CANADA! T


Lights, Camera,


Canada’s majestic scenery has long been passed off as ’America‘ on the silver screen, but it’s ’the box‘


that’s recently put Canada in focus and created a


profi le agents can cash in on, says Laura Gelder


elevision adventurer Charley Boorman’s 2011 series Extreme Frontiers followed the


motorbike enthusiast on an epic 10,300-mile journey across Canada. Visiting all 10 provinces, he took part in activities that define each destination he visited, giving some unique insights into Canadian culture along the way. Starting in Newfoundland, Charley


stayed at Ryan Mansion, a boutique hotel and spa whose grand staircase was hewn by the same hands as the staircase which graced the doomed Titanic, and is in the same opulent style (incidentally, The Prince of Wales and Duchess of Cornwall also stayed at the same inn. It offers Titanic-themed getaways, featuring a dinner based upon the menu served during the last meal on Titanic). Charley visited the poignant site of the Titantic graves in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where 150 victims are buried. In eastern Canada he enjoyed the


gastronomic delights that draw many to the area and went lobster fishing off the coast of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, and oyster shucking on Prince Edward Island. Shediac in New Brunswick is another foodie haven, where there is a lobster festival every summer. Charley experienced the downhill bike track at Sugarloaf Provincial Park in New Brunswick, kicking off


a series of adrenaline-fuelled activities. In Québec, he visited Parc Aventures


Cap Jaseux in the Saguenay Lac St. Jean region, scaling the fjordland cliffs by via ferrata, completing an extreme treetops


10 SPRING 2012 • SELLING CANADA


rope course, ziplining and having lunch in a treehouse. He also rode his motorbike along the banks of the St. Lawrence River, a popular whale-watching region. In Ontario, Charley dived a perfectly


preserved wreck at Fathom Five National Marine Park, which is the site of some of the world’s best freshwater diving, with over 20 shipwrecks, submerged cliffs and caves. Then, in the wilderness of Manitoba’s


Bloodvein river, which pumps through the Boreal forest and under the pink granite cliffs of the Precambrian shield, Charley paddled through the rapids and soaked up some First Nation culture at a sweat lodge ceremony. Moving into cowboy country, Charley


got involved in the rodeo at Maple Creek, Saskatchewan, before exploring the hideout caves of the Big Muddy, station one on an Outlaw Trail, which used to snake all the way to Mexico. Like Charley, guests can experience the wild west scenery of Alberta’s Badlands by enjoying a ranch stay. Charley completed his Canadian Odyssey in British Columbia, where he saw the snow-capped mountains of winter sports city Whistler from the air, via a glider tour from the Pemberton Soaring centre. Charley also went spelunking in Vancouver Island, where there are more than 1000 caves to


explore, as well as crystal rock formations and subterranean waterfalls.


WILDLIFE UP CLOSE The television series that really captured the nation’s imagination last year was David Attenborough’s Frozen Planet, which took viewers into the world’s icy and frigid regions. Featured in the programme were the


Barren Lands, a vast sub-Arctic tundra region across Nunavut and the Northwest Territories. Memorable Canadian scenes included the lascivious caribou kiss chase between several males and a chosen female and an epic battle between a hulking bison and a small but feisty mother wolf. There are ways of seeing the wildlife


featured in Frozen Planet from a safe distance. Suggest a trip to Churchill, Manitoba, in summer and your clients could catch sight of bubble-headed beluga whales and playful polar bears. The waters around Vancouver Island


teem with orcas, as well as seals, sea lions and porpoises. The central coast of British Columbia


is known as the Great Bear Rainforest and is a world-class place to observe grizzly bears. In mid-August thousands of salmon return and enclosed viewing stands on the riverbanks allow visitors to watch the bears gorge themselves.


“Alberta’s rugged scenery has made it popular for ‘western’ fi lm shoots, including Legends of the Fall and The Assassination of Jesse James”


STRAWBERRYLEISURE.COM


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