Walking the Eco-Talk around Wales

Eric Maddern, one of the UK’s leading storytellers, is embarking this week on a walking, cycling and horse-riding journey around Wales. En route he’ll be stopping in community venues to perform his new show: What the Bees Know. The show uses the story of the Bee – regarded as a divine gift to humanity since antiquity but now increasingly threatened by human activity – as a symbol of what we’re doing to the Earth. This is the first leg of a journey that will take him to venues across the length and breadth of the UK.  

In What the Bees Know, Eric, a bee-keeper himself, takes a provocative look at both the malady that afflicts us and the remedy that might heal. Blending his own dynamic songs, timeless wisdom tales, poetry, prophecy and chat with bees, Eric light-heartedly gets to the heart of the matter. He reveals that what the bees know is what we must all learn if we are to ‘take the greatest stride of soul we ever took’ and rise to the challenge of our epoch-changing times. The show is moving, inspiring, sometimes funny, often thought-provoking. 

Eric Maddern is a storyteller, the author of a dozen children’s books and a singer-songwriter. His latest album - Rare and Precious Earth – contains many of the songs in the show. Born in South Australia, Eric spent years working as a ‘bush artist’ in Aboriginal communities, learning about their notion of ‘songlines’ and ‘the dreaming’. Since living in Snowdonia he’s become familiar with the old tales and mythology of this land. Over this time Eric has also created Cae Mabon, a beautiful eco-retreat centre in Snowdonia. Last October ‘Sustain’ Magazine declared it the number one natural building project in the UK!  

Of this journey Eric says: “In Australia a songline is an ancient mythological route that connects sacred places across a landscape. In a way I’ll be journeying along songlines in Wales, starting off by walking over Snowdon and visiting Dinas Emrys, where legend has it that dragons appeared and Merlin made his first prophecy; spending a night on Cadair Idris after which, according to folklore, you wake up mad or a poet; walking across the Preseli’s, where the bluestones for Stonehenge came from; travelling east-west along old drovers’ roads as well as cycling on the more modern Sustrans bike paths. I want the experiences of meeting people during the day as I slowly cross the land to enter the performances I do at night. The whole thing is an exploration in how to sustain and restore the world in these challenging times. What’s more I believe it’s possible to have a great adventure without going to the exotic ends of the Earth. I spent ten years travelling the world in my youth, but as far as I’m concerned, Wales is as good as it gets. So I’m really looking forward to getting to know the country more intimately.”