Customer Reviews

Kabloona in the Yellow Kayak: One Woman's Journey Through the North West Passage

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

A friend lended me Victoria's book a few years ago, and I am grateful for that. I found her to be such an inspiration. This book has had a profound influence on my life. Her experiences are fascinating, her inner strength is amazing, and her love for the beauty of man and nature is uplifting.

Victoria was a terrifically generous woman. In spite of the fact that she was battling a very aggressive brain tumor over the last year, she gave me the pleasure of her company for an afternoon during a recent trip through Winnipeg. She spoke of a second book she was working on about her return to the North. Unfortunately this second book remains unfinished, as Victoria passed away on May 20, 2000. She was a great lady!

A great adventure and wilderness story. The author displays a sensitivity towards nature and a bit of insanity (good insanity) given the risks involved in the trip through the Artic. If you like to sea kayak you will enjoy this book. If you like adventure stories you will also like this book.

If you have never been to the artic you might not understand the true heroics and determination of this Grandmother. It is an unforgiving land spotted with with wonderful interesting people and the author puts her story to paper telling of her fantastic adventure, kayaking the North West Passage. The first part of the book covers the turmoil of traveling with a man who is filled with his own ego and a times incredible stupidity.At times you wonder how he survived after striking out on his own. Victoria Jason full fills a life long dream and shares her adventures in a most entertaining writing style. Its like sitting across the table sharing a cup of coffee and listening to a great adventure story of just a common country girl.She has talent to tell a story and the spunk to have lived it.

Victoria Jason makes you feel like you are paddling the kayak. You experience the wind on your cheeks, the cold spray on your face, the pull of the current and strength of the waves on your boat. But even more powerful are the emotions which you share as you glide through the pages like gliding through the water. You sense her anxiety and vulnerability, her regrets and her doubts. She is independent and totally in control of her own destiny in a land where danger lurks in the water, on the land, and in the weather. She misses her family, thinking of her grandkids often. But she also experiences a sense of accomplishment since she is singularly in control. She is one with nature and gains inner peace and tranquility. In the few times she interacts with others, she is met with caring and sincerity, developing friendships and getting to know them better and deeper than one would in a "normal" setting. Unlike her short-time paddling companion, Don Starkell, who seemed to approach the trip as a task--as he against the elements--she embraces the elements and forms a synergy. She doesn't oppose the land, water, weather, or situations, she lets them work for her with finesse. And even when face to face with a grizzly and having a shotgun which could have been a more certain outcome, she chose a flare gun at the grizzly's feet. Maybe she's a paddling grandmother, but she's also an inspiration to all.

I read "Kabloona" several years ago and have reread it again twice. Jason not only could write well and make me experience her trip vicariously, she also had the ability to spur me into new and different experiences of my own. Although I have not braved the Arctic as she did, I have conquered my own little fears and challenges. My mother used to wonder why cancer only got the most wonderful, caring, creative people. My mother was right. Jason may not have lived to write book number two, but her energy and her passion have been a road map to women in at least two countries. Thanks for the trip, Victoria!

"Kabloona" is a well-written and interesting story about an interesting lady who did an interesting paddle with some questionable partners. This I've read twice while her partner's I did not finish once. Her paddles in this area took root and she returned after to spend time in native villages that are as 3rd world as anywhere in the world. I reread it just before paddling in the Pelly Bay area and one in our group spotted the very small marker on the Ihoktok beach. Just a small plaque in a pretty spot along the shore with the tundra stretching up and away in the distance. No mention of her in Kugaaruk itself, but her presence would have had to have improved the community. I'd like to read her second book but have not found it available anywhere.

Interesting book, I was up north flying when she did her summers and came through the place I was staying at but missed her. An extraordinary women to be doing a solo trip like that in the conditions she had. She was incredibly tough minded. It was so sad she passed away so young with so much left to do

This book was an inspiration for me to buy a kayak and as an humble beginner to get out on the water at the age of 61. The author has the spiritual soul necessary to write such a magical accounting of her travels thru a land of kind people with smiling children. I know that writing is a time consuming task Ms. Jason...but could we have another episode please? I feel sure you will go back to this beautiful region again. Dan Chesser (Chess to my friends) Winston, OR ... In the 1000 valleys of the Umpqua River drainage.

This Canadian woman fell in love with the north and its people. She took her kayak on a long perilous trip where many would fear to go. What courage. She tells about her trip and the many places she visited and the people she met. She continued her trip alone after the man along on the trip proved hard to get along with. But she continued. She was planning more trips to her favorite part of the world but it was not to be. Though she did not live to continue kayaking she did what she wanted. She enjoyed life to the fullest and was not afraid to go where others would be afraid. What a terrific lady. Her health was not good but that would not deter her from living life.

Dear Victoria Yes, I still believe you are an amazing woman. You have accomplished so much and with such enthusiasm and serenity. Your love of the north is so well reflected in your book that It continues to make me dream of the day I will attempt a Kayaking tour similar to yours. I should mention we met at the Chateau Larier in Ottawa when one of your relatives was getting Married. My name if it has slipped your mind is Mark MacNeil. At that time you mentioned about a project you were working on in reference to kayaking tours starting at Pelly Bay. I hope everthing worked out. I long to meet with you again someday to talk about your adventures. I also will be sending the book I have found that is about Inuit culture, the one you had not in your vast collection. I'm also waiting patiently for you next book.

Sincerly Mark