A kite and a prayer

AG Society-sponsored adventurers Pat Spiers and Dave Goldie have returned from a tumultuous yet successful kite-sled expedition in north-eastern Canada.

“This latest adventure was a new sort of experience,” Pat says. “Not only was it physically gruelling, but it required continual high-pressure decision making.”

Using custom-made wind-powered sleds, Pat and Dave spent eight days carving across 500 km of frozen Hudson Bay shoreline, 2000 km north of Montreal. Their initial 1600 km journey – intended as a practice run for their upcoming (date as yet confirmed) Antarctic kite-sled expedition – was cut short by a horrendous car accident after only two days in Canada.

“A narrow wilderness highway, black ice, a laden semi-trailer and a hire car with only two winter tyres… let’s just say we are lucky to be alive,” Pat emailed AG Society Administrator Sandy Richardson in April. “Significantly, Dave had seven broken ribs and a fractured sternum.

“We decided that after expending so much effort and time to get that far [to Canada], retreat wasn’t inevitable. After two weeks recovery, we decided to continue the journey rather than return to Australia.”

Arriving in the Cree Indian village of Chisasibi (His-Ah-si-bee), the pair agreed that their injuries prohibited a serious attempt to travel the entire coastline, so they settled for a shortened route. They then clipped their sleds together to form one large “station wagon” style sled, that allowed one of them to rest while the other piloted the kite and steered.

“This was a great way to test out the first aid capabilities of our sled,” Pat says. “An excellent trial for what may lay ahead in Antarctica.”

Having loaded the sled with two-weeks worth of food and fuel, two shotguns, a bear fence [to surround the tent] and six kites, Pat and Dave finally hit the ice.

“The kit-sled worked beautifully,” Pat says. “In only a few knots of very light wind it slithered along at 5–10 km/h. The north-west winds that whipped across the bay were ideal for our needs.”

On the final night of their trip, tucked in their tent as the Northern lights (aurora borealis) swirled overhead, Pat said triumphantly: “These are the sort of days you have when you tie yourself to the wind and carve your own route.”

Dave’s reply – broken ribs and all: “Bloody love it mate!”

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