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BRITISH COLUMBIA, MAY TO AUGUST 2005 |
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Credit:Benoît
Blanchard |
A hard job
The last 3 months have been exhausting. From May to August, we
worked extremely hard. With our hands swollen from hitting
repeatedly on the ground with a shovel, our hundreds of mosquito
bits, our numb feet from walking excessively, our legs filled
with bruises and scratches, we most certainly won’t regret the
end of our tree planting contract. But note that upon all these
disadvantages, we pushed our own limits higher. Caroline now has
biceps and we have a banking account that will allow us to hold
at least seven months of adventure without working.
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Omnipresence of bears
The omnipresence of bears made us a bit scared. Sometimes, we
saw black bears where we were planting. One day, a black bear
even came to visit the prospector tent were all the planter’s
food was. After that, we had to pay careful attention to avoid
other visits. For instance, we had to put the food in well
closed containers to minimize odors. On the working site, some
people were responsible for carrying Bear Spray. Fortunately, we
didn’t have to use them. |
Credit Benoît Blanchard |
Mosquito bites
We
planted more than 100 000 trees and slept 90 days in a tent. The
months of June and July were so rainy that our outdoor clothing
was affected by moisture. Some days, mosquitoes took assault of
us. So much that for a couple of days, Caroline’s face was so
swollen; she could have auditioned for the movie the Mask! Ok,
we may be exaggerating, but there was enough to become crazy.
One planter even found himself the arm covered with blood.
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Credit Benoît Blanchard |
A helicopter ride
At one moment, since the road was accessible only by foot, we
needed the help of a helicopter to bring us the trees that had
to be planted. It was quite impressive to see that engine fly
over us all day long while we were planting. What was annoying
is the fact that the road represented a 45 to 60 minutes walk
each morning, before we had even started to plant one tree.
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A profitable recycling
Alcohol… hum… If certain people make a lot of money with tree
planting, others spend a fortune on drinking. For us, drinking
all our profits was out of the question. However we did
authorize ourselves a few drinks as a reward once in a while.
After three weeks of work, we were able to pick up for 130$ of
empty bottles, representing a truck load. |
Anecdote
Here’s a funny story about abusive drinking. During a party, our
quality inspector and a tree planter had an abnormally high
level of testosterone due to too much alcohol. As a result, this
rise of hormones brought them to hit one another in the stomach.
Our inspector, being 240 pounds and possessing arms as big as
our legs, may have hit our colleague a bit too hard. The next
morning, he realized he had accidentally defecated in his pants
caused by the strength of the impact. To crown it all, not only
did he wake up with a stinking smell in his pants, he also had
haemorrhoids. His case became so important he had to go to the
hospital. He came back to work a few weeks later.
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Caroline demoralized |
Fire camp |
Shower in the Heart lake |
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Kayak Expedition
Paddle after paddle, under a heating sun, our kayaks are
splitting the water like blades. We are moving in turquoise blue
and calm waters; getting
the impression of disturbing nature.
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ADVERTISEMENTS |
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