NEWS/REPORTS
| Kivijärvi, Finnland (27.06.08 – 02.08.08) | 17:57:16, 04 Aug 2008 |
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After the organisational and administrative stay-over in Oulu (we finalised our route through Russia and our visas are in the process - See the new detailled route on our website) we've been on the road again for two week and are physically and mentally fit, proven by the distance we've covered lately. We are quite close to Jyväskylä now, walking between 20 and 30km per day and we even broke the 40km barrier the other day ... read more... |
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| Oulu, Finland (29.05.08 – 26.06.08) | 19:09:14, 26 Jun 2008 |
| We’ve covered 1000kilometres (1/8th of our expected total distance) and roughly calculated some of our most consumed items as ”statistics that nobody really needs to know” for pure amusement … read more... | |
| Rovaniemi, Finland (30.04.08 - 29.05.08) | 21:37:42, 29 May 2008 |
| The 300km stretch between Ivalo and Rovaniemi was everything but boring. We left Ivalo with slightly heavy legs - The weather changed dramaitcally over the last few days and spring arrived. Even though there was still tons of snow around, the sun was beating down so intense that one could literally watch the snow vanish. This change in weather also brought us some unexpected problems ... read more... | |
| Ivalo, Finland (08.04.- 29.04.08) | 21:37:59, 29 May 2008 |
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Ale Moras ... "There´s nothing to worry about!" Those were the calming and wise words from Esther, the Sami natural healer and soulmate we met in Polmak after leaving Tana bru and just before entering Finland. Through Esther we could also do a presentation at the school in Auster Tana and we got a few dehydrated meals and maggots fro ice fishing sponsored by businesses in the area. For the cold nights ahead we received two raindeer skins to sleep on and some drid raindeer meat for those Saturdays when all Ruan can think about is watching rugby, eating biltong (South Africá`s dried meat) and having a few beers. read more... |
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| Tana Bru, Norway (16.03.08 - 07.04.08) | 19:08:47, 08 Apr 2008 |
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Everything is white and the air smells like winter leaving the taste of snow behind in our mouths. Only through the yellow lenses of our skigoggles are we able to recognise any dimention in this barren landscape. Icy snowflakes whip against the goggles and sting like needles on our faces at minus 30 degrees Celcius. A strong side wind creates fingers of snow crawling from one side of the tarmac road to the other, dragging a carpet of snow behind it to cover the whole surface within minutes. Our pulkas are drifting all over the road throwing us around over the centimetre thick ice. A storm was brewing all over Finnmark and we, so small and insignificant, became part of this endless white desert stretching to the horison in all directions as far as the eye can see.
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| Start Mehamn (until mid March 2008) | 21:39:29, 29 May 2008 |
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After a stressful start we are now in Mehamn at "Vidar theViking`s Adventure Camp"
The walk to the northernmost tip of Europe (Cape Norkyn) was a success and the expedition officially started as we faced South turning our backs to Norkyn(10.03.2008). We had three and a half adventurous and great days on the peninsula with 2 friends from Baden (Specht & Nico) who joined us for the start. read more... |
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| We just had Christmas! | 10:52:03, 01 Feb 2008 |
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Tuesday the 8th was our Christmas … about 10 times! Back in October we visited a sports shop and put together our “wishlist” from their sortiment ... what an incredible feeling it was when the biggest sports chain in Switzerland, “Ochsner Sport”, personally dropped off that complete list of equipment at our apartment…
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| July till September part 3 of 3 | 14:12:44, 05 Dec 2007 |
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September 07:
In the weeks that we were busy working on the Rolex Award, we realised that that was no ordinary questionnaire. We had to write something like a complete business plan … and all of this in less than a month’s time! Normally I’d give myself about a year to do something like this … but we did not have that amount of time available – we saw the advert way too late!
read more...
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| July till September part 2 of 3 | 20:00:01, 28 Nov 2007 |
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What caught my eye was this picture with ice cold blue tones taken somewhere in the Arctic. Two people on touring skis, alone in a desert of ice underneath a dark cloudy sky with the burning red sky of the early evening immediately touched me. Daydreaming about the Northern extreme … Ruan and me also equipped with skis, alone in nature, silence, where time stands still … With a warm feeling in my heart and a sparkle in my eye I glanced down the page to read the text …
read more...
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| July till September part 1 of 3 | 19:58:26, 28 Nov 2007 |
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There is so much to tell you … the last 4 months simply flew past and every day seemed to be over just after sunrise! We’ll split this newsletter up in three parts and send it off to you with a few days in between … otherwise it would be way too much to read in one go...
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| Slowly but surely … those first steps getting closer! (Sun. 1st July 2007 21:30) | 20:34:35, 01 Jul 2007 |
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A few days ago at the pub we told this American guy about our planned expedition. He showed interest (he’s a teacher for children with disabilities) and without further ado, he stuffed … read more... |
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| The Good, The Bad and The Ugly (5 May 2007 at 15:35:43) | 16:12:49, 05 May 2007 |
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Time for some more news! By the way if you missed the previous (the first) diary letter, see "A Mountain Of Work" below. Please add a comment to our GUESTBOOK, and let us know if we should keep you up to date with our preparation and the expedition itself by clicking on YES at our CONTACT page Sitting in front of the laptop, gulping down a bowl of spaghetti while writing this newsletter, it's always great to share some good news ... read more... |
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| A mountain of work (16 April 2007 at 22:41:36) | 16:10:44, 05 May 2007 |
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We are currently busy with our preparation phase for the "BIG WALK" starting in March 2008! Even though everything currently feels equally important to plan and organise we're trying to focus on getting the right things done at the right time - strange as it may seem, we can really feel the time pressure on us to get everything done before we leave ... read more... |
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