A Normally Abnormal Beginning.....

Monday, March 11, 2024
Sydney Airport, New South Wales, Australia
PREPARATIONS FOR OUR JOURNEY
The Usual Complex Considerations for Our Travels
A well-travelled friend once asked us why we keep travelling, especially to the remote places we do. "In all my years of travel, I have never experienced anything like the events you seem to face preceding and, even worse, during your travels. And anyway, why leave a piece of paradise (our home of Crowdy Head on the Mid North Coast of New South Wales, Australia) and face the bitterly bleak and often rough destinations of the extreme Arctic?
He wasn't the first or last person who asked this question. And there was of course, a certain inference about our advancing ages of 70 and 85 years..... But he had a point.
We seem to live a confused, complex yet charmed life. It is our choice. While "co-ageing" friends are slowing down and downsizing, we are crazily acquiring more land and making more work. We have extensive gardens with massive lawns to look after, hundreds of trees and shrubs, a small citrus orchard, a 200m private road we must maintain, as well as a considerable amount of government land surrounding our property that we keep cleared and clean. All in all, the land we look after is about 3 hectares. 
As well, we are owned by three thoroughly spoilt cats, two of whom are of neurotic Siamese fame and needy of constant attention...
I study Russian language and write blogs; both activities consuming an extraordinary amount of time and effort. Oh, and I like fishing and cooking too. And there are always travel projects to plan and organise. For retired people, we are forever mega busy. Sometimes a bit too much so. We are not complaining. We love our fortunate way of life in a particularly beautiful part of the world. And we are never bored...
Our more recent Arctic winter journeys mean we must leave home in late summer to early autumn when it is very hot and humid and plant growth is still vigorous.
There is a heap of house and garden-related matters we must attend to leading up to our trips, most of which average around six weeks in total. Gardens must be weeded, lawns mowed, and shrubs and trees pruned. The road must be sprayed for weeds. A mowing person must be employed to mow the lawns and trim the edges, and a cat sitter must be organised to live in to look after the "kids", house and indoor plants. And that is to say nothing about the usual matters that all travellers face when organising coming travel, and the very often last-minute changes to flights and travel plans. 
For good measure, we usually block out any activities or engagements for a month or so before we leave to ensure we have time to have everything in place before we leave. Even still, we seem to be operating on a "Just in Time" or, more accurately, a "Nearly Not Just in Time" framework. This trip was no different.
Oh, Those Pre-travel Challenges...
During early to mid-2023, record-breaking wildfires consumed much of Canada, particularly the northwest. All in all, more than two-thirds of the entire population of the territory was evacuated. The capital of the Northwest Territories, Yellowknife was also evacuated, with grave fears held for the city's survival. It was during the early planning for our coming trip, and at the time, it was impossible to book anything, let alone airfares to, or accommodation in Yellowknife. As we later said - the city might not have even been there when we planned to visit. Fortunately, Yellowknife escaped the ravages of the fires, and by August 2023, we were able to book most of our flights and accommodation.    
Our home preparations for this trip went remarkably smoothly. House sitter Hazel was booked well in advance and had kept in close contact with us before our journey. And I had bought an industrial supply of cat food and litter. James, our mowing man, was booked and happy to look after our lawns. The cats were healthy and up to date with vaccinations and anti-tick medication. 
But once again, the usual number of challenges arose. I had undergone considerable dental work during the year and thought I was well and truly over most issues. Just before Christmas, a new dental crown broke in two, followed by half a tooth falling out just days before we left for our travels. Last-minute frantic dental work didn't help the amount of work we still had to undertake. And we were seriously running out of days.
Sadly, in late December, my beloved ancient fishing car went to "car heaven". Then, two of our main refrigerators died, as did our electric floor scrubber. As we laughed, at least the pre-trip events looked more "normally abnormal"...
We had kept our fingers crossed however, that our travel plans were seemingly locked in place. I was just lucky to find in late January a two-week-old email in my computer's junk mailbox from Air North (Canada) advising all their winter flights from Whitehorse, Yellowknife and Toronto were cancelled from early February to early May 2024. 
