SOLO: Challenges, Disabilities and the Greatest of Losses

In 1996, 60-year-old Bob Kelly temporarily lost the use of his legs. That disability was hard to bear for someone who had always been physically active. The following year, while looking for a way to use his upper body strength, he had an idea- to travel solo by kayak from Ottawa to the Atlantic.


In 1998, after completing that journey, Kelly faced another loss with the death of Shirley, his beloved wife of 34 years. He decided to continue the kayak trip across Canada as a memorial to her. It was an odyssey that took him some 9,000 kilometres through the most challenging waterways of Canada.


In Solo, Kelly tells how he overcame daunting obstacles, brutal weather, serious injuries and setbacks. The story ends on the historic Grand Portage, where Kelly faced the most gruelling test.


"Long trips over water and portages are metaphors of life - the wind can be with you or a hurricane in your face. Bob's included physical and emotional obstacles greater than the whims of weather and geography. It spanned more than distance and time and was indeed the journey of an indomitable spirit." -Max Finklestein, author of Canoeing a Continent and Paddling the Boreal Forest.