Adv 223 Yumpu

Shipping our Jeep - Visiting Eagle
Right: Torres Del Paine in Chile
With nervous excitement, and completely out
of our comfort zones, we launched Expedition
Earth at 8pm on April the 8th 2018. Our website
was uploaded, Instagram launched, Facebook
status posted, timer began and Garmin GPS
live tracker turned on. Our message was
clear, 'Follow the expedition as we head south,
starting NOW', accompanied by our live tracker
GPS link.
Once Expedition Earth was live, adrenaline
started to pump. The expedition had begun and
we felt as though we were all of a sudden on
center stage. The comments were flooding in,
and the live tracker views began to climb.
It was time to begin leg 1 of 3, our drive south
from Alaska to Argentina.
We rushed to Gunther, gave each other a hug
and kiss, turned the ignition and... nothing. A
little laugh, “imagine that”, and tried once more.
Nothing. We knew that if the car was sitting idle
in these temperatures, it would be necessary
to plug into a block heater. We hadn’t expected
the entire battery to drain within an hour. We
checked the systems and quickly realized that
Topher had left the light bar on.
We were suddenly excited by the challenge
we were facing. We had bought a few recovery
products in Vancouver and were eager to put
them to the test.
After only a few minutes, just enough time for
the cafeteria staff to have fully cleared out, we
noticed our portable jump starter kit we had
bought in Vancouver had drained its battery
from the cold. Sitting in -30C temperatures with
frozen hands, we were not going anywhere in a
hurry.
With the freezing temperatures and sudden
influx of calls and messages from friends and
family, our phone batteries quickly died too.
Unfortunately, the live tracker was still going
strong.
Trying to find someone to help jumpstart a
car at 10pm in the arctic circle can be quite a
challenge, especially if you expect your rescue
party to be sober! Our knight in shining armor
turned up in a brand new red Tundra. As his
window came down, we were face to face with
someone who looked and smelt like a modernday
pirate. The man rolled out of the driver’s
seat and was so inebriated he had forgotten
how to pop his own hood.
After an irritable length of time, Topher finally
managed to locate the hood latch. Gunther had
been resuscitated and we were back in action!
With our energy now a little low, and the
realization of mechanical experience being
reasonably critical, we tried not to mention
the collective feeling of being a little out of our
depth.
Looking at the clock, we had now gone from
8pm to 10.45pm. We wouldn’t make our target
destination for the night, and this was only
the first day of the 1,195 more days to come.
Hungry, cold and tired, we decided to make
camp just outside Deadhorse.
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