The sea ice was suitable for the weight of a dog team, but not for the weight of the support Vestihot, so we were supposed to travel over land to the next checkpoint. Somewhere in the night, what was supposed to be a 12-16 hour, 200km trip by Vestihot between Egvigenot and Ulelkal over the mountains turned into about a 500 km trip over 36 hours. Whether it was a mechanical GPS type problem, or a driver merely made a wrong turn in the dark, I don't think I'll ever know. For many hours we were lost, and although I suspected this hours before, I only fully realized it when out came the Sat phones and when finally they were able to reach the appropriate contacts, out also came the maps, and much discussion ensued. It is amazing how one's world suddenly shrinks to a few square feet of machinery, and how one depends so very heavily on others when circumstances are out of one's control, and the very basic elements of survival are now paramount. I give much grateful appreciation to my fellow travelers, and the group of people who sorted out our location, and got us moving in the right direction, and finally to the race finish in Anadyr. I'm supposed to be back home and at work now, but our charter plane can only get clearance to fly in a couple of days, so if the elements cooperate I’ll be back by the weekend. Despite the language difficulties, we found much humor in the along the way, and it was probably about the point where I was assisting with a field surgery on one of the dogs in a small and desolate ice shack that we started referring to events, situations or even people as “Extreme Chukotka”, which always made us laugh, thus breaking the tension, and laughter really is the best medicine!
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