Expedition Update # 15 - 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: 15/8/05 Time: 11:00pm Position: 70 deg 15.927 min N, 101 deg 53.584 min W Summary: Snow & Wolves 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: Rain & Snow, less windy Temperature: 1 to 5 deg C Message: We awoke today to the sound of snow falling against the tent. Unzipped the tent and sure enough - there, on the tent sides was.. well.. it must have been almost 1mm of snowfall!! Luckily the tent had not collapsed under its immense weight while we slept, and we managed to shovel it off with the flick of the finger, enabling us to now get out of the tent and begin our day. That was close. All fun & games, but in the back of both our minds was the fact that the weather has been getting colder lately, and will continue to deteriorate. So no doubt some experiences ahead! Still, a change is as good as a holiday, and we welcomed the opportunity to set off hauling while the odd snow flake still fell. On our way to the coast, having fixed up the latest repairs, and utilising a rope-system idea that my Dad thought of (Cheers Dad!) to bring the tow loads back into stronger regions of the PAC, we continued on the esker trail to the coast. The eskers started & stopped at will, with no apparent regard or consideration that we might want to get anywhere in particular.. so we waded across several small rivers, climbed small hills and jerked it through boulders along the way. We still can't believe how much the terrain keeps changing here, yet at any one instant; it looks like it goes on for ever. Well we got to the coast, and it's a truly bizarre landscape - flat (as is everything here), but looks like mudflats with mars-like red-weed growing over it, cracked and chapped into a mosaic of tiles off into the distance, criss-crossed here and there by musk-ox tracks terminating in lone solitary bulls silently wandering along up ahead. We headed to a raised gravel section for lunch and stumbled upon more ancient Inuit stone tent rings, with more bone artefacts - see pic below. Does anyone know what this is? This evening while Clark was brewing up some tea I walked the 100m down to the pack ice to try my luck at fishing (we are desperate to catch some Arctic Char, we became addicted to this fish while in Cambridge Bay). I must have been 3 ice sheets out above 2 foot of water, and looked around to see a few white rocks on the beach (beach = mud / stones) probably 400m away I hadn't noticed before. I looked intently and nothing moved. Back to fishing. Then something made me look again a minute later - all were absolutely as still as a rock...but were there more of them now? Were they closer? But they were rocks. Weren't they? Then they moved. Caribou... but they didn't move like caribou, more like dogs. Big dogs. Then I saw the whole situation - I was standing 100m from the tent, with nothing but a fishing rod, and a pack of Arctic Wolves was now loping closer and closer towards me, more and more appearing as I looked on. I called out to Clark, but the wind whipped my words away and he couldn't hear. They kept advancing, perhaps 250m away now. I started walking calmly back towards the tent, calling out loudly to Clark the whole time, and then when I was about 50m from the tent and they were still gaining, I ran for it. Not the best thing to do perhaps, but it was all I could do they were gaining on me faster than I was gaining on the tent. The instant I ran, they ran, and for what seemed like an eternity I scrabbled up the gravel to the tent as they gained and then Clark appeared with bear spray & gun. At the sight of two of us they then hung back, and drifted away. The whole pack - we counted 9 through the binoculars - each one perfectly white, gathered on a hill further away, howled twice and headed off. The biggest - alpha male? - remained on a vantage point looking at us (see photo) until he too, vanished. A very lucky reminder for us both to always carry a gun / bear spray when you wander even what seems live a trivial distance from camp alone.... What an experience. About 45 days left on this adventure to explore & discover. Clark seems to have taken on the roll of expedition cook, and he has become quite the master chef of late - lucky me! Who else knows how to hide ungodly quantities of butter in porridge EACH MORNING, with only 1/2 spoon of sugar... and make it taste so good we crave it? =P (Hauling our PACs across another small river. Thank god for dry suits!) (left - bone artifact we found, top - Arctic Fox, lower - Arctic Wolf) Back to updates list To send us a message, please contact us anytime!