September 2010
2 posts
Well, after almost two months all of the Beavers have successfully returned themselves to Canadian soil!
For those followers without Facebook, you can view some of our photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2335752&id=121500050&l=0807ac0bf7
and here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2335776&id=121500050&l=1681fe83ebMore to come as fellow Beavers upload pics!
Mongolia and back again.
Dancy here, writing from my new apartment in Halifax, my dog in my lap. It’s been a bit overwhelming heading back to Canada in what seemed like a crush of people after over 2 weeks of exclusively fields and nomads. The 27 hour ordeal of traveling back home also didn’t help. Still, once in Our Home and Native Land I promptly went out to dinner at a 24 hour place at 3 in the morning and...
August 2010
6 posts
UB, Mongolia.
Nick is okay, no broken bones but maybe a few bruises.
We have made it to Ulaan Bataar! Everything is dusty and we’ve never been so dirty in our entire lives.
The “finish line” was completely anti-climactic. Little disappointing to be honest, but Catch us if you Khan’s van died about 25km outside of UB, making things a LOT more interesting.
We’ll write a bit more...
Altai, Mongolia.
We will attempt to refrain from using brackets in this post since it seems to annoy a particular reader - but might I suggest if you find it that annoying you discontinue following the blog? Just a suggestion.
Mongolia has kind of eaten up the Beavers and spit us out, in particular Max. In this convoy, it seems when one thing goes wrong, everything follows suit. It began with our starter...
Mongolia!
So, The Great Canadian Beavers have officially made it to Mongolia! After two semi-hellish days at the Russian exit border and the Mongolian entrance border, we officially drove max across the border line and felt the roads immediately go to crap.
But we’re here!
It took us a full day at each border crossing, and we actually almost all did not get through the Russian exit border. It was...
Astana, Kazakhstan.
We have just arrived in Astana Kazakhstan (after traversing, for the most part, quite nice roads!) and I think the general consensus is none of us know where the tans end, and the dust and dirt begins. That being said, Kazakhstani (?) people have been some of the absolute nicest we’ve encountered so far (though their border was not the most efficient).
We are currently in convoy with Catch...
Made it to Russia
Hello from Russia!
I think the general consensus is Russia and the Ukraine have just been…O.K. so far - sorry to any Russian/Ukranian individuals who might be reading this. Compared to the complete shock and awe we experienced over Romania (how beautiful the landscape was, how nice the people were, how well-maintained the roads were and, how awesome the Transfargarian highway was!), Ukraine...
Disaster has struck the Beavers, and it’s struck us hard. While convoying it through Constanta, Romania, we stopped off at a grocery store to stock up on some supplies before finding a room for the night, and, while some of us were in shopping, a couple people were just hanging around guarding the cars. Somehow, Emily Clairs purse got stolen and inside of it was ALL of her identification....
July 2010
10 posts
Where to begin?
Well, the Beavers are certainly far behind in their updates. I had hoped to put some photos up as well with this post, but again, this comuter does not seem to suppor that function. Not to mention it is all written in….German?
Despite bets to the contrary, we have managed to make it to Vienna, Austria! The road so far has not been too too bad, given all the potential to go wrong. We are...
To Europe and Beyond
Well.
There certainly was a lack of updates. Between learning to drive standard, getting to the insane Czech Out Party and having a few roof rack mishaps, there just was not enough time to maintain this blog until now. I am currently sitting in a hotel in Vienna. I do not know the name, I think it is just called ‘hotel’.
Ours was not the most auspicious of beginnings, considering we...
Amsterdam.
I had wanted to upload some photos with these next couple posts, but it seems as though my one camera is currently out of batteries, making this a bit of an impossibility.
So what does one say about Amsterdam? What a BEAUTIFUL city! It was warm, clean, sunny and just lovely. The public transportation was quick and super easy to figure out. Emily and I took a 12-hour bus ride overnight from London...
Loooondon
This is Emily C. Really just wanted to say that I’m here too. Gotta get into this blogging groove. I didn’t read Andrea’s post and don’t to bore anyone with doubled up details, suffice to say London is FUN and I am really thrilled to be here. 9 more days til launch!
OMG, We're in London!
So, three out of four of the Great Canadian Beavers have officially landed in the UK! We spent much of yesterday lugging around luggage (ha!) especially when Nick’s trusty duffle bag on wheels decided to get bent out of shape on the plane ride over. It was a rather grueling couple hours getting us girls stuff to the hostel, and then turning around and dragging Nick’s bags to his...
They're letting us in...
I have just been informed that our passports (complete with shiny new visas) are back in VisaHQ’s possession and will be mailed our way by this Thursday - just in time for half of our team’s Sunday departure to Toronto. The girl’s passports that is. Not too sure what’s up with Nick’s, but his should be ready today or tomorrow; in plenty of time for 3/4 of our...
Is it too late to turn back?
The final countdown has begun — even for me (Dancy that is), and I am the lone straggler. I will not be exploring the climes of London or Amsterdam, but instead will be working a rather boring office job until July 20th, whereupon I will finally be whisked away to Glasgow. (First I have to get through Iceland. And Denmark. But that’s another story.)
We have finally procured car...
