Nature has it's way of showing it's power and beauty to us. Humans cannot understand that power unless it really touches them personally. If we could all just open our eye's we could understand that the world CAN be preserved for generations to come.
Ice everywhere you look and no sign of human life, natue intact like it has been for millions of years. Baffin Island has been protected by its extreme climate and remoteness. We all are taking each moment as a privileged moment of our life. We can protect this paradise for generations to come.
Huge steep cliffs line many regions of Baffin Island's coastline. These are due to the massive glaciers that cut into the rock millions of years ago. Today Pangaea is anchored at the base of a spectacular cliff waiting the return of Mike and the Young Explorers.
Today marks the start of the 9th Young Explorer Expedition – this one to the east coast of Baffin Island in Nunavut, Canada.
Today eight YEPs from around the world and the Mike Horn Team head out to Clyde River to meet up with Pangaea and her crew.
Mike and the team have an exciting 3 three weeks ahead of them as they explore the Arctic regon of Bafffin and study the ecosystem, flora and fauna of this spectacular region.
Log into the 'Classroom Club' (https://www.mikehorn.com/en/yep/pangaea-classroom-club/) and share with us your questions. Read the YEPs blogs and view their photos. We want you too to participate in this journey of a lifetime.
Blog written By Zula – Sunday, August 14, 2011
The longest day of my life…
Best wishes from Canada! My frist impression: it's flat. Second: there are lakes everywhere (what you can see from the sky). Third: it was supposed to be cold. Wearing my 3 jackets, I feel like put into a stove.
This evening we had to do some last shopping before we leave for the region where a can of cola is an approximate cost of 5 Canadian dollars. Quite a lot of fun, 6 Young Explorers and almost the whole Team running around the supermarket, buying food for the next 3 weeks! We also had an organisation meeting, explained our expectations, needs. I'm sure that the best adventure of my life is just about to begin!
I also had a chance to talk to a man living in Resolute, Nunavut. He's American, but has a deep understanding of the local culture, as his family are now Inuit. He tought me a lot about approaching the aboriginal people, their customs, faux-pas and how to make a good first impression. First lesson during this expedition.
Blog from Henko (written in Ottawa)
Last night we went to the local Walmart and bought about 10 shopping carts full of food for our expedition, everyone was wondering what we are going to be doing with all that food! As we explained for what all the food was we could see the amazement on their faces , as most people from Canada, probably 99 percent never get the chance to visit Nunavut and the arctic region of their own country, it made me feel honoured to be able to experience this life changing expedition!! short list of what we bought: 200 oranges, 200 apples, 5kg of powdered milk, 5 kg of butter, 4kg of tang mixture to drink, and allot more!!
Today started a bit rough as we had to get up at 6 in the morning and prepare our bags for our flight to Iqaluit and then on to Clyde river. We had to find space for all the food that we bought at the local Wall mart in Ottawa to fit into our bags!! This involved a bit of strategic planning but in the end we got everything sorted and ready for our departure!
Unfortunately my bags did not get to the hotel last night and this morning i heard it was still in Washington…. hopefully they will send it up to Clyde river tomorrow, We had quite a tuff time checking in with all our over sized baggage's! also our whole supply of butter was confiscated. But that was not the end of the drama for the day… when we got to Iqaluit to transfer to go to Clyde river we were sitting on the plane, the captain announced that there was not enough fuel to go to Clyde river so we are stuck in Iqaluit for today and tomorrow, hopefully we can fly to our final destination then and meet up with the rest of the team at the Pangaea! I'm so excited to be able to finally go on the magnificent Pangaea sailing vessel!!! We spent the afternoon exploring the town and was amazed bout the amount of rubbish lying around…
Tonight we will have a nice and early bed time and we are aloud to sleep late tomorrow! Everyday is a new and exciting experience! LOVING it!!!
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What have we learned so far while traveling with Mike Horn and the team in the arctic region of Canada" as with everything in life you have to be prepared in what you are going to do! this includes that all your documentation should be in order and that you should plan ahead for when you are going to go to the airport and check in, when will there be a shuttle to the airport and everyone should work together as a team to get everything done faster, here follow a few tips on traveling as a group together:
~Check your flight details and make sure that you will be on time, it is better to check in in advance so you can have some stress free traveling.
~It is better to keep all your traveling documents, such as passport and your boarding pass together.
~Never leave the group without telling someone where you are going and what your plans are.
~Never leave your bags unattended to prevent anyone using you as a mule to carry illegal or prohibited items through the security check points.
~When packing your bags it is important to pack all your liquid substances in zip lock bags in case it spills and does not cause you unnecessary hassle's.
~Keep all your traveling documents in a safe and easy accessible location in a organised manner, a easy file works best for me!
~Make copies of your passport, identification and keep them in your suitcase for in case you lose your original documents.
~Give a copy of your travel itinerary to a friend or family member along with contact details.
~As i have learned keep a spare pair of clothes in your hand luggage as all my equipment and bags are still stuck in Washington DC!
