You can see the path where a glacier went, or a circle of stones from a pre-Dorset camp 3,500 years ago or, for that matter, a pile of wine bottles left by Otto Sverdrup. Graeme spoke as he and Lynda made a final tally of some 4,000 kilograms of foodstuffs they bought, weighed, packed and sent off for the trip. It was late spring at their home in the bush near Markdale, Ont., northwest of Toronto. By midsummer they were in the Arctic, by early fall their boat is expected to be locked in the ice off Ellesmere Island. Sverdrup brought wine and chocolate, too, and whisky and canned vegetables, but otherwise relied on the hunt.
Bears are the biggest threat up there.
But as for hunting you can't just go up there and shoot things. In fact, they met at a world triathlon championship in Australia in 1991. They have been planning this trip since 1996, seeing it as a way of fostering ties between Canada and Norway as fellow nordic nations. They were dismayed to find that interest was almost all on the Norwegian side. Norway has a much stronger attachment to history and culture, and a far better grip on its northernness.