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Last night we let down each of our four tires and did our best to re-arrange their shredded kevlar covers for the last time in preparation for what we hoped would be our last full day of hauling. We went to sleep a little late, about midnight, excited for tomorrow.

We woke to pouring rain. Everything was wet. Water had seeped in through the tent, our sleeping bags were wet, and puddles of water had collected in either side of the tent where the tent floor now overhangs our narrowed carbon hard-tops. I tried to mop up the water using a tea towel rag, and as I peeled back our Thermarests from the manky tent floor and wiped, a disgusting brown/grey bow wave sloshed in front of the rag, a foul bubbly mixture of almost seventy days of accumulated dust, bits of tundra, mud, all forms of bodily hair... Especially now that everything is damp, it smells, and it is quite repulsive in here. More than once this morning we shouted loudly "Get us out of here!" Before sharing a common glance at each other that said more plainly than words "I'm ready for this to be over." Then we'd laugh at our sorry selves, and get on with it. We remembered a saying 'When the going get's tough, the tough get going.' But as Clark pointed out, "I don't see anyone tough around here.." Ha ha. It's true, we're feeling pretty used and abused now =P Any abnormal stretch or foot movement sends us, especially our feet and legs, into painful cramps. Looking forward to a hot bath I tell you what.

Luckily we've learnt to keep our Gore-Tex® pants and jacket ready inside the tent vestibule for just such unexpectedly rainy days, so getting out and about was only mildly traumatic and we were soon on our way, hoods on, looking at the slushy ground in front of us through a cascade of drips from our hood.

Mid morning we made a satellite phone call to a mate of ours in Holman who has been trying to organise a pickup for us by boat - it all looked like it was happening, and this phone call was to just confirm it all and lock in the date... It was the exciting moment we had been looking forward to all morning... but when I made the call, it turned out he'd just discovered the boat's steering system was broken, and couldn't be used for a pickup. He's full of enthusiasm though, and said he'll see if he can find someone else with a dingy, and we're to call him back tomorrow night to see if he has any news. We expect to be there tomorrow afternoon, so... you can imagine how this news crushed our already delicate positive air. Visions of us waiting at the end for weeks were not encouraging, and as far as plane pickup options go, it seems no one has ever tried to land a plane anywhere around here - the closest known landable area being a bit over 30km south of our end point. The idea of getting to the far side, only to then turn and keep walking for another three or four days isn't exactly tempting either =P But, as always, we know it will all work out in the end. A few spare days at the end will actually be kinda fun, giving us a chance to take some pics, explore, and generally not have to haul all day. =) We'll see.

Still the rain poured down, and after reaching the end of a slushy grass region we summited yet another hill to peer down over a large expanse of various little cliffs and gulleys all made entirely from shattered rock. It would have been impossible to negotiate, so we invented a new route, which involved a lengthy climb onto a hill but which would then give us a long run along what looked like our good ol' favorite terrain of dried, cracked earth dispersed with tundra clumps.

We knew something was wrong as soon as we set foot on the hill. The nice hard dry earth was dry no longer. The top inch or so had absorbed all the rain, and had transformed into a strange, ultra-dense and incredibly sticky kind of mud. Every step we took, the surface inch or two of mud stuck to the bottom and sides of our boots, which lifted with the boot and then added to the next footstep of mud, and within three or four steps we'd have enormous quantities of mud, including several rocks as big as your fist, all stuck to our boots and hiking poles, weighing us down as if we had manacles, or perhaps over-sized versions of those leg-weights you can buy to tone your legs nicely during a morning's power walk. It really weighed us down a surprising amount, and slowed us down. Traction also became negligible standing on these stilts of mud, and when it'd accumulated several kilos of mud on a single boot, great hunks would randomly peel off and literally throw us off balance with the weight change. Crazy.

Plenty more ups and downs today, more than the topo map would have us believe anyway. We came to a river and rolled the PAC in, punting towards the far side until, still a good 10m from the bank, the weedy mossy bottom became too shallow and we were stranded. Heaving on our paddles as punts made no advancement, and grabbing the wheels and trying to turn them by hand was similarly useless. Our drysuits were packed away under the hard top, and so I took my boots of, rolled my Icebreaker leggings up and eased myself in. The arch of both feet cramped in the icy water, and the false-bottom of weed let me sink up to my thighs, thoroughly wetting my rolled up thermals. Grumble grumble. =P heaving on the long hauling rope I slowly pulled the PAC to shore where Clark then nimbly stepped off. How's that for service. =P

Passing more terraced cliffs a lone bull muskox played hide and seek with us before he eventually lost his nerve and bolted. We took some solace from the fact that, standing there dripping in the rain, he too looked rather miserable.

Just around 6:00 finish time, the rain stopped. And instead, a blinding fog descended. We were still about 13km from the end, and determined to bring it within striking distance for tomorrow, we decided to push on for another few hours. We were wet through, our PAC and everything on top of it including our bags, our tent etc, was all smothered in sticky mud flung everywhere by the tires, and the thought of clambering back inside our dank, dripping tent seemed even worse than continuing to haul. =P

We're glad we did continue on, as it turned out that Victoria Island had set up a few nasty obstacles for our final day. River crossings flanked by towering multi-layered cliffs of 'moss', sudden drop-offs of seven or eight meters on grassy hills... strange new terrain in all directions. Slowly we inched along, and to celebrate reaching the 10km-to-go mark we enjoyed a hot drink before continuing on again.

The rain came back to accompany the eerie white fog, just as we came along side a large lake that wasn't on our map. We couldn't even see the far side through the veil of fog, and strange hills that also shouldn't have been there loomed ominously around us. Clark then pointed out half a muskox leg. Yup. That's right. Just sittin' there, a hoof, the fresh, fur covered lower portion of the leg, with the long bone protruding out through the mess of tendons and muscle, ending abruptly where something had crunched the bone in half. Ummm.. Yikes. We both peered unseeing into the fog around us. "This place is so creepy..." Clark whispered. I couldn't agree more. We hurried on, down this valley, into the next... until, at last, the fog became so dense, and the random drop-offs so steep and sudden, that we figured we'd better call it a day. We didn't get as far as we'd have liked, but we figured it would be safer to negotiate this kind of madness in the morning, hopefully a lovely sunny morning.

We are now 9km from the West side of Victoria Island, having come 14.5km today. Everything is still wet inside the tent (surprise), and the rain has returned to settle in for the night it seems. We're still able to laugh and joke about it all though, so all is well. Deep inside, we knew Victoria Island was going to fight us to the end, and, we'd be disappointed if it hadn't.

That said though... we want a lovely sunny day tomorrow, ok?

Our live expedition updates are written on our tiny ASUS Eee PC 900 laptops, and sent via Iridium 9505A satellite phones from Landwide Satellite Solutions, using email compression software xGate from Global mareine Networks! Thanks guys - it's the perfect set up!