Civilisation! At last!

Well we've reached a small settlement called Jean Marie River. It is a very pretty place about a week's paddle from Fort Providence. We arrived about 9pm last night and had a days rest today. They let us use the showers at the Band office and I'm currently logged on to their WiFi. This is the first time I have been properly clean in over a week and it's amazing! I will never ever take showers or running water for granted ever again. In fact this trip is making us appreciate a lot of things more than we did. Flushing toilets, for example, have now become a luxury and I feel ever grateful to a certain Thomas Crapper, inventor of said flushing toilet. What a genius!

We started off our trip last Sunday being dropped off at Fort Providence. Just as we were loading the boat we got talking to someone who knew someone else and to cut a long story short we were invited to attend a traditional Dene Indian camp about half an hour's paddle down the river. It was a truly beautiful and peaceful place that the local school uses to put the pupils back in touch with their culture and their ties to the land. We were met by shouts of welcome and kindly they fed us and gave us cups of tea. The girls at the camp sang for us and gave us each a tiny bundle of medicines tied in red material with white string. The red is for protection and white is for purity. They had been blessed with their prayers for us on our journey to give us strength and keep us safe. It was touching that they had thought to do this given that we had known them less than an hour. I keep mine safe in my pocket at all times and it has become a source of comfort.
The next day we were allowed to join in a traditional, sacred cleansing ceremony which was an experience I will never forget. For some reason that I cannot get my head around it was a place that made you very emotional and after the ceremony I did actually feel better, more at peace. Whatever the reason, the hospitality and kindness we were shown was astounding and we are very grateful to everyone who was there for letting us be part of such a special event.



Sunset over Mills Lake. Summer solstice about 11pm

 We set off down the river late on Monday evening and unfortunately didn't make camp until the early hours of tuesday morning. We had only managed to do about 8 nautical miles (16km) and we were tired and grumpy the next morning. We woke up late too and so had to do another night paddle. Fortunately it doesn't really get dark here at the moment it just remains dusk for six hours or so but still it was a strain. That evening was the summer solstice and I can say with pride that when the sun set on tuesday 21st of june at 11:34 pm we were paddling Mills Lake. It is a ten mile wide lake with little current to help and it is so vast you can't see where you are paddling to. You just have to keep on going, your paddle strokes slicing the silence rhythmically, and wait for the blue haze to make itself into something solid.

The next few days continued like this. They were really really hard for a number of reasons. We weren't used to the physical effort everything took. Packing up camp is exhausting and takes around three hours. Then we paddle about ten or twelve miles (20-24km) on average though sometimes more. There was virtually no current to help for the first week. In fact it was only yesterday we actually noticed it helping us; we managed around twenty miles. On top of that, Mum and I have reacted to the insect bites. The first five days my hands were swollen up and red and itchy which made doing anything really sore. Mum's face is swollen and puffy - quite painful too. Maya has had a cold and an earache for most of the journey so far and I think Dad is tired trying to make things easier for us to adjust. It is getting easier. Daddy gave me something magic to take the reaction down and we are settling into a rhythm and a daily routine. We get up between 8 and 9 am (no more night paddling thak goodness!) and have breakfast, break camp, pack the boats and we're on the water around midday-1pm. We paddle through the afternoon and look for a place to stop for dinner about five or six pm. Then paddle for another two hours till we find a place to camp.

The thing that really will stick in my mind, and that to some extent I find hardest, is the sheer amount of SPACE. This is one of the only true wildernesses left on the planet and remains virtually unchanged since Alexander Mackenzie journeyed down it in 1789. It is just huge. Hundreds of miles of trees and insects in every direction. At times it feels like you aren't going anywhere at all and you'll never reach land. Sometimes I look up at the great dome of sky and feel like a tiny plastic toy in a snow globe: I half expect some giant to be staring down at me, laughing at us bobbing bravely along in our little boats.

This place is teaching me a lot about myself. So far I have learned of both my significance and my insignificance. I now know how significant I am in terms of my actions because everything I do out here has a concequence. For example,  if I leave the tent open and the mozzies get in everyone is uncomfortable. Also I think I am beginning to understand how much influence I have over my own life because if I can do this then I can do anything I put my mind to. My insignificance is something I have discovered and that has humbled me. In the grand scheme of things I don't matter much because life and nature and the world will carry on regardless. When I put my paddle in the water, the river doesn't part for me to let me on my way. I have to part it with all the strength I can muster.

