The last time Bruce Kirkby came to Victoria, he paddled here on a standup paddleboard, all the way from Vancouver. The crossing took four days.
Next week Kirkby is returning to Victoria, this time by more conventional means, to give a talk about his many adventures. The Kimberley-based writer-photgrapher-adventurer will be the featured speaker at a special evening hosted by the Nature Conservancy of Canada on Nov. 14.
Kirkby’s stories take audiences all over the globe.
With travel to over 80 countries, and more than 2,000 days of expedition travel, Kirkby’s journeys include the first modern crossing of Arabia’s Empty Quarter by camel, a descent of Ethiopia’s Blue Nile Gorge by raft, sea kayak traverse of Borneo’s northern coast and a 37-day trans-Iceland trek.
In 2010 Kirkby trekked across the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Darkwoods Conservation Area, a 550-square kilometre mountain landscape on the shores of Kootenay Lake. His story, as well as the efforts to secure the single largest private land conservation purchase in Canadian history, was published in Canadian Geographic.
The public is invited to hear Kirkby share his travel adventures and his photography at 7 p.m. on Nov. 14 at St. Ann’s Academy, 835 Humboldt St.
Admission is by donation and all proceeds support the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s conservation efforts in British Columbia.