Alastair Humphreys
LocalEpisodes
Episodes of Local
Mark All
Search Episodes...
The map promised waterfalls. I was not expecting the 979 metres of Venezuela’s Angel Falls (named after the American explorer and pilot Jimmy Angel, whose plane crashed on Auyán-Tepuí in 1937), the volume of Inga Falls in the DRC (more than 4
I dug out a pair of shorts to welcome in June. My legs shone ala- baster white, brighter than the day’s glorious sun. The lightness I felt inside made me aware of how sluggish I had been throughout the dark half of the year. Today, though, I wa
I found an elevated spot where I could peep through the fence and look down on the new town being built across this blank grid square. Yet my map has never been blank. Even our brief history here stretches back hundreds of thousands of years to
You should sit in nature for twenty minutes every day, they say, unless you’re too busy; then you should sit for an hour. I sat for a while on the bench on a small, triangular village green because I thought I was too busy to be doing this toda
My childhood bedroom overlooked a village green, and I have been fond of those open spaces ever since. My brother and I used to hang out there with our friends. It was our amphitheatre, the scene of day- long rugby matches, and a cricket pitch
‘At any rate, spring is here, even in London N.1, and they can’t stop you enjoying it. This is a satisfying reflection. How many a time have I stood watching the toads mating, or a pair of hares having a boxing match in the young corn, and thou
I was back on the marshes where I’d begun my journey almost half a year ago. I liked it out here. A town lay in the distance, its prominent wind turbines turning steadily. I preferred these empty corners of my map, the ignored and forgotten pla
Much of today’s square was taken up by stuff that loosely lumps together under the heading of ‘infrastructure’. Railways, roads, round- abouts and railings. Big metal things. Corrugated sheds. Padlocks. Pylons. Pick-ups with orange hazard light
‘Get out of the bloody field!’ ‘I’m on a bloody footpath!’ I yelled back, both because I was angry and because the man leaning out of his 4x4 window was far away on the road. It was an ineffective, hard to hear argument, so I just turned my bac
I passed a primary school in a forgotten-looking estate of identikit tower blocks as I cycled into today’s grid square. The playground was full of joyous shrieks and laughter, and three colourful quotes were dis- played on the wall: • ‘Somewher
Out into the delirium of spring, riding fast and light-heart- ed towards today’s grid square. Birds belting out love songs in every hedgerow. The first blush of sunshine in the oilseed rape fields, pret- ty but terrible for leaching nitrates in
Blackthorn blossom decorated every lane this week. It was late March and the best time to spot the difference between hawthorn and blackthorn. Blackthorn trees blossom before their leaves appear, while hawthorn does it the other way round. We u
I locked my bike by the pond on the village green. It was a quiet morning and nobody was about. Village greens conjure peaceful imag- es of cricket matches, community celebrations and maypole dances. But historically, village greens were about
‘March, month of “many weathers”,’ grumbled John Clare, the peas- ant poet, and I thought of him as I sheltered from a shower beneath a church’s lychgate. Lych is derived from the Old English word lich, meaning corpse, and the lychgate was wher
I was drawn by the distinct scent of fresh water. It’s such a fine, uplifting odour. ‘Long enough in the desert a man, like other animals, can learn to smell water,’ wrote the late Edward Abbey, American author and environmental activist, in De
This was a landmark day of the year: my first bike ride without wearing gloves. I woke to a softer, earlier, warmer sunrise and cycled out to a grid square that began on an overgrown heath of bracken, gorse and heather. It needed an auroch or t
Historical names for February include the unappealing Old English terms Solmonath (mud month) and Kale-monath (cabbage month). I’m pretty sure the Hawaiian word for February, Pepeluali, refers to neither mud nor cabbage. In Finland, February is
There are two types of people in the world, those who love snow and those who do not. There is no such thing as a child who does not like snow. A few people have valid objections to snow: those with bro- ken hips, and confounded commuters, for
Right, Humphreys. Stop procrastinating. You haven’t even started yet!’ I rebuked myself, and stepped out into the rain to begin. As always, solvitur ambulando, I solve things by walking. It is the gloom that does for me in winter. Seven of my p
The Right to Roam, Enclosures Acts, and the issues of accessing the countryside.Rain was still falling hard a week later when I cycled past a garden with two life-size sculptures of giraffes, towards a modern red-brick Catholic church. On the c
I hid my bike in a hedge and set out to explore the grid square on foot, keen to see what the world would offer to my imagination today. My voice sounded small as I hummed a song to myself beneath an outsize bridge rumbling with overhead lorrie
Busy days and rain falling. Chasing my tail and going nowhere. Horizons closing in. Boring routines and putting away the weekly shop. So, when I got an opportunity to escape, I bolted for the woods that the random-number-generator ordered me to
The darkest hour may be just before the dawn, but the darkest morning comes well after midwinter, when the jollity of Christmas has long since faded away.The latest sunrise is almost three weeks after the December solstice. It might be a fresh
Litter was strewn over today’s grid square like wrapping paper on Christmas morning. I didn’t want to be disheartened by it on every out- ing, but nor did I want to not see these problems or accept them as nor- mal and just shrug my shoulders.
December is a quiet month. I looked out over a rolling landscape of empty fields divided into squares by long, straight hedges. The only sounds were of distant cars. When did it become normal to hear more traffic than wildlife? Everything felt
Join Podchaser to...
- Rate podcasts and episodes
- Follow podcasts and creators
- Create podcast and episode lists
- & much more
Unlock more with Podchaser Pro
- Audience Insights
- Contact Information
- Demographics
- Charts
- Sponsor History
- and More!
- Account
- Register
- Log In
- Find Friends
- Resources
- Help Center
- Blog
- API
Podchaser is the ultimate destination for podcast data, search, and discovery. Learn More
- © 2024 Podchaser, Inc.
- Privacy Policy
- Terms of Service
- Contact Us