South OZ Adventurers - Adventure, Travel, Expeditions

South OZ Adventurers


Prince Rupert

Canadian Customs was a treat to deal with. So after 34Nm, 57ish kms of paddling we arrived at a marina on the south end of Prince Rupert. Quite tired in fact....after all, only that morning we were in Alaska and we did cross the Portland Canal all in one day.

Out of my kayak I jumped onto the dock, immediately pulling our passports from my rear hatch. Still attired in all of my paddling gear (to help my entry case if needed) I approached the public phone and proceeded to dial the 1800-CANPASS number for customs. Feeling a little nervous, dealing with a government authority, I put on my bravest voice and 'lets see what happens attitude' . (Out of concern I had actually contacted US and Canadian customs during our trip preparation on 3 occasions - but you never really know how these things may result). The gentleman at the other end of the phone was very direct after I explained only briefly that I had just paddled into Canada via Sea Kayak. What is your name.....have you ever entered by Sea kayak before......who are you travelling with....what is your relationship......one moment miss........curiously I waited, he seemed nice enough, even if he cut me off as I was trying to spell our names correctly for his benefit.........you are clear to proceed into Canada mamm.

Alrightly then.....um excuse me, can you please explain to me what that means???????

I hung up. Turning to Lachie with a confused look I explained the phone call, even though he heard most of it. We were just cleared to enter Canada, no passport numbers required, no stamps in our passports and our concern was that we didnt know what to do with our I-94 visa waviers from the US. Failing to return this last time, nearly saw this expedition come to a halt at the Skagway border before our departure for Lachie.

I called again. Explained our situation, questioned the lack of needing our passport numbers (carefully) and then questioned what to do with our I-94 US visas. Its simple really, just hand them in at an airport or walk up the road and surrender them at the customs office.

Got it! We were clear to proceed. (2 days later we were confirmed with an offical stamp in our passports as we surrended our I-94 US visas)

So Lachie and I found a home for the night, had a huge feed of local Dungeness crab and rested on board a local crab boat for the night. Heading along the dock for a walk the next morning we were invited on board another fishing charter for a cooked breakfast, followed by an invite of accomadation for as long as we liked, on board another local fishing charter. From the beginning Lachie and I had no plans for this being an unsupported challenge. To us this expedition was more about the people encountered, the environment and culture we could discover, the opportunities and learnings we could have. The knowledge we would gain, both from the ocean and from the people. Lifestyle.

The last offer came with a perfect brown Old's mobile with a brown velvet interior that got us around two for the next few days! We loved it and it was Lachies first chance to test his driving skills on the other side of the road. Our next few days were spent researching the coast of British Columbia, loading up this website and taking the opportunities to explore the wider Prince Rupert and emptying dungeness crab pots. A majority of our trip preparation was focused on our 3 months in Alaska, it was a huge bonus that we had made it this far and now it felt like an entirely new adventure again.

We departed Prince Rupert and paddled out into remoteness again. It was always nice to enter into a town to resupply, but always a 100% better to be leaving again. We headed for the northern end of Grenville Channel.