A few nights ago hardly any of us slept very much. There was a pack of wolves howling somewhere in the dusk of the night. It wasn't scary but I felt like I was tresspassing on their home. It was obvious they belonged there. It is an eerie sound that grows and grows as more of them join in then tails away to one lone end note. They did this almost every hour and each time I woke up and found it hard to drop off again. I was grumpy the next day I can tell you!

Nap-time has become a crucial part of the daily routine

I am really sorry but this is all I can write for this entry and this far North the internet is slow so uploading lots of photos takes forever. The Band office where the WiFi is closes in ten minutes so we have to clear out. We should be arriving in the next settlement, Fort Simpson, in three days so there might be another blog soon if I can get internet. We miss everyone at home but we'll be back soon,
lots of love
Hannah

Thankyou to Doug Swallow

From the moment we got here in Hay River Doug Swallow has been incredibly helpful. He took us to our apartment and at first Dad gave him the wrong address and we ended up a few miles out of town so he had to take us all the way back in again and was very nice about being inconvienienced. He let us use his workshop for the whole of yesterday to unpack our Freight box and on top of that he is going to drive us two hours down to Fort Providence so we can avoid the fast water before Fort Providence as our boats will be very heavily laden and so, hard to control.
He also, very kindly, gave us a proof of his daughter's book which is a guide to the Mackenzie River. It is wonderfully written and will be very useful to us on the trip. For anyone who is interested the book is "The Mackenzie River Canoe Guide" by Michelle Swallow and will be out next month so look out for it.

Doug's Canoe Rental business is based in Hay River - http://www.canoenorth.ca/  (he is the one renting us the  Clipper Trippers) and we can certainly, highly recommend it as an outfitter to anyone contemplating doing this journey, so once again, many thanks to Doug.

Final Preparations

We've fixed our date for leaving Hay River. We leave tomorrow (Sunday 19th of June) and drive to a place called Dory Point. This is at the beginning of the Mackenzie River after the Great Slave Lake. We decided not to do the Great Slave Lake as it saves us about four days paddling and it would have been quite exposed.
So far we have done most of the food and pharmacy shopping but there is a bit more to do which Mum will do today. We need to take about two weeks worth of food with us to be on the safe side.
Our freight with all our equipment that we shipped over in April finally arrived yesterday so today Dad Maya and I will unpack it all then repack it to go in the boats.
We are going to be renting two Yellow 18'6" Sea Clippers which are just like one of our open canoes back home so we don't have to worry too much about getting used to different kit because different styles of boat perform differently and they often feel different in terms of how and where you sit in relation to the gunnel, how much effort you put into each paddle stroke and how smoothly they cut a path through the water. Sea Clippers are lovely boats to paddle. They are fibre glass so are light to carry and move well through the water. They are also quite stream lined and the seats are comfortable. Unfortunately, being fibre glass, they scratch easily and are also slightly higher up out of the water than the boat that Maya and I normally paddle.
 After we have completed the food shopping we have to take all the original packaging off and re-bag it in person/day portions. For example, for breakfast we will most likely eat Bannock which is a dough-like mixture cooked on a skillet. Then we'll have butter and honey on it. It is a good source of carbohydrate which will set us up for a hard morning's paddling. We will have to pre-make the bannock mixture by measuring out the right amount of flour per portion etc and bagging it to be packed. As you can imagine this will be a mammoth undertaking in terms of time and organisation but it is necessary. Dad has bought "Pilot biscuits". He says that it is like a "right of passage" that we have to eat one which, to me, sounds quite ominous. I will, however endeavour to be brave in the face of my first challenge and will report back on this "essential trip experience".

well...they look harmless enough.....

