Polly's World

2007-09-07T09:00:00.000+01:00

I wonder if there is a prize for the world's worst blogger. If so, I think I should enter.

So... it's been a busy summer. While everyone else has been complaining about the weather, I've been quite relieved that there has been no sunshine to tempt me outdoors. Maybe that's because I had three fantastic weeks outdoors in July, though. I was in the Yukon, again, this time canoeing a section of the Yukon River (well, we did a tiny bit of canoeing, but the river flows fast so a lot of the time we just floated and drank a cup of tea) and then hiking over the Chilkoot Pass. The Chilkoot was the most popular route to the Klondike gold fields in 1897-8; the stampeders called it "the meanest 32 miles in history". It wasn't mean to us, most of the the time - in fact, it was beautiful - but the day we crossed the pass was slightly unkind, with driving rain and 2 degrees Celsius! Anyway, here are some pics.

2007-04-04T18:18:00.000+01:00

I've just come back from a few days in Bosnia. It's the first time I've been there and it seems to be one of those places that really gets under your skin - beautiful countryside and fantastic people (with a very black sense of humour - I imagine they need it), though the place is still very wartorn. Here are some pics - one of the 'new old bridge' at Mostar, which was blown up during the war but is now rebuilt, and another of a village that was also blown to bits in the war but has been reconstructed.

2007-03-13T11:07:00.000Z

I've just come back from a long weekend on the Isle of Man. I can't believe I've survived all these years without going there. Check out these photos of the coastline. The grey seals like it there too - some of them came to say hello while we were kayaking. And we did rock climbing and abseiling and hiking. Oh yes, and eating and drinking. It was an action packed weekend.

2007-03-04T19:34:00.000Z

On Thursday night I was in Barnstaple, talking at the library about On a Hoof and a Prayer. It was a great evening - well, I really enjoyed myself, and I didn't notice anyone audibly snoring - so thanks to the library and to Waterstones for hosting the whole shebang, and to everyone who came. Devon isn't a place I've been a lot recently so it was really great just to sit on the train and watch those green fields roll by. Some of them even had tiny lambs in them. Aaahh.

On a different note, I had a piece in the Sunday Times today, this time about a bar-restaurant called the Cattlemen's Restaurant in Oklahoma. I was there back in October when I was in the States co-presenting a short film. Check out the article here: http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article1461456.ece. And in answer to your question - yes, we really ate the testicles.

2007-02-26T08:54:00.000Z

My new book, On a Hoof and a Prayer, is now in the shops - in the UK, at least. Those stateside will have to wait a while. So after a slothful few weeks lying on the sofa 'researching' my next project via a large pile of books (read: dropping off to sleep at every opportunity) it's now time to dust off my presentable clothes and greet the world. I have made yet another resolution to keep this blog up to date. Who knows, it might even work this time...

2006-04-11T15:03:00.000+01:00

I'm back in London, where it is raining resolutely. Strangely, I feel chillier here than I did in the Yukon. It must be because I have taken off my woolly underwear. Once it's emerged from the laundry basket and been through the wash, I may have to put it back on again.

2006-03-26T03:02:00.000+01:00

Amazingly, I have only six more days to go before I head back to London on Friday. I'm now back at Muktuk after a great week in Dawson - I spent a couple of days with a vet, heard some interesting stories, and watched a dog being castrated. It is now officially spring, the snow is melting, and everywhere is brown and muddy.

2006-03-16T02:57:00.000Z

I'm now back in the civilized world after a six-day dogsledding and camping trip along a part of the Yukon Quest trail, between Dawson and Pelly Farms. The mushing was fabulous and the scenery was sensational. It got a little chilly at night though, with temperatures dropping to minus 40 degrees. Getting out of my sleeping bag in the morning was a little brisk but the frostnip on my fingertips is starting to subside and my knuckles have now regained their full range of motion. I'll post some photos of the trip very soon.

2006-03-01T19:13:00.000Z

This is the graveyard in Tuktoyaktuk, overlooking the frozen ocean.

2006-03-01T19:09:00.000Z

Yesterday I hired a car and drove 200 kilometres along an ice road to Tuktoyaktuk, on the shore of the Arctic Ocean. The road was incredible - it goes along the Mackenzie River until, just at the end, it cuts across the frozen sea itself. Everything was white and incredibly beautiful. It was about as different to my normal driving experiences in London as it is possible to be.

2006-02-26T21:57:00.000Z

Tomorrow morning I'm heading north to the Arctic proper. I'm flying up to Inuvik for a few days - and from there I'll hopefully be able to take a drive out over the ice road to the Beaufort Sea and, if not dip my toe in it, at least give it a kick.

2006-02-18T21:35:00.000Z

I'm now in Dawson City, supposed to be the halfway point of the Yukon Quest - but the snow towards the intended finish line at Whitehorse is so scant that the organisers have decided to turn the teams around midway between here and there, and bring them back to finish in Dawson. So I'm sitting tight here for a few days yet. It's a great little town, famous as the centre for the Klondike Gold Rush in 1898. Many 0f the old buildings are still standing so it's a quaint and historical little place.

