Expedition Update # 17 - 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: 21/8/05 Time: 10:30pm Position: 70 deg 28.009 min N, 102 deg 33.375 min W Summary: Polar Bear! 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: Not so bad - slight wind, bit cloudy. Temperature: Around 6 deg C Message: "I get the feeling we'll see a polar bear sometime soon...", Clark commented over his shoulder as he left, shotgun in hand, to go to the toilet this morning. It's true - the landscape has been becoming increasingly strange, misty, ice-strewn and bear-ish over the last few days, and the various bear-tracks in the mud have certainly not gone un-noticed... Yesterday was a brilliant day, we tallied up about 9 or 10 km by the time we shut the world out from inside our tent. Today however, started less brilliantly, and progress was once again slow. We'd staggered only 3 km by around 4:00pm - almond nut-break time. As we chewed them from on top of a gravel lump we'd reached, we wandered down to the next expanse of mud stretching out in front of us in the hope of discovering a perfectly paved road though the torment. Suddenly I looked up and on the esker horizon, not 400m from us, right on the skyline was the unmistakable form of a big polar bear. "BEAR!!" I called out instinctively, even before I had time to properly realise myself. Once Clark realised I wasn't joking, we both looked on in awe as the worlds largest land carnivore wandered effortlessly along the esker, not a care in the world - obviously this was his kingdom and he knew he ruled it, and you could tell. He paced along, looking this way and that, occasionally catching a scent and raising his huge neck up into the air to get a better whiff and then strolling on. His gaze fell upon us a number of times - making us feel somewhat small & weak, but then his eyes moved on - apparently uninterested. He was huge and fat - not the typical scrawny skinny adolescent bear that is most often the culprit behind attacks on man - so in some ways this was reassuring. However, when there are no metal cage bars between you and a bear, as there are in a zoo, there is an optical illusion / phenomenon called 'bear-and-me-and-nothing-in-between' that makes the bear seem at least 10 times normal size. It's quite an awesome experience. The polar bear then promptly stopped, sat down, looked around, and lay down - dog style - semi curled up, head resting on his massive paws, about 600m from us, and stayed there. Later he/she rolled onto its side looking at us (or perhaps just in our general direction..?) Once the novelty wore off, we were undecided as to what we should do. Night was coming, we were tired, only intending to struggle across this mud patch and onto the esker (upon which a bear was now sitting) and camp there. Mist was now rolling in off the coast, and the bear still upwind, where as he'd be downwind if we pushed on past him. So we just pitched tent here. Setup the bear tripwire alarm with just a tad more care and precision than ever before, had dinner well away from camp, keeping a watchful eye on the now sleeping bear... and now here we are - in the tent, bear 600m over there (see through tent door, looks asleep to me), shotguns loaded with bear-banger scarers backed up by real bullets in each tent vestibule, bear-spray beside us, and we're going to take turns waking every hr to check that the bear alarm system is still working, and that everything is OK. Goodnight everyone.... *stress*... =) What an adventure. (Top - Eating dinner while keeping an eye on the bear. Bottom - Our first Polar Bear encounter) Back to updates list To send us a message, please contact us anytime!