Ancestors Trail 2011
Sunday 29th– Monday 30thMay
Having had a good experience on last years walk I have attempted to give my thoughts for this year
On a train at 8am with my wife and 2 friends from London to Taunton, arrived at Taunton at 10.30am to be greeted by Chris’s wife, taken by coach to the start of the walk. I was amazed to find about 80 people ready to go on our journey back to the start of life.
The walk is based on Richard Dawkins’s book “An Ancestors Tale” which takes us on a symbolic journey back in time, re-uniting with our common ancestor’s until we reach the ‘Dawn of Life’ some 3.7 billion years ago. The Ancestor’s Trail drapes Darwin’s Tree of life over the Quantock Hills, lining it up roughly with its many footpaths. Groups of people then populate the starting points of the best known branches such as humans, chimpanzees, rodents, birds, jellyfish, Amoeba and, with a little pre-planned choreography (organised via a Google map on the Ancestorstrail.net website), start walking their trails so that they rendezvous with the main body of walkers representing the human line of evolution. In this way, our ever increasing band of pilgrims arrive together at the Dawn of Life ~ a beautiful fossil strewn beach called Kilve.
Chris read out a small paragrapha marvelously produced booklet (based on Richard’s book) at selected rendezvous and asked me to do the same , in the hope that this would encourage others to come forward and speak in future Trails. Apparently Chris has a few copies of the booklet left over - contact him via ancestorstrail.net.
The start of the walk is uphill (maybe the Quantock Hills should have given me a clue), and I had a chat with a wide range of people along the way. One of the aims of the event is to create a collective experience for non religious people who,as a result of their rejection of organised religion, can tend to find themselves rather isolated. Folks converged from all over the country including Bristol, Plymouth, Southampton, Brighton, London, Norwich, Stoke, Yorkshire and even Ohio, USA- perhaps evidence that there is indeed an appetite for collective expression amongst non believers. However, the organiser is clear that in no way should the event be exclusive to non believers. Many believers in this country are very comfortable with our roots in evolution and, the fact that our origins are shared (and therefore belong to us all) is central to the whole concept. Indeed there was a Baptist minister on the walk this year.
One gentleman expressed surprise that people needed to meet with like minded people on a regular basis, until his wife pointed out that she did. I think this is best shown in Simon Baron-Cohen’s book “the Essential Difference” where Simon suggests that everyone is on a continuum from Hyper empathy at one end to Autism at the other end. Guess which end of the bell distribution men tend to be? I later found out that the man in question was Dr Dan Danahar, who gave us a brilliant lecture on butterflies the next day. Hmm collecting butterflies, I wonder which end of the spectrum he is on?
Having spoken to several people on the walk I now fell into step with Claire Balding who was walking the Trail this year in order to feature the event on her Ramblings BBC Radio 4 programme. She interviewed me on my view of humanism (you can be good without god) plus a bit more on our expanding sphere of concern. I am told that the interview will be played on Radio 4, 6am on Saturday 11th JuneI was very impressed with how Claire was able to go from a chatty introduction about humanism to describe where we were, the terrain, the weather, and then seemlessly guide us to a suitable ending point. I guess that’s what being a professional is about.
I am from the Central London Humanist group and several of our members decided to join the groupincluding Natasha and Mary (who was brave enough to wear shorts from the beginning on this dry but windy day). Actually the weather was cool enough to make walking comfortable. Eventually we came across the birds and reptiles rendezvousand Chris had organised a local falconer to introduce us to several birds of prey, one of which was an eagle owl that we were told could easily predate a dog. As if to prove the point, it then proceeded to lunge at an unsuspecting dog who’d been brought along for the walk, and so disturbed it that it ran off only to be retrieved several hours later.
Oblivious to all this commotion, in a sheltered meadow nearby, I found another group of walkers being serenaded by 2 members of Soulcake playing folk ballads whilst walkers munched on their sandwiches. I could listen to acoustic guitar for hours. However, after an hour or so, we were ushered onwards in order to make our next rendezvous. The Trail was permanently accompanied by the murmur of conversation, and much laughter. I found several more people to talk about humanism, politics, the environment, overpopulation, interspersed with a whole variety of other hugely varied topics.
