Daily Log - July 23, 1997

We are calling in early today (it's 6:45 pm K.W.I. time) because we've had a problem, an equipment breakdown. Our rickshaw has a broken axle, and we are about 5 miles from the food cache. We are quite low on food. We are going to have to stash things here, including the telephone, and make a run for it.

Our location is: North 68 degrees, 59.95 minutes by West 99 degrees, 29.32 minutes.

With 30 miles under its belt, our little rickshaw breaks an axle. We made it to Cape Crozier earlier today, and spent about an hour combing it thoroughly, but found it quite desolate. We did find a few bones that could possibly be human. They appear to be four vertebrae and a rib. We have left them undisturbed but have taken photographs and will consult an anthropologist when we get back.

The mosquitos are beyond belief! The weather is hot, 25 degrees Celsius, and the sun is just blazing down.

We stopped for lunch a couple of hours ago, and Derek spotted the most interesting thing we have found so far. It was a huge rock cairn or cache that does not appear to be Inuit because it is square. It is extremely well - built, we are impressed with the workmanship. It is about 10 ft by 10 ft at the base, about 3 ft high and has two rectangular openings that are about 2 ft by 3 ft. It appears to be quite old, possibly Franklin era. It could possibly be a cache used by a mapping crew - but we have to be careful not to make suppositions until we find some evidence. It could just as easily have been built by a square-thinking Inuit [laughter].

We had a tough time finding drinking water today. We finally located a lake with fresh water, and that is where the rickshaw broke down.

It may be late when we call tomorrow as we will have to make two trips, each one five miles each way, to get everything to the base camp (where the food is cached). That will be a full day's hiking.


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