilt. Thanks!! Jeannie - another very warm & friendly Inuit gave us 2 names for our PACs - "Killiniq Atouhik", and "Killiniq Malgok", translating to 'Victoria Island 1' and 2 respectively. We will put on the name & christen our vehicles soon - then at last I can burn the annoyingly heavy alphabet-stencil set I've been carrying for that purpose! So, how is the expedition itself going? It is AWESOME. First day we managed a pathetic 1 km, the next day almost 2, and now... wait for it............... (that's both a dramatic pause and the fact that my fingers are getting so cold they don't respond as quickly as I'd like on & off the keyboard).....5.78km, and we only got underway at 12:00. We are finding our rhythm (and finding sore muscles that we didn't even know we had). We also tried listening to our iPods (small portable mp3 music player) while hauling today to help the km's drift past, and it makes SUCH a difference it's incredible. Mind you we only have 1 ear in at a time to keep the other open to listen for bears etc. The landscape we are currently inching through is a cross between an African savannah, a Mars landscape and a nuclear landscape with chunks of ice thrown in for good measure. It's so surreal. Presently very flat as far as the eye can see ground melts into a shimmering haze in the distance where the air plays tricks refracting the light - projecting distorted visions of things out of sight. Caribou on the horizon can be mistaken for giraffe when the light stretches their legs to 3 times their normal size... it's crazy. Boulder's here all look EXACTLY like grizzly bears - sure, perhaps we are a bit paranoid, but when the ground consists of a flat sea of tiny broken shards of shale none bigger than your hand, and then you get the odd massive brown/black boulder... =P Keeps us on our toes. The binoculars you gave me for my 21st Cathy & Paddy - are invaluable! When I say that it's dead flat don't go imagining a dirt road or anything! It's strewn with bogs and boulders - often we are giving it all we've got - leaning all our weight into the pulling harness so that we are almost standing horizontal, our nose only a foot or two above the shale and we grit our teeth and lean further - arms stretched way in front to help add to the counter-balance and use their weight to help out... bogs sometimes require us both to haul one kayak at a time as we slip and slide between the two wheel ruts we carve... Every night about this time a thick heavy mist rolls in around us off the ice, and the scene becomes even stranger. Those bear-rocks loom in and out of sight, and caribou with towering antlers drift in and out of sight around us. Each campsite so far we have been visited by an arctic fox, and today a herd of 6 Arctic Caribou trotted up to us. The bad things? Well our noses are a bit sunburnt (the only thing protruding from our cat-burglar like suits, balaclava & sunnies. We also both have a lingering cold which is on its way to recovery, our GPS died on us - displaying a message to take it to the nearest service centre... (great!), but thanks to some quick advice from Australia (thanks Dad, and Robin Kydd at OceanTalk) it spluttered back to life. (We have a spare GPS but still). We are going to make a fire tonight as we have stumbled upon a rare bit of driftwood. That'll be lovely & warm as we write up our diaries later Oh jeeeeze my back is |<----this close---->| to snapping while I perch here on this silly little freezer-like boulder writing this. I'm going to send this off now - connect to the net via our satellite phone and check our email - thanks very much to everyone who's been sending us messages etc, we enjoy reading them after a hard day! It's contact@1000HourDay.com if anyone wants to say 'hi'. =) That's all... so we are having an unbelievable time; it is a truly amazing corner of the world. What an experience. It's not everyday you take a shotgun with you when you go to the toilet... (Hauling our PACs across a barren landscape) (A Carribou) Back to updates list To send us a message, please contact us anytime!