The next stop of note was where we met the butterflies. One of the aims of the Trail is to champion and celebrate our planets rich and extant biodiversity, and this year walkers were encouraged to raise walking sponsorship for the wildlife charity Butterfly Conservation who successfully re-introduced the Large Blue Butterfly into the South West of England after its recent extinction. Some 20 people representing Butterflies had met at the ‘Plough Inn’ in Holford for lunch and then walked uphill for 4 miles to meet us. My wife Judy was in this group and,from my vantage point at the top of the hill, I saw her running towards Jackie (another friend of mine) and throw her arms round her. I found out afterwards that the group had arrived too early, and when finally we did arrive, we appeared like cavalry, coming over the crest of the hill. I had thoughts of ‘Climb every mountain’, Ford every stream......
My 2 friends Colin and Jackie were holding hands and Claire Balding thought this looked sweet, so she interviewed them. Colin likes to tease, so told her that they had met on the train today (they have been married for 20 years). I wonder if their interview will end up on the Radio 4 programme?
At three different stops, the BHA choir performed a piece especially written for this walk which moved us all. The Arts were far more in evidence this year. The organiser was keen to utilise the power of music especially, to help us connect with the sheer immensity and vulnerability of Life’s journey here on earth. Other muscians included Micheal Ray who played a mesmerizing African/Brazillian harp instrument, Jonny Berliner- a geeky and very funny science singer-song writer who performed another original piece entitled the Large Blue Butterfly Blues. Bizarrely (and yet appropriately – seeing as this rendezvous included all the ‘arthropods’) he also performed another song about a lobster!
Whilst up on the hills in a slight mist, we were able to look down on villages bathed in sunshine and this looked remarkable. In “Unweaving the Rainbow” Richard explains how understanding the science of weather patterns, or rainbows, or the bacterial flagellum etc. enhances our appreciation of how wonderful the world is, since we can see their beauty as well as any other person and yet also understand it at a deeper level. Not forgetting that, with the help of analogies and metaphors, we can come to a deeper understanding even if we are not scientists ourselves.
Seven hours after starting our walk we found ourselves in a cricket pitch next to Kilve beach enjoying great food including venison burgers, sausages, and the veggie stuff I like provided by ‘Paul the Bread’(a local Humanist baker. Another friend, Jan was there having walked the last couple of miles- that’s the beauty of this event, you can join where you want to based on your fitness level. Whilst eating, and later drinking scrumpy, we were entertained once more by the gentle voices and instruments of Soulcake and then the BHA choir,who performed the complete version of their choral piece which had been ‘evolving’ in stages along the Trail (written by Chloe Clifford– Frith). They went on to sing a third original piece called ‘Origins’ written by the choir’s musician in residence William Morris. Like Chloe’s piece this piece celebrated our belonging in nature but this time via a musical round with songsheets provided so that we could join in. Thanks to people like them, we are witnessing the emergence of a new musical heritage for non believers.
Next , everyone with a car (plus Chris with a borrowed minibus) took walkers to St Audries Bay holiday Club, where we were entertained once more by the BHA choir, more hilarious stuff from Jonny Berliner,Chris’ daughter Rosie and then some funky blues from a South West band appropriately called the ‘Treefrogs’.Chris’s wife actually danced all night long despite the 14 mile walk! I don’t like dancing, (had a good excuse this time) but love watching other people do it. Managed 2 pints of beer, on top of the scrumpy earlier on, before collapsing into bed at 11.30pm.
Slept soundly until 8am, walked into breakfast, past Chris who was running about organising something (does he ever sleep). Full (ish) English breakfast, then into the hall for the morning’s entertainment.
Dr Dan Danahar from Butterfly Conservation who gave us a presentation based around the reintroduction of the large Blue butterfly. He went on to describe the creation of a butterfly meadow right beside his school in Brighton. This included the construction of banks at just the right angles to maximise the plant and insect biodiversity. The schoolchildren from the schools around the meadow were involved in creating this haven, and it’s used to help with their environmental education. Imagine a school day that included wondering amongst meadows brimming with flora and fauna. How wonderful.
Next was a lecture on Evolution by Dr Jon Bridle from Bristol University. He set our evolutionary journey on a wider canvas including some of the modern advances in DNA based classification, and specific reasons why the stock examples of so called ‘intelligent design’ (for instance the eye) are in fact far from intelligent when examined more carefully. He went on, movingly, to describe the human induced biodiversity crisis facing our planet. In future years I know Chris wants to use the Trail to promotea different wildlife charity every year and create opportunities to champion biological sustainability.
I had to leave before the final session which included a last song from Jonny Berliner and a thank you from Chris.
Last year I came and went in one day, this year I came early in the morning, stayed overnight and left the next day. Next year it will be 2 nights, and I hope to help Chris Jenord in establishing this as one of the big BHA events outside London. I hope you can join us.