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