Gavin Menzies plots a new adventure – driving to his daughter Samantha’s wedding, from London to Garson, Ontario in 1999. The proposed route is from Islington, London, to Dover and thence through the Channel Tunnel across Europe and Siberia, across the Bering Straits when they are frozen, and finally through from Alaska to Ontario, collecting Samantha and taking her to the church in the amphibious car in time for her wedding. Planning the operation requires great skill and military precision.
He uses his contacts at the Scot Polar Research Institute at Cambridge, who provide detailed information about the Bering Straits and eastern Siberia, dwelling from their own experiences.
However, the abrupt cancellation of the expedition reminds us of the harsh reality of a tough existence in this barren region. There is no food, save for what a traveller could catch. Today’s native peoples need motorboats and guns to hunt their prey. Furthermore, it is a thousand mile trek across Siberia to reach the Bering Straits – 1000 miles without fruit or berries, or trees for wood to make fire and produce water from ice. The topography is relentless – an endless expanse of boggy tundra and icy rivers.
The more we think about the Bering Straits theory of populating the Americas, the more ridiculous it becomes. If we cannot manage the journey today when backed by a mighty Russian military machine, how could people have done it with nothing but their hind legs – having to walk in appalling conditions without food or water for months on end?
Further reading:
Bering straits – http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/bering.htm~
Beringia theory: http://ows.edb.utexas.edu/site/hight-kreitman/land-bridge-theory
Scot Polar Research Institute: http://www.spri.cam.ac.uk/
