Follow in the Footsteps of Billy Connolly Across Canada

Follow in the Footsteps of Billy Connolly Across Canada

LONDON, January 28/PRNewswire/ -- Last summer Billy Connolly travelled across northern Canada, in the footsteps of the great explorers who tried to find their way through the Northwest Passage. His travels, experiences and explorations will air on ITV in a four part series commencing mid February. The accompanying book will capture his travels in picture and words.

Although retracing Billys' steps exactly might not be possible we've highlighted just some of the many ways in which you could capture some of the route and similar experiences for yourself, allowing you to meet genuine Canadians along the way, and enjoying the wildlife and pristine wilderness that the country is so famous for.

Newfoundland

CapeRace Cultural Adventures

Outfitter extraordinaire Ken Sooley and his CapeRace Cultural Adventures gives visitors a chance for serendipitous, local encounters in Newfoundland and Labrador. He offers 10- and 13-day trips to the Avalon and Bonavista peninsulas, starting and ending in St. John's. The trip includes stays at your own private homes and contacts in each village, ready to help you catch a cod or find the best caribou pie. Before you go, Sooley sends you his own guide, with insider beta along the lines of "Tell Harv I sent you, and ask him about the unusual bingo games he hosts Monday nights," plus novels on local culture and non-fiction accounts to read in advance, and driving instructions to houses: "There are no addresses on the houses, but...." The package arrives in a fishing net.

It all started in the 1980s, when Sooley's grandparents Elizabeth Jane and Eddy John Sooley willed their Heart's Delight fisherman's bungalow to Sooley's father. Sooley, a former IT exec who worked in Toronto and Ottawa, ON, as well as Hong Kong, began returning every summer. He discovered a completely new Avalon than that of his childhood memories. The abandoned historic houses gave him an idea: he imagined visitors, also enchanted by the area, touring and exploring, then settling down for the evening in their own historic house on the ocean. In 2004, CapeRace Adventures was born.

Since salvaging the E.J. Sooley house, CapeRace has done the same with four other historic homes. This winter, Burton is restoring the "ouse" next door to the E.J. Sooley House in Heart's Delight, his wife's parents' home. The Bonavista Thomas Mouland house had 13 layers of linoleum on the floor. Sooley had Russell put a different layer on each stair for a patchwork effect. Hipditch House, a century-old former residence (home to 20 people!) in St. John's historic Battery neighbourhood, has a lobster trap for a lamp stand, an original tin lamp, an old manufacturing sign, 1930s photos, prints of historic flags and shelves animated with fishermens' floats and buoys. Even the duvet covers are custom-made using designs from shipping signal flags. When you arrive (the door's open), you find the keys to your three houses on the counter, along with a list of events and festivals going on in each place. Soon after, there's a knock on the door...

http://www.caperace.com

http://www.newfoundlandlabrador.com

Nunavut

The territory of Nunavut will be celebrating its 10th Founding Anniversary this year and the Canadian Tourism Commissions' media website hosts a series of ready made articles with images all downloadable and ready for media use free of charge :

http://mediacentre.canada.travel/content/travel_story_ideas/nunavut_essay

http://mediacentre.canada.travel/content/travel_story_ideas/cape_dorset_coop

http://mediacentre.canada.travel/content/travel_story_ideas/nunavut_iqaluit

Toonik Tyme. If you visit in April, catch some of the fun at this unpretentious community festival (since 1965) welcoming spring after a long winter that kicks off with the lighting of the qulliq (seal-oil lamp). Some 40 events: Northern Band Night with much of the music in Inuktitut; with the elders, traditional Inuit games, craft fair (bargain prices!) and the caribou stew dinner community feast; throat singing (fascinating, if you haven't heard it), cross-country skiing on the frozen bay and ice golf. There are lots of contests: the best/worst mustache, bannock (fried bread) and tea making, seal hunting and skinning, ice carving, igloo making. A family affair, it feels like a happy confluence of the qallunaat and Inuit cultures.

Northern Cruising

"A Cruise North expedition is the ideal way to see the Arctic," said President Dugald Wells. "As a privileged guest of the Arctic, our passengers get to explore exotic lands, visit traditional villages and see polar bears, walrus and whales up close."

