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eco-friendly travel



-- eco-travel --

Last week Dave scheduled an out-of-town workshop and drum repair and I had an appointment in the same area... so we decided to take the RV trailer and head out for several days, a little get-away, where we could camp and relax by a relatively unpopulated beach front on one of our many lakes in the Kootenays. Being off-season there were no other campers but there were a few dozen day use visitors along with their dogs. It was really nice to hear that most of the dogs came from rescue shelters, and all of them were really special dogs. I love dogs - so it isn't hard for me to fall in love the first few seconds after meeting a dog. So our dogs had the chance to socialize and play all day, along with a couple of long walks along the trails and beach every day. It was a little chilly so we were glad that we brought a lot of scrap wood with us for the camp fire (the wood was saved throughout last year from projects we did around the house). We were so grateful that we saved every little scrap of wood for reuse as camp fire fuel. 

While there we noticed that the garbage bins were locked, since there were no campground workers out yet, which led to a lot of people leaving garbage and doggie poo bags in front of the bins - instead of packing it home. I was saddened to see that. 

During the walks around the campground, trails and beach we continually picked up litter and wind-blown or lake tossed garbage. By the end of the 4 day adventure we had gathered more than a 1/2 black garbage bag and a 1/2 blue recycling bag full of waste. We really could have gathered more, but wanted to spend most of our time there relaxing - not working. Still I think we did a good job of cleaning up the environment there, hopefully preventing birds and turtles, etc. from chocking on bits of styrofoam and candy wrappers, plastic bags, cigarette wrappers and so on. We also filled a bin with returnable bottles, which we'll take with us to the return depot and donate whatever it comes to, to the wildlife center or the animal rescue organization here in our valley.

We really planned out our meals to reduce fuel use going to restaurants or grocery stores, and had gone as far as chopping our vegetables at home to reduce the amount of organic waste we'd have to pack out in the RV compost bucket. As such we ate really healthy, low-fat food. Most of the packaging was in the form of our own containers or those we'd reuse, or could recycle - so there was very little garbage created in that 4 day stint, in fact most of the garbage we created came in the form of dog waste. All the soaps we use in the house are organic and eco-friendly so we just take some of those with us whenever we go on these kinds of outings.

I'm so glad we went - we feel so much more refreshed and though it is hard to get back into the swing of things I've no regrets... and I think we left the place a little better off too. :)



Find Dave and Lillian Brummet, excerpts from their books, their radio program, blog, and more at: http://brummet.ca * Support the Brummets by telling your friends, clicking those social networking buttons, or visiting the Brummet's Store - and help raise funds for charity as well!
 
 

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