31st December – Our travels in a nut shell!!

New Years Eve 2007!!

Here's a quick Year in review.

On the 19th May, I asked Tan if she would like to take my hand in marriage and share the rest of our lives together. She said "Yes!!"
After a call from a mate, Brendo, we took the plunge to move overseas. Tania and I both finished up with our long term employers for a change of scenery in Canada.

We have visited another six new countries (not including Panama) on this years adventures. We have experienced some amazing things and wild weather. We have had a ball and so glad we started this North American adventure (which has now extended into Central America!)

Here is some video highlights!!

Niagara Falls, Ontario, Canada - the Maid of the Mist tour at the foot of Niagara Falls. An absolute must!


Cape St Marys, Newfoundland, Canada - the most foggiest place we have visited to date and the wind was so strong!

Points North, Saskatchewan, Canada - first time in a massive helicopter, a Bell 205 or Iriquois (ex-Vietnam chopper) with Jimbo. A fantastic day!!

Points North, Saskatchewan, Canada - Tan got to see her first snow fall. After that we were the only people out in it watching the big fluffy flakes falling from the sky. Oh yeah, we lived at an airport for a while.

Points North, Saskatchewan, Canada - first time driving in a snow storm!

Raven Camp, Saskatchewan, Canada - watching the lakes freeze over from nothing to 5cm thick in three days. I'm in a t-shirt in -8 degrees throwing rocks onto the ice! We lived in a tent by this lake.

Grand Canyon, Arizona, USA - one thing we weren't expecting to see in 2007. Breath taking!

Playa Del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico - I convinced Tan to parasail. It was so tranquil floating 100m in the air over the aqua blue waters of the Carribean.

Volcano Pakaya, Guatemala - standing at the toe of a slow moving, active lava flow watching new crust being made in fromt of my eyes. A geologist's dream!

These are some of our favourite vids of 2007 and we look forward to sharing more adventures in 2008. Happy New Year!!

2nd October – Raven Camp – SK

A nice sunny day today. The boys were out to West Bear again. As this area is only accessible by helicopter during summer, in order to move things out, they have to sling them in a net that is hooked onto to helicopter via a long line. The long line can be hooked on while the helicopter is still running with its blades rotating. Dan had the pleasure of doing this task. It was a late one trying to get as many loads out as possible. The tamaracs, a deciduous pine tree, looked nice and yellow in the late afternoon sun.
It was a nice night out. Christine and I went out for a walk taking our obligatory bear bangers and bear spray.

We had a random email from a bloke in the US who Googled "Quebec City dodgy" and got on to our blog and liked it.

Later that evening, just as we were about to go to bed, Dan poked his head outside the door and quickly called me out. Nature had put on the most spectacular display we have ever seen. The Northern Lights!!! It is difficult to describe just how truly breathtaking these lights actually are. They swirl in the sky like green smoke, quickly changing. Then all of a sudden, they dance across the sky in a dazzling display of greens, purples and pinks. The best of last nights display went for around 30 minutes. We have never seen anything like this and we both agreed it was one of the most unforgettable moments. It was nice out, a balmy 4 degrees Celsius.

We had to get Judy, our night baker, to come watch.

Tan is one week down with three more to go. Alcohol free!!

1st October – Raven Camp – SK

It was cold this morning. So cold, that the lake behind us is starting to freeze over around the edges. Some of the guys in camp can’t believe we have such a fascination for frozen water. The ice on the lake was about 5mm thick but we still piffed a few yonnies in it. Even Cookie the pug had to wear an embarrassing white sheep skin coat!!! The boys braved the cold to head out to West Bear again. They have a strict rehab policy around here. Burn it. So they lit the fire to end all fires.
Dan tries to tell me that they are working hard. However, they were throwing their steaks in aluminum foil on a spade and cooking them for lunch. Wes dropped by to start slinging samples and decided to join us for lunch. The steaks were good though Wes thought I looked like a homeless guy who hadn’t eaten for a week.

27th September – Raven Camp, SK

Today was all about sampling at West Bear, an area only accessible by chopper in summer. We took the full truck to the old camp, safety first, and got in with Wes.It was quite squeezy with four of us in the back of the chopper. Here’s Darcy, Steve and I squeezed up.
The team had laid out all of the boxes which meant we had to do our geo stuff on them. The best thing about West Bear and the 5 degree maximum day was that we could light the piles of scrap timber up without causing a major forest fire. It was cold, my toes were hurting, so I cut the fingers off a pair of cotton gloves and placed the mitt over my foot. It worked, only slightly. Tomorrow I’m bringing more clothes. Okay, blokes and fires. There is something magical about a fire especially when it is lit with petrol. Well, the wood was that cold and wet that even after three goes with accelerant it didn’t work. On the third go I picked up a wet tissue and said try lighting this. Brendo, who now looks like a bear with a bushy beard gave it a light. To my amazement it was covered in petrol and lit exceptionally well. Unusual! Anyway, Corey really gave it a good shot and it eventually worked. What a bushman!
One good fire leads to another. Using the embers we lit up the next pile. We also had to give it a little help!
I had port and vodka with the boys and talked cricket. It was good having tins again. Tan watched a terrible movie with the girls called “Population 436”.

Tan saw her first glimpse of “full moon washed out” green northern lights.

