追隨軟木橡樹足跡的西班牙生態遊
From June to August, three rural regions across Spain are transformed into otherworldly landscapes; trees in the heart of the cork forest are sheared of their bark, becoming brick-red sentinels with leafy tops that guard the woods. And this year, for the first time, visitors are able to experience the harvest with them.
每年的6月到8月，西班牙的三處鄉郊都會改頭換面，現出一幅幅異世界般的風景：軟木橡樹林中央處的樹木，被一棵棵剝掉了樹皮，化身爲一身磚紅色的哨兵，頭頂着繁茂枝葉，守衛着樹林。而在今年，遊客們首次有了到當地親身感受軟木橡樹收割的機會。
A new eco-tour allows travelers to watch the cork harvest and later follow donkeys carrying towering loads to one of the traditional pueblos blancos, towns whose buildings are painted stark white and which dot the countryside in Catalonia, Andalusia and Extremadura.
一項新推出的生態遊，讓遊客能夠觀賞軟木橡樹收割的現場，然後尾隨着驢子，看着它們將堆得高高的木材馱入具有傳統風情的白色村莊(pueblos blanco)——這些村莊裏的建築，全都漆成了樸實無華的白色，星星點點地散佈於加泰羅尼亞(Catalonia)、安達盧西亞(Andalusia)和埃斯特雷馬杜拉(Extremadura)的鄉郊之間。
The tour, From Bark to Bottle, leads participants on an 11-day trip through Spain’s cork trail to discover the lives of the harvesters, the forest’s biodiversity and the cultural and gastronomic heritage of the area — in essence, the cork’s path from tree to wine. Cork is a renewable resource; every year farmers go to a different part of their land to harvest, only returning to the same trees every nine years.
這趟觀光遊名爲“從樹皮到酒瓶”(From Bark to Bottle)，行程共計11天，帶領遊客穿過西班牙的軟木橡樹小徑，探索收割者們的生活、森林環境的生物多樣性以及該地區一代代傳承下來的文化與美食——簡而言之，就是軟木橡樹從樹木到葡萄酒的變身之路。軟木橡樹是一種可再生資源：每年，農夫們都會選擇當地的不同區域進行收割，每隔八年纔會回到同一片樹叢處再次收割。
The tour, the brainchild of the United States-based Cork Forest Conservation Alliance and the ecotourism companies Two Birds-One Stone and Namaste Viajes, lets 40 wine-loving tourists a year (10 on each of four tours) experience the cork harvest and its cultural, economic and social nuances.
這項觀光遊由美國的軟木橡樹保護聯盟(Cork Forest Conservation Alliance)與兩家生態旅遊公司一石二鳥(Two Birds-One Stone)、合掌旅遊(Namaste Viajes)共同構想出的，在一年裏讓40名喜愛葡萄酒酒的遊客（共計4趟旅程，每趟10人）感受軟木橡樹收割的過程及其在文化、經濟和社會因素上的精妙之處。
“We want people to come home from the trip having fallen in love with the people of the cork forest,” said Patrick Spencer, executive director of the alliance.
“我們希望經歷過這趟旅程的人，能夠愛上軟木橡樹林裏的人民，”聯盟的執行董事帕特里克·斯賓塞(Patrick Spencer)說。
The first leg of the $3,500 trip explores Extremadura’s harvest in the southwest of Spain. Farmers there, in the heart of the cork forest, remove bark from the same trees used by their great-grandfathers. The intricate process takes only a few cuts before the harvesters peel the bark away like a sharpening pencil.
這趟觀光行程收費3500美元，第一站探索的是位於西班牙西南部的埃斯特雷馬杜拉的收割現場。當地的農夫在軟木橡樹林的中央處，從他們的祖父輩就用過的同一批軟木橡樹上，將樹皮一塊塊地取下。這項看似複雜的工作，只需要收割者先在樹皮上砍上幾刀，便可像削鉛筆一樣，輕鬆地將樹皮剝除。
In the expansive savannas there, visitors spend four days watching the harvest, eating lunch with farmers and trying their hand at slicing jamón, the salty slab of cured pork that Spain is famous for, on a farm where pigs are raised eating cork oak acorns. Nights are spent in either a high-end hotel tucked in to a refurbished medieval building or an agritourismo, a country estate nestled among cork trees.
