We arrived in Fort Good Hope on Friday afternoon, the paddle from Norman Wells was tough, the current was very slow and we had some UK weather to contend with, high winds and rain meaning we spent a lot of time on the river banks waiting for the river to calm down. The day we left we also had to endure two portages, fairly short but we have a lot of gear, thankfully it is highly unlikely we will be faced with another.

Norman Wells was fantastic, met some really good people, accommodation was great and i got to experience a NWT bar on a Saturday night at 2am - not much different to what i imagine Alness would be like on a Saturday night.  We also got to watch the entire tennis, shed a tear for Murray.

The two recognized rapids on the Mackenzie lay between Norman Wells and Fort Good Hope, it was good to finally get these out of the way and in the end they weren't too bad, skipper Rae steered us pretty much clear of them.  The scenery has been pretty stunning at times, the 'Ramparts' particularly - the Ramparts is flanked by high cliffs and is relatively narrow (prob just under a k).

Today we have went to the Northern Store in Fort Good Hope where the manager offered us the use of her shower later this evening (she said it without a wink), we got picked up by a guy in town who gave us a ride with our groceries back to our tents in the back of his truck. We are currently at the house of a lady who works in the community hall who we met yesterday, we are using her washing machine and internet at present, we also showered here yesterday, she just let us in to use her house and went away again, and finally tronight we are going fishing with a local guy who we met on the river - standard stuff really, the warmth of the people continues to be quite humbling.

The next stage of the journey is 220 miles, 10-12 days, we have replenished our food barell and are ready to leave tomorrow morning. This will be the biggest stretch of the journey, looking forward to it as it is always cooler on the water, despite the few days of wind and rain it is back to 30 + degrees with no shade from sun rise to sun set (about 20 hours).