Friendships from TDA, Carpe Diem and a Great Canoe Trip

“In playing ball, and in life, a person occasionally gets the opportunity to do something great. When that time comes, only two things matter: being prepared to seize the moment and having the courage to take your best swing.”  – Hank Aaron

“Carpe diem! Rejoice while you are alive; enjoy the day; live life to the fullest; make the most of what you have. It is later than you think.” – Horace

One of the unique aspects of our TDA tours, particularly because of their length and challenges, is that we meet likeminded people from around the world with whom we become friends and, as friends tend to do, we make new plans with them. This applies for me as well. Last fall I joined the latest addition to our company’s repertoire of adventures, the Golden Buddha Ride.

It was a splendid adventure but what enhanced the experience was spending time with riders from previous tours with whom I made new friendships, something not easy to do as we age. So it wasn’t that surprising that one day in the middle of the winter, I got an email with subject line – Can u canoe?.

2023 TDA AGM

As it happens, I do enjoy canoeing, to the point that our TDA core team held our 2023 AGM paddling and camping in Algonquin Provincial Park. The email was from Jonathan Klein, who I had the pleasure to meet and befriend on the Golden Buddha Ride where he was fond of saying, “Good suffering is hard to find.” Several exchanges followed. I was apprehensive as I had not canoed white water for decades and there was mention of a 4 mile portage. In addition, I had re-injured a tendon in my shoulder in the winter that wasn’t healing, on top of all the wear and tear of the last 25 years. I had doubts this was a sane thing to do but I committed myself to join Jonathan and two of his buddies on a white-water canoeing expedition on Burnside River in Nunavut Canada.

For those who have never heard of Nunavut, it is the vast remote northernmost territory of Canada that runs the extent of the central and eastern part of the Canadian Arctic. The truth is that I had always wanted to canoe the northern part of Canada, particularly the world renown Nahanni River, and now being the age I am, I figured it was now or never. So, Carpe Diem, grab the opportunity. It was, however, really Jonathan (pictured below) who directly and indirectly persuaded me to come. When I brought up the issue that I might be too old for this and didn’t want to be a burden in such a remote area, he responded that he was older than me – by less than a month – and that a third member of the expedition was also our age.

Yet we shared more than just our age. Jonathan, like me, had a terrifying encounter with wildlife. In my case, an elephant in India, in his case, a hungry bear in Canada. We were both very lucky to be here and be able to enjoy what we love doing. I had an opportunity to hear Jonathan reading a chapter from his just published book – Back to The Trees and Caves on the Golden Buddha Ride tour that described the encounter with the self-deprecating humour, drama and suspense that is reflective of the man himself. While lying in my tent with 24 hours of sunshine, I read Jonathan’s book, which gave me more insight about him, his work, his lifelong love of the outdoors and his lamentations on a wilderness that has almost disappeared from the planet. The book itself is in a form of diary, that describes Jonathan’s raison d’etre for a three-month river journey in a canoe by himself in the wilderness of the Canadian north along the Churchill River. And it is a very good read.

Grabbing the opportunity when it presents itself or undertaking something that you have always wanted to do is something that I often talk and write about. There are always plenty of reasons to ‘not do’ something that seems scary, difficult or just not in our comfort zone but more often than not, when we do decide to go ahead, the rewards and satisfaction are such that afterwords you think, why did I hesitate, what held me back? So it was with the canoe trip. If you hold to a fantasy that you now think is too late to make into reality, such as crossing a continent on a bike, I think the Olympic champion wrestler Jordan Burroughs said it best – “It’s never too late to be great.”

Oh, and the best part of the canoe trip beside the scenic wilderness? Not meeting another human being, having no access to the internet and my companions.