Adventure
63-year old Bert ter Hart is trekking and paddling his canoe across Canada, from west to east, using only a sextant and compass. He’s following routes that Canada’s Indigenous people travelled for thousands of years; they later helped guide the fur traders and explorers like David Thompson. He’s also carrying a petition that seeks to recognize these Indigenous guides.
Trekking from the Sunshine Village (AB) ski resort near Banff to Mount Shark (AB) along the Alberta (AB) / British Columbia (BC) provincial border.
Rick McCharles at Best Hike calls this one of the world’s ten best.
The folks in this video did the hike in 4 days. Best Hike recommends 6 days.
This area is part of the Canadian Rocky Mountain Parks UNESCO World Heritage Site which includes the contiguous national parks of Banff (AB), Jasper (AB), Kootenay (BC) and Yoho (BC), as well as the Mount Robson (BC), Mount Assiniboine (BC) and Hamber (B.C.) provincial parks.
Video below…
Gordon McIntyre, The Province »
On Day 10 of the journey I realized I had not even completed what I thought I could do in one day.”
So she lit a small fire and burned her schedule.
“And I stopped measuring my journey by how many kilometres I did in a day,” Whelan said. “I like to tell people that’s the day I dropped my rabbit suit for the turtle shell and realized not everything of value can be measured numerically.
The US News and World Report has again ranked countries according to how well they break from the norm and fulfill people’s wanderlust and desire for adventure.
The top 30 adventure rankings for 2021 are »
From Benoit Lalande via Vimeo »
Gisele Bruhwiler moved to Tofino when the now renowned Canadian surf town was nothing more than a small fishing village. Since then, she has raised an entire family of pro-surfers, but did so the old way, showing them how to sail and live off the land. Despite speaking a different language and being generations apart, Gisele and her grandson Kalum share an unconditional love for the ocean and this primitive lifestyle that’s been lost with changing times.
How do you choose your next adventure when there are so many options available?
Wizarding up ideas for adventures is one of my favourite things to do. I find it enjoyable, exciting, but also easy. If I was a specialist I would need to search for something higher, harder and faster within my niche every time I wanted a new challenge. But because I am a generalist, I make the next adventure more challenging by making it differently challenging to previous projects. It is an important part of keeping adventure fresh for me.
I am surprised how often people tell me that they really want to do an adventure but don’t know what to do. Hopefully this walk-through of the way I come up with ideas might get your own adventure cogs whirring…
Nan Spowart writing in The National »
While John Franklin was lauded and falsely credited with the discovery of the legendary Northwest Passage, Orcadian John Rae was actually the man who first mapped out a navigable shipping route through the Arctic.
However, his reputation was trashed because he was brave enough to reveal that some of Franklin’s men had been driven to cannibalism in a doomed attempt to survive.
As a result, Rae, the greatest Arctic explorer of the era, was denied the status and glory he deserved, with author Charles Dickens a chief instigator of his vilification.
Heiner Kubny writing for the Polar Journal »
China has been steadily increasing its presence in the Arctic since it defined the far north as a “new strategic frontier” in 2015 and began promoting a “Polar Silk Road” three years later. Moreover, in 2018, Beijing declared itself a “Near Arctic State,” a move that primarily served to underscore the interests of its Arctic claim.
The government in Beijing has its eye on lucrative minerals and other raw materials in addition to the Arctic transport link. There is particular interest in interests in the Canadian Arctic and in mining rights in Greenland. This is because the Arctic is rich in natural resources such as fish, precious metals and fossil fuels.
Read the whole article at Polar Journal »
Related » China pushing it’s vision for ‘Polar Silk Road’ across the Arctic
Reuters is reporting that China has unveiled its ambitions to extend President Xi Jinping’s signature Belt and Road Initiative to the Arctic by developing shipping lanes opened up by global warming. The Chinese are calling it the Polar Silk Road.
“China hopes to work with all parties to build a ‘Polar Silk Road’ through developing the Arctic shipping routes,” the paper, issued by the State Council Information Office, said.
China, despite being a non-Arctic state, is increasingly active in the polar region and became an observer member of the Arctic Council in 2013.
Among its increasing interests in the region is its major stake in Russia’s Yamal liquefied natural gas project which is expected to supply China with four million tonnes of LNG a year, according to the state-run China Daily.
Shipping through the Northern Sea Route would shave almost 20 days off the regular time using the traditional route through the Suez Canal, the newspaper reported last month. COSCO Shipping has also previously sailed vessels through the Arctic’s northeast passage.
Updated 2021.03.09
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