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We met our extraction team yesterday afternoon about 5:00 & after a very uncomfortable 4 hrs, ___ arrived back into town. We spent last night in the InnsNorth(?) Hotel. Had a lovely hot breakfast this morning. Flying out this afternoon back to unpronounceable name & then back to Ottawa on Sat morning. Hope everyone is well, looking forward to getting back.

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So we now heading back the way we came, back to our starting points. We're hoping to be extracted on Wed afternoon. We should have enough time to get back. If the weather does not get bad again. But everyone's phoned it's folks(?), no major concerns & something to look forward to. Getting back to the UK on Sun. Bye.

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Yesterday was the worst weather yet. I've been walking in a village ___ mile & I hope, perhaps camp early. Perhaps, gather with the day we lost before we got here it's the right flight. Now that we don't have no time to reach our destination, so reluctantly we've decided to head back to the starting point through the valley & then the snow mobile back into town. Everyone's at this point, but there's no real ___ we've ___ the luck with the weather.

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Hi everyone, 3rd day on the ice now. 1st day was very, very tough some very tired & exhausted people but all in good spirits now & looking forward to a day's ___ ahead of us. Temperature is minus 58 with a wind chill, there is a nice layer of ice on the inside of our tent as I speak but wonders of hot tea are keeping us going. ___ bye.

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Hi everyone, the weather has got really bad so we've been stop in the ___ today we should of phone up to our starting point this morning but hopefully the blizzard will break more & we'll fly tomorrow morning. All is well & Lydia said lots of love to Isabel & Jessica & Ben(?) & Charles & I say lots of love to Hannah & keep reading. Bye bye.

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The good news is, we've arrived in Canada. The bad news is, we're not in Ottawa where we suppose to be, but in Montreal. Our flight this morning is cancelled, we spent about 8 hrs waiting at Heathrow but we're now here. So we're just gonna get some high vehicles & drivers ___ & we will be back on schedule.

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Itinerary for the trip

Saturday 17th March

Heathrow flight departs 1030hrs

arrives Halifax 1420hrs

Depart Halifax 1705hrs

arrive Ottowa 1758hrs

Sunday 18th March

Ottowa flight departs 0905hrs

arrives Iqualuit 1215hrs

Monday 19th March

Iqualuit flight departs 0800hrs

arrives Qikiqtarjuaq 1015hrs

Transit to North Pang Fiord by snow machine and make camp

Tuesday 20th March

North Pang Fiord - Owl River

Walk and make camp

Wednesday 21st March

Owl River - June Valley

Walk and make camp

Thursday 22nd March

June Valley - Glacier Lake

Walk and make camp

Friday 23rd March

Glacier Lake - Summit Lake

Walk and make camp

Saturday 24th March

Summit Lake - Thor Peak

Walk and make camp

Sunday 25th March

Thor Peak - Crater Lake

Walk and make camp

Monday 26th March

Crater Lake - Overlord Cabin

Walk and make camp

Tuesday 27th March

Overlord Cabin - Pangnirtung

Walk and lay my weary head down on a real bed at Auyuittuq Lodge

(Wednesday 28th March

Spare bad weather day, for any extra travel needed through delays.

Or alternatively another night at Auyuittuq Lodge)

Thursday 29th March

Flight departs Pangnirtung 1855hrs

arrives Iqualuit 1955hrs

Friday 30th March

Flight departs Iqualuit 1345hrs

arrives Ottowa 1650hrs

Saturday 31st March

Flight departs Ottowa 1830hrs

transit overnight

Sunday 1st April

Flight arrives Heathrow 0625hrs

This is a picture of Martin, one of the expedition leaders (see below). Martin is out in Baffin Island right now setting things up. The picture was taken five minutes after Martin ventured outdoors.
I am now officially bricking it. Ho ho, we all thought, lets go to Baffin Island, it will be fun. Oh yes, bound to be a bit chilly, but nothing too brutal. Well, according to the weather forecast, its expected to be -61C on Sunday when we set out. That's with the windchill taken into account you understand. Only -30C otherwise. Still, it will be colder than the freezer in your kitchen. Exposed skin will go black after a few minutes and any minor problem can become life threatening very quickly. Suddenly this jaunt has got very real. None of us going on this trek has ever experienced anything like the conditions out there.
After the months of preparing to go to Baffin, there are only a few days left before we fly out. It has become impossible not to think about it anymore. I don't suppose I have trained enough and I am nervous to say the least.
Any last minute donations will be much appreciated. Click here to go to the Justgiving page. Be generous.
Thanks to the nice people at Spinvox, I will be updating the blog every three days or so while I am trekking across the ice. I will ring a special number from the satellite phone we will have and Spinvox converts by voice message to text. The results are not perfect, but they are not bad (see below).
I think they call this sort of thing a "Once In a Lifetime Adventure", because you would have to be insane to do it twice.
So please keep coming back to this blog to check up on our progress. Assuming I get back with enough fingers to be able to type, I will provide a transcript of my Ice Diary when I return. Until then, thanks for reading and wish us all luck!!

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This is a test. It's Mark Glogg(?). Let's hope it appears. Bye.

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Hello Andrew, this is Marc Harris leaving a test message of you Spin-my-Blog Service. I hope to see this on screen on your Blob site shortly. Thank you.

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Well, the final countdown has started. In 10 days or so I will be standing on Baffin Island. Frankly, the whole thing has got a bit scary.
Anyway, the launch party is tomorrow evening. You too can go. Click here for details.
Photos from the event will appear here by the end of the week.