In exactly one week from today, three of the Great Canadian Beavers will be embarking on a plane headed for London, England (with the fourth to join us a few days later), armed with as little as possible, for one of the biggest challenges any of us will have ever faced. I think team emotions have sort of been running the gamut, from stressed, to excited to resigned to our fate.
One of our biggest...
June 2010
9 posts
Countdown...
Twenty-six days until the official rally start date, and sixteen days until three out of four of us leave for the UK.
I think I just peed a little!
Our vehicle deposit to The Adventurists consisting of a massive £800 (!!!!!) was marked as paid this week; meaning we have officially paid the last “big” cost pre-rally (and hurt our team bank account in the process). However, there have also been rumours of bribes upwards of $20,000 being demanded of Ralliers (again - !!!!) so I’d say it may be a case of being out of the...
We're leaving, on a jet plane...
So, most of team members of The Great Canadian Beavers have managed to procure tickets to the UK for launch day!
Dancy will likely be the last to leave, as her ticket is booked for sometime around July 20th. Andrea and Emily will be departing together (possibly with Nick in tow) on the evening of July 13th, landing at Gatwick on July 14th.
Nick, ever mysterious, will be landing on or around...
Fear not, we are still alive!
After a brief hiatus (with three weeks travelling Turkey and Jordan for Andrea and a mysterious week-long “vacation”/disappearance by Nick), The Great Canadian Beavers are all back in Canada and ready to go!
We are EXTREMELY pleased to announce we have procured a car for ourselves! A spiffy little 1.2 litre Vauxhall Agila in an aptly coloured red, which the UK seller has kindly...
April 2010
6 posts
CUPCAKES!
So this past tuesday, with the help of my phenomenal mother and her best friend (and Emily’s mother) Melanie, a successful bakesale was carried out at my old elementary school, St. Michaels.
A massive (and grueling) 450 (or so) cupcakes were made, and an awesome $210.05 was made for Mercy Corps Mongolia! (I’m not too sure where that $0.05 came from…I think I may have let a...
Donations, donations, donations!
Another big thank you to Kate Ann Follwell and John Geen and Elinor Campbell (whose donation I have not put through yet). You guys are doing an amazing job helping us, help others!
As an aside, I have tweaked our photo gallery on the website. Now it’s an actual gallery, not just a link to our Flickr page. Feel free to browse the photos, leave comments etc.! xxMase.
Donations.
Big thanks to Brend Wasserman and Jennifer Leigh Saunders for your donations :) Love you both, you girls are awesome!
*Mase.
Just under a hundred days to go. 99 to be exact!
It’s been a long time coming, (mostly because, in the face of all the other preparations I forgot), but below are some team photos we took a couple months ago. Enjoy!
Our team. In our non-existant car.
Captain Planet?
Perhaps a photo theme for future rally photos in remote locations?
Who needs a car when you have Nick.
Progress Report
So where exactly are we in terms of preparation for this epic journey from London, England to Ulaan Baatar, Mongolia you ask?
Good question.
1. Visa’s have been arranged, though not officially applied for. (That will come in May and we are assured we won’t have TOO difficult a time organizing it). At least, for those team members that have their official documentation prepared.
...
January 2010
2 posts
Hollaaaaa Emily C here. This post comes as a result of committing myself to staying at school all afternoon to get some work done, since I am so good at remaining unproductive while at home. Clearly though, I am equally proficient at avoiding schoolwork while at school. Who knew? For me, life happens while I’m avoiding other stuff. I spent a good chunk of the last few hours fantasizing about...
Well imagine that, a new year. I’d like to say something pithy and elegant, but I’ve just gotten off the job and am about to put on some headphones to listen to music for a couple hours and then sleep (it’s a charmed life) — so basically, I’m on auto-pilot at the moment. Still, I thought our wide-ranging audience needed to hear from their chum Dancy, since it’s...
December 2009
3 posts
I forgot to add this to our previous entry, but we took some team photos! I’m having difficulty receiving all the photos that we took, but here are three of them. When the full shoot becomes available I’ll upload those as well. You can also see an article that featured our team in the local Belleville paper, The Intelligencer here
It’s funny, nowadays whenever I find myself driving for long distances I’m almost always daydreaming that I am speeding down the autobahn in Germany, or on my way to the Czechout party in Prague. I haven’t even participated in the rally and yet it’s already changed the way I think in my day to day life. Only 209 days to go and I’m not entirely sure I can stand to wait...
Well, Christmas is approaching (and a white one at that!) and Rally preparations seem to have been put on a bit of a haitus. Dancy has almost completed training at her new job, and I’ve been slaving away at my online courses (to be completed by January 4th - FINALLY!) and working two jobs, so life has been, to say the least, a little bit hectic. First and foremost, I would like to give a BIG...
November 2009
2 posts
The cold, damp, dark winters have already begun creeping up on us here in Canadialand (well, for me at least, perhaps for Dancy as well) and I must confess, I find myself dreaming more and more about the vast and warm expanses of the Kazakhstan desert that we’ll be sure to encounter on our trek across (parts) of the world. Some days this trip cannot come fast enough and, at other times, the...
New Blog (again?)
Well, here we are again!
We’ll try to figure out how to backload our previous posts, but they were sort of…lame. Lots of stuff is going on the the Canadian Beavo-sphere, namely a brand-spanking new website. So keep checking back with us! May the force be with you.