Sunday 6th July

As the sun went down, just before midnight we donned our PFD's and warmer clothing and headed out into the lake. Ten pelicans flew by, between us and the fiery red sky. The lake was calmer than the previous night so steering the canoe was much easier. At one of stops a black coyote or wolf came walking along the shore towards us, it wasn't at all frightened. Eventually after getting around 15 metres of it, it slipped into the forest.

We were both tired from the lack of sleep so we were nodding off. I thought about singing to keep awake but I didn't want to annoy Tony, in hindsight it may have been a good idea!!

A long narrow streak of cloud was lashed with a deep redness as the sun came up at 4.30 a.m.

The lake stayed calm, we reached Hay River after doing 39kms at 7.30 a.m. Relieved to be there we were now ahead of schedule and here before the 'girls'.

Harbor House where we were meant to be staying when the 'girls' arrived was right in front of where we had landed. We booked in and had a hot shower and a bed to sleep off three days of lack of sleep.

Ahead of schedule, we now have a few days to rest up.

We left Jasper after lunch on the 6th June and arrived in Hay River before breakfast on the 6th July.

Saturday 5th July

The sun had just set before midnight and the wind had calmed though not completely. We pushed out heading out to the bay and towards the red sky on the horizon and then slowly moved in a more westerly direction. The wind was still strong enough to be a nuisance so steering was still an issue.

We stopped at a handful of places to pee, stretch our legs and have nibbles of fruit and nuts. By 4.30 a.m. the sun was rising again, it never did get completely dark.

By 8.30 a.m. the wind was quite strong and the wind waves and the wind swells increased with every passing minute. With no rudder apart from my arm straining to be one, I let the boat run with the swells, then when the big waves had passed I headed the boat in the direction of the waves which were usually headed towards shore. Like in the ocean the waves seem to get bigger and more confused when rounding points. So for safety sakes, I stayed well away from them. In my experience going a kilometre or two in distance to be safer is the best option. But Tony didn't share my view, he wanted to keep closer to the shore. I tried to compromise by slowly bringing the boat around closer to shore by using the waves. But by doing so, I was caught off guard by a big wave that broke over the top of us and twisted the boat around. Because the waves were directly behind us, I couldn't see them approaching. Luckily we both braced hard although the canoe went further over than I would have liked. This was probably the closest I'd come to capsizing in ocean like conditions in years.

We finally came to Buffalo River and after surfing across the sand bar, we made camp. We tried to sleep that afternoon for another midnight run. Thirty seven pelicans landed at the river mouth as we were setting up camp. We had paddled around 49kms today.

Friday 4th July

Left by 8.00 a.m. The Lake was calm. We stopped on a rock island which turned out be a seagull rookery with a great number of chicks.

The wind increased and the conditions on the lake deteriorated and so by midday it was too rough to paddle. We had only paddled 20kms when we found a neat spot in Dawson Bay to sit it out. We decided that to cover the distances we need, we would have to paddle at night when the wind seems to calm down.

Thursday 3rd July

Paddled down the channel with ducks and loons flying and landing in front of us. Saw this giant of an owl that flew ahead of us a couple of times and perched in trees close by.

We reached the Great Slave Lake after two and half hours of paddling in the channel. There was a fairly light side wind and it took us a further two and half hours to reach Fort Resolution. It looked a fantastic place from the Lake it appeared to have a number of new buildings.
We landed on the local beach, not quite to Perth standards but up here, it was a magnificent beach.

Tony wanted to stay the night but I was concerned with the weather and wind stranding us halfway along the lake. We still had a 142kms to paddle to get to Hay River to meet the 'girls' so I felt it important that we keep going.

We did a little bit of shopping and talked to a local teacher and his wife, had a bite of lunch and took off across the bay to Little Buffalo River 20kms away. We were told that this was a particularly beautiful spot.

Paddling was good for the first hour, then the wind came in and the wind waves increased in size. The next thing we knew, we were paddling in pretty rough conditions. Waves were breaking over the canoe and at times with such force that they pushed in our spray decks allowing water to enter the canoe.

Because the waves were coming from an angle, it was really difficult to keep the canoe on a straight course and it wasn't a good idea to surf down the big waves which could potentially cause a capsize.

Although I am used to paddling in such rough conditions, I think Tony was relieved when we entered the Little Buffalo River without a capsize.

