Interview With Sandy McRuer of Rainbird Excursions
The value of a good tour guide is personified in Sandy McRuer. Sandy describes his ecotours of British Columbia's Vancouver Island as "experiential tourism". When you go on a tour with Sandy you're getting more than just a walk through the woods and a few flora and fauna facts delivered lecture style. Sandy is a storyteller, jokester and occasional Snowy Owl impersonator. He takes you to the areas you may get lost trying to find yourself, and makes you feel at home once you're there.
After spending a career in forestry--where he specialized in reforestation--Sandy started his tour company Rainbird Excursions in 2005. Through Rainbird Sandy shares his devotion and appreciation of the natural world. Entertaining and unique--he's everything a good guide should be.
What are some common questions you get from people on your tours?
It could be anything under the sun. Mostly it's “Show me a Douglas Fir,” or “What kind of plant is that?” and I'll answer, “Well, do you want Latin or English?” [Laughs]
[People ask about] culturally modified trees and the First Nations use of the land. If we're going by say the Martin Mars water bombers on our one trail at Sprout Lake they go, “Oh what's that?” So It can be anything from man made objects to certain mountains and that sort of thing.
I often get questions that stump me, I mean you don't know everything about everything. If I get a question that I'm not able to answer I just say I don't know. Sometimes if I'm in an impatient mood I like to string them along for a little while, but I'll always fess up. I like to keep it entertaining.
How do you keep tours entertaining?
The variety of stories. The storytelling techniques. I like to tell stories where people can see, or smell or hear something. It's not unusual for me to imitate an owl for instance. People often think that's pretty cool.
If you were to define a most memorable tour moment, would it be one that involved an animal?
Oh yah, definitely. Especially if we encounter a bear. It's not unusual. One of my testimonials comes from a group of Germans. After they got off the van and I dropped them at their accommodations I asked them how they enjoyed the trip and they said it's probably one of the highlights of their year.
What is the best part of your job?
Hearing people say “Wow!”
It's funny, when I first started out I thought the coolest part of the job would be telling people the stories. But I'm finding, no—it's kind of the reverse.
What's the most interesting thing you've learned from another person on one of your tours?
When I just started out the first year I had an occassion to take out a couple of older women from Holland. I found out early on one of them was clairvoyant. When you hear that a lof of people go, “Oh sure, whatever. I don't believe in that crap.” A lot of people would react that way, but they're guests so you treat them with respect and I said, “Oh, that's cool.”
As we were talking through the day she'd make comments about stuff that kinda blew me away. She'd be standing there just looking out at the ocean and she'd say, “You know there's an awful lot of white energy on Vancouver Island. Back in Holland there's only about three feet of it, but here it's like three metres.” I was kinda dumbfounded. It was done in such a conversational matter that you kinda go, “Well she's not trying to prove anything to me, she's just being who she is.” So it really kinda made me think, “She's really seeing something.” She was a very interesting woman.