After some frantic re-shuffling of our schedule, the end result meant the time we planned to spend in Whitehorse would now be spent in the far northern township of Inuvik before flying directly to Yellowknife. Interestingly, we had to admit that our revised itinerary was, in fact, much improved... Strangely enough, that became a consistent theme for our upcoming travels.
And then again, by good luck rather than good management, I noticed in a travel advertisement that as Australians travelling to Canada, we would each require an Electronic Travel authorisation or eTA. Surprised, we thought we had thoroughly scrutinised all documentation about visa requirements and found none for Australians. An eTA is an entry requirement for visa-exempt foreign nationals travelling to Canada by air. Those travelling by road, rail or sea are exempt. An eTA is linked to a passport and valid for five years or until the passport expires - whichever comes first. They can be applied for and approved online. The processing can take from 30 seconds to 12 hours. Theoretically, anyone forgetting to apply beforehand can do so at the airport when they arrive. But who would risk that stress - particularly if they can take up to 12 hours to process....? Fortunately, ours were processed within minutes.
As mentioned, hailstorm repair work on our houses had taken over a year, during which we had builders everywhere. Nerve-rackingly, the work was completed only a week before we left on our travels.
To my dismay, I had not completed my 2023 blog "Next Stop: North Pole!" Perhaps we were so disappointed with most of our travels that writing was not easy nor very pleasurable. Or perhaps I was becoming increasingly consumed with my Russian language homework and studies? All I knew for sure was that I seemed to be glued to my computer, studying or pumping out a mind-boggling amount of blog chapters. Despite writing up to the very last days, I was sorry that I didn't quite finish my writing before we left for our travels. But I will. It would not be the first time I completed a blog some years after our travels.
One thing we knew we didn't have to stress about before we left was sufficient cold-weather clothing. Over our years of Arctic travel, we had amassed a wealth of quality clothing, including down coats, military thermals, snow boots, goggles, ushanka fur hats, balaclavas, arctic mittens and thermal socks - and metal cleats (or spikes). Unfortunately, however, on our return from our 2023 travels, we were so tired and ill that after washing all our gear, we literally threw it in a spare room known now as the "Arctic Room". And there it stayed untouched until it was time to pack. Shamefully really...
Needless to say, sorting the clothing was a somewhat tense undertaking, saved only by Alan being twice my size. Nevertheless, there were a lot of angry quips: "That's MY balaclava! You MUST have taken MY thermal underwear....!" In the end, Alan just bought more thermals.... Much simpler.
Most people these days talk about taking a minimal amount of luggage with them on overseas trips. Like most things we do, we once again bucked the system... I was so fed up trying to rustle through all our masses of cold gear to find vital bits and pieces in our duffle bags that I bought two extra-large Samsonite cases. As Alan said, they were big enough to fit both of us in as well. Their redeeming feature was that they were strong but unbelievably light. And they were a dream to pack all our super bulky and heavy clothing. We even managed to pack all our gear, including our 2kg snow boots, and we were still under the maximum 20 kg we were allowed to check in, in Australia.
Well, in fact, in many countries, the maximum allowable weight is a generous 23 kg. And incredulously, the only place in the world we have been stopped for being nearly overweight has been at our local Taree Railway Station... It is our first transport point for our trips, and more recently, an unnecessarily stressful way to begin. Abrupt and unhelpful staff show no mercy. Even when we have weighed our luggage on four different weighing scales at home, it is always much heavier at Taree Station...
Our Day of Departure
Taree Railway Station didn't disappoint. The surly station official warned us darkly that if we were overweight with our luggage, there was no way he would allow it on the train. "Steady on." I thought. "You haven't even weighed it yet...." (in fact, by travelling First Class, we were each entitled to two lots of 20 kg luggage). The same message was dealt out to Alan. Thankfully, our two suitcases each weighed under 19 kg. But they were still a kilo more than our brand-new scales had recorded at home. 
