Cross Canada Canoe Expedition

“By documenting this cross country journey on film and in photographs will be able to capture Canada’s awesome beauty and allow others to see it, fall in love with it and help us protect it.” Celine Daoust

Introduction: Not long ago the “eh Team” of ehCanadaTravel.com met Celine and Gerry Daoust and were soon hooked on their adventure, “Cross Canada Canoe Expedition”.  We asked them to share their story with our followers. Enjoy!

We are Celine and Gerry Daoust, the Canadian Voyageurs. We are crossing this great land of ours by canoe. We are more than just nature lovers, we are environmental ambassadors with our sights on a cross Canada canoe expedition.

Our lifestyle is not very conventional – we live off the grid in the remote wilderness, we grow our own garden – we lead a very simple and natural life. We have spent a great deal of our lives exploring Canada’s spectacular wilderness.

While traveling this great country, we marveled at its immenseness and absolutely stunning beauty. Therefore, we will be filming our experiences on our cross Canada canoe expedition. We are also making a photo journal of our canoe expedition.

Preparing for the long journey:

The big voyage begins in the spring of 2015 – with many mini-excursions planned this summer. This year, it’s all about planning and promoting – and planning and promoting.

One of the first things we discovered when researching this canoe expedition was that there were other groups that have done this voyage before us, each journey unique, done for its own reasons and faced its own challenges. There are many different routes to explore; Canada is a canoer’s paradise. We are still debating whether we are leaving from Vancouver or 100 Mile House, in beautiful British Columbia. We are leaning towards Vancouver which means undertaking a 51 kilometer (31.7 miles) portage over the Rocky Mountains. We will travel down rivers mostly with the currents, there are a few rivers however where we will have to paddle against the current like the Winnipeg River and the North Saskatchewan River. We will cross numerous lakes including the largest lake on earth, Lake Superior. Our journey will take us across all the provinces, from one coast to the other, ending up in Moncton N.B. We have never been to Canada’s east coast, so this part of the voyage will be especially exciting for us – exploring the unseen…. The entire expedition covers over 7000km of paddling and over 300 kilometers of portaging our gear.

Gathering gear and getting supplies:

The outcome of any voyage often greatly depends on the time, thought and effort you put into preparing for it.  We both have Advanced Wilderness First Aid certifications – we are all about preparation and safety. For us this is a journey, not a race – it’s about documenting nature and sharing the experience with others.

Good gear is not only something you want it’s something you need and must have. One of the most important pieces of equipment, the one that can make us and break us is our canoe, of course. It took us about three weeks to shop around the internet and find the best canoe at the best price (delivered or picked up) for us. We chose the Dumoine Composite by Swift.  Here we are at the factory to pick it up in South River, Ontario.

This Kevlar composite canoe has matching reinforced bumpers as an extra option for white water, it weighs 58 pounds – not bad for a 16 feet 8 inch canoe! We will be renting advertising space on the canoe to our sponsors to help us with some of the costs of the voyage.

Facebook : http://www.facebook.com/Canadianvoyageurs2015

Twitter : https://twitter.com/CanadianVoyage

Website : http://celinegerry.wix.com/canadianvoyageurs

We are doing this for many reasons: First because we can. Our lifestyle and life experiences have prepared us to be able to do this journey. It’s not everybody who can take six months to cross Canada to raise awareness for a cause. We are not motivated by money. It is health that is real wealth and living in harmony with nature will help you achieve that.

For us it’s about protecting our natural resources for our children, for yours and future generations. It makes so much more sense to prevent environmental damage than to try and clean it up. This is about raising awareness and getting others involved. We know this won’t be easy, but for us it’s a labour of love. By documenting this cross country journey on film and in photographs will be able to capture Canada’s awesome beauty and allow others to see it, fall in love with it and help us protect it.

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ehCanadaTravel.com (eh Canada Travel & Adventure) is the largest and fastest growing booking, planning and researching tourism and travel website for Western and Northern Canada currently expanding into Eastern and Atlantic Canada. The EH Team Brothers (Co Founders) also author the eh Canada Travel Blog which was recently awarded “A Top Canadian Blogger” by FlightNetwork.com.

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