在廣袤無垠的稀樹草原上，遊客將有四天的時間觀看收割現場，與農夫們共進午餐，還可以嘗試親手片切風乾火腿(jamón)——這是西班牙的特產，一種味道偏鹹的厚塊醃豬肉，所用豬肉全部取自農場裏用軟木橡樹的橡子餵養的豬。夜間則要麼下榻建在翻新後的中世紀建築中的高端酒店，要麼在置身於軟木橡樹間的鄉村住宅農家樂(agritourismo)裏度過。
Days 5 and 6 take travelers farther south to Andalusia, into Los Alcornocales National Park, the largest national park in Spain housing cork forestry. The focus shifts to food, with visits to artisanal cheese, wine and olive oil producers. The evening can be spent attending group dinners while watching burros carry loads of cork bark into town as the sun goes down. Two vans are available to participants, so early-risers have a chance to head back to the hotel, while others can enjoy a late evening out.
第五天和第六天裏，遊客們會被帶往安達盧西亞的更南處，深入軟木橡樹國家公園(Los Alcornocales National Park)，這是西班牙境內軟木橡樹森林覆蓋面積最大的國家公園。行程的重點則會轉移到美食上，遊客將被帶領着造訪當地的手工奶酪、葡萄酒和橄欖油製造商。夜間則可在日落時分，將大家全部聚在一起，一邊觀看驢子馱着軟木橡樹皮進鎮，一邊共進晚餐。這裏有兩輛貨車可以搭載遊客，因此習慣早睡早起的人可以先行乘車返回酒店，其餘人則可繼續逗留至深夜。
The trip ends in Catalonia, in the mossy and forested northeast, with a visit to a 405-acre privately owned cork forest near the region’s rocky coastline, a sensory experience at the Cork Institute, a cork factory excursion, a small-production cava-maker tour, and a chance to eat fish bought that same morning at a fish auction.
行程的終點設在加泰羅尼亞，位於遍佈着青苔與綠森的東北地區，內容包括遊覽當地巖岸附近的一片面積達405英畝的私人軟木橡樹森林，在與軟木橡樹同名的科克理工學院(Cork Institute)內享受感官體驗，到一間軟木橡樹加工廠遠足，造訪一間小型西班牙卡瓦起泡酒(cava)酒廠，還有機會吃到當天早上購自魚市拍賣的鮮魚。
Stops include tiny towns the typical tourist doesn’t see, like ninth-century Ronda, the historic trading center with cobblestone roads and ancient churches that is modern bullfighting’s birthplace. Imagine a city divided by a deep canyon, traversed by an arched bridge reminiscent of a Roman aqueduct.
途中逗留的地點，包括一般遊客不會留意的小鎮，譬如建於9世紀的龍達(Ronda)，這是西班牙歷史上的商業中心，鎮內可見鵝卵石鋪就的大路以及年代久遠的教堂，現代的鬥牛運動就發源於此。可以試着想象一下這樣的風景：一座城市被一道深邃的峽谷隔成兩半，中間一座頗有羅馬時代水道橋風味的拱橋橫跨兩地。
Cork bark is closely intertwined with the lives of the people in these regions.
軟木橡樹的樹皮與這些地方的百姓生活密切地交織在一起。
“When you go to a little village of 600 people, it doesn’t matter whether you’re a cobbler or you sell cheese or you run a laundromat or you pump gas,” Mr. Spencer said. “All of the money that’s coming into your village is coming from cork, so everyone is invested. There’s an intimacy between the people of the cork forest and their trees.”
“如果你去的是一座僅有600人的小村莊，不管你是補鞋匠，賣奶酪的，還是開自動洗衣店的，甚至開採天然氣的，都無所謂，”斯賓塞說道。“所有流入這座村莊的財富都來自軟木橡樹，因此每一個人都牽涉其中。居住在軟木橡樹林區的百姓與他們的樹木之間，存在着一種特別的親密關係。”
