In October 2020, my friend Dave and I walked a section of the Cleveland Way in Yorkshire over a couple of days. We started from Scarborough and walked to Ravenscar (18 km). The next day we walked to High Hawsker (15 km).
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Packrafting the River Tamiš
In July 2020, in a brief respite from the worries of the covid pandemic, I had the good fortune to be able to escape for a little adventure, spending 3 days paddling down the Tamiš river in northern Serbia, in my packraft.
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Interview with Emily Woodhouse - Founder of Intrepid Magazine
I recently had the pleasure to interview Emily Woodhouse, someone who is well known and someone who has been somewhat of a pioneer in giving a voice to many women in the adventure / outdoor sports world.
In this interview Emily gives me some insight into her whirlwind entrepreneurial journey and how much there is to learn from diving into a (business) adventure.
Not only has Intrepid Magazine provided something that was missing in the outdoor space but it is doubly satisfying to know it was the vision of someone who cares passionately about the subject matter, saw the importance of it and had the courage to go through with it… although I am not sure Emily herself see it as “courage”. As she says in the interview: “I looked at the hole in the magazine world and thought: I can do that”.
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Three Men in a Boat (to say nothing of the wallaby)
The loch was like a mirror as we set off from Luss on Friday to explore. Having walked to the high point on Inchtavannach to admire the views, and paddled around Inchmoan, watching the deer come down to the water’s edge, we agreed to spend the night on Inchconnachan for no other reason than it appeared absolutely idyllic as the sun began to sink and the evening light bathed the lake in a silvery light.
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Weekend Adventure - From lying in the sun to crying on a plane
I have mentioned a few times that my daughter is neither naturally sporty, particularly active or indeed fearless. She is perhaps the opposite. So I was especially proud that she decided on the Saturday morning, as we dithered whether to have an hour in the water at Buzz Active Cuckmere, that this was indeed the ideal opportunity for her to go solo in a kayak for the first time.
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Canoeing the Wye: Happiness V Social Media [Video]
I had so much fun this weekend that I didn’t tell anyone about it. Imagine that! The moment was way more important to me than broadcasting about it. Yes, I know it should be, but if we are honest with ourselves, it isn’t alway, is it?
I spent Friday and Saturday canoeing down the Wye with my 7 year old daughter, from Hoarwithy to Symonds Yat. It is the first time either of us has done this kind of trip and to share this adventure together was the sort of experience that makes me go all mushy and emotional…
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Wild Night Out 2019: The Whining
Travelling in ultra lightweight style (we only carried four cricket stumps instead of the full compliment of six) Emma and I marched along the coast path, over the dunes and onto the vast sands of our beautiful coast for a perfect Wild Night Out 2019, until the high-pitched whining started…
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30 Days Wild: Suburban Springwatch
One thing I decided to do this year was leave one corner of the garden wild. I don’t know how long it will last as pressure builds from within the family to “do something” with that corner but while it does last it has had a positive effect in terms of wildlife.
Perhaps the best aspect of this experiment is the fact that every night around 9pm we have a fat hedgehog who comes through our front gate, wanders through the garden to this unkempt patch of land and roots around for a couple of hours before waddling off to check out what the neighbours have to offer.
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30 Days Wild: Freshwalks: Networking in the Outdoors
This filthy-wet month, I am trying to spend time outside in nature during my working day as part of the Wildlife Trusts 30 Days Wild. I cannot pretend it has been as easy as last year’s sun-drenched June when gently swaying flower meadows and deserted Norfolk beaches called out to me.
However, recently a client of mine drew my attention to an innovative and inspiring initiative getting business people into the outdoors, for Freshwalks. The benefits of which might surprise a few…
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30 days Wild: Welcome to my office
“Can you repeat that please sir?” I could hear a slightly exasperated tone on the other end of the line.
This morning, a few days into June and woefully short of what I hope to achieve during 30 Days Wild, I ventured out into the meadow to make a few phone calls. I took my office outdoors! The helpful assistant from Barclays Business Banking went off for a few minutes to find out some information, and probably to curse me as my microphone was buffeted by the breeze, that bent the tall flowers surrounding me and repeatedly flicked my hood over my head.
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30 Days Wild: Switch off with Nature
We are just a few days away from June and the start of 30 Days Wild; the Wildlife Trusts amazing initiative to get people outside, enjoying and appreciating nature.
This year, as part of 30 Days Wild I will be focussing on how nature can help alleviate the stresses and strains of work and how to get more of it into the working day.
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Do you want to live more adventurously?
The decision to change my life and live more adventurously was utterly instinctive, borne of exasperation, a last resort. I was burnt out, suffering from anxiety, depressed.
How I got to the point of changing the direction of my life was a couple of years of mental wrangling and torture, until I stumbled across some inspiration.
This month my excuse for not going out is...
Wow. It’s three weeks since my last blog post and I haven’t really spent any time outside. I would like to tell you that my knee woes have been the reason for this neglect.
However, that would only be part of the truth. I have been working more than I would like and I think I am nearing a point when I need to step back and delegate more in order to maintain a the kind of healthy balance I desire.
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Book Review - The Alps by Jon Mathieu
I found it interesting, as someone who is fascinated not only by the mountains as geographic phenomena but also as a student of the people and the lifestyle through the ages.
This book can get away as being an introduction, leading you on to look at more in depth studies or indeed books which focus on certain aspects of mountain life. However…
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Walking with self-doubt - a Guest post by Shona Macpherson
Over the last couple of years, I’ve felt an increasing pull – almost a seduction – to be alone outdoors in nature. Yet I’ve also felt huge doubt about my capabilities in that environment. Could I navigate well enough? Could I deal with unexpected circumstances? I felt a big grey vague shadow of ‘I’m not good enough’.
In live in the beauty that is Inverness, in the Scottish Highlands and I’ve a small but lovely outdoor community with whom I walk and cycle.
But there was something about being alone in the wild that got under my skin.
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What should I do now?
Around two weeks ago I woke up from a general anaesthetic to the news from my surgeon that he could do nothing to improve the cartilage in my left knee. It looks good but doesn’t function, well I am half Italian after all.
I have been told, at 43 years old, that I should never run again. Whilst going up a mountain is painless (relatively), going down the other side seems to be too high a stress on my knee.
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Will I ever walk in the hills again?
After two years of knee problems, inconclusive scans, and a lot of insisting and persuading that I am not imaging the pain, I finally got a date for an arthroscopy.
Since December 2016 I have been unable to run because it appears I damaged my meniscus. On a normal day I cannot run more than 2 km or walk more than around 15 km without having to stop in pain. Going downhill shortens both of these distances considerably.
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The outdoors is guilt free pleasure
Doing nothing often brings on feelings of guilt. But it is essential to find a way to quiet your mind and doing nothing can be a the best way.
And, As it happens, going outdoors is the best kind of nothing… cos, you know, it’s not nothing.
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Children outdoors: Time to listen and speak.
When do you give your children the time to speak, the time to formulate a thought or give an answer with the time to get it wrong and start again? No clocks, no homework, no digital distractions, no rushing.
When, as a matter of fact, do you spend 2 hours talking to your children? I mean, no distractions, just you chit-chatting about this and that, without telling them what to do.
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Hiking Blogs Award - a Fitting Epitaph
Dear reader,
I am writing to you from my bed, swaddled in duvets and blankets, eyes rolling towards the heavens, brow glistening with beads of moisture… these may be my last hours, these may indeed be my last words.
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