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From: Olive
Date: 7/24/99
Time: 10:01:41 PM
Remote Name: 199.247.51.14
Hello friends! I am not so keen on spending time on the computer for updating the page Log. As you can see, my last update goes back to Palenque, Mexico. Mike is doing a great job and everytime I check his entries, I feel like everything is said and so I keep on doing other things. My job is the photo part and I am quite sure to bring some very special ones. But as we seem to get stuck here for a while, I might have a good chance to catch up on the PC. Today 24th of July 99 we are in Iqaluit, capital of the Baffin island ( 4500 peoples. It is absolutely wonderfull. What a place! The landscape we flew over in the past few days are some of the most incredibles I have seen in my life. The same Magic that has the Great Sahara desert.
YESTERDAY, WE FLEW OVER THE FIRST ICEBERG!
We arrive yesterday after a 4 hours flight at 9000 feet (3000m) to test the artic equipments. It is really cold up here! After 2 hours at this altitude, I started suffering a little from my hands getting cold. I will definitely get some special seal skin (sorry Brigitte Bardot) gloves for next stages. Yes! this part of the world is totally unbelivable and extremelly beautifull. Something really fantastic and breathtaking. We visited some Inuits communities (Eskimos) along our route from Quebec. Great people. Other Canadiens are also very friendly and they all help us a lot.
We have now just passed over our 1995 distance flight. We have covered 21'000 km in total so far. The machines are going well but I have major problems to start my engine every morning.
Our concern now is to get the proper insurance cover to cross over Greenland and Feroes Island (Danish owned). So far, we have no real optimistic results. We are working hard on it.
But Iqaluit is a wonderful place to be stuck in for a few days. For Mike, it is a little more stressing as he is worried to miss his appointment with wife Charmaine and his adorable daughter Alexandra. They arrive in London on 6th of August for a week.
Otherwise, all is fine. What a trip! What an incredible life experience! I would love to thanks everybody who keep on writing messages and by this way keeping the chat line alive especialy the ultra active Pine d'Urus, and Martine, and few others.
More news very soon.
Kisses from the Polar bears
Olivier