Our train journey from Taree to Central Station, Sydney, was relaxed and non-eventful. It's a very pleasant way to travel, and the time went quickly. From Central, we would catch a train to the International Airport Station and a shuttle bus to our hotel.
As I gazed out the window, I wondered about our coming travels. We had not talked much about our thoughts beforehand. It was all too frantically busy. Perhaps it was a hangover from our unfortunate 2023 travels, but for me, our coming trip had felt like an unnecessary hurdle we would somehow manage to struggle over. And the sooner, the better. 
But like most travellers, our angst and pre-travel worries disintegrated when we were finally off on our adventures. After all, no matter how prepared we are, our travels are beyond our control. So, of course the best way to handle things is to sit back, sip a glass of wine or two - and enjoy the experience.
We try not to advertise to our friends and acquaintances about our coming travels. We are nearly always going to places well off the beaten tourist trail mostly because they are or seem inherently dangerous. And although we regarded this trip as somewhat bland, it still did not stop people from asking why on earth we were travelling there. Canadian friends were adamant "Not even Canadians travel to the High Arctic. And no one goes to Nunavut. There are no hospitals there, you know....". Hospitals were not exactly on our bucket list, though we guessed it was a slant on our advancing ages, and we might need one or two. Other friends who had lived in Canada for many years assured us that at the remote places we were visiting, "There is nothing there, you know....". It sounded more like us...
We deliberately did not include anything too touristy in our trip. Reminded of our activity-laden travels of 2023, we kept to just one tour - the Dempster Highway to Tuktoyaktuk trip to the Arctic Ocean, also known as "The Tuk Tour". We could have hired a car, but being unused to driving in icy conditions and on the opposite side of the road from which we drive at home, it was just not practical. And anyway, we consoled ourselves - there were just ten passengers, and it was only for eight days, two of which were travel days. Maybe, it wouldn't be so bad...?
For the rest of our tour, we would just wing it. I was a bit concerned we had nothing at all organised and had visions of us sitting in a hotel room for most of our stay. "Well, what do you want to do? Visit a necropolis or two? Look through ancient coin collections at museums? Join a master class in boiling walrus heads?" demanded an exasperated Alan.  He was right. On previous trips, we had actually partaken in such useless activities and hated it. On the other hand, and as he reminded me, we had been stranded for six days during a blizzard in the village of Pevek on the Artic Sea of northern Chukotka, Russia - and loved every minute of exploring the tiny settlements and absorbing the way of life of the locals. "Yes, he was always frigg'n right", I recalled muttering.
A Most Pleasant Evening...
Apart from being stuck in the automatic entrance gates of the Central Railway Station with my oversized luggage and having to alert security to free me, our journey to our Novotel Sydney International Airport Hotel was surprisingly uneventful.
Many years ago, when we first retired and began serious travel to regional China, we enjoyed a meal at the Kogarah Rowing Club, located just minutes from our Novotel Hotel. On a gentle, balmy evening, we dined on the outside verandah in the early evening, enjoying a good but basic meal and thoroughly enjoying the lovely waterways scenery and a wonderful sunset. The evening was made perfect with our intense excitement of travelling to a new and for us, very foreign land. And most certainly, where we traveled to, Xinjiang, in far western China, was very exotic!
We had since visited the club on numerous occasions but had never had a repeat of the night. The club was often packed with people, noisy and shock horror - often displaying loud football matches on a huge flat television screen... And the food was only so-so.
This evening heralded a fine start to our travels. The club had been extensively renovated, including a vast restaurant dining area with large decks and gorgeous views. We were still experiencing a very hot and humid end of summer season, and the balmy still night was very reminiscent of our evening there so many years ago. Glorious pink flossy skies gave way to a stunning sunset. We may not have been as excited about our coming destinations, but the evening was simply lovely; the food and wine were great, and even the company was not too bad...
Little did we know what was to come on our upcoming trip. Perhaps we would have been a little more excited.   
Other Entries

Comments

2025-02-10

Comment code: Ask author if the code is blank