From June to August, three rural regions across Spain are transformed into otherworldly landscapes; trees in the heart of the cork¹ forest are sheared² 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，西班牙的三处乡郊都会改头换面，现出一幅幅异世界般的风景：软木橡树林中央处的树木，被一棵棵剥掉了树皮，化身为一身砖红色的哨兵，头顶着繁茂枝叶，守卫着树林。而在今年，游客们首次有了到当地亲身感受软木橡树收割的机会。

A new eco-tour allows travelers to watch the cork harvest and later follow donkeys carrying towering loads to one of the traditional pueblos³ blancos, towns whose buildings are painted stark⁴ white and which dot the countryside in Catalonia, Andalusia and Extremadura.

一项新推出的生态游，让游客能够观赏软木橡树收割的现场，然后尾随着驴子，看着它们将堆得高高的木材驮入具有传统风情的白色村庄(pueblos blanco)——这些村庄里的建筑，全都漆成了朴实无华的白色，星星点点地散布于加泰罗尼亚(Catalonia)、安达卢西亚(Andalusia)和埃斯特雷马杜拉(Extremadura)的乡郊之间。

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 gastronomic⁵ 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.

这趟观光游名为“从树皮到酒瓶”(From Bark to Bottle)，行程共计11天，带领游客穿过西班牙的软木橡树小径，探索收割者们的生活、森林环境的生物多样性以及该地区一代代传承下来的文化与美食——简而言之，就是软木橡树从树木到葡萄酒的变身之路。软木橡树是一种可再生资源：每年，农夫们都会选择当地的不同区域进行收割，每隔八年才会回到同一片树丛处再次收割。

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.

这项观光游由美国的软木橡树保护联盟(Cork Forest Conservation Alliance)与两家生态旅游公司一石二鸟(Two Birds-One Stone)、合掌旅游(Namaste Viajes)共同构想出的，在一年里让40名喜爱葡萄酒酒的游客（共计4趟旅程，每趟10人）感受软木橡树收割的过程及其在文化、经济和社会因素上的精妙之处。

“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.

“我们希望经历过这趟旅程的人，能够爱上软木橡树林里的人民，”联盟的执行董事帕特里克·斯宾塞(Patrick Spencer)说。

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.

这趟观光行程收费3500美元，第一站探索的是位于西班牙西南部的埃斯特雷马杜拉的收割现场。当地的农夫在软木橡树林的中央处，从他们的祖父辈就用过的同一批软木橡树上，将树皮一块块地取下。这项看似复杂的工作，只需要收割者先在树皮上砍上几刀，便可像削铅笔一样，轻松地将树皮剥除。

In the expansive savannas⁶ there, visitors spend four days watching the harvest, eating lunch with farmers and trying their hand at slicing jamón, the salty slab⁷ of cured pork that Spain is famous for, on a farm where pigs are raised eating cork oak acorns⁸. Nights are spent in either a high-end hotel tucked in to a refurbished medieval building or an agritourismo, a country estate⁹ nestled among cork trees.

在广袤无垠的稀树草原上，游客将有四天的时间观看收割现场，与农夫们共进午餐，还可以尝试亲手片切风干火腿(jamón)——这是西班牙的特产，一种味道偏咸的厚块腌猪肉，所用猪肉全部取自农场里用软木橡树的橡子喂养的猪。夜间则要么下榻建在翻新后的中世纪建筑中的高端酒店，要么在置身于软木橡树间的乡村住宅农家乐(agritourismo)里度过。

Days 5 and 6 take travelers farther south to Andalusia, into Los Alcornocales National Park, the largest national park in Spain housing cork forestry¹⁰. 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.

第五天和第六天里，游客们会被带往安达卢西亚的更南处，深入软木橡树国家公园(Los Alcornocales National Park)，这是西班牙境内软木橡树森林覆盖面积最大的国家公园。行程的重点则会转移到美食上，游客将被带领着造访当地的手工奶酪、葡萄酒和橄榄油制造商。夜间则可在日落时分，将大家全部聚在一起，一边观看驴子驮着软木橡树皮进镇，一边共进晚餐。这里有两辆货车可以搭载游客，因此习惯早睡早起的人可以先行乘车返回酒店，其余人则可继续逗留至深夜。

The trip ends in Catalonia, in the mossy and forested northeast, with a visit to a 405-acre privately¹¹ owned cork forest near the region’s rocky coastline, a sensory¹² 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 auction¹³.

行程的终点设在加泰罗尼亚，位于遍布着青苔与绿森的东北地区，内容包括游览当地岩岸附近的一片面积达405英亩的私人软木橡树森林，在与软木橡树同名的科克理工学院(Cork Institute)内享受感官体验，到一间软木橡树加工厂远足，造访一间小型西班牙卡瓦起泡酒(cava)酒厂，还有机会吃到当天早上购自鱼市拍卖的鲜鱼。

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 canyon¹⁴, traversed by an arched bridge reminiscent of a Roman aqueduct.

途中逗留的地点，包括一般游客不会留意的小镇，譬如建于9世纪的龙达(Ronda)，这是西班牙历史上的商业中心，镇内可见鹅卵石铺就的大路以及年代久远的教堂，现代的斗牛运动就发源于此。可以试着想象一下这样的风景：一座城市被一道深邃的峡谷隔成两半，中间一座颇有罗马时代水道桥风味的拱桥横跨两地。

Cork bark is closely intertwined with the lives of the people in these regions.

软木橡树的树皮与这些地方的百姓生活密切地交织在一起。

“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 intimacy¹⁵ between the people of the cork forest and their trees.”

“如果你去的是一座仅有600人的小村庄，不管你是补鞋匠，卖奶酪的，还是开自动洗衣店的，甚至开采天然气的，都无所谓，”斯宾塞说道。“所有流入这座村庄的财富都来自软木橡树，因此每一个人都牵涉其中。居住在软木橡树林区的百姓与他们的树木之间，存在着一种特别的亲密关系。”