|

Shackleton’s 1914 Adventure in Antarctica Recreated by A Puppet Troupe

Combine marionettes with live music composed by the Kronos Quartet and you get a smaller-than-life reenactment of Ernest Shackleton’s 1914 trans-Antarctic expedition. Called 69 Degrees South: The Shackleton Project, the play is created by the puppet theater company, Phantom Limb, and will be shown at MASS MoCA in North Adams, Massachusetts on Saturday, March 13 at 8 pm. It will attempt to recreate the true story of Shackleton and his brave men trapped in an ice floe for 497 days, a remarkable story of survival that lends itself well to an intriguing night with puppets.
 

Similar Posts

|

Celebrate the Year of the Horse in England

With the Chinese New Year quickly approaching, England is promoting the Year of the Horse by focusing on locales where horseback riding is available. Bath’s Relais & Chateaux property, Lucknam Park, is one of the many excellent riding hotels in England. With trained horses and staff on hand to help beginners and assist experienced riders, Lucknam Park’s Equestrian Centre offers classes that cater to every level. Out of the saddle, the property also has a highly prestigious cookery school and a first class spa. Horses are also allowed on a number of beaches in the country. With permits available from The National Trust, you can gallop, trot or canter to your heart’s content across the four-mile stretch of golden sand at Dorset’s Studland Beach. Studland Stables will even bring the bubbly, so you can pop the cork over views of Old Harry Rocks and make this trip even more special. 

 
|

Adventures in the Florida Keys, Snorkeling Grecian Rocks in Key Largo

Escaping the snow of the northeast, I’m hiding out in the Florida Keys this week. My first stop is always Captain Slate’s Atlantis Dive Center just over the bridge in Key Largo. In operation since 1978, Slate is the premier snorkel and dive operator in the region. In 2004, he received the International Scuba Diving Hall of Fame Award for his early work on diver and boater safety. Slate took a group of eight of us 7 miles out to sea to Grecian Rocks, a coral reef located in the Florida Keys National Marine Sanctuary. Surrounded by aquamarine waters, the vibrant reef is easily one of the premiere snorkeling spots in America. Before we snorkeled, Slate took advantage of his glass bottom boat to show us the Christ of the Abyss statue, a 9-foot tall bronze statue attached to a concrete base and placed in 25 feet of water back in 1965. Then we were off the boat watching a stingray swim gracefully above the sand. Purple fan coral way swaying with the current attracting barracudas, while I spotted a very cool midnight parrotfish with her neon blue lips poking at the brain coral. Visibility was outstanding and all was bliss for the next hour. 

 
|

My Top 5 Adventures in 2009, Climbing Masada, Israel

This past January, almost exactly a year ago, my family spent several weeks in Israel. On our final day, we drove south of Jerusalem past Bedouin villages into the rolling hills of the Judean desert. This is where you find the mountain fortress, Masada, known as the site where the Israelites committed mass suicide rather than serve as slaves to the Romans in 73 A.D. Climbing Masada is a rite of passage for most people heading to the country. Fortunately it was January, so the heat wasn’t too bad as my daughter Melanie counted all 865 steps to the summit. As a reward for the hike, we brought the kids for a swim in the Dead Sea, the lowest point on Earth. It was late in the day, the waters were rough, and we forgot our towels. No one seemed to care as we floated in the salty sea, staring at the mountainous ridges of Jordan on the opposite shores. See the full story in The Boston Globe.
 

|

AMC Buys Baker Mountain in Landmark Conservation Deal

If you’ve ever had the chance to stay at the circa-1873 Little Lyford Lodge in Maine’s North Woods, a gem of a property now run by the Appalachian Mountain Club, you’ve no doubt walked to the shores of Little Lyford Pond to paddle, fish, and spot moose slurping the water. Then you peer back and spot one of the 100-Mile Wilderness Trail’s signature peaks, 3,521-foot Baker Mountain. In a wonderful conservation deal announced last week, the AMC has acquired Baker Mountain and an additional 4,311 acres abutting the Katahdin Iron Works property.

 
“Baker Mountain was surrounded by conservation lands, but the Baker Mountain tract itself was not protected. It was ‘the hole in the doughnut,’ and with this purchase, AMC and its conservation partner, The Nature Conservancy, have ensured that this ecologically significant land will be protected,” said AMC Senior Vice President Walter Graff. The AMC will be providing pedestrian access to the Baker Mountain tract and will also be involved in habitat protection and sustainable forestry. The transactions now bring AMC’s land holdings in the 100-Mile Wilderness region to some 70,000 acres. To read about AMC’s Maine Woods Initiative, please see my story in The Boston Globe. 
 
|

Maine Huts & Trails Completes First Phase of 180-Mile 12-Hut Corridor

This morning, Maine Huts & Trails will be holding a ribbon cutting ceremony to celebrate their latest addition, a new 14.2-mile section of the trail that connects Grand Falls Hut to the Forks. This completes the first phase of the Maine Huts & Trails effort to create a 180-mile, 12-hut recreation corridor.  They now offer 45 miles of groomed trails and 3 backcountry lodges located between Rte. 27/16 in Carrabassett Valley and Route 201 in West Forks. If you haven’t yet checked out this gem in the Maine wilderness, put it on your schedule for 2012. You’ll thank me.

 

|

Tanzania Plans to Build a Highway Through the Serengeti

Here are some words of wisdom to the current Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete, who just announced plans to build a highway that will slice right through the southern part of the Serengeti. “Build it and they won’t come,” as in the hundreds of thousands of Europeans and American travelers who make the trek to Tanzania each year to go on safari. Slated to be built in 2012, the 260-mile highway will connect Arusha, near Mount Kilimanjaro, with Musoma on Lake Victoria. The idiotic move will not only disrupt one of the world’s great migrations of some 1.2 million wildebeests traveling north into Kenya’s Masai Mara, but will be an easy way in and out for poachers. Make the wise move, President Kikwete, and find an alternative route.
 

Leave a Reply