George Sirk – “The Raw, the Bleak and the Wonderful…the Vibrant Arctic”

George Sirk – “The Raw, the Bleak and the Wonderful…the Vibrant Arctic”
by Andrew Bryant, 15 Mar 2018.

Life-long naturalist, tropical specialist, guide, politicianbroadcaster and raconteur, George Sirk is one of those rare individuals who’s just really hard to classify.

Getting his start as a BC Parks Branch naturalist on Mitlenatch Island, George’s career has taken him from Papua New Guinea to Costa Rica, and from Baja California to the subject of this talk – his travels through the fantastic Canadian High Arctic (with a quick stop or two in Greenland…George isn’t one to sit still).

Interspersing wonderful images with his delightful sketches, George literally took us along with him as he variously marvelled, gawked, meditated, ate and experienced that part of the world that few will ever get to see.

I rather suspect that none of us would see it quite the same way he does!

Five Stars.

Heather Harbord – “Epic Antarctica”

Heather Harbord – “Epic Antarctica”
by Andrew Bryant, 22 Feb 2018.

A scheduled speaker’s non-appearance threatened doom – until quick-witted Heather Harbord decided to take us all out instead – to Antarctica!

So.  After a short pause, all went swimmingly well.  Penguins, orcas,  ice.  More penguins, more ice, and then, alas…
the dreaded technical glitch…

So we only got to see a portion of her slides.  Heather, of course is a trooper who’s experienced such things before, so she gamely carried on, regaling us with her alternatively funny, poignant, and just just amazing tales.
A quarter of a million pairs of penguins – seriously?

Enjoy!