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travel / travel magazine / summer 2007
Ecotour
Earth tones
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| The Underground Salmon Pool, near Roddickton, offers
a pensive spot for Perron (LEFT, in blue) and Maggs to ponder natural wonders. From here,
Atlantic salmon journey underground for 50 kilometres to reach their spawning grounds upriver. (Photo: Nance Ackerman) |
After dinner, we were ushered along the harbour's edge to a small church overlooking the water, where
Maggs launched into a heady lecture on René Descartes, the father of modern philosophy. The
church was warm and the sun was setting as we learned about the separation of mind and body — concepts
that catalyzed the Enlightenment and mobilized the industrialization of Europe. Then, despite the
heat, goosebumps prickled on my neck as musicians from Gros Morne Summer Music's Azmari Quartet
closed the evening with works from Mozart.
As we made our way farther north through the week, we listened to the string
quartet with the doors of the Tuckamore Lodge flung open to the stars and accompanied
by the soft rhythmic dance of fish feeding in the twilight of Southwest Pond,
held a poetry reading by the light of the rising sun, and lay face down on limestone
cliffs to imagine how vegetation endures Newfoundland's brutal winters. We drove
the Viking Trail to Port au Choix, to witness historic wave upon wave of settlement and
culture, to Hawke's Bay, for a discussion of outport societies, and we crossed Bonne
Bay, to learn of the influence climate has on civilizations. We ate local meals,
stayed at comfortable lodges and met Newfoundlanders determined to lead
sustainable, Earth-friendly lives.
EARTH TO HUMAN TOUR
Getting there The tour's starting
point at Deer Lake, N.L., is served by daily flights from
major airports. It is a 700-kilometre drive from St. John's.
In 2007, the tour lasts six days and five nights, from Aug. 20–25. Prices start at $2,950.
Staying there Accommodations
include the Middle Brook Cottages & Chalets, Tuckamore
Lodge, and Shallow Bay Motel & Cabins. Most meals are
included. Itineraries are fixed, and every trip is escorted by a
guide. Group size averages 15.
Playing there
Each stop features a different marvel of ecology or human ingenuity and struggle.
Day 1 sets the stage with a seafood dinner and the music of Johannes Brahms. Through the
rest of the tour, you will take a boat cruise on Western Brook Pond, visit Port au Choix, a
national historic site with active archaeological digs revealing four ancient cultures, and kayak
the waters of Bonne Bay, scanning for minke whales.
(800) 387-2977
www.horizon-co.com
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THE EARTH ITSELF is Maggs' most important and compelling
host in the tour, but he almost steals the show with his inspiring
take on the environment and how to preserve the planet.
"One of the touchy issues surrounding environmentalism is
how lousy you feel for being a human once you take stock of
what we're doing to the Earth," says Maggs. "But the arts make
us proud to be human. We may now be at the point where we
actually need to prove we're worth saving. Art is our redemption."
So next time I get off an airplane and shake my head at a
gaggle of tourists milling around a frantic guide, I will stop
myself and think of fellow Earth to Human traveller Annalise
Eggmann of Nanuet, N.Y., adjusting a plastic rain scarf over
her hair and pulling her patent leather purse close as she
stood awestruck at the edge of Burnt Cape, oddly aware but
unafraid of a storm approaching from somewhere in the
North Atlantic.
"There's more to life than just buildings, pavement and traffic,"
says Eggmann, "and Newfoundland is the place to learn that."
If Maggs' goal is to awaken the cultural human deep within
us and call it to fight to save the planet, to pull us out of our concrete
confines, out of our comfort zones, and plunk us on the
edge of the continent to emphasize our place in the universe,
then the Earth to Human tour works.
It certainly did for me.
Nance Ackerman is a documentary photographer and filmmaker
living in Nova Scotia's Annapolis Valley.
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