March 2014 – Volume Twenty-One, Number Three

EXPEDITION NEWS, now in its 21^st year, is the monthly review of significant expeditions, research projects and newsworthy adventures. It is distributed online to media representatives, corporate sponsors, educators, research librarians, explorers, environmentalists, and outdoor enthusiasts. This forum on exploration covers projects that stimulate, motivate and educate.


DUCK DOWN UNDER

A team of five adventurers are undertaking a first-time expedition from London to Sydney in a WWII DUKW amphibious truck, crossing 20,000 miles by land and 2,000 miles over water. Departing in 2015, this will be an historic journey completed entirely in a single vehicle under its own power from the United Kingdom to Australia. The team will map and share its travels through social and digital media, and bring solar innovations and medical assistance to remote communities, as well as conduct scientific research en route.

Starting from the gates of the Royal Geographical Society, the expedition will cross the English Channel to France before heading overland across Europe and into Russia, Kazakhstan, Mongolia and then China. The team then hopes to negotiate much of the Mekong River system, starting in Laos and taking in Cambodia, Vietnam and Thailand.

"This in itself may represent a world-first as the amphibious nature of the DUKW will allow skirting of dams, rapids and waterfalls which have prevented traditional watercraft from attempting this," said Zimbabwean-born Brit Richard Coe, 45, expedition leader.

From Thailand, the route passes to Malaysia. From there they will cross by sea to Sumatra in Indonesia. Island hopping the archipelago will carry them to East Timor which will serve as the jumping-off point for the final, longer sea crossing to Darwin, Australia. The last leg will be overland, completing this epic adventure at the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Sponsorship is being sought for the estimated $166,000 project. Extensive filmmaking and documentation is planned.
For more information


RED DEER RIVER EXPEDITION SEARCHES FOR DINOS

The Red Deer River in Alberta, Canada, cuts through a series of Upper Cretaceous rocks that produce a succession of dinosaur faunas that represent the last 15 million years of non-avian dinosaur history on Earth. In 2012, an Explorers Club flag expedition worked its way down the upper part of the river, looking for new dinosaur specimens, and old dinosaur sites with historical significance (and the potential of additional work during a return visit).

The expedition succeeded in its objectives, and follow-up is being conducted this year by the University of Alberta. The trip ended in Drumheller in 2012, and the intention was always to continue the trip farther downstream in 2014.

On July 14, 2014, 18 members of the Explorers Club will put their canoes into the Red Deer River just downstream of the Bleriot Ferry. The rocks in this area represent the lower part of the Horseshoe Canyon Formation, which has produced numerous dinosaur fossils of the Edmontonian Land Mammal Age.

Over the next two weeks, they will work their way downriver, stopping at exposures to look for new dinosaur fossil sites, and to attempt to relocate several quarries that had been worked by early dinosaur hunters before the availability of good topographic maps and GPS.

The 131-mile expedition will pass through the lower beds of the Horseshoe Canyon formation, the marine beds of the Bearpaw Formation (which are unlikely to produce dinosaur fossils, although occasionally good skeletons of dinosaur cadavers that had drifted out to sea have been found), the world-famous beds of the Dinosaur Park Formation, and the upper part of the Oldman Formation. From there, the team will emerge from the badlands at Jenner on July 28.

Any dinosaur skeletons with good potential for excavation will be worked in subsequent years by the University of Alberta. However, in addition to the specimens, a significant amount of data will be collected and incorporated immediately into several palaeoecological studies that are assessing the changes in dinosaur diversity as they approached the extinction event 65 million years ago.

Team Leader is Jason Schoonover, 67, Saskatoon, who has been an amateur paleontologist since 1979. Field Leader is Dr. Phil Currie,63, Edmonton, an internationally renowned paleontologist and an Explorers Medalist. Joining the team is Capt. Norm Baker, 84, of Windsor, Mass., who has the distinction of having been the navigator on Thor Heyerdahl's Ra, Ra II and Tigris reed boat expeditions.

"Any and all new finds add to paleontology's growing storehouse of knowledge," said Schoonover.

"With 36 eyes to the ground here in the field with the richest concentration of dino bones on the planet, we stand a better than average chance of making important discoveries-particularly as we've had a couple of heavy snowfall winters which caused greater than normal erosion."
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AMELIA EARHART TAKES OFF AGAIN

Denver traffic and weather reporter Amelia Rose Earhart of KUSA 9News shares the same name and passion as one of the most revered names in early aviation. It's that same love for soaring the skies that's pushing the NBC affiliate news anchor to recreate her namesake's 1937 transcontinental journey.

Today's Earhart, 31, no relation to the original Amelia, is planning a 14-stop/17-day 24,301 nm flight scheduled for June 1, 2014 departure that will be live-streamed and shared via social media. Earhart and her co-pilot, Theddy Spichtig, will host real-time in-air Facebook and Twitter chats and, thanks to cameras mounted along the aircraft, from wing tip to fuselage, curious viewers will be able to watch their progress.

Honeywell Aerospace outfitted the plane with custom satellite communication equipment, as well as the live-tracking cameras that viewers can use to toggle between multiple vantage points on their single engine Pilatus PC-12 NG aircraft.

The flight will start and end in Oakland, Calif.

If the 2014 Earhart can pull it off, she will become the youngest woman to circumnavigate the globe in a single-engine aircraft.

The aviatrix recently spent two days undergoing water survival training at Survival Systems USA, a Groton, Conn., company that teaches survival egress training in a huge "Survival Theater" that dunks students upside down in water as mock thunder and lightning simulates the worst possible conditions.

"I went from having a legitimate fear of the ocean to feeling like I could survive an extreme emergency on the flight around the world," she tells Mashable.com

Earhart says that the goal of the project is to inspire a new generation of female aviators. To that end, she has created the Fly with Amelia Foundation, a 501(c) 3 organization providing flight scholarships to young women who want to become pilots.

Key sponsors include Honeywell, Pratt & Whitney, as well as Pilatus.
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EVEREST PREVIEW

We can't help ourselves. Even though Everest isn't the toughest mountain in the world to climb, it apparently has the best publicist because, arguably, it's the world's best known. Here's a sample of what to expect this May from Everest a.k.a. Chomolungma in Tibetan ("Goddess Mother of the World") and Sagarmatha in Sanskrit ("Ocean Mother"):