Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
TURTLE ISLAND PRESERVE
live off the grid
TRIPLETT, NORTH CAROLINA
When we leave the world of the 21st century and step back to a place
where we make fire by spinning sticks, and drink from mountain springs,
and tell stories by firelight, we get a new reality.
—T. G. Pelham, teacher at Turtle Island
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What if you could learn to live life on your own terms? What if you didn't have to pay
the electricity bill or worry about the mortgage, forget barking dogs in the neighborhood, and
avoid traffic on your way to work?
You can…and Eustace Conway, the owner of Turtle Island Preserve, a pristine 1,000-acre
stretch of North Carolina's Blue Ridge, is just the guy to teach you how. At age 17, he left
his parents' suburban home in Gastonia, North Carolina, to live in a tepee. Ever since, he has
lived in the woods, where he finds or makes all of his own tools, food, clothes, and shelter.
Conway offers five-day workshops in what he calls “traditional living.” It's a rigorous
course in living off the land. People flock to his preserve to learn such skills as how to start
fires by twirling two sticks, make clothes from buckskin, and skin a rabbit with handmade
stone knives. In the process, they learn biology, botany, geology, and ecology in what Conway
calls the greatest classroom of all—nature itself.
“My message is to aim for a higher quality of life,” Conway says. “People say, 'You can't
escape reality,' but when I started living in a tepee in the woods, I realized that what I was
living
was
reality. What could be more real than the natural world?”
During a five-day stay at Turtle Island's farm, you'll sleep along a sweetly gurgling
stream in a primitive cabin with a roof, three walls, and an inspiring view of the stars. Not
only will you learn what it's like to live without electricity, you'll learn whatever skills Con-
way thinks would best serve the group. That might be learning to blacksmith, cook broccoli
almond soup in an outdoor kitchen, or make a blowgun.
While it's true that some folks might wonder why anyone would want to return to a prim-
itive life where they carve their own utensils, gather their own ginseng tea leaves, and bake
