38 - North Shore News — Sunday, September 17, 2000

== TRAVEL

Santiago to Rio de Janeiro
February 24 to March 16, 2003.

Experience beautiful South America
on Holland America’s Ryndam.

Price from $6229 CON
inctuding port charges, arrfare,
transfers and 1 hotet night.
One free shore excursion included.

Attend our information evening
on Tuesday, September 19.
RSVP to 926-0029
West Vancouver CruiseShipCenters

Club Med *? On Sale!

Save $50/fadutt & $25/chitg
when you book your fall or
winter holiday with us
by September 30!
Call your local
Club Med Experts today.

Edgemont Office: Ambleside Office:
986-2262 926-8511

BC Reg. #3404.2

7-DAYS ON BOARD M/V ‘PROFESSOR MOLCHANOV"
(Ship built in Fintand)

A SHIP-BAS' WILDLIFE
EXPEDITION IN THE ARCTIC

N ven - rv.

A truly unique and memorable adventure i is yours during this early Arctic Summer Voyage.
You will encounter a lot of Sea-ice
+ Obsarve Seabird Colonies on Narshoya. Raudfjord, and Lomljord - and
«Tundra Birds like Bamacle Geese and Red - Throated Divers in the world's
inorhemmost settlement - Ny Alesund
« Spot Polar Gears on the ice or on fand and many Wassuses
© You wii! see Smeeienderg and Danskoya - of great archectngical interest. - with the
remains of 17th Century Whaling Activities ana 19th Century Poiar Explorations
* If ice-conditions altow. you will also reach Hinlopen Strait and Nordaustlander in the east
Depart Vancouver June 15, 2001 via Oslo for Spitsbergen
Depart Spitsbergen June 25, 2001 via Oslo for Vancouver
TOUR C>ST: from CAD $4,295.00 per person, based on Double Occupancy
it Transportation fronvte Vancouver
2 nighis Hotel Accommodation
> Full Board

***For cost of Departure from other cities - contact Loma Travel

-LOMA TRAVEL

3501 East Hastings Street

Vancouver 294-3261

Toll Free @.C. 1-800-665-9599 B.C. Reg. #836-3
; The Seundinusiun Correction

Book a cruise from our website.
Website: www.loma-travel.com

Airtines
“SINCE 1980"

BS Spend Your Winter On This Beach!
bh MLGing.étay vacation packages
on Australia's Sunshine Coast’

’ Price PP inCdn.$ Double ‘Triple Quad

| month _ $3035 $2830 $2660.
. 2 months $4034 $3626 . $3334
P Includes return air and one-bedroom oceanview condo for
f\ 2/two-bedroom for 3/4. Book by Oct. 30.Valid 1/22-3/35'01
K Average daily temp = 25°C. nance rote AUD $ 1= CAD 5 85

Bs Titont: Off
9B 6=2262""

Garden returned to g

Anne and James Gordon
Contributing Writers

GEORGE Plumptre of
the London Tintes pro-
claims it “the garden
restoration of the cen-
tury.”

The Bureau of Cultural
Itineraries Institute places the
Lost Garden of Heligan as
one of the 12 great gardens of
Europe.

With mention of Heligan
in historical records dating
back to the 12th centu
its recent miraculous re-birch
after being buried beneath a
mountainous heap of bram-
bles and ivy for close to 50
years, it's not surprising that
this mysterious garden has
captured the imagination of
even the most peripheral of
garden enthusiasts.

Owned by the Tremayne
family for 400 years and once
one of Cornwall's most
important and beautiful gar-
dens, neglect had brought
Heligan’s collection of rare
plants to the brink of extine-
tion.

It was in 1990 that intre-
pid explorers Tim Smit and
two companions hacked their
way through almost impene-
trable jungle-like conditions
to the heart of the lost garden.
In Smit’s own words, “tio
paths were visible; only the
tantalizing tops of "palm trees
hinted at what lay underneath.
ft was on cutting our
way into the big walled gar-

Photo Anne Gordon Images

RHODODENDSONS and palm trees beside. the

Jungle’s pend on a misty day in the Lost Garden of ©

Heligan.

den and seeing a giant vine
weaving in and out of the
broken panes of glass that we
were touched by the romance
of the place.”

At that moment Tim Smit
decided to take on the chal-

lenge of returning Heligan to
its former glory. The restora-
tion started in 1991 and con-
tinues still. In the course of
nine years the garden has fea-
tured in a popular British TV
series and is now attracting
over 300,000 visitors each
year.

In the plant line, workers
have unearthed a priceless col-
lection of rhododendrons —
originally brought to England
from Asia in “the 19th centu-:
ry. ne ;

Also. discovered lying dor-
mant beneath half a century of
vegetation gone wild were
tree ferns from New. Zealand,

iory

150 year old bamboos and
palm trees. It was the fashion
in the 19th and early 20th
century for wealthy land-own-
ers to send botanists and plant
collectors to scour the moun-
tainsides, jungles and deserts
of the world for the rarest and
most beautiful of plants.

We visited the Lost Garden
of Heligan in the spring of
this vear. As we walked, an
ethereal mist curled and drift-
ed in the tree-tops adding to
its mystery. Damp and slip-
pery in secluded parts, we
made our way safely along
wooden boardwalks, One by
one a series of gardens were
revealed as we started out by
negotiating a stony path
through a fern-filled’ ravine.
The Sundial Garden with its
colourful: herbaceous border
is a replica of a Victorian gar-
den.

Pride of the Italian Garden

“is a revived kiwi vine that

competes favourably. : with

Jack's beanstalk. Making up

for time lost during its years of

sleeping, its rampant tendrils

have spread ‘over a hundred.
metres around the garden.

Sunshine and light too
have worked their magic on ::
tong-dormant ‘seeds, making
each new day “like a box of
chocolates,” as the popular
movie. hero. Forrest’ Gump —
would say. :

In The Jungle, anottier of
Heligan’s gardens, there are a
series of four ponds that
descend downwards through
a deep valley. When the time
came to clear out the ponds,
the first alone yielded over
300 tons of rozting vegetation
and a slippery tangle of eels.”

Today, lush Patches of
skunk cabbage and huge ferns
spill over the edges of the dark
pools. In place of eels; my
carp. and. golden orfe nose the \
mirrored surface of the water. .
Bats nest in bat-boxes'in.The
Jungle’s highest trees and the °
undergrowth is carpeted with. .
bluebells, wild _Sarlic. and-
primule

Massive flowering thodo-
dendrons — in fact the high-:
est in Europe at well over 86
feet — crowd together in the ©
valley, and in the’ dappled -
shade of chestnut, beec!
oak the forest floor trembles -
in a pattern of dancing light. | °

In the walled kitchen gar-
den there are over. 300 vari-
eties of fruits and vegetables. :

.Espaliered plum, pear, ‘apricot :*

and cherry ‘trees line. stone“:
walls and an arbour, where |
blossoming apple: ‘boughs

“twine through its metal struc-

ture, ‘stretches from one.end:
of the vegetable garden to the

~ other.

produ: ivity, bees tu:
in the arched cavities
f the 100. year “old” Beebole
Wall; ~ whils «fowl

One “oF Britain’s few,
remaining banana houses and

a pingapple pit /are again pro
- ducing | tropical’ fruits... The:

first-pincapple to reach mai

rity in-over 100. years was a

Jamaica Queen. It was shared

among the Heligan workers.
he. second, a - Smooth:

"Cayenne, was Presented to _
“Her

Majesty « Queen .
Elizabeth. : .

Our, favourite discove

See Grass following pr

and. 7.