Mongolia adventurer to speak in Kimberley

By Contributed - Kootenay News Advertiser
Published: October 13, 2013 7:00 AM
Updated: October 13, 2013 7:21 AM

He has traveled on horseback from the capital of the Mongolian Empire to the edge of the Eurasian steppe, ridden a bicycle across Russia to China, and rowed a boat along the Yenisey River through Siberia to the Arctic Ocean.

Next, Australian adventurer, author, and filmmaker Tim Cope – creator of the award-winning documentary ‘On the Trail of Genghis Khan’ – is coming to Kimberley. Audiences in both Kimberley and Cranbrook loved the film, and his live presentation at McKim Theatre promises to be captivating indeed.

Cope, a Fellow of the Royal Geographic Society and National Geographic Adventurer of the Year Honoree in 2007, has written two books – ‘Off the Rails: Moscow to Beijing on Recumbent Bikes’, published in 2003, and ‘On the Trail of Genghis Khan: An Epic Journey through the Lands of the Nomads’, just released in September.

Cope’s presentation will be a behind-the-scenes look at his 6,000-mile, three and a half-year quest to ride horses from the ancient capital of the Mongolian Empire, Karakorum, to the edge of the Eurasian steppe on the Danube.

Aided by a series of stills and video that Cope captured en route, he will walk the audience through a journey that began as a boyish dream to immerse himself in the fence-free life of Mongolia – though he could barely ride a horse before he began – and became an odyssey into the nomads’ fascinating past as powerful horse societies that helped shape the course of human history, and the precarious state that nomad culture finds itself in the modern post-Soviet world.

Tim Cope will speak at McKim Theatre on Friday, October 25 at 7:30 PM, presented by Wildsight Kimberley-Cranbrook. Doors open at 7 PM, and admission is by donation – $10 per person suggested. Refreshments will be available.

For more information, visit www.wildsight.ca/events