Cold and wet, we came across a lot of shacks with no one home. A little dejected we went on a bit further and then found a cabin with a number of people. They invited us to share their fire and have coffee and to eat sow belly, potatoes, onions and if we wanted, hunks of pork steak. Immediately our spirits were lifted as we got out to join. This was Terry, his family and group of friends who were very welcoming. They were on holidays from Manning in Alberta.

We left them around 9.45p.m. and set up camp at a nice campsite a little further down river. Today was another testing but yet, a good day.

Wednesday 2nd July

Ducks and seagulls were chattering early again there were no mozzies.

We had to work out a system so that Tony didn't get his feet wet, because he had an infected big toe. We tried to find logs to place into the water to use as stepping stones to get into the boat.

After taking off, we noticed a coyote swimming swiftly across the wide river, we caught up with it about 50 metres before the shore. It reminded me of myself as it was grunting and groaning as it swam. His eyes reflected a sense fear, little did he know that he had nothing to fear. Once on shore, he took off like the cartoon character the Road Runner.

We saw several magnificent bald eagles.

I had taken my shirt off yesterday and today my belly has pink and white patches of where my tummy rolls had been exposed and shielded. Now I know what a zebra feels like.

On the positive side, it's made me look at my belly and much to my surprise and delight......its looking somewhat flatter.

Much better today as there was much less wind and even swifter water at times. We saw a bear on a log but it didn't hang around. We are now close to the end of the Slave River and are in the Delta. Camping places are non existent. It seemed as if we were in for a rough camping night when suddenly we saw a white picnic table and old cabin and a flat area to camp on. God must be shinning on us today!!

Some locals from Fort Resolution came down for a drive and told us that we could paddle down the channel which was a short cut to the Lake.

At this campsite there were many mozzies and 100's of dragonflies, the odd kingfisher but it was a much better campsite than we could have imagined finding in such a location as the delta.

The locals though, did mention in passing that it was sometimes a favourite location for bears!!

Tuesday 1st July

It was 'Canada' Day today, but we didn't even see a sole.

There were small logs drifting by, bobbing up and down and with some imagination, they looked like people having difficulty swimming, I felt like putting my hand out to rescue them!!

The wind had eased today. It made me chuckle when a bunch of young, mature geese 100 of metres away tried to get away from us by running along the shoreline, jumping logs, hopping into the water and back onto shore until eventually they ran out of shore. Then a couple of them tried climbing the sloping sand cliff without success. When they realised that we had gone by and had nothing to worry about they stood there watching us.

It was a better days paddling, and we found a low, damp sandbar to camp on and today we covered 74kms. We hoped that there wasn't going to be flood in the night!

Monday 30th June

Not a good day for this last day of June. The wind was strong and the side wind made is extremely difficult to keep the canoe tracking straight. It meant that I had to perform many half draw strokes and sweep strokes which, after hours on end began to create a niggle in my shoulder blade.

The clouds moved in, it soon became misty, bitterly cold and then to top it of, it began to rain.

We had lunch sheltering behind a big tree trunk that had been washed up, using this to try and shelter from the weather.

The day didn't look good and progress was slow but again we found a decent campsite under a sloping sand cliff and once again, there were no mozzies.

Today we had seen eagles, geese, ducks and ducklings but only covered 67kms.

Sunday 29th June

With the relief and excitement of all the rapids and the hard lifting behind us, we can now focus on the hard slog to the halfway mark. The river head is destined to become wider and slower, a dismal thought when we still have lots of kms to paddle.

The wind started of strong and became stronger as the day wore on. Our day brightened when we met a very vivacious lady at Salt River who filmed us during our rest break and was interested to know everything about what we were doing. She went back to her nearby village and returned shortly after bringing with her three elders to meet us. They still live their traditional ways and don't want to see their surrounds nor culture change.

Leaving the boat ramp we met a family who said that we should call into their cabin when we passed. We took up their invitation and had an enjoyable lunch with them and during our conversation we learnt a great deal about the country. During the winter months, Earl, the owner of the cabin is a trapper.

Leaving the cabin we headed into an extremely strong wind, we did less kms (59kms) that day but found a great sandbar for camping that didn't have any mozzies.

Saturday 28th June

Well, I couldn't not portage and Tony was adamant that he didn't want to portage. The solution was naturally, a compromise!

