“Knock Knock”, a knuckle rapped gently on the door of our borrowed house on Adak. I was just after 9am. I tried to leap out of bed, but my calves, thighs and shoulders screamed at me to take it easy. I hobbled down the stairs as quickly as I could and just caught Elaine moments before she left our breakfast on the doorstep. Inside, she put water on for coffee and tea while I rubbed sleep from my eyes. It took me a minute to realise that she was carrying enough pancakes, burgers and fried potatoes to feed a small army. Imelda, who cooks for 300 fish plant workers through the cod fishing season had taken time to made us a feast, knowing that we’d be tired and hungry from our 20 hours of walking over the last 2 days.

5 days into our stay on Adak, Sarah, Lucy and I have well and truly made ourselves at home. Our house is one of several hundred that were built by the US navy during the second world war to house the thousands of troops stationed here. They look like housing estates anywhere, except there are no signs of life. It’s quite eerie to walk or drive along the empty streets, with no cars, no washing lines full of clothes, no kids toys in the gardens, no people, no noise. The 100 permanent residents of Adak are scattered about in the houses, as are 100 contractors here as part of an on-going project to dispose of the many ordnances (bombs, mines etc) left on the island

We’ve been busy sorting out our kayaks and kit – glueing, wrapping, consolidating, drilling, trimming and organising. We’ve packed enough food for 3-4 weeks because villages and food supplies are few and far between. We’ve even removed the edges off our dehydrated meals despite one friend commenting that we ‘shouldn’t be cutting corners on our expedition’.

6 months ago Sarah arrived from Japan in her rowing boat in a small cove on the South coast of Adak. To ‘join the dots’ of her human powered journey we spent the last 2 days walking there and back. It’s about 9 miles one way along a vague hiking trail, used more by the introduced caribou than by people. The island map said it should take 11 hours which I found hard to believe – surely we wouldn’t travel less than 1 mile/ hour!? After a couple of hours of route finding, stream crossing, bog-hopping, hill climbing and heavy panting I began to wonder whether it would take us longer than that. Fortunately it doesn’t get dark until after 10pm and it was an amazing walk through a little-visited wild island. I enjoyed becoming familiar with the small plants and lichens growing in this treeless landscape & I loved the ever-changing views, the sweet fresh air and the sense of adventure. We finally made it to a lovely campsite above Camel Cove after 9 hours. The return journey took 11 as we took a ‘shortcut’ through an unnamed pass which turned out to be a steep snow-filled gully surrounded by cliffs! Now we’re back in Adak town, we are being really well looked after by the locals. Elaine has lent us her truck, fed us caribou-dog from animals that she hunted last year and tonight we are going to have a Banja (sauna) at her house to ease our aching muscles. Imelda has been feeding us most days and others are showing us their warm hearts every day. It’s a privilege to have an insight into the way of life in such a remote island community.

Kayaking – we hope to start on Sunday or Monday after Sarah’s fiancee Lucy flies home.

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