Two weeks worth of food waiting to be repacked

This is our Box

Unpacking our box: it felt like christmas

Checking kit lists incase anything was missing

Laying out the contents of each barrel (everything was then split into two piles one for each boat)

Finally we're finished packing the kit

So, that was Packing in Pictures and we're still packing even though it is now 11:45pm Canadian time. Just now the food is being bagged up. Mum did all the medical stuff while we were doing kit today and when we got back to the apartment we packed personal gear.
We were very kindly invited round to dinner by a couple we met, Jordan and Kathleen Groenewegen. The food was lovely and the company was excellent so thankyou very much to them and their friends and family. This just serves to back up our first impressions of the Canadian people as being extrordinarily friendly and generous.
We leave at about 9:00am tomorrow morning to drive to Fort Providence so it's an early start and a late night because we still have a lot to do!
Well I suppose I should stop shirking and help or something so I'll have to finish this entry pretty soon. I'd just like to point out before I do, though, that as we are setting off and don't know how well we'll be able to access the internet in the next few days this might be the last entry in a while. Then again it might not, we'll just have to see. If you need to, or indeed want to contact us, then the details are on the right hand side of this page and it would be nice to hear from people every now and then.
Until next time, lots of love,
Hannah

Our First day in Canada

I'll just pick up the story from when we woke up on Wednesday morning in Yellowknife. I haven't had such a good night's sleep in a long time. The beds were absolutely huge and quite possibly the comfiest we have ever slept in. The sun was bright and streamed through the curtains. It wasn't until we opened them we realised what a glorious day it was. The sky was cloudless and the view out of our windows was beautiful.


The view out of Hannah and Maya's hotel room

Having put that picture up I'm not quite sure it does the view justice because it was absolutely breathtaking. The land stretches out as far as you can see. It's virtually all flat, no mountains, with just a few rocky hills. There are tiny little lochens everywhere and it seems that the town is built around them with streets and roads weaving in and out between them. It's almost as if the land is the centrepiece of the town; quite different to how we are used to seeing cities and towns where they are a built-up mass that is the centrepeice of the surrounding land. We had a delicious Canadian breakfast in the restaurant. Mum and dad had the buffet but Maya and I had waffles freshly cooked with butter and a small jug of maple syrup and strawberries, blackberries and blueberries.
Then we went for a walk around Yellowknife's "Old Town". Dad wanted to find powdered egg to use as a source of protein on the trip so we went to the town's oldest store called "Weaver and Devore". Unfortunately they didn't have what we wanted but we did buy a bear scaring bell. The old town is enchanting. There's no other word for it. All the buildings are wooden cabins: shops, houses, garages. It is built around a small, rocky hill and has something of the wild and romantic feel you expect a small northern town to have. None of the buildings are the same. Each is individual in it's charm. Some have peeling paint and broken shutters, some are decorated with windchimes or local art and some have a modern feel with huge windows and different levels and balconies. Dad pointed out that this is because people literally build their own houses out of what wood they can find.
Do you remember I mentioned briefly in the last post a woman who put us in touch with someone at the Buffalo Airways office? Well we got in touch with him (his name is Peter) and he offered to let us look around before our flight. We had to be at the air field at 3:00pm so after we got back from our wander around Yellowknife, we loaded all our luggage into two taxis and made our way there. It was a really hot day, so perfect flying weather, and on the flight mum got some awesome pictures from the plane window but first we all got to take pictures of the Buffalo Airways fleet.
Buffalo Airways is a Northern Canadian freight and passenger company that flies classic "warbird" transport aircraft: DC3 Dakota, DC4s and Curtis C47s. They had, just that day, picked up a new additition to the fleet; A CL-215. It is shaped like a boat so can land in water and is designed to fight fires. It can pick up 12000 litres of water in about ten seconds The air-craft hanger was fascinating and, being a bit of an aeroplane buff, Dad was in his element. They even let us climb inside the planes they were working on and have a look around.


The new CL-215



Dad was like a little boy when he saw this



In the Cockpit of the plane that took us to Hay River



In front of the DC3 that took us to Hay River

Each plane in the fleet has a story. The DC3 that we were flying in had dropped paratroopers over Normandy for the D-Day landings during the second world war. If anyone has ever seen "Band of Brothers" then you will know what I'm talking about and how amazing it was to fly in such an historical plane. Buffalo Airways (http://www.buffaloairways.com/) has been involved in a TV series called "Ice Pilots" (http://www.icepilots.com/) and for any of you who watch it, it was "Buffalo Joe" who got us safely to Hay River.
As I've said before the weather was perfect for flying, the sky was cloudless, so Mum got some really good pictures of the scenery below.



