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Dave Sullivan
Northern News Services
Yellowknife (July 30/01) - News/North recently met five graduating university students from England who rested overnight in Fort Simpson. They're canoeing to Inuvik. A web site they set up calls the Mackenzie the "river to the end of the earth."
 British canoeists Michael Faulkner and Paul Crank. They call their adventure down the Mackenzie River "Hydrodyssey 2001." - Dave Sullivan/NNSL photos |
Michael Faulkner: We all live in the Bolton area. It's barely on the map because there are only 350,000 people there. It's near Manchester.
N/N: If it were in Canada it sure would be on the map.
Faulkner: Yes, there's not as many people here, and everyone's all spread out.
N/N: So you're all graduating from university this year. Are you all taking different things?
Faulkner: Yeah. Geology, physics, law, things like that.
N/N: Have you taken trips like this before?
Faulkner: Last year we explored Greenland.
N/N: So you've been friends for a long time?
Faulkner: Yeah, for years up until last week.
N/N: Why did you choose the Mackenzie River?
Faulkner: I took a holiday in Canada last year and read the guidebooks for Alberta and the Northwest Territories. I was reading about the Mackenzie River and thought that could be quite fun. I looked into it more and it sort of just developed into a plan.
N/N: How did you find out about things to help you plan, like where to rent boats?
Faulkner: Mainly the Internet. We put up a web site (www.mackenzie 2001.co.uk) and a lot of people e-mailed tips.
N/N: How did people know about your site?
Faulkner: Don't know. We set up some links with Hay River, and that helped. People who do a search for the Mackenzie River, it should come up.
N/N: Have you caught any fish?
Faulkner: We've got a Wal-Mart pole with a six-pound test line. No. The closest we came was when we dropped a cereal bar in the water and the fish grabbed it.
N/N: Where and when did you start?
Faulkner: Hay River on June 29. We have to get to Inuvik by August 9 because that's when our flight leaves. Actually the day before, so we can return the boats to Peter Clarkson.
N/N: Why did you make a catamaran out of two canoes?
Faulkner: Safety. There are five of us, and that would mean one of us would have had to paddle alone. It's a very stable platform.
N/N: Do you have a sail?
Faulkner: Yes, we use a tarp. We haven't been using it for the past two days because the wind has been blowing in the wrong direction.
N/N: Are you making good time?
Faulkner: About 30 miles a day. We've gone ten miles per hour in some places. We want to bump it up to 40 miles a day. At the moment we're paddling nine hours a day, because of the wind.
N/N: How much is the trip costing?
Faulkner: We're lucky because we're being sponsored by a trust. They helped us on the Greenland trip too. We have to write a report
when we get back. They gave us a thousand quid each.
N/N: What's a quid?
Faulkner: I think that comes to $2,100.
