Expedition Update # 26 - 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: 8/10/05 Time: 10:00am Position: 33.625 Deg S, 151.331 Deg E Summary: The Final Update! 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: Sunny, a few clouds, hot even!!! Temperature: +25 deg C Message: It doesn't snow all that much on Victoria Island - it's just that the snow lingers on the ground and gets blown around, perpetually moving across the open tundra - that is, until someone puts a tent up in the way. It's then that the snow builds up, forming massive 'snow-tails' on the downwind side of the tent and PACs. The snow too, is also quite happy to find it's way underneath the tent and inside the vestibule in ridiculous quantities overnight. We discovered all this the hard way on Sunday morning when we awoke and unzipped the tent-flap to check on the weather before calling our pilot again from Adlair Aviation. As we flung open the vestibule, a wall of snow fell in on us, inside our cosy sleeping bags. Brilliant. Things didn't seem good for a pickup today either. Remaining ever hopeful I called Willie Laserich - the pilot - at 10:00 and he thought it best to wait until the next weather forecast at 11:30, and I should call back then. Bit of a dilemma now - could we keep fasting for that blood sample until 11:30 in case he could pick us up? At best we'd probably not be in Cambridge Bay until 3:00.. that'd mean fasting for 21hrs. That may sound hard - but I assure you the thought of arriving in Cambridge Bay an having to remain on hiking rations and then fast again that night... when we'd be surrounded by a glut of unrationed food... that would be far harder. So we decided to wait, hoping desperately that he would be able to pick us up today. So we just lay there in our sleeping bags, listening to the wind outside grow ever stronger. Come 11:00 we leapt out for a bit of filming and re-check of the weather - poor visibility (less than a km), wind about 25km/hr, and a very low cloud ceiling but a few hopefull patches of clear sky...! I called Willie one final time on the sat phone and relayed this to him. He said that the weather was not good in Cambridge Bay, but it might be ok... "We'll leave about 12:00... so keep an eye out for us about 1:00 ok?" ~ "What?!?! You're going to pick us up!??!" ~ "Yes, I'll be at your place at 1:00. See you." AWESOME!! A grin spread across both our faces as I explained what just happened into the video camera. Go Go Go!! Things to do! Empty the tent and shift it from the middle of the runway to the side, do all the last minute filming, trample flat the huge snow tails now spread out across the runway, organise the blood sample at the medical centre... While all this was going on, the weather deteriorated. The visibility basically halved, the patches of blue sky vanished, and then it started to rain freezing drizzle. Ignoring this, we finally ticked off the last job and sat there on our PACs staring into the fog towards Cambridge Bay, with the camera rolling. 12:50 ... 1:00 ... 1:05... Then we heard it! The dull drone of a plane grew louder and then the ghostly outline of the twin otter slid past behind a thick veil of fog, almost invisible although quite close. The plane carried on, turned around and flew back. The hum of the engines faded into the distance and we were left there staring blankly into the video camera. While we stood, stunned mullet style, trying cope with the fact that we'd missed breakfast and lunch for no apparent reason, the sound of the engines again rose up above the wind. This time the plane spotted us, turned around and flew past again and again, lower each time, checking out our homemade runway. In actual fact, Willie told us later, he was trying to SEE the runway - freezing drizzle had frozen over the windscreen and he couldn't tell how high off the ground he was, so it was almost like `fly past... nope, didn't hit the ground... try lower...` After about 5 passes Willie opened the flaps up, and swung in very low for the landing. How anyone could land a twin otter with tundra tyres on 500 feet of frozen tussock on the best of days is nothing short of amazing - yet in front of our eyes Willie set this plane down on no more than 100 feet of tussock, with ice obscuring his windscreen, and only mid-sized tyres. On top of all of this, the wind had swung almost exactly side-on to our runway. Oh, and he's 73 yrs old and has been flying for 49 years. Willie - you're a legend!! We hauled our PACs for one last trip, over to the plane where Willie and his co-pilot Scott welcomed us and helped us take the wheels off, unload and lift them into the body of the plane. Every seat in the plane had been removed to make room, save 2 little seats for us at the front. Everything fitted in snugly (except Clarks legs - it must be annoying being tall), and Willie lurched the plane to the start of the flat region and gunned it. I was convinced the wheels would be smashed off as each frozen tussock exploded against them as we began the ... began the... the.. how did that happen? We were already in the air after seemingly only 5 seconds on the runway! No wonder Willie is regarded as one of the last true arctic legends. We gazed out of the window at the frozen expanse passing below and it was then that it hit us just how isolated we had been, all alone, just 2 figures wandering the barrens with no one else for hundreds of km. Over a scotch at his house the next day Willie backed up this feeling, commenting that with the weather the way it was, the only reason he landed 'was because you just looked so sad down there'. I can imagine. Although in truth, we have never been happier. It's pointless to try to explain in words what it was like to undertake this adventure - words just don't begin to do it justice. Almost every day it would be fair to say we had at least one life changing experience, and every night we'd lay there in awe at the things we'd been lucky enough to have seen, to have done, to have experienced. Life felt so much more alive out there - and that's why we were there, and why we'll do doubt find somewhere else to go in the future - to live life to the full. For now though, as we enjoy the comforts and warmth of friends and family, food, showers etc... the next stage of this journey should keep us entertained for a good while yet - writing articles, learning how to make a doco, perhaps even writing a book... All these will no doubt be another steep learning curve, just like the 10 months of organising for the expedition, and the expedition itself - as a good friend emailed us while out there: "All things in life are simple - it's realising how simple they are that can be hard". This trip for us has definitely made us realise that with a bit of enthusiasm and dedication, anything in life is possible. Our brief stay in Cambridge Bay was fantastic - thanks to Helen for our first true meal (roast pork!!), to Alex & Tracy for generously opening up their house for us to stay and cooking us fantastic meals, hosting parties etc... and to all our other friends in Cambridge Bay - you made our return to the real world just as we'd dreamed it would be. Thanks! From Cambridge Bay we went to Vancouver for 4 days and met up with a whole lot of people there, friends, sponsors, media, schools... Thanks to Nancy @ Diamonds North for organising discounted hotel accommodation for us right in the heart of town. We met with Paul & his lovely family who managed to get our PACs out of that truckers strike all those months ago (the strike went on for another 1.5 months after we left!!!), Janine, Julie, Matthew... the list goes on and I'll forget someone if I try to mention everyone.. so... suffice to say THANKYOU to everyone who had anything to do with our expedition. You've changed our lives. If you click on our location map above, you can see I am back in sunny Australia thanks once again to Air Canada! Clark is with his parents for a few more days in the USA and will be flying back here in a day or so. Unfortunately, here ends the last update from Ocean Frontiers 1000 Hour Day Expedition. I hope you've all enjoyed reading these as much as I've enjoyed writing them. 'Till next adventure.... Cheerio. (Snow buildup in the tent vestibule overnight. Note my 'shoes' on the left.) (Top: Snow-tails form downwind of our PACs. Bottom: Our chartered plane back into civilisation) (Our first human contact from the outside world - Willie Laserich and his co-pilot Scott McClellan from Adlair Aviation. Brilliant landing guys!) Back to updates list To send us a message, please contact us anytime!