~always respect other travelers and look out for each other that are traveling with you! It is always interesting to befriend people that are with you in the plane and there stories and what brings them to this part of the world! And it does not matter what the situation is it is impotent to ALWAYS to keep calm and to NEVER GIVE UP! Try and negotiate with airport staff if you have any problems. But in the end the most important factor when traveling is to take all the beauty around you in and to enjoy every moment!!
In 2 days time we will be exploring the land of the polar bears with the Young Explorers. I'm very excited about our next expedition but one thing bothers me – will we see polar bears? Did you know a polar bear can swim 100km or more without a break. Today, the ice has moved 150km away from land. They drown, not only because of the greater distance, but of waves that form due to the lack of ice.
Watch the attached video !
Some food for thought through the lens of my GoPro. Sailing through the Ballot Strait in July. First sailing vessel through the North West Passage this year.
From the 10th of August until the 14th of August, thousands of people are invited to the Stuttgarter Sternstunden in central Stuttgart. This event is to celebrate the 125years celebration of Mercedes-Benz in the companies hometown Stuttgart, and is packed with exciting activites and special guests.
Mercedes-Benz Ambassador, Mike Horn takes a short break from his sailboat in Canada and goes to Stuttgart along with 14 International Young Explorers to present the Pangaea Expedition. The Young Explorers hold workshops to an interested public about their participation in the Pangaea expedition and Mike Horn motivates the public towards caring for our planet during the evening's trendtalk with Mr Joachim Löw (Germanys football coach) Dr Joachim Schmidt (Head of sales and Marketing MB) and Dr Anders-Sundt Jensen (Vice president of MB Brand Communication)
Mercedes Benz Sternstunden 10.-14. August, Blog written by Saskia Bauer
The city center of Stuttgart was crowded and full of people of all different ages. They were there to celebrate the 125th birthday of Mercedes-Benz which has built a huge exhibition area, the mb! Lounge. Here the ecological and brand new cars were presented and people got the chance to gain first hand information about the newest technologies and inventions.
But not only cars could be found in the mb! Lounge: A big part of the the exhibition is Pangaea as Mike Horn is brand ambassador of Mercedes-Benz.
So 16 Young Explorers from Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Canda, USA and Austria came together to give on their experience and knowledge about Pangaea and the Young Explorers Program to convince other teenagers to participate in the program and live a more sustainable way of life.
In different workshops the youths could learn about Mike Horn and the Pangaea expeditions to India, New Zealand, Mongolia and the Magnetic North Pole as well as how they can make a difference by changing peoples minds and living a more environmental friendly life.
Every workshop organized by 2-4 Young Explorers who passed on their experiences with Mike Horn was a great success. Often there were more then 12 people interested in one workshop and it was a lot of fun for everybody who took part. Sometimes the teenagers were sitting there, completely astonished and couldn't really believe where the YEPs have been and what they've seen there.
It was great to see the face expressions changing: While in the beginning some of the participants were only more or less interested a smile appeared on their faces after a few minutes. In the end of the one hour workshop many of the teenagers were really enthusiastic about the project and decided to apply for one of the two final expeditions to Brazil and East Africa. We even had some participants who don't want to wait until the application window for the Amazon Expedition opens but just started to work on their applications for the USA expedition, this means only a few days of time!
Not only the youths participating in the workshops were interested in Pangaea, also people walking by and actually only stopping for a few minutes to see what's going on were so impressed by the photos and videos which were shown and the stories which were told by the Young Explorers, that they joined the workshop until the end. Often the workshops took longer than planned or we continued the conversation with the visitors because they became infected with the exploration virus and had a lot of questions.
Exploration was also the topic of Mike Horn's TrendTalk on Thursday evening which was definitely the highlight of the day! People became more and more silent when Mike passed on his experience about Latitude Zero or the Arktos expedition as well as the expedition in the Amazon river. When he finally showed a short video sequence of him fighting on the last few meters on top of an 8000-meter mountain without any additional oxygen the auditorium was completely quiet and it was real goosebumps feeling in the mb! Lounge in the heart of Stuttgart.
In the following discussion with Joachim Löw, German's national soccer coach, and Jensen Mercedes-Benz they talked about their different experiences in the field of exploration, motivation and pioneering.
For us Young explorers these few days in Stuttgart were definitely an incredible time and a perfect platform to pass on our own experiences and discuss the topics we love with other people: exploration, sustainability and preservation of the environment.
You can not stop looking at all the amazing shapes on the Icebergs, carved out so precisely by nature, it feels like being in the biggest art gallery in the world, each piece is unique and perfectly shaped through millions of years. We as humans can destroy it all in seconds…..
You feel so small when you approach these big walls, some of them towering more than 1.5km out of the ocean. It is spectacular sailing down these fjords with ice from the glaciers falling into the ocean, waterfalls and sheer rock faces. Nobody around but whales, seals and polar bears.
We as humans have to have a better understanding about ourselves and others to be able to understand Nature. It is not the human need that is important today, it is nature's need. The question I often pose myself is, "Why are we killing the mother that feeds us, if we all need the earth for human survival?"