Cruise North passengers travel in comfort and safety aboard the ice-class rated 122-passsenger ship, the Lyubov Orlova, in the capable hands of a first-rate expedition team, accompanied by historians, naturalists, ornithologists and Inuit guides and elders.

Launched in 2005, Inuit-owned Cruise North Expeditions, the leader in authentic Arctic expeditions, captures the true spirit of the North with its Inuit guiding and on-board staff. Conde Nast Traveller awarded Cruise North a spot on its prestigious "Green List" for its environmental efforts and commitment to preserving Inuit culture through tourism.

Note: Cruise North Expeditions is owned by the Inuit-owned Makivik Corporation of Quebec, a highly successful investment corporation born of the first modern-day Aboriginal land claim settlement agreement in Canada (the JBNQA of 1975).

http://www.cruisenorthexpeditions.com

Yukon

A cruise-park pairing means this remote wilderness is yours for the taking. Icefields, alpine wildflowers, tundra, crystalline rivers, mountain bluebirds, wolves and grizzlies. Kluane National Park and Reserve is famed for its pristine wilderness and gut-wrenching beauty. But few have seen this Canadian treasure, tucked into the remote and untamed southwest corner of the Yukon Territory, with massive Mount Logan standing guard. Until now. Scouts from the Seattle, WA-based Holland America Line were looking for new tours to draw younger, more outdoorsy clientele to the Alaska cruises. These folks were so blown away by Kluane's beauty, they added it to their roster, then persuaded Parks Canada to create an exclusive program of guided hikes.

Now, Alaska-bound cruisers from Vancouver, BC can easily explore one of North America's last frontiers. A UNESCO World Heritage Site since 1979, Kluane boasts five of the continent's seven highest mountains. Plus, it's flanked by Alaska's St. Elias Park and Glacier Bay National Park, as well as Tatshenshini Alsek Wilderness Park in British Columbia. And because of the area's potpourri of air currents, the plant and wildlife are some of Canada's most diverse.

For the hardcore, there's a full-day grind to bag King's Throne. Desk jockeys can tackle the guided trek through bear country (grizzly, black bear) on foot or single-track. There's also rafting on the Tatshenshini through 150-m-high canyon walls and rapids. Or, forget the high adrenalin altogether and stroll with a Parks Canada naturalist through the forest spotting thrushes, yellow-rumped warblers, maybe even a mink or a wolf. Who knows?

http://www.pc.gc.ca/pn-np/yt/kluane

http://www.touryukon.com

http://www.hollandamerica.com

British Columbia

Billy Connolly experiences the wild heartbeat of nature with Ecotours-BC and "the bear whisperer" in British Columbia's Cariboo Mountains.

World renowned Scottish actor, comedian, and documentarist, Billy Connolly visited Ecotours-BC to film the grizzly bear segment of his new TV special "Billy Connolly's Journey to the Edge of the World". Billy arrived at the Ecotours-BC's Pyna-tee-ah Lodge in Likely, BC in mid-September accompanied by his film crew, producer, director and support staff. Billy's goal was to view and film wild grizzly bears in their natural habitat. Gary Zorn, better known as the British Columbia's "bear whisperer" guided Billy on a wilderness river in Cariboo Mountains Provincial Park where he saw his first ever wild grizzly. Billy travelled by jetboat up the river where the annual sockeye salmon spawn is at its peak. The Cariboo Mountains watershed annually hosts the largest sockeye salmon runs on Earth and draws grizzlies to its rivers where Billy witnessed the bears feasting on salmon as they prepare for winter hibernation.

What did Billy have to say about his grizzly bear experience on a wild BC River? "It's a fantastic special place with beautiful bears." Back at the lodge Billy relaxed and entertained guests and staff with singing and playing his banjo and guitar.

Readers wanting more information about Canada please click on http://www.canada.travel

Source: Canadian Tourism Commission

For more media information, to sign up for RSS feeds and download story ready content and images go to http://www.canada.travel/media. For more media information please contact : Ms. Nim Singh, Canadian Tourism Commission, +44(0)207-389-9983, singh.nim@ctc-cct.ca (not for publication). Learn more about Ecotours-BC at http://www.ecotours-bc.com . Ecotours-BC PO Box 4299, Williams Lake, BC, V2G 2V3, +1-250-790-2292; +1-866-299-9100; Fax: +1-250-790-2293, Email: adventure@ecotours-bc.com

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Profile: International Entertainment