26th September – Raven Camp, SK

Hey, remember me the guy with the a-kicker of a moustache, I’m back! Our new Toaster 6000 sleeping bags are absolute belters. We only needed to use one as a doona and we were smoking even with the stove on low. A quiet morning in the office while Tan did the important stuff like washing and sweeping out the tent. My plan was to write up the audit in the afternoon but at times my role as the “pinch hitter” means the plans can change quickly. “Dan. Can you show Derek the holes at Wolf Lake so he can pick them up – the chopper will be here in 15 minutes”. “Tan get your gear, we’re going”. It wasn’t long and Tan, myself and Derek were waiting at the old camp. I gave Tan a few pointers and we adopted the crouch position and were walking underneath the rotating blades of the chopper.
Tan’s first chopper ride! It took a while for her to get the belt on and we were off to Wolf Lake. Getting up in the air, one month after my last flight and the scenery has changed dramatically. The birch has yellow leaves and the tamaracks (a deciduous pine tree) are bright yellow spotted in a blanket of green. The muskeg has taken on an orange-brown colour and the blueberry bushes are now red. It’s hard to believe we are in the same place.
Tan loved the chopper ride and it was good to see Wes again. I called him a “wanker” because that’s what we do. Wes was typically smooth and we barely felt the ground when we landed. We dropped into the central area of Wolf Lake and had to wait 45 minutes for the GPS to reach the base station 14 km away. While Derek and I played with the GPS, Tan went through her chopper induction. These are the nasty parts, stay away from here and get down low and go, go, go. In the interim, we all walked to the bald eagle’s nest. It was all quiet on the eagle front.
Wes had to go for an hour, so we dropped in on the southern area and I was amazed at the rise in the water level here. The semi-dry swamp was now in places up to 20cm deep in water. We starting picking up the collars and sat around while the GPS did it’s thing.

We saw a squirrel, ate beef jerky and talked shite. The bugs were sticky but at least they weren't chewing bits out of your exposed skin. We had to make some pickets, a 12 footer for me and a wobbly 14’ for Derek. They did the trick and will be visible in any snow depth! Making pickets for collars is a lot of fun. First you find a perfectly straight pine tree with a good taper, raze the branches off it, cut your “name plate” by stipping off some bark and then just give it to the poor tree. Once it has fallen, you give it a bit more of a clean up, chop the narrow end off, add some flagging and chuck it in the casing in the hole.
We stopped at the northern site so Derek could find all of the holes and made a small mud map. Easy!!!

On the way back, I gave Wes some curry about everything and anything. Wes knows I am a tourist in the chopper and today I was especially pleased he was the pilot. Not far from camp, Wes spotted a big bull moose and got down low and circled it a few times. This thing was magnificent and Derek counted 8 points on each antler. It was huge and we were wrapped. Even better for Tan, who took a while to spot him as it was a memorable flight for her. Funny thing is that Tan thought she wasn’t going to do any flying for a while.

We buzzed over the camp, our tent has the white roof on the far middle left. We went for a quick walk complete with bear bangers and bear spray. Dave, the cook, got a bit jumpy at lunch today when three wolves appeared out of nowhere. The bear banger gave them a fright and they were off. We had a quiet night in the tent, a little stuffed but it was awesome.

24th August, Points North, SK

I spoke to Tan this morning and she will be in the air soon after a token visit to Clancy’s for old times sake.

We picked up Leo and flew over the top of Kewen Lake, fond memories of awesome sunsets and great pike. We circled the camp and I coud see all of the clean up we had managed. It’s looking good. Hornado jumped in and wanted to chop shit down. We got to Wolf Lake and we had to wait after extending a hole. Matt, Leo and I ended up making pickets and having chopping contests. Eight chops was not my record – actually I was rubbish. The pickets we made will be visible in 6 foot of snow. We will have no problems locating these in winter. We went over to the river which I just drilled under, days previous. It is a beautiful spot. My polaroids didn’t locate any grayling but this is the spot to get them. Fast flowing water with big rocks. After picketing all of the existing holes, Wes took us over to the central area. We did a couple and then I said to the boys “Follow me!” Matt thought I was trying to locate another hole but my plan was to find the bald eagles nest. Standing under the tallest tree on the tallest hill I told the guys to look up. There it was, 1.8m wide and about 1.2m high, perched high a top of the trees. The base was covered with slightly rounded branches that had fallen out. I was expecting to see skeletons of prey but instead we found a few feathers. Leo decided he would be “Chief” for the moment, compared to my George Washington pose an hour before. This was the first time Leo had been in a chopper since he has been in Canada, so we made the most of it. We located some old core near a swamp from the air, a job for some one to cut a track in and then we did a fly over of the Horseshoe deposit. This has been Leo’s pride and joy for the last two years and it was good for him to get the aerial perspective.
We landed by the redecorated dunny, dropped off Horn. It was 2:00pm and we all were starving. A quick bite to eat and we chased Cookie the resident pug around. Cookie wears these booties which are really cool. Lucky Cookie is a girl dog. It was a good relaxing day as I needed it.
On an evening trip out to the rig, I saw the thickest rainbow ever. The late sun was shining under some clouds with rain falling producing a monster rainbow. Pity the photos didn’t come out too well. The sun shining on the lakes was spectacular too.

18th August, Points North, SK

I was up early and had another trip out to the rig. The morning sun on the machine was very bright. I’m getting used to this flying caper. The other day I was reading about Midwest, a uranium deposit, a few clicks from Points North with a reserve grade of 5% uranium. Very nice. It sits under a lake and has recently undergone a feasibility study. The strip ratio is huge and it will be a 200m deep pit. I asked Wes to fly over it to check it out. Yep, it’s under a big lake alright. It’s going to fun to drain it.
On the back isde of Points there is a “grave yard “. Old buses, planes, demountables, mining equipment etc. All hidden away from prying eyes (unless you have a helicopter).
Got some logging in this evening, and reviewed the weak anomalism. Looking at the manual splitter, some thing I thought was obsolete, made me chuckle. I spoke with Matt and said “Don’t waste your time with that thing.” He is now going to Raven to split the core when he has the time.