Leaving Yellowknife behind

 


Ice on the Great Slave Lake

 After a very enjoyable forty minute flight we landed in Hay River. It was about 6:00pm Canadian time and although not as hot as Yellowknife it was still beautifully sunny. We were met by Doug Swallow of "Canoe North" (http://www.canoenorth.ca/), the company who are renting us the boats among other things, and he drove us to our lodgings.


Having arrived at Hay River. The DC3 is in the background



Our Mountain of luggage

 We are staying in an apartment until we leave on the river. It is quite nice actually and yet again the beds are both huge and very comfy. That night we went and did a bit of food shopping which was actually quite fun because they sell things like White Oreos and other things we can't get in the UK. For dinner we couldn't be bothered cooking so we went to the Ptarmigan Inn. The food was so lovely but none of us could finish it. By this time jetlag had caught up with us and we were sadly too tired to eat. Dad worked out that it was about 4:00am back home in Scotland so no wonder we didn't feel up to eating!
Anyway, that was our first day in Canada; Yet another little adventure preceding the big adventure that is paddling the Mackenzie River.
More later but goodbye for now,

Hannah

Flights, Customs and a distinct lack of sleep: How we got to Yellowknife

Well we made it to Hay River where we hope to start our trip down the river. It took a long time to get here so we are all really, really tired.

Due to the sheer amount of tidying, packing and organisation we still hadn't done Monday was hectic. We set off from home at 2:30 am on Tuesday morning, drove straight to Edinburgh Airport, checked in (which took an hour because we had about eight pieces of luggage) and got the 9:05 am flight to London Heathrow. Thankfully our luggage was checked in all the way through to Yellowknife, NWT so we didn't need to drag it all around various airports. Our flight to Calgary, Alberta was nine hours long leaving at 1:00 pm British summer time and arriving at 10:00 pm. In Canadian time this was about 3:00 pm to which Maya said with utter dismay, "What? I have to go through Tuesday AGAIN?".


A view of Sea ice on Baffin Island from the long haul flight

 Long haul flights are never fun and we all arrived tired and grumpy. On top of this, going through border control we were told by a rather officious man that our luggage had to come off the plane to be checked so could we please pick it up and take it to customs. He was quite rude about it and I think we were the first interesting customers he'd had to deal with all day so he decided to flex his non-existent muscles a bit. Anyway, eight pieces of luggage, four very tired people. Safe to say we were not happy having been told we wouldn't see it until Yellowknife. However we dutifully trudged off to the baggage carousel and then we and our luggage entered the lions den that is customs.
It is important to note that, for protection against bears, we have two firearms and a signal pistol: commence panic and ruffled feathers in the customs office.
The lady who was dealing with us was rude (seeing a pattern here?) and patronising. Behind us were two elderly Asian people who spoke little English to whom she shouted (obviously assuming that the louder she was the more they would understand her) "NO. GET BACK BEHIND THE LINE. I SAID BEHIND THE LINE! GOOD. NOW STAY THERE!". To be fair to her it must be an incredibly stressful job and I think she was frightened of making a mistake with the firearms forms but it was a little unnecessary.
Eventually, after a lot of glaring and sighing on her part, a lot of grim smiles on our part and a much kinder form of service from her boss we (and our mountain of luggage) trundled through to the connecting baggage drop and then out into the rest of Calgary airport.


L-R Frank, Maya, Hannah and Fiona

 Here we were met by the man who organised the transportation of all our kit and also for the kit for the Arctic Voice expedition (http://www.arcticvoice.org/) that Dad was involved in a few years ago. His name is Frank. M. Van Den Broek and we have to say a very special thank you to him as without his help it is doubtful that our plans would have run as smoothly as they have so far. For anyone who wants to do a trip like this in Canada, there are two people who are the people to contact. John O'Brien (http://www.navistar.co.uk/) and Frank himself (http://www.freightco.ca/). We had a coffee and very interesting chat with Frank who, it appears, has done enough in one lifetime to last about three. The picture above is of us meeting Frank. He is seated far left with Fiona far right then Hannah and then Maya out for the count in the back ground (bless her). Having not slept properly since we woke up early on Monday morning (it was now about eleven pm BST) we were incredibly tired and I think it shows in this picture. After Frank left and Maya woke up we had to walk to departures. A seemingly impossible task for such a tired person, she walked the first few yards with her eyes closed being held up by Mum and Dad.


