Expedition Update # 5 - 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: 10/7/05 Time: 8:00 am Position: Well above the Canadian Rockies Summary: Truckers to the rescue Weather: Bright & Sunny Temperature: 20 Deg C Message: Back in the realities of 'hospitallity class' and orange-juice served in plastic cups, we've got a few minutes to fill you in on the last few days in Vancouver as we jet northwards to Edmonton. To our horror, soon after touchdown we learned that Vancouver - in fact the whole of British Colombia - is in the middle of a massive trucking strike. Our expedition kayak/sled/carts are stuck in one of the thousands of shipping containers now piling up on the wharfs... The best guess we could extract from anyone was that the strike could last weeks, and that once ended, it could take 3 times as long as the strike to clear the back-log of containers. Devestated. This is no small stop-work meeting - B.C. is losing $30 Mill a day. We can see the containers from our hostel window... So frustrating. From a cafe we called one of our sponsors, Diamonds North (a company looking for diamonds in Canada's north, including Victoria Island), and discovered they were 2 buildings away! So we walked over and at last met up with Nancy Curry, who has been helping us out these past months. She, and everyone else at Diamonds North was extreemly friendly! Within minutes of hearing our situation she'd called the Canadian Press and had me on the phone relaying information & gathering contacts. Armed with the mobile # for the Trucker's spokesperson and the lawyer representing them, Nancy then took us down to one of the countless pubs and shouted us several rounds as more and more friends of hers turned up. Between '1516's (Canadian Beer), I nipped out to a quiet ally and called the lawyer, and explained our situation. I returned to the table grinning like an idiot. The Lawyer called up the truckers and they agreed to help us out - and will hunt down our container on the wharf from amidst the thousands, and deliver it for us first thing Monday!!!! We are so lucky. Having not slept in 36hrs on the way over, we slept until midday the next day and avoided the worst of the jetlag. Nancy picked us up on Saturday and took us for a drive around. Vancouver has some lovely parts - and some dodgy ones. We soon learnt which bits to avoid, after having homeless guys lurch up to us and ask if our Ortlieb submersible backpacks contained anything expensive. One of the great joys of having expedition team clothing is we get to constantly invent new stories as to what we are. To shifty homeless guys we're either competition runners or kick-boxing champtions over from Australia. =P The number of times we've been asked if we are Australian Geographic photographers, filmmakers, national geographic guys, snowboarding in canada or holidaying... sometimes it's easier to just agree with what they say as explaining takes a long time and only invites further probing with questions. These official-looking sponsor jackets can pull a lot of strings. We wandered up to the equivalent of 'Centerpoint Tower' here, where they charge $9 to ride a lift up to a viewing platform on top of a massive tower mid-city, we just pulled out our fancy video cameras and threw words like 'documentary' and 'Australia' around, and suddenly we were on our way up for free on our own private lift. This is awesome. The plane's heading down (in a controlled manner), so we'd better wrap this up. Us both with some of the Diamonds North team. Back to updates list To send us a message, please contact us anytime!