Back to School

Julie and Colin hiking in the French Alps during a photo shoot for Helly Hansen's 2008 catalogue. (Photo: Mark Gallup)

Here on Vancouver Island fall has definitely arrived. The stream that runs through our backyard is packed with salmon making their final epic journey and the rains that give us our temperate rainforests have started.

Student Initiative

Even though we finished classes a long time ago, September has us thinking about school. Colin and I are in the midst of developing a student initiative to accompany our Scotland to Syria rowboat journey (start date: March 2008). We are creating an educational component for students in grades 1 to 12 that uses online curriculum, video/audio/blog field updates to promote cultural diversity, active living, and environmental stewardship.

Our goal is to create a three phased program: Phase I (March – June 2008) and Phase II (September 2008) will be real-time and the program will be delivered through internet-based technology while the expedition is ongoing. Phase III (September – December 2009) will combine internet-based deliver with in-school presentations as Colin and I travel across Canada to visit some of the participating schools.

It’s a project that we can’t do by ourselves, and we are hoping to recruit a team of volunteers to bring life to this idea. The last time we asked for volunteer help was for our film tour, which took us from Vancouver Island to Halifax, meeting 7,000 people along the way and raising $10,000 for charity. Since that worked so well we thought we’d try again.

We’re looking for volunteers in 4 areas:
1. School Liaison / Communications – Manage the relationship with the schools and media.
2. Program Treasurer – Apply for and manage grants and sponsor relations.
3. Technical Whiz – Manage technical elements of web-based delivery included video and audio.
4. Curriculum Development – Create school curriculum for web based delivery.

If you want to get involved or know of anyone that does, please contact us at team(at)angusadventures.com. The program will be free and we’ll invite teachers to sign up in January 2008.

Amazing Journeys

Two epic journeys we have been following finished this month. Tim Cope completed his 3 year expedition following the route of Ghengis Khan by horseback and Jason Schoonover published his book Adventurous Dreams: Adventurous Lives.

Tim Cope travelled 10,000 km from Russia to Hungary, in temperatures from -40 to +40, always with his horses and trusty dog Tigon by his side. Some of you may also remember Tim Cope from Colin’s Yenisey River Expedition or his bicycle trip across Siberia detailed in his book “Off the Rails”. After more than three years in the saddle following the hoofsteps of Khan's armies, Tim finally reached the outer perimetre of Ghengis Khan's empire Sept., 22 on the banks of the Danube River. We first profiled Tim in our March Featured Expedition. (This month’s Featured Expedition is a journey across Canada; it's the story of Karsten Heuer, Leanne Allison, toddler Zev and their border collie, traveling across by Canada by foot, canoe, sailboat and more to visit Canadian icon Farley Mowat in their journey Finding Farley.)

Jason Schoonover’s voyage was also three years long but that time was spent tracking down 120 adventurers from around the world and compiling their stories about the pivotal moment that that inspired them to choose a path of exploration. Colin and I were lucky enough to be included in the compilation, alongside Buzz Aldrin, Bertrand Piccard, Les Stroud, and many others.

If you feel doing some some armchair adventuring and live in Western Canada, you might want to catch one of William Jans’ live shows about his absurd travels. Starting October 5th, he’ll be touring British Columbia with his new show Burma Bound, as well as his classics Top of The World, Trekking in Tibet, and Solo in South America. Be warned, they always sell out. See the schedule at http://www.wrjphoto.com/l-tickets.htm.

It’s all in the Equipment

Rowboats, satellite phones, and technical clothing… We’re doing a little fall cleaning and have decided it’s time for an online yard sale. Apparently three rowboats is one too many, and our Ocean Rowboat is going up for sale on EBay (a PD170 video camera and satellite phone are also on the bidding block). The boat is the one used for our Atlantic Ocean crossing. It doesn’t need much work for another row but it’s going for a good price because of its location – it’s still in Costa Rica and the buyer will need to take care of shipping and associated paperwork. The reserve bid will be $8,000 (we paid $32,000 for the boat, which is the average going rate) and we will be listing it on Ebay next week. It’s the perfect boat if you want to do an ocean row and have more time than money. Find out more about Ondine.

As for technical clothing, this month we had the chance to travel to beautiful Chamonix, France to test out some of Helly Hansen’s 2008 line up (to give you a sneak peak we've included a few photos below). There's some great stuff coming out - check out www.hellyhansen.com for more details.

Thanks to all of you who sent us wedding congratulations. We had many people tell us how much they loved our wedding photo - kudos goes to my friend and Vancouver based photographer Danielle Baker (http://daniellebaker.com/).

Best wishes for a wonderful (and not too wet) fall.

Julie Angus

Getting the chance try out some great clothing designs from Helly Hansen's upcoming collection - www.hellyhansen.com. (Photo: Mark Gallup)

Our October Explorers in Featured Expeditions
Karsen Heuer and Leanne Allison in Finding Farley

Karsen Heuer, Leanne Allison, their toddler Zev and dog Willow are travelling across Canada by canoe, foot, sailboat and more to visit Canadian icon Farley Mowat. (Courtesy of www.necessaryjourneys.ca)

How does a 6,000 km trek by foot, canoe, sailboat, and any other conceivable slow modes of transportation sound as a means of making your way to attend a dinner invitation? That’s exactly what Karsten Heuer and partner Leanne Allison are doing.

It all started in 2004 when Karsen Heuer was in the final stages of completing his book Being Caribou. On a whim he decided to send it through to one of his favourite authors – Farley Mowat. Mowat is a world-renowned scribe who has sold more than 14 million books internationally. His tales bring to life the people, landscapes and ecology of fascinating and remote parts of the planet. Heuer didn’t really expect to hear back from Mowat.

A few weeks later a letter arrived from Newfoundland with a glowing review of Being Caribou. This was followed shortly after by a phone call from the Canadian icon inviting both Heuer and Allison to come out for a visit.

Read more about this adventure and our other Featured Expeditions.

Missed an earlier newsletter? Read updates from previous months.

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