Chris and Clark’s custom-designed Paddleable Amphibious Carts (PACs) were versatile and tough.
Day 7: Feet lost in loose snow screaming over the landscape, Clark throws his weight into the hauling harness during a whiteout. His iPod transports him to a warmer place: his favourite hauling tunes include The Fumes’ Mystery Belle, The Presets’ Yippiyo-Aye and Bella by Angus and Julia Stone.
This adventure was sponsored by the Australian Geographic Society.
Day 21: Double-hauling the joined carts across pack ice in Hadley Bay, a polar bear hotspot, Chris and Clark passed several nervous bearded seals sprawled on the ice.
Day 1: Clark Carter, left, and Chris Bray hold up the signed AG Society flag they buried on Victoria Island in 2005, ready to carry it onwards to the island’s west coast, and to finish what they started.
A camp-perimeter tripwire alarm relieved the adventurers of most concerns about bears, allowing Clark to prepare the evening’s dehydrated meals and powdered hot drinks in the tent with no distractions except the aromatic – in this case, a combination of sweet-and-sour lamb and drying socks.
Day 70: Musk oxen are usually curious but shy, although lone bulls have been known to charge and kill people – an important consideration when trying to get as close as possible to take photographs.
Chris: “Each snowshoed step broke through the ice into water that froze our pants into a solid mass.”
Day 42: Choosing to raft down the Kuujjua River around the clock, Chris and Clark must keep one another awake to negotiate rapids and push through shallow sections.
Having rolled the PAC into the Arctic Ocean on the western-most tip of Victoria Island, the duo jump for joy.
Victoria Island beat them in 2005, but when Chris Bray and
Clark Carter returned to complete the historic crossing they were armed with new equipment and the knowledge that if at first you don’t succeed, there’s only one thing left to do.