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There is a small town in Norway not far from the Swedish border called Narvik.  The town is full of history, setting the stage for numerous WWII battles and attracts many tourists each year because of this. Its natural beauty is unreal as well, with huge peaks jetting straight out of the fjords and surrounding the town.  We spent New Years here and although at first it seemed like a quiet little town with nothing to do, suddenly around midnight thousands of locals poured into the streets setting off the finest run of amateur fireworks I have every seen.  We were told that this would be the last year for the fireworks as it was going to be outlawed because to many people had been getting hurt over the years.  It seems that the rest of the world is getting law crazy just like the United States, although I have a feeling that the locals may not adhere to this law all too well.

There is no doubt that we were ducking in fear as rogue bottle rockets and airborne spinners whizzed by our noggins, but this excitement is something that should be preserved instead of legislated against.  I guess it is just becoming the way of the world to make a law instead of learning some tolerance for one day each year.  Lawmaking aside, this is a hot spot for New Years.  Where the Narvikians lack in population, they certainly make up for in zest.  This New Years will certainly be one that I will never forget.

The day after new years we actually missed a turn on the way out of town and ended up at the Viking Hotel in Bjerkvik, a small town in the same area.  Here we met the owner of the hotel and a few of his friends.  They told us of the plans to remodel the hotel and put a huge Nazi Junker 52 airplane from WWII on the roof of the building that was recovered from the bottom of the bay.  Mark and I had a chance to go with the guys to see the plane in the process of restoring it that evening.  The two days around New Years could not have worked out better for us.  Check out the photos below.

Flickr Gallery

Link to TWBR Gallery page

By this point there are probably not many that are still in the dark about Mars making its closest appearance to Earth, well basically ever. After recently receiving many emails regarding this celestial phenomena, the first response from the TWBRs was excitement that our vantage point would be ideal in some remote town while on the road. Then reality set in.

We have not had a day in the last three weeks without at least a few hours of rain, but even when the rain stops the clouds still hang around to keep us company. Unless some miracle happens and the monsoon season suddenly comes to a halt, the chance of us seeing Mars in all its glory is slim to none. So please make a point to look up and say, "Man it looks like we have two moons, how amazing, those poor suckers from The World by Road are drenched right now…" Then turn to the person that you are with and say, "Maybe we should donate some money to their cause to lift their spirits :)"

Things are truly on the up and up.  We now have the trucks and are in the Blue Mountains outside of Sydney.  Now that we have our gear we were able to go canyoning in an amazing canyon and abseil some waterfalls.  We have limited internet right now, but we will be taking some photos of the trucks and have them up in the next couple of days.  Our last week has been action packed and we will put together some great updates for you as well.

The adventure has truly begun now!!!

Here is our interview with News 4.  Sorry for the lack of other updates beyond the news, but we are slammed right now with our final preparations for the expedition.  We will get updates very soon, but for now just know that all is going well, but our days are long and stressful.  Everyone send good vibes to the Carnet de Passages gods, we have been have a little trouble jumping through those beaurocratic hoops.

 

 CBS Interview 2-28-07: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

It has been a very busy couple of weeks for the TWBR crew. As you know, we are getting very close to our departure date next month, so everyone is running around trying to finalize as much as possible before we leave. In my last post, I mentioned our education initiative. We have been very excited about the feedback we are getting on this project and it is building up quite a head of steam. Development of this worthwhile endeavor is one of the main reasons we pushed our original departure date back a month. One of the highlights thus far has to have been the assembly we put on last week for students at the Denver Center for International Studies (DCIS).

When Kate Farmer, the DCIS community coordinator approached us with the concept about doing an assembly in front of 400 kids, I was more than a little nervous about getting up on stage, but it turned out to be a really cool experience. Last Wednesday, the TWBR team put together a presentation to introduce ourselves to the school and get them excited not only about the expedition, but about the exciting projects we have planned for them. We started out the presentation with a short video introduction and in true Shoppman style, Steve then entered the stage with a full round-out (sort of like a cartwheel with a twist). We proceeded to talk a little bit about the expedition, introduce ourselves and talk about the various projects we will be working with DCIS students on. We then had a brief question and answer period and a world geography trivia session. The kids got really excited when we told them that we had a bunch of Lonely Planet t-shirts and books (one of TWBR’s main sponsors)  to hand out to kids who correctly answered questions.

All in all, it was a great time and the kids seemed to be very enthusiastic about he expedition and the opportunity to be a part of it. A few students even came up and had us autograph a LP t-shit for the senior class. We are all very excited about the relationship we have formed with the school and the possibility to help kids learn more about the world they live in. This week is also shaping up to be very busy… but full of good news. Stay tuned as we will soon be unveiling the trucks!