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A Bateman North Pole Adventure - 1998

An Arctic Tale From 1998! Just getting around to telling it!

March 30th 2011A Bateman North Pole Adventure - 1998

An Arctic Tale From 1998! Just getting around to telling it!

This is a tale from 1998, when I was asked to travel to the North Pole to meet up with arctic explorer Pen Hadow, who at that time hoped to be the first Briton to reach the Pole on a solo journey overland.

Pen Hadow Polar Explorer

At that time I was still a Councillor, and just about to fight a Municipal election on Thursday 7th May. National Express who were sponsoring the polar explorer and for whom I worked for in my day job, requested that "I do what I could to get some publicity for the event". So I did just that!

Here is my tale of the trip to the North Pole. With it comes my travelling companion Peter Rhodes of the Express and Star who reported daily on our adventure, for the people of the West Midlands.

Hotel On Day of Arrival in Resolute Bay

So after the election of the Thursday ( which I won ) with a handsome majority of 442 votes.

I set off with Chief Feature writer of the Express and Star Peter Rhodes on Thursday 14th May on one of the most exciting adventures of my life!

Destination North Pole was some 9,000 miles distant from Wednesfield, and six airports away! We set off from Birmingham International Airport in our every day wear, and with the final flight destination recorded as being Resolute Bay, which is Canada's most northerly settlement.

Express and Star- Sealed With An Arctic Roll!

Just to get to Resolute Bay we have to catch a number of flights. Birmingham to New York ,Edmonton, Yellowknife, Cambridge Bay, finally Resolute Bay. We arrived and the first thing to note is that it is difficult to tell if it is day or night, as the sun shines for 24 hours!

We were quickly taken to the Co-Op where we were kitted out in Arctic wear,quilted coats, leggings and snow boots, and boy I do look like the TV advert...the Michelin man!

When we arrived we were taken to the hotel which was very small, and very different to anything that I had stayed in here at the UK. The first things you noticed was the ribs from a whale that were positioned around the door, with a full wrack of Caribou Antlers above them!

First impression of Resolute Bay is that it is always windswept, covered in snow and very cold!

The second impression is that the settlement is very small, there appears to be little activity on the streets, and every little home seems to have a husky dog or dogs on long leashes!

Also there are Polar Bear skins drying on the decking of many of the small houses. We are warned to look under the porch before stepping off the decking. Just in case the world's largest Bear is hiding trying to take his breakfast!

This is no joke, that is the advice we were given on our arrival. Seeing the huge skins curing in the sun, just brings it home to you how very different this part of the world is to the good old West Midlands where if you are unlucky you may come face to face with an adder on Cannock Chase! Here it is huge bears!

Then reality hits you! The dogs on long leashes let the inhabitants know when there are bears in the vicinity! The penny has dropped!

Mr Hadow must have nerves of steel, in a tent on his own in minus 45 degree cold and these carnivors are wandering about!

Getting to sleep in the hotel is not without its difficulties. Made worse on the first night( Is it day?) when what was 3.30am I hear children shouting and laughing, look out of the window to blazing sun light and see kids playing as they pass my bedroom window!

I am wrecked and there is no night, only daylight! What a world this high arctic is!

Phil with Mayor Gary Guy in his Resolute Bay Office

This was a journey that needs some further explanation in Resolute Bay the settlement is made up of Inuit, they hunt and fish they live in the arctic and are experts on survival.

We met with the Mayor of Resolute Bay Gary Guy. Gary was most helpful and was playing a big role in the co-ordination of Pen Hadow’s trek.
Gary was a great chap. Helpful and knowledgible about local issues and of course everything that we should know about Resolute Bay.

He invited Peter and I into his home for Sunday Dinner and we feasted on Caribou and frozen green peas! Marvellous. He had two of the biggest cats I had ever seen.

He told me that they were ‘Maine Coons’ a variety of cat I had never heard of. He told a tale about how the local Polar bears had spotted the cats in the window of his home and came a calling…sending the cats a scatter!

Their size would have been no advantage at all in those types of circumstances! Indeed it was the cat’s size that attracted the bear calling for dinner. He explained that the bears had seen the cats in the window, and even though Gary's house was on stilts and around 12 foot off the floor. Those bears are massive and they just could not resist looking into the window for those bite size cats!

Maine Coons are the largest breeds of domestic cat. Males weigh anywhere between 15 and 25 lb (6.8 and 11 kg) with females weighing between 10 and 15 lb (4.5 and 6.8 kg).

The height of adults can vary between 10 and 16 in (25 and 41 cm) and they can reach a length of up to 40 in (100 cm), including the tail, which can reach lengths of up to 14 in (36 cm) and is long, tapering, and heavily furred, almost resembling a raccoon's tail.

The body is solid and muscular, which is necessary for supporting their own weight, and the chest is broad. Maine Coons possess a rectangular body shape and are slow to physically mature; their full potential size is normally not reached until they are three to five years old, while other cats take only one year.

They were big cats, but the Polar Bears are bigger!!

This was a big adventure for me. After we had landed at Resolute Bay, been and been kitted out withh arctic wear, it was time to meet the team that would help take us the thousand miles we needed to travel to rendezvous with Pen.

Pen Hadow is a very brave man, and he is in the classic breed of Great British adventurers.

It took Peter Rhodes and I some 15 hours and a thousand miles in a small twin engine Otter, to scour the ice and snow in this small plane.

We took off with an Inuit pilot from Resolute Bay, it was not a comfortable flight. It was not laid out like most planes that I have flown on when going on holiday. We had fuel on board for one thing. We also had a small boat, lots of provisions and equipment and no toilet!
This flight was a scarey one even if it was the most exciting thing that i had ever done in my whole life.

Pen by this time was overdue on his 470 mile slog across the ice and snow.

In my own mind I thought this land would be flat and icy. What I had not expected was to see pressure ridges of ice so jagged and so high that they reached well over the size of two men standing on each others shoulders!

These ridges went for as far as the eye could see. Acting as a barrier to a man who was hauling his own sled with all his provisions on.

Pen had hoped to do all of this on his own without resupply from Wolverhampton men!

The flight itself was an endurance for us the re-supply team. The smell of fuel quickly overcomes you making you feel nauseous. Wrapped up like the 'Michelin man' and with a decidely dicky stomach. I made my mind up before I set out to not drink anything and not eat anything. Peter took a sandwich of egg with him for the trip! Big mistake!.

I took one look at the little bucket used for ablutions and thought all these clothes are not coming off! They didn't!

To be Continued

Author: Phil Bateman

Article Date: 22nd March 2011