I left the camp early in the morning with the canoe on the trolley (that we had bought in Vancouver for this very purpose), some gear in the canoe and I carried my pack on my back. Tony and I had agreed that whatever distance I covered when the portage lift guy and Tony came by, I would put the canoe on the car. I had happily covered 13kms along the gravel road before they came. It was a pretty hard slog but for me, this is all a part of the journey. Once the canoe was loaded onto the car, I continued the portage with my pack still on my back. I walked quickly as there was also a few extra kms to cover as the canoe was being taken to the river edge which was a couple of kms out of town.

Whilst on the first part of the portage, there was about four cars that passed me. One car that passed changed to reverse and as it drew up beside me, an aussie accent greeted me. Amazingly it was a young man called Josh Singleton, who was over here staying with a guy called Dave Gemmell. These guys had met during Dave's three year stay in Perth. It was great to meet someone that I knew and Dave was very welcoming too.

The boys mentioned about the 'Spit Roast Pork' night (the barbeque that we were invited to at Fort McMurray) and said we should come along. Dave also invited me to have a shower at his place once I got into town. I gladly accepted the offer. By the end of the day I had walked almost 30kms and at midnight just as I was about to get into my tent, a guy approached me asking if I could help him get his car out of a bog which was a km or so away. Unfortunately the car was bogged too deeply and we needed to get a vehicle to pull the car out.

Tony, Terry, Dave and Josh along the banks of the Slave River

The following email and the image above was sent from Josh:-

G'Day
My name is Josh Singleton, I am a West Australian born and raised and a kayaker (also a member of Ascot Kayak Club). however I am currently in Fort Smith, North West Territories, Canada staying with a friend, Dave Gemmell, who spent the last 3 years in Perth. But today, June 28th, on our drive out for our daily paddle I saw a person walking along the side of the road, and blow me down it was non other than Terry Bolland! Terry was on the portage around the major rapids of the region. With up to grade 5 rapids in the region on a one kilometer making scouting next to impossible, a portage is the safest option by far. After a short chat with Terry along the road he continued into town as Dave and I went for our paddle. Later in the day we met back up with Terry and met Tony. We went back to Dave's house where Terry had a fresh shower, Tony declined the offer, having already had a bath in the river. Luckily the local french community of Fort Smith was putting on a pork spit roast so we all headed down and enjoyed some good food, cold beers and good conversations. Whilst there Terry and Tony also got interviewed by the local newspaper, the Slave River Journal (http://www.srj.ca/). Terry and Tony both seem to be in high spirits and motivated to keep going strong. Attached is a photo of Tony, Terry, Dave and myself beside the Slave River at the Fort Smith boat ramp where they will set camp and spend the night.

Friday 27th June 2008

We've arrived at the start of the 25km section of rapids on the Slave River. The weather has been pleasantly warm though the water speed has slowed down.

Tony and I are wanting to do differnt things at this section, I want to portage and Tony wants to get a lift. For me, my expeditions are about pushing myself and doing it without any vehicle assistance and so I can't see myself accepting a lift. At this stage we're discussing just how this portage is going to work for each of our needs.

I'm looking to do the portage tomorrow so stay tuned to see how we've resolved this issue!!

I can't believe how quickly time has come for the 'girls' to join us, Leonie has already left Perth and is now in Sweden catching up with her son. Alaine is still at work, coping with organising the end of financial year stock take, group certificates as well as getting the quarterly BAS statement finalised. When I think about it, Tony and I left just at the right time!

Tuesday 24th June 2008

Here we are at Fort Chipewyan, Tony and I have just finished a meal at the local cafe, service was very quick.......there was just the two of us.

We're camped on a beautiful beach with glorious sand under our feet and not the mud that we've almost become accustomed to. The weather has been sunny, it's so nice to have after the last couple of days of cool and drizzle.The scenery is quite lovely and not unlike Albany in Western Australia.

We met a guy who lives in Fort Simpson, which is our next village after here. He said there's a barbeque happening on Saturday night and that we would be welcome along if we get there in time. Distance to there is approximately 200kms but we're heading onto the Slave River where we've got the big, long rapids (grade 4's and 5's) coming up on this section. I expect we'll be portaging and the last portage of 1.5 kms took us five and half hours!!!! Maybe the thought of a barbeque will inspire us to hasten up our portages.

Sunday 22nd June

We've had a couple of good days on the water and the mozzies haven't been in the plague proportions that they were......I can almost enjoy my daily constitution!!!

Expecting to be in Fort Chipewyan in a couple of days, have no idea of what the place is like. We still haven't seen any bears I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not.

