Mike W. Bryant
Northern News Services

NNSL (Jun 25/99) - The Norweta was set to sail for Inuvik once again, Monday, June 21, on the summer solstice.

For many of the passengers who are taking part in the 12-day journey, it was their first visit to the North and for some, it was a welcome return.

First-timer, Margaret Graham, who came with her husband Ron and friends, Peter and Mary Aldred, from Yorkshire, England, thought it amusing that the particular area of town where the Norweta was docked had been given a name that speaks of antiquity.

"When we first arrived I was astounded because the coach driver was talking about Old Town," Graham said. "I understood that it was built in the 1930s, which compared to our home, is very new. Towns around where we live in England are 800 years old or more."

Annaret Van Deventer, from Pretoria, South Africa, came to the Northwest Territories last year as to work as a general practitioner in Hay River.

For her, a trip on the Norweta was just the right kind of vacation she was hoping for.

"I got a job up here through an ad that I had seen in the South African Medical Journal," Deventer said. "It is very hot down there, but after spending a winter here, I find minus 37 more pleasant than plus 37. I think that I will enjoy my visit to the Arctic Circle."

Jean Karr, from Victoria, B.C., simply wanted to go somewhere where city life could be left behind.

"I wanted to visit the North because my grandfather was a homesteader and I like wild open spaces," Karr said, adding, "I always wanted to sail down the Mackenzie."

Thomas Spargo, from Alcomdale, Alta., who was sailing the Mackenzie with his wife, Olga, and his daughter, Lorraine, had other ideas for travelling the river, but when they fell through, taking a trip on the Norweta seemed like the next best thing.

"I built a houseboat and would have sailed up the Mackenzie but my family wouldn't let me," Spargo said. "I put in a letter to Up Here magazine for advice on how to do it, too, and I got a lot of replies. It's an interesting dream."

Fellow passenger, Mary Aldred, feels that Northerners are blessed to be able to live in such a pristine environment.

"You are the luckiest people in the world to be breathing such fresh air and to have all this nature around you," Aldred said. "It's a gem, look after it."