Through rain and insults, environmentalists walk across Gasp to protest energy projects

Day 16 was the toughest.

A few dozen people were nearly halfway done their lengthy trek around the Gasp Peninsula;they had almost gotten used to the blisters and sore feet.

Then the torrential rain started.

The group set out on May 28 fromAmqui, Que., on the Peoples' March for Mother Earth, a 785-kilometre trek thathopes to send a message ofprotest againstoil and gas exploration in the region.

The projects the group opposes include:

• TheChaleurTerminal project, a planto build a three-kilometre pipeline and oil shipping terminal in nearbyBelledune, N.B.
• The Bourque,GaltandHaldimanoil and gas exploration sites that pepper the peninsula.
• Trains carrying tankers of crude oil cars through the countryside heading toward the Maritimes.
• TugliqandPtrolia's plans to create a 59-kilometreliquid natural gas pipeline.
• Drilling sites on nearbyAnticostiIsland.

The disparate group of 30 to 40 walkers includes some locals, but also people from Montreal, Quebec City, the Eastern Townships andAnticostiIsland. There is even one participant from Toronto.

While not everyone is walking the entire route, they all have the same message opposingoil-and-gas projects on this grand, breath-takingand sometimes difficult landscape.

'Prosperity is the water'

AlexandreBrunet and the crew have a strict itinerary to follow. They need to walk 25 to 30 kilometresa day in order to complete the tour of the peninsula in 42 days.

A car hauls their provisions from site to site. When they aren't camping, they sleep on the floors of school gymnasiumsand seniors' clubs.

Each day, four participants hop on bikes that were bought with donations. Their job is to do community outreach stopping people in the street and knocking on doors.

Their visits aren't always well-received.

"A few times, people say, 'What do you bring to Quebec? Find a job,'" said Brunet.

The unemployment rate in the region is 17.1 per cent by far the highest in Quebecfeeding hopes that oil-and-gas projects will bring economic benefits.

It's an argument Brunet finds "ridiculous" because, he says, the landscape is also valuable.

"To us, prosperity is the water," he said.

The day the storm hit

Monday,June 13, more than two weeks after they first set out, was the day the storm hit.

That morning they were packing up a campsite inPabos, Que., not far from New Carlisle. Everything they owned was completely drenched.

"It was tough as hell. It was hard," said Brunet, who has been with the march from the start.

He and his fellow trekkers would face 50 to 80millimetresof rain that day. In fact, June has so farbeen the wettest month ever recorded in the Gasp. Brunet walkedright through it all.

"We were directly on the sea shore. It was enormously windy," he said.

"We were making penguin formations and sticking together to get through the rain."

The group hopes to reachRimouskiby July 10.