GREAT ESCAPES CLOSE
TO HOME
ALASTAIR HUMPHREYS
Perhaps my biggest perspective-shift about the power the
natural world has on the soul came sitting in the branches of
an oak tree minutes from my home. The buds of new leaves
glowed lime green in the spring sun. Bluebells carpeted
the wood, and the dawn chorus rang out in jubilation after
the quiet winter months. I noticed the seasonal changes
because I climb this tree every month, scheduled into my
online calendar alongside all the meetings, tax deadlines and
family commitments. This lunch-hour foray may seem scant
adventure in comparison with trekking in the Himalayas or
the jungle mysteries of Costa Rica. But I disagree. For my
monthly tree-climb reminds me that wildness, escape and
the natural world are waiting everywhere.
This mind-shift to champion the small and local developed
through what I call ‘microadventures’. After years chasing
conventional, ‘epic’ wilderness experiences around the
globe, it occurred to me to look outside my front door. I
walked a mere two-mile radius around my home. Along the
way, I discovered places I’d never seen before; I’d become an
explorer. I found spiderwebs jewelled with dew, the aroma of
cut grass, willowherb and cow parsley. The epiphany came
when I challenged myself to seek adventure in the most
boring, built-up place I could think of: the M25. A friend and
I spent a winter week walking a lap of the motorway, through
snow-covered fields and along a web of footpaths and lanes.
One evening, the orange glow of London’s lights illuminated
a frozen field as we crunched through the snow towards a
village and, we hoped, a pub. The wind was raw, my feet hurt,
my belly rumbled in competition with the motorway traffic. I
grinned at my friend, raised my arms in triumph and yelled in
delight at the moon, “This is it! This is the wild, raw universe
unrolling before my eyes!”
Adventurer, author and motivational speaker Alastair
Humphreys is the author of Microadventures: Local
Discoveries for Great Escapes, published by William Collins.
alastairhumphreys.com
“ My monthly tree-
climb reminds me that
wildness, escape and
the natural world are
waiting everywhere.”UNITED KINGDOMJul/Aug 2020 67THE POWER OF PLACE