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