All Episodes
A Single Map - the Final Episode
Thank you for all your support this year!I hope you'll get out and explore your own map too...For more ideas and info: www.alastairhumphreys.com/localI am proud to kno...
Parakeets
I cycled to a small town that I knew as a motorway junction and a monstrous snarl of a roundabout. And yet I was riding towards it down pretty lanes fringed with red a...
Mushrooms
I began today’s grid square outside the Duke of Wellington pub, which dated from 1516, two and a half centuries before Old Nosey was born. I thought about all the braw...
Legacy
It was a morning of fresh sunshine and a chilly breeze, that day defined in The Meaning of Liff as ‘Brithdir – The first day of the winter on which your breath condens...
Conkers
As autumn approached, I was particularly looking forward to find- ing conkers. Horse chestnut trees and their appealing, polished seeds are a surefire declaration of t...
Rewilding the Valley
An episode on rewilding.Walking always feels very different from the running and cycling I usually do for exercise. I’m generally too impatient to walk somewhere if I ...
Bees
A long row of black poplar trees escorted my road towards the low horizon. I passed a row of small industrial units, then a house offering rosy windfall apples and pea...
Slow
Though the silver birch trees were turning to autumnal gold, sum- mer was back this week with a fury, despite me writing it off, but it was probably too early to speak...
Blackberries
Today’s grid square was a rare outing to the far side of the river, to the very edge of the map itself. It felt like a new country. Over that next hill lay lands unkno...
Thistles
The gate’s clang startled a buzzard who lumbered off the ground and flew into the sanctuary of the trees. I stood still in the field, feeling myself beginning to slow ...
Access
A good old chunter about access rights, the right to roam, and Scandinavia's approach to allemansrätten.My hopes were high. It was a perfect sunny day and the grid squ...
Swimming
I cycled to today’s grid square with Test Match Special playing in my headphones. Listening to the ebb and flow of a cricket match arcing towards its conclusion is one...
Daybreak
It seemed to me, walking and cycling through this year on my map, that the seasons move in two ways: gradually, then suddenly. No change, no change, no change... and t...
Streets
I had waited for the rain showers to pass before heading out today, but I was forced to shelter from a fresh cloudburst beneath a bowed old horse chestnut tree. Sheets...
Polytunnels
I filled my bottles with ice before heading out this morning. It was the hottest day of the year, and Britain was parched by an unusually severe drought. As I got read...
Viewpoints
Includes a polite argument about land access and the right to roam.I sat down on an overgrown, underused bench outside a derelict timber-framed pub to squeeze out my s...
Lakes
There was a humid, jungle feel to the day after heavy overnight rain. Plants shone, the ground steamed, a thrush sang a persistent tune that wouldn’t have sounded out ...
Ferry
To reach today’s square, I needed to make a short crossing on a small ferry, which I knew would be fun but also added the tiniest frac- tion of hassle to proceedings, ...