12 hours ago
‘My marriage ended, then my dog died – so I went on a six-year solo journey across a continent'
Getting lost in a forest is frightening. Getting lost in a forest when you are a woman, on your own, a storm is brewing and night is falling is very, very frightening.
And it was at that point that Dianne Whelan realised that two burly hunters carrying guns were heading her way.
'This is it,' she thought. 'This is the ultimate nightmare: a woman on her own in the woods…'
Not for the first time, fate smiled on Whelan. The men had, in fact, spotted her bike tracks in the woods and thought this was someone who needed help. A warm bed in a wooden hut and a hearty deer and potato stew ensued.
The next morning, the skies once again clear, and with a new spring in her step, she was able to continue her journey. And what a journey.
'Midlife journey'
For some, reaching a certain point in life can trigger an impulsive purchase or succumb to an indulgent whim. For Whelan, just turned 50, a broken marriage behind her and grieving the loss of a much-loved dog, it fired the desire to travel solo across the length and breadth of Canada along the world's longest recreational trail – or series of trails across land and water.
The trip, eschewing all forms of motorised vehicle, was to be done through a combination of hiking, biking, snow-shoeing, cross-country skiing and paddling (a variety of canoes). The distance covered was to be some 17,000 miles (5,000 of them by water). And it was to entail blood, sweat and fears.
Whelan's extraordinary adventure is the subject of the film 500 Days in the Wild, which is receiving its UK premiere in London on Thursday at the Raindance Film Festival.
The film – which Whelan shot herself – has already achieved critical acclaim in her native Canada, where it has been available via Paramount+ for more than a year. She is 'thrilled' that it will now be shown in London and hopes this will help to draw in a wider international audience.
The title of the film is a tad misleading. When she set off from St John's, Newfoundland, on July 1 2015, she thought she could complete the journey west in 500 days. In the end, it took 1,862 days – just over six years – to reach Vancouver Island, where she was finally able to hang up her canoe on Aug 1 2021.
It was a highly ambitious project. Whelen had some camping experience, but nothing on this scale. She was moderately fit but nowhere near a super athlete.
Previous documentaries she had made involved filming others in extreme locations, like Everest and the Arctic. But in this, she was the one exposing herself to extreme physical and mental challenges.
'It was a bit insane,' she tells me. 'But I was looking for a new project and no one had ever made a film about this trail before. And I wanted some time on my own.'
It did not take long for Whelan to realise that her journey was going to take a great deal longer than she had anticipated.
Early mishaps involved the soles of her boots coming unstuck (they were put back together by a couple with superglue and a van, the weight of which was used to aid adhesion) and the loss and destruction of several tents.
There were more serious incidents, such as getting caught in a riptide on Lake Superior ('I was sure I was going to roll over and perish'). Much later in the trip, while paddling to the icy far north of the country, she heard of the deaths of two fellow adventurers in the vicinity, one through drowning and the other killed by a bear who ripped him out of his tent at night.
'When you go to the Arctic you have to accept that you are on the food chain,' she says. 'But those incidents really brought home the reality – and dangers – of the situation.'
Whelan had her own nerve-wracking encounter with a black bear, but the firing of a couple of warning shots enabled her to pack up her canoe and make a speedy departure.
The logistics of the trip did involve support from others – family and long-standing friends helping with supplies and the provision of whatever means of transport was necessary for the stretch that lay ahead – mountain bike, canoe, cross-country skis. One or two friends travelled with her for short periods, but the vast majority of the journey was conducted alone.
Canada's beauty
Canada, famously, is an astonishingly beautiful country and 500 Days in the Wild shows it in much of its glory: the brooding intensity of the great lakes, the golden prairies of Saskatchewan, the ancient rock formations of the Canadian Shield, the coniferous forests of Ontario and, of course, the drama of the Rocky Mountains.
It is also teeming with wildlife, and strong supporting roles in the film are provided by moose, deer, otters and bison. Snow geese, owls and eagles also fly into the frame.
There are multi-tiered human connections, too. In addition to friends, family and the many random strangers who help along the way, a key theme of the film centres on Whelan's determination to connect with the original inhabitants of Canada.
In an early shot, Whelan is seen receiving a symbolic feather from an elder of the Haida community, which she carries with her throughout the trip. In another, she is welcomed ashore by Grand Chief Ben Sylliboy and leading members of the Mi'kmaq community after another successful navigation of treacherous waters.
In addition to the feather, she carries the words of Canada's indigenous peoples with her, highlighting their profound observations about life and how we travel through it.
Thus, rather than travelling on water, she talks of travelling with the water; addressing the earth, she refers to it as sacred. As she does the myriad species she communes with. Citing another piece of gleaned First Nations' wisdom, she says: 'It's not how you travel, it's what you carry in your heart when you travel.'
Inveterate cynics may raise an eyebrow, but it kept Whelan grounded, and there are undoubtedly ideas here that will resonate with some in these challenging times.
Perhaps most fundamentally, Whelan – now 60 and with a new partner – confirms that there is a great deal to the adage that the journey is more important than the destination. And she also shares her realisation that, for all the ills and bad news in the world, human beings are really not such a bad lot after all. If that alone was what she came away with from this epic voyage, it was six years well spent. The perfect holiday in Canada