Friday 20th June 2008

We managed to leave Fort McMurray with all our goods intact!

Time on the river was much slower today as the water flow has reduced considerably. We camped on an island a kilometre from the Suncor work site (Suncor is a mining company that mines the sands by the Athabasca river.........and sadly the landscape is ravaged by this mining).

We were there for about three hours, during that time an employee of Suncor had been driving up and down on the mainland opposite to where we were. Just as Tony was about to hit the sack at around ten past ten, a car pulls up opposite us, and a fellow gets out and with the aid of a megaphone shouts "You are on Suncor land and you cannot stay there, you must move on." He repeated this a few times, and only when he saw us packing to leave did he then get back into his car and drive off.

We couldn't believe that an island could be a part of their property but as we were visitors we felt that we had no choice but to move on. We were far from impressed at having to pack up our gear and get back into the canoe at that time of night. By the time we had packed up and got back into paddling gear the sun had set. We paddled off downstream wondering why on earth someone from Suncor didn't mention this to us as soon as they saw us there. As we passed the site with chimneys, lights, noise and smoke billowing out of the stacks and actually being able to taste the pollution we just wondered why anyone would want to work there (it could only have been for the good dollars). Although the site looked a futuristic and unsightly landscape, the setting sun and smoke haze blended together and created a strange but oddly beautiful scene allowing us to momentarily forget the damage and pollution caused by this type of mining.

Luckily some 5kms or so downstream we found another little island where we had to erect the tents with a plague of mozzies attacking us.

Thursday 19th June 2008

Wow......Tony and I have paddled all of the Grand Rapids with just one portage.......and I have to say, it's quite an exhilarating feeling!!

The Old Town canoe has been a great choice, it's felt stable even with its heavy load of gear. Today, as we paddled on one section of the river it looked like the river met the horizon and as we paddled along I decided that we would move over to the left hand side. We paddled across easily but as we got over, I saw the ledge. My mind raced as I thought "Oh no, I've done the wrong thing here" then verbalising "Oh Shit"and the tone used to verbalise certainly left Tony with no doubt that we were coming into something pretty big.

Well it was big, in fact in was a huge, huge, massive wave that spanned almost the entire width of the river. From where we were, it towered above us like a double decker bus and Tony and I had no other option other than, straighten the canoe, drop over the ledge and head straight into it.

The volume of water that slapped into Tony and onto our deck was immense. Once through it seemed like we were padding down into a valley, it was quite a spectacular feeling. Coming out of it felt as though we were trying to climb Mt Everest and it seemed to be taking forever. We had no idea what to expect once we climbed on top of the wave or what the next wave would be like. Fortunately it didn't get any worse and the waves dissipated and the river continued with its fast flow.

The fact that we came through the rapid unscathed though very wet can be attributed to some excellent paddling and given that Tony hasn't paddled anything like this before, he really needs to be congratulated. Having said that however had we known what was coming up, there is no way we would have done it. I think both Tony and I have strained buttock muscles after coming through this rapid that must have been a grade four!!

As Tony and I shot the last rapid, I looked back at an amazing scene . The two mountain ranges met and I could see a valley with the river flowing down. It appeared as though we had closed one door and opened another because as I looked forward the scenery was quite different.

We are now in a motel room in Fort McMurray after being advised against camping in this town and our canoe is behind a fenced area along with a float plane. Fort McMurray is a mining town that unfortunately has a fairly large problem of antisocial behaviour and petty theft. The town itself isn't unpleasant though I haven't yet had a good opportunity to check it out properly.

We are staying for only one night and will be back onto the river tomorrow. Though I must admit having a hot shower is a very special treat and, we've taken the oppotunity to do some laundry!!

Tuesday 17th June 2008

We managed about 32kms today which wasn't too bad given that the day included a portage of five and a half hours. The portage was a tough one and really hard work. There was a steep hill of about 300m high which we had to carry our gear up and over. We must have been the first ones through for this season as there weren't any tracks of where anyone else might have come through. We made the trek several times before finally getting all our gear over. Then the final trek of bringing the canoe, Tony and I dragged the canoe with ropes it must have still weighed about 50kgs!

The numbers of mozzies didn't make the portage any easier, they're in plague proportions!!

We did five rapids which went quite well and we'll be approaching more over these next couple of days. The canoe feels really very stable and is handling well through the rapids.

All in all, today has been one of the toughest to date.