2006-02-13T11:32:00.000Z

It's now 2.30 a.m. in Central, a very tiny community in the middle of nowhere, Alaska, and one of the checkpoints on the Yukon Quest dog-sledding race. We've been waiting for a few hours now for Saul, the musher whose team I'm travelling with, to arrive. He should have been here at about 11 o'clock, but there's a storm on the mountain, the trail conditions are atrocious, and a group of four or five mushers has not turned up when they should have done. So it's going to be a long night ahead.

2006-02-10T00:15:00.000Z

I'm now in Fairbanks, Alaska, waiting for the start of the Yukon Quest dog sled race which begins on Saturday. Fairbanks seems to be a slightly strange kind of a place. People in the street keep laughing at me. I am not entirely sure why, but I suspect it has something to do with my clothes...

2006-01-29T21:13:00.000Z

A few nights ago I went for a run along the river. It was minus 30 degrees. The northern lights were faintly smeared across the sky. This is what I looked like by the time I came home...

2006-01-24T22:49:00.000Z

Here I am, attempting to dogsled. You will notice that the dogs are few, and they are pretty disorganized. I have some way to go with my dogsledding skills.

2006-01-20T23:47:00.000Z

2006-01-17T00:04:00.000Z

It's warm this afternoon. It's only minus 20 degrees. This morning it was minus 30. And according to the forecast there's colder weather to come. At six o'clock this morning, the northern lights came out on show. Unfortunately I was sound asleep in bed at the time so I missed them.

2006-01-15T00:29:00.000Z

Day one at Muktuk Kennels has been a fabulous one. I went out on my first dogsledding expedition this morning. It snowed a little last night so we had fresh snow, and mushed for a couple of hours along the river. I asked Frank, the owner, how many dogs they have here and he said, "I don't know. A hundred and something. Maybe 105 or 108." They're all lovely, friendly, exuberant animals who seem to love to run - the ones I went out with today turned round and gave me reproachful looks whenever I put my foot on the brake pad. In the afternoon I helped feed them: chopped up horsemeat mixed with water to form a reddish slop. Just what you need after a hard day in the harness...

2006-01-14T00:53:00.000Z

Greetings from Vancouver airport. It's one o'clock in the morning UK time, I'm sitting in a dim cafe that smells of stale chips, and I still have four hours to go till my connecting flight for Whitehorse departs. Who ever said travel writing was glamorous?

2006-01-12T12:29:00.000Z

I'm just cramming the last few things in my bag because tomorrow morning I'll be off to the land of the huskies. I'll post again as soon as I can after I arrive...

2006-01-05T12:51:00.000Z

Aargh. Seasickness I was prepared for. I bought every kind of tablet, patch and acupressure wrist band that Boots had to offer. And, even when the ship was leaping about like a rollercoaster, I was right as rain. Now, however, I am home in the warm and safe environment of my own flat - and I have landsickness. The floor keeps lurching into unfamiliar inclines and my desk is pitching so badly that I keep grabbing my coffee cup to stop it from flying into the air. Oh well, it was worth it. The photo to the left is of some of my fellow crew members working aloft. I took the photo while clinging for dear life onto one of the yards of the opposite mast, my legs wobbling upon a very unstable rope as the ship buffeted about on the sea. It was a blast. (Read: shockingly scary.)

2006-01-02T15:55:00.000Z

Ahoy. (I have been discovering all sorts of new nautical terms this week.) Right now, I am not at sea, however, but in the not-so-steamy port of Las Palmas on Gran Canaria. Unfortunately, my inner ear has yet to realize that I am on land and I seem still to be pitching and rolling as I type. It is proving a fun and interesting week aboard the tall ship. I have climbed the rigging, set and stowed sails and pulled and eased all sorts of bits of rope that rather confusingly all look the same. I have learnt an astonishing number of new words, most of which have misleading spellings. I have seen dolphins frolicking in the ship´s wake, glinting phosphorescence, and even the rising sun, which was a very great novelty.

2005-12-27T18:56:00.000Z

It's all a bit manic in my flat right now - I leave at 4.15 tomorrow morning for Tenerife, from where I'll be helping to crew a tall ship for a week. So while everyone else is quaffing the champagne over New Year, I'll probably be stuck up the rigging, or swabbing the deck, or some such. The kit list includes plenty of scary stuff (stout shoes, thermal underwear and so on) but I have packed my shorts and bikini just in case. I'll reveal more when I'm back on dry land...

2005-12-20T22:35:00.000Z

At last! I have joined the twenty-first century and have a real, live blog. From now on you'll be able to read up-to-the-minute (well, up-to-the-week at any rate) news about where I am and what on earth I'm doing there, look the pictures, and even add your own thoughts and comments. What more could one ask for for Christmas?

My next big activity (after Christmas with the family) will be a week sailing a tall ship off Tenerife. I'm not quite sure about the on-board blogging facilities (and in any case, I may be too busy swabbing the decks) but just as soon as I'm home and dry I'll regale anyone who wants to read all about it with tales from the high seas.

Till then, have a very merry Christmas.

(Oh yes, and the picture? That has nothing to do with Christmas, or with Tenerife, I just thought it would make my blog look prettier - though perhaps that's open to debate. It's an entirely random shot of me and my mule. If your curiosity can bear no more, you can read all about it in Fried Eggs with Chopsticks.)