Amazon.com Review
On May 16, 1997, adventurer Lonnie Dupre and his Australian exploration partner, John Hoelscher, set off from Paamiut, Greenland, to circumnavigate the world's largest island using only the traditional methods of kayak and dog sledge. "Do we have all our ducks in a row?" Dupre wondered. "Or is this a suicide mission? Can our kayaks handle the long journey and seas ahead of us?" These worries were certainly justified; by the third day fatigue began to set in from negotiating heavy ice caps. By day nine, Hoelscher was experiencing symptoms of mild hypothermia. With perseverance, however, the courageous duo traveled some 3,200 miles of Greenland, a country roughly 14 times the size of England. Students followed the expedition's progress on the Internet and learned about the indigenous Inuit culture of Greenland: "
Kiviaq," the explorers reported, "is a bird caught and fermented for six months in sealskin, feathers and all. When the sealskin is opened, the smell and taste is similar to that of bleu cheese."
Fashioned in the tradition of both the photo-essay and travel journal, Greenland Expedition provides the best of both worlds. The reader can view the immense, raw beauty of Greenland from the safety of a warm living room, without risking life and limb dodging house-sized chunks of icebergs in a sea kayak. Moreover, the pictures and narration open a window onto a land little known to the rest of the world. Author Dupre suffered the worst of towering sea swells, minus-57-degree weather, and 100-mile-an-hour winds to transport the land "where ice is born" into the homes of students and readers. He does so in a beautifully unadorned way, in no small part influenced by the Inuit way of life that he so admires. --David Rhoades
From Publishers Weekly
A 15-month-long attempt to circle Greenland by canoe, backpack, sea kayak and dogsled may not be the average person's idea of a vacation, but for Dupre it was the culmination of a lifelong fascination with the Arctic. Having ventured through northern Canada, Lapland and the Russian Far East, Dupre and his Australian copilot, John Hoelscher, planned the "mind-numbing logistics of attempting a contiguous 4,700 mile clockwise circumnavigation of the island." Leaving friends and family behind, the pair experienced the best and worst that a hard-core endurance test like this can present: exhilarating highs through the rarely seen, surreal ice world of Greenland's shores and the immense challenges of logistical problems, fatigue, sudden storms and the ever-present threat of being buried alive in a sudden avalanche. Dupre's day-to-day journal is a taut, carefully worded narrative that honestly presents both the joys and pains of the trip and his partnership with Hoelscher ("It's hard to be patient at 50 below"). The oversize book is amply illustrated with Dupre's wonderful photographs from all parts of the adventure, and the narrative is cleverly broken up by one-page background essays on subjects ranging from kayaks, dog teams, icebergs and polar bear hunters; these allow Dupre to give the reader a greater sense of Arctic exploration and Greenland's culture without slowing down the survival narrative. The book reveals Dupre and his partner to be extraordinary individuals; their desire to explore Greenland has produced not only a testament to human endurance but also a remarkable view of a part of the planet most people will never see, much less visit. (May)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.