Our artwork on our table-cloth in "Montana's"

 In Departures we had an interesting meal in a steak house called "Montana's". The staff were so friendly. This is one thing we have noticed about Canada so far; everyone is so nice. They chat to you so easily and seem to take a genuine interest in meeting you and finding out more about you and in turn you find out about them and most of the time they are so interesting and with so much to say. Anyway, back to the meal. There was a table cloth that you could draw on (we had fun with that, see picture above) and the menu was fantastic. Unfortunately none of us could fit in a steak as they were HUGE but the food we did have was lovely.
I didn't think and asked for medium sauce with my chicken and medium to them is incredibly hot to me. When I tried to take the first bite the spices were so strong they hurt my nose and I only managed a couple of pieces after that.
We then went through security again. Security in airports is one of those brain numbing experiences you remember little about and by this time we had gone through it about four or five times already on our journey from Scotland to Canada. It never gets any less tedious.
We made our way to the boarding gate to wait for our flight to Yellowknife where we dumped our hand luggage and everyone else went to the shops. I fell asleep. While I was asleep Mum got talking to a lady who was based in Yellowknife. She was a nurse who has been posted in many northern settlements hundreds of miles from anywhere else. It must be a tough job. As it turns out she is due to be married to a man who, until recently, was a pilot for the famous company Buffalo Airways (http://www.buffaloairways.com/) who we were going to be flying with the next day. It is indeed a very small world. She put us in touch with someone at the company who could give us a look around the aircraft hanger but more of that later.
The flight itself was not to long, about two hours, but Mum and I fell asleep as soon as we boarded. We remember absolutely nothing. Dad, on the other hand, was wide awake and according to him the flight took longer because we had to go a hundred miles out of our way to avoid a huge thunderstorm. He says that just as we were taking off there was sheet lightening and forked lightening flashing in the distance and you could see it out the air craft windows.
Nevertheless, we got to Yellowknife in one piece and went through the motions of collecting baggage and getting to the Hotel in an almost Zombie-like state. It was with overwhelming relief that we finally (after almost 48 hours awake and over 24 hours non-stop travelling) fell into some very comfy beds at The Explorer Hotel, Yellowknife, NWT (http://www.explorerhotel.ca/).
I'm very sorry that this turned out to be such a long entry and I hope you weren't too bored with the trivial details I decided to include. I suppose I just wanted to show you what an epic adventure actually getting that far was. There's more to come on our day in Yellowknife and our flight to Hay River but for now we'll say goodbye,

lots of love,

Hannah


The Baggage Carousel, Yellowknife Airport



Yellowknife Airport 11:45 pm Canadian time Tuesday 14th June

It's not long now!

The trip is coming up soon. It's about eight days away now and wow it's getting stressful! We've just spent the entire day running through kit lists and packing personal kit bags. So much to organise! It's unbelievable! We finally found a temporary home for the Guinea Pigs and the Dog too. The cats are going to stay here with someone coming to feed them. Stephen and Fiona are rushing around trying to get all their work covered and sorted before we go and Hannah still hasn't set up her student loan for going to Uni. We also have to clean the house because there are people staying in it while we're away - this is not a fun job. Rooms need to be tidied and Spiders got rid of....we think packing is better than that and that's saying a lot.

There's also a lot of catching up to do with people before we go. Just a last minute "love you lots and see you soon" kind of thing. Three months is a long time not to see everyone and we will miss you all loads.

Unfortunately we leave literally the day after Rockness so Hannah is going to be very very "tired" on the way over. The rest of the family will spend that weekend doing final packing and all that boring stuff.


Anyway, there is a lot to do so we've got to go. End of blog for now :)

The Doughty Family