1000HourDay.com [visit 2005 site]

So since returning home from the arctic and finishing up our Aussie lecture tour, Clark and I have been pretty busy, including one thing that I'd really like your help with!

Clark, as you can see HERE, has re-done his website www.ClarkCarter.com, which now features his upcoming attempt to row solo across the Indian Ocean in 2011 (He and housemate Ryan Storey were going to be rowing it this year as you might remember, but the current economic downturn resulted in one of their major sponsors pulling out..)

I cycled right around Tasmania with my girlfriend Jess, and then I went down to Antarctica as a guest photographer / lecturer / field guide for three weeks aboard the luxury cruise ship Orion which was pretty incredible. Mind you, all those gourmet buffet dinners and lunches, and nowhere to go for a run afterwards... yikes!

I've also delayed my next expedition (www.BountyBoat.com - re-enacting captain Bligh's epic 4,000 mile open boat voyage from Tonga to Timor) due to one of our base managers needing back surgery, so this trip will now be going ahead next April, 2010.

So this left me with a full year 'off' to do whatever I wanted! It almost felt like finishing school again - waking up thinking "Hmmm.. what to do today?" Of course that feeling lasted a few hours, before I'd already overcommitted myself with projects to get stuck into. Writing articles left right and centre about the arctic, cycle touring etc to try and drag myself out of debt from the arctic, I'm working on the 1000 Hour Day Expedition book, Clark and I are going to edit together the doco film hopefully in time for the inaugural 'Tasmanian International Adventure Film Festival' in September, and the Dijon International Adventure Film Festival (Oct), - so keep your ears out for that one! I'm also setting up a photography business and will be running 1-day workshops / courses etc around Australia soon (www.ChrisBray.net), and for the fun of it, I applied for 'The Best Job In The World' - a 6-month 'Island Caretaker' job created by Queensland Tourism to be paid $150,000 to live in a luxury house on Hamilton Island and basically spend my days exploring the islands, snorkelling The Great Barrier Reef and so on, reporting back to the media and doing online blogs / photo diaries every week to share the experience! Not bad!

Almost 35,000 people applied for the job (which involved submitting a 60-second video clip application), from 22 countries around the world. Applications closed a few weeks ago, and somehow, to my enormous excitement, I have just been told that I made it to the top 50 shortlist! Over the next few weeks, Queensland Tourism will select 10 of us to be flown - along with one wildcard entry based on the number of popular votes their video application receives online - to Hamilton Island for face to face interviews...

So you've already guessed what I'm going to ask you to do huh? That's right. If you could PLEASE spare a moment to vote for my video application online at www.IslandReefJob.com/chris , that would be awesome and I'd really appreciate it. You all know I'm good for it – and will write interesting, entertaining blog updates, take good pics and I'll try and imagine what Clark would have done to take great video footage too.. =)

I believe applicants are also selected on how much media exposure they receive about the job over the next few weeks (such a cunning marketing ploy!), so if you're in the media... I'd be more than happy to sell my soul and send photos, do an interview, whatever it takes.. haha =)

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!