Victoria was a terrifically generous woman. In spite of the fact that she was battling a very aggressive brain tumor over the last year, she gave me the pleasure of her company for an afternoon during a recent trip through Winnipeg. She spoke of a second book she was working on about her return to the North. Unfortunately this second book remains unfinished, as Victoria passed away on May 20, 2000. She was a great lady!
Her 7,500 kilometer journey last four years. In the first year Fred dropped out due to an injury, and Victoria suffered serious internal bleeding ulcers. The second year Victoria and Don reached Gjoa Haven together, but Victoria was forced to drop out there, suffering from edema caused by excessive fatigue. Don continued alone and almost died from extreme frostbite before being rescued by authorities just 46 miles short of Tuktoyuktuk.
Not content with her failure, Victoria returned to the North the following two years and completed her triumphant journey alone from west to east, paddling from Fort Providence on the MacKenzie River to Paulatuk in 1993, and from Paulatuk to Gjoa Haven in 1994.
Among the Inuit people she became known as the Kabloona (the Inuktitut word for stranger) in the Yellow Kayak.