Expedition Update # 23 - 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: 20/9/05 Time: 7:30 pm Position: 70 deg 49.344 min N, 105 deg 26.278 min W Summary: Life is good 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: The usual - Cold, snowing and overcast. Temperature: Anywhere between -3 and -8 deg C Message: Hi Hi, All our batteries are running a bit low of late - lack of sun for about a week has not given our solar panels much to play with. Would like to have got an update out sooner but have been squeezing the last drop of power out of batteries just to send out our daily 'still alive and kicking' email to family at home. Better late than never. =P I currently have the huge PAC battery between my legs in the sleeping bag to keep it warm enough to frantically type up this update, pretty much just to let you all know that we're alive and still having an awesome time. Firstly to reassure some of you out there who have been concerned whether we have enough warm clothes etc to deal with this weather as, after all, this was to be a summer expedition - it was just delayed. Well - yes, we are coping fine, even have a spare Icebreaker thermal layer top we haven't even needed to put on yet. Sleeping bags rated to some ungodly temperature and the weather could become a lot colder and we'd remain as snug as bugs in rugs out here. So no need to worry. Next, thanks to everyone who has sent us emails over the past week - we've greatly enjoyed reading them (as always), and we are sorry that we haven't been able to reply to as many as we'd like due, once again, to our low batteries. Last update we'd just made it to the esker, and we continued along it for about 8km expecting to hit a large (obviously frozen solid) lake that we'd just haul over to reach the main length of the esker beyond it. Well - to our great amazement, the lake when we finally reached it in the afternoon, was liquid! Only a short icy border of a meter or so. With forecasts predicting that night to be the coldest yet at -9 deg C there was nothing else to do but seize the opportunity and convert (one last time) to wheels-up mode and paddle across... If we didn't, we risked having it partly freeze overnight (making paddling impossible), leaving us with a several day detour around the lake. Needless to say we were not expecting ever to have to paddle again, so our gloves, drysuit and wetsuit booties had combined into one solid ice-block down the back of the cockpit. On the bright side, we didn't really need the wetsuit booties as the gore-tex socks on the drysuit were frozen like steel shoes anyway - pity about the shape though. So with the temperature hovering at a toasty -3 deg C we slid our PACs into the water and struck out for the far side, about 3 1/2 km away. The wind was on the nose and there were waves, but we failed to notice much, as we were too busy being mesmerised by what happens when you go out for an evenings paddle in sub-zero temperatures. The cockpit skirts froze into a metal casing around us, every splash on deck glazed over and froze in place, drips formed ever growing icicles from our wheels etc, our gloves and drysuit became as if someone had smothered them in epoxy resin as they transformed into suits of glossy thick armour... and every paddle stroke my hand shaved off a new ice coating on the paddle shaft. It was an incredible experience. Some sections of the water were like paddling through a 'slushy'. The only problem was we had to pour boiling water over various parts of the PAC the next day to let us fold the wheels back down and chip off several kgs of freeloading ice on the deck. We reached the far side, and paddled into a little inlet / side lagoon through what must be one of the most impressive entrances we've ever seen. Straight out of Lord Of The Rings, we paddled through a 10m wide gateway formed by two huge snow-clad hills that plunged into the water on either side. Mumbling something about "yes my precious.. we'll be there soon.." we rammed our PACs up to the shore and stepped out and began taking pictures. This world we now find ourselves in on the far side of that lake is one of the most spectacular and beautiful I've ever seen - a true arctic paradise that has to be seen to be believed - I wonder if we're the first humans ever to have had this privilege? It seems paddling was indeed the right thing to do - overnight the boundaries of the lake froze, and a day later the entranceway had entirely frozen solid. Yet another spot of good luck we've had! So since arriving here, our main task has been to hunt down a suitable place where a plane could land to pick us up - it's day 54 now so we are drawing near the end of our allotted 65 days out here. We're now going to be picked up by Adlair Aviation based in Cambridge Bay. The plan is for the 26th, leaving a few days spare food for bad weather. We've spent the last few days going out on day ventures exploring the land, ticking off the last bits of filming and photographs we want as we scout for a potential runway. And we've found one! About 2 1/2 km from here is as flat, level and long a spot as we could hope to find. Who'd have guessed it - a few weeks ago the Victoria Island we knew was a totally flat landscape horizon to horizon, and now that we need a flat spot... we are suddenly surrounded by towering mountains and valleys. (When I say 'towering' our sense of height has no doubt been somewhat distorted of late). So we've declared tonight’s campsite the furthest North, and furthest West, we'll ever haul our PACs. Definitely cause for celebration! We found a scenic spot 1/2 way down the face of one of these towering mountains, perched on a frozen tussock and cracked open our mini hotel-sized bottle of 'Grand Marnier' liqueur we've hauled all this way for just this moment. Amazing how potent 0.8 standard drinks can be after 2 months out here! =P Good times. Not much to report in terms of wildlife encounters - everything seems to have left this part of the world - no Caribou, no Geese... just the odd wolf, fox and lemming track in the snow - revealing an energetic cat & mouse style hunt where the lemming tracks dive into a little hole, only to have it caved in just a few inches later by the paws of an arctic fox. This can go on for many meters. Lucky we've become a little less hungry of late, else I'd have dived through the tent floor under my head last night, where a lemming had burrowed its way right under my neck and lay there for hours, fidgeting, whirring and generally making itself at home while I tried not to laugh / squash it. Silly little things - I have no difficulty imagining herds of these animals marching headlong off cliffs as apparently they do in the cartoons... not the brightest of animals. As this spectacular region now marks the endpoint to our expedition, (a very fitting one), as a little memento / reminder of this incredible once in a lifetime journey out here, we climbed to the summit of one of the two unnamed Lord Of The Rings 'gateway' mountains and piled a few rocks together in a cairn, in which we left a short note, and our spare Australian Geographic Society flag, signed and dated - for anyone who might wander past this way in the next hundred or so years. That's enough of this extended sit-up I have to do in my sleeping bag to write these updates, so we'll send this off before the battery dies for the night... Looking forward to a few days of well-earned rest and exploration of this paradise within a paradise before we get whisked back to the real world. Cheerio! (Overlooking spectacular scenery we crack open our mini bottle of Grand Marnier to celebrate the furthest point hauled, marking the endpoint of our journey.) 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