This year’s Itchy Feet Adventures kicked off on Tuesday, February 13, with Jarbas Noronha doing the sequel to his presentation last year.
In that presentation, the Brazilian-turned-Tumbler Ridgian talked about bicycling from Brazil to Alaska.
In his latest presentation, he discussed his return trip by motorbike, from Alaska to Brazil.
It’s the first in a series of four Itchy Feet that will happen this season.
On February 22, Dr Charles Helm will continue his doctoral dissertation, discussing “Connections through Paleo Research.” Helm, not satisfied with being a doctor of medicine, is currently working on becoming a paleontologist, and, while you’d think his discoveries in the Tumbler Ridge area would be more than enough to keep him satisfied, he’s been spending winters back in South Africa, discovering, amongst other things, evidence of early footwear, worn by people between 70,000 and 130,000 years ago, alongside what may be the oldest human footprints ever discovered, at over 153,000 years in age.
A week later, Mark Campbell will be talking about his Mexican Volcano Adventures. “Kevin Sharman and I just got back from climbing the Mexican Volcano Trilogy,” says Campbell. “These three climbs are La Malinche, at 4,461m, Iztaccihuatl, at 5,230m and ‘the big one’, Pico de Orizaba at 5,636m. These climbs are some of the most accessible high altitude mountaineering in the world. I will recount my experiences as we attempt to conquer all three mountains within seven days.”
Campbell is not a mountaineer, and he says many of the experiences were new to him. “I will talk about the challenges including lack of sleep, night climbing, wind and sandstorms, mental challenges of failure; as well as the exhilaration of success.”
Finally, Geopark Executive Director Manda Maggs will be sharing her Peruvian Adventures. She, too, just returned from her adventures, so expect the stories to be hot off the presses.
“I went to Peru to live in an off-grid wildlife reserve located deep in the Amazon rain forest to observe elusive birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects, and mammals,” says Maggs of her adventures.
“I went on a solo trip to northern Peru, traveling through Iquitos, which is the world’s largest city that is inaccessible by either roads or railways—you can only get there by plane or boat. From there I travelled 400km upriver into the Amazonian jungle to stay in a remote wildlife reserve that is entirely off-grid and largely self-sustained.
During my presentation, I will show you the journey, the people, and the wild (and sometimes unexpected) creatures I found there—some cute, some majestic, some bizarre, and even some that are the deadliest to be encountered in the region.
Her presentation happens on March 14.
Photo: Kevin Sharman (left) and Mark Campbell in Mexico with Popocatépetl in the background. That mountain is active, and thus off-limits to climbers.
Trent is the publisher of Tumbler RidgeLines.