Arktikos - An Arctic Odyssey

When New Zealander Graeme Dingle decided to attempt the first continuous circumnavigation of the Arctic Circle, he was looking for the ultimate adventure. Many had gone there before him: hardy Russians crossed southern Siberia in the 1600s, English and American explorers pushed further into the Arctic in the 1700s and 1800s, Amundsen sailed the Northwest Passage in the early 1900s, and Rasmussen crossed Arctic Canada in the 1920s.

In 1992-93 Expedition Arktikos was to take its Kiwi and Russian participants from the coast of the Bering Sea across northern Siberia - in conditions that would daunt any but the hardiest - to Greenland, through the Northwest Passage to the Yukon and Alaska, and across the Bering Strait. On the one hand the expedition was beset with problems that constantly threatened to bring it to a premature end; while on the other, the team's dogged determination and the immense goodwill of the people en route frequently overcame seemingly insurmountable obstacles.

Using modern technology and knowledge, Arktikos did not compare with the heroic passages of the past, and in the event it was not continuous; but it did score some impressive achievements, including the longest continuous Arctic journey, the first transit of the Northwest Passage from Lancaster Sound to the Mackenzie River, and the first surface journey from Lancaster Sound to Siberia.

While such events make headlines, for Graeme Dingle the journey had a far deeper signifigance: it became both a physical and personal odyssey.

- from the back cover.

Arktikos - An Arctic Odyssey
Graeme Dingle
Reed Books
Auckland
1997
First edition.
Softcover.
Illustrated card covers. 19 x 25cm
184 pages.
Very good second-hand condition.
Security tag affixed to inside back cover.