It’s always nice to hear from readers of this newsletter (just hit ‘reply’ and it comes straight to me in my shed) – your adventures, your projects, your suggestions for what I could do differently.

Thanks to such emails I’ve done things like clean up the font I use (!) and made the layout more consistent, BUT I have regularly failed to stop including so many links to interesting stuff! I know I include far too much info in these newsletters, but I just get carried away with wanting to share lots.

A recent correspondent suggested there’s no clear purpose to my newsletters now I’m not so focussed on encouraging you all to have microadventures (although you should all have more microadventures…). And I had to agree. He was right. I don’t feel I have a clear purpose or direction since I finished pouring so much effort into writing Local and all the issues it addresses. (The closest I’ve got is probably my recent writings about Adventure + Purpose).

Another thoughtful emailer suggested it should be ‘the different ways we all perceive nature which is a challenge in the work towards a more sustainable future. The answer to that is maybe in the next book?’

And so: suggestions welcome, please… what do you think my mission should be?

And without further ado, onto far too much information for busy people to process… 

• You don’t need to travel far to find adventure – it’s right here, in your own community. In my latest TEDx talk, I challenge you to embrace local wildness and take ownership of the environmental problems we face.
• Woohoo! My kids book Against the Odds has been longlisted for the UKLA Book Awards.
• Fancy a challenge this month? How far from home could you get in 24 hours? Get involved!
• The Tom Grass Spirit of Adventure Literary Prize is open for submissions. Embrace adventure in any form!
• The 2024/25 Adventure Queens Grant is open too. If you’re a woman with an adventure brewing in your mind, they want to hear from you!
• A shout-out for the excellent adaptive / inclusive adventure community, including stalwarts like Adaptive Expeditions, Equal Adventure, Mel Nicholls, and the T-Shirt Twins.
• Last time I mentioned a dawn cycling club in Edinburgh and asked if you knew any others. Turns out there’s meet-ups in Brussels, Victoria BC, Amsterdam, Utrecht, Vienna, Salzburg, Innsbruck, Munich, Rwanda, Spain, Kiel, Minsk, Texas, and several in Norway, including Oslo.
• Loads of lovely soundscapes to lull you to sleep / background as you work.
• Some very satisfying slow motion.
• Finally, here’s my latest TEDx talk. It was a lot of work. I hope you’ll give it a watch/listen…

Let me know if you have a relevant project that my readers would appreciate.

Here’s what you guys have been up to recently:

• Watch the path of a raindrop from anywhere in the world. I adore this site.
• Danny MacAskill – everyone’s favourite bike rider – is back with a new video.
• Neal Moore Finishes his Two-Year Solo Canoe Journey across the USA – I really enjoyed following this expedition.
• This note to self from the superb book Essentialism is worth pinning above your desk (as I have done).
• A Quote to Ponder:
  When I give talks at primary schools, I sometimes ask, ‘who would like to cycle around the world?’ Every child flings an arm in the air. Ask the same question to a roomful of adults and the response is very different. You get some chuckles at such a childish question. One or two eye-rolls (‘of course I’d love such an adventure, but it’s obviously not realistic for me – I’m a normal person, not an AdventurerTM.’) And much muttering about pension plans, dodgy knees, or the need to do a lot of research before buying a £10,000 bicycle… The audacity has gone. We have lost our boldness.

• Moments of Wonder. A 45-second film to give you some ideas for seizing the summer.
• Thank you to all who have bought (or listened to) my new book, My Midsummer Morning. If you’d be so kind as to leave a quick review here, it would be MASSIVELY helpful. Thank you!
• A brilliant website if you’d like to learn to tie knots. (And if you don’t want to learn to tie more knots, then we are no longer friends.)
• A brilliant addition to any vagabond’s library.
• Watch This Self-Proclaimed Idiot Hop Freight Trains in the US. A fantastic little film about a way of traveling I’ve always fantasized about doing (NB: lots of swearing…).
• A poem: In Praise of Walking.
• Forget Coding, we need to teach our children how to Dream.

Bye for now!

(If you’re seeing this newsletter for the first time, you can subscribe here.)

Cheers,

Alastair

• Would you like to try out my other newsletters: The Working Adventurer, The Doorstep Mile or Adventure + Purpose?
• I have four podcasts you can listen to: Living Adventurously (a series of interviews), Adventure + Purpose (me trying to figure out my life), There Are Other Rivers (a story about walking across India), and The Doorstep Mile (a friendly kick up the bum).
• I’ve written 16 books, for both adults and children. Hopefully one of them might appeal!