Chris Bray is an adventurer and now an author with his brilliant recount the 1000 hour day. Retelling the experiences Bray and his fellow explorer Clark Carter encountered during their expedition on Victoria Island, one of the most extreme and diverse landscapes in the world. Here he gives us some insight into the expedition and his experience of retelling the events. 

 

 

 

Oh absolutely. Growing up sailing around the world for 5 years certainly gave me the travel-bug, but perhaps more importantly it taught me to be practical, aware of risks, and that – as evidenced by my parents living their dream – difficult projects just need a bit of dedication to become a reality.

 

Firstly, we a

pplied hindsight – and lots of it. We looked at all the things that, looking back on them, could have been better – most notably the PAC/cart which just wasn’t up to the demands of the extraordinary terrain out there, and other things like tweaking our daily diet, improving the polar bear tripwire alarm, organising better shotguns, making a more interactive website – things like that. Then we just did a whole lot more testing – putting everything in -38 degree warehouse freezers etc.

 

 

Yes and no. We sure learnt a LOT on the first trip which made things clearer for the second, and one of the hardest things – getting enough sponsorship – was easier the second time around too as we had a good reputation and most simply stayed onboard for #2. But you’re right too that knowing more about the horrors we’d be facing, we had to design things much more specifically, and test them so much harder, else we knew we’d fail. The second trip took much longer to prepare for.

 

 

Looking back on it, it should have been pretty clear within two weeks that our daily distances were nothing like what we needed to get to the far side before the food ran out, but the only way you can bring yourself to move forward at all each day out there is by telling yourself and each other that there is still hope – that we will improve our mileage as we get stronger, as the PACs get lighter and so on. We ignored the inescapable reality, not wanting to talk about it, until day xxxx when it was blindingly obvious, and we needed to consider if we should keep going or not. It’s a dangerous admission – failure – and at first we were inclined to basically go home, but we thankfully convinced ourselves that – as the old cliché goes ‘it’s the journey, not the destination and so we just plodded onwards to get as far as we could and experience the adventure.

 

The trip was certainly as much of a mental challenge as it was physical, however it wasn’t so much the isolation that threatened to pull us apart, on the contrary, I think that played a huge role in holding us together. We both knew we depended upon each other to survive – there could be no arguing or walking away, and the only way we could stay positive and keep going was by spinning a tight cocoon of optimism around us both. Sure some things got on each others nerves a bit, being rarely out of sight of each other for 24hrs a day, 7 days a week, under some of the most trying situations imaginable, but we did also have emotional refuge both through emails to our friends and families, and also within ourselves, as each day we spent many hours alone in our thoughts, hauling independently.

 

Is it difficult transitioning from adventurer to author? 

I’ve really enjoyed the challenge of writing this book – I love writing, and finding the right combination of words to share and convey the experience with everyone else. Considering however as I was stuck on a little yacht in the Canadian arctic, unable to do the final check of the book before it went to print, I wouldn’t say I’ve made a ‘transition’ to being an author – I’m still an adventurer at heart, I’ve just added ‘would-be Author’ to my job description, along with photographer, speaker, and electrical engineer! Haha =)

 

Nothing can compare to the excitement, joy and freedom I experienced during the adventure – waking up each morning knowing that today you’ll likely see and do things that few – if anyone – has ever seen or done before – that’s incredibly motivating. Writing the book was certainly enjoyable, but really, there is no comparison. Hopefully reading it will feel somewhere between the two!

 

I have tried hard to properly convey the experiences we had out there, and I think the book paints a pretty descriptive scene, but inevitably, yes, there were several occurrences which I either left out as they just didn’t sound rational or realistic when I tried to explain them from the comfort of home, (like one time when Clark actually bit hard into a piece of rock he picked up because it looked like a piece of chocolate fudge), and the sheer wonder, beauty and awe of some scenes or experiences can never be justified by words alone – that’s why I’ve coaxed the publishers to include such an uncommonly large set of photographs to go with it!

 

 

If you’re asking weather, if I knew originally what I do now, would I still have embarked on this crazy mission to cross the island in 2005 and again in 2008, then most certainly yes. I wouldn’t change a thing about the 4 years Clark and I spent on this project, not even the failure of the first trip – every bit of it was amazing, and has shaped me into who I am today. It’s been the best thing I’ve done in my life, for sure. If, however you’re asking if I might indeed do the expedition all over again someday – don’t count it out! Maybe one day we’ll cross it in one season, as old men, for old-times sake. For now though, there’s plenty of other adventurers already lined up.

 

You bet! I’m writing these answers sitting on a plane home from Canada, having just spent the last 3 months up there with my girlfriend Jess rebuilding a little junk-rig yacht we’ve bought together, getting it ready to sail home to Australia in stages, via some of the world’s most wild and remote places, starting with going over the top of Canada, through the infamous Northwest passage in the arctic. Take a look at www.YachtTeleport.com Meanwhile, Clark has just today got back from canoeing down the Sepik river in PNG, and you can be sure there’ll always be ‘the next adventure’ on the boil!