I’m Alastair Humphreys, adventurer, book writer, and overexcited sender of four newsletters. Nobody needs that many emails from me!

You’re reading Shouting from the Shed. Please check it’s the one that suits you best – or switch to a better fit:

1. Shouting from the Shed – my news and interesting bits & bobs I find. Get it here, every couple of weeks.
2. Adventure + Purpose – how can those of us who love the wild world do our bit to fix it? Subscribe here for a Saturday read.
3. The Doorstep Mile – helping you live a little bit more adventurously in everyday life. Get it every Monday, here.
4. Ask An Adventurer – how I build a career as a solo creative. Tips every couple of weeks.

Thank you so much to all of you who help support these newsletters via Patreon (either monthly or annually) and keep the metaphorical lights on and the newsletters going out to 15,000 readers.

If you enjoy this newsletter, please forward it to five friends. I’d love to find 5,000 new readers this year. If you don’t enjoy it, please click ‘reply’ and let me know how it could be better!

• In a similar spirit to the Making Space for Water campaign, MPs have said that swimming and wild camping should be a right for all people to enjoy in the English countryside.
• The London Surf Film Festival is coming soon: 6-8 November.
• Alpkit’s winter gravel bike rides are back. Good fun to join in, if you live near an Alpkit store.
• The 90-mile Bà Sportive and the Bà Mountain Duathlon – Two monster challenges that come together on Scotland’s favourite climb, the Bealach na Bà. And what’s more, the whole pass will be traffic-free, for one morning only the Bà belongs to the riders!
• Do you have an idea for an expedition that will further the understanding and exploration of the planet? If so, you might be eligible for the Royal Geographical Society’s Neville Shulman Challenge Award, which awards two annual grants of up to £10,000.
• I wrote a piece for Alpkit about my ‘World Tour of Yorkshire‘ bike ride. (If you like that you might enjoy the podcast interviews I recorded along the way.)
• Everything Kevin Kelly knows about self-publishing books.
• I’m always a sucker for maps. Here’s an interesting way to visualise the true size of different countries.
• How to Climb Everest in a Week. (Or, if I was to re-title the article: “Yuck! Yuck! Yuck!”)
• Beau Miles planted a forest four years ago. Here’s how it’s getting on.
• Expedition Planning Advice – a bucketful of blog posts.
• The Adventure Queens Grant helps three women take on their biggest, human-powered, boundary-pushing, life-changing adventure by providing funding, kit and mentoring.

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

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

Shouting from the Shed 102

• A family’s four-year circumnavigation of the world in search of adventure.
• If you’d like more stories of adventure like that, the Sidetracked newsletter is excellent.
• A Thousand Hands Ago – 10 gorgeous minutes of building a hand-made wooden kayak. Some serious skill and patience envy from me!
• A fascinating (and alarming) map showing how we use all the land on Earth.
• My friend Leon has published a book about his journey along the Tigris river through Turkey, Syria and Iraq.
• My other friend, Tem, has made a film about the battle for wild camping on Dartmoor.
• Dream Big but Start Small. I’ve written an sequence of email articles covering:
  – Dreaming of Living Adventurously
  – Dealing with the Barriers that are Stopping You
  – Beginning
  – Making Good Stuff Happen
  The Oxford Dictionary defines adventure as an ‘unusual, exciting or daring experience’, and being ‘willing to take risks or to try out new methods, ideas, or experiences’.
  Would you like to live more adventurously? I know that I certainly would. Sign up here (it’s free).
• Skiing, kayaking and cycling from the Arctic Circle to Istanbul, an incredible 5,000 mile journey.

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• Adventure in the age of lockdown: Starting from my front door I am running every street, cul de sac and dead end on a mission to go places I have never been before. It is a way to notice new and beautiful and wild things, even in the most familiar of settings. It gives my ration of exercise a sense of purpose and adventure. (Tools needed: Strava, heatflask, trainers, time.)
• A film about walking every street in New York.
• I have noticed the changing seasons more than ever this year, now that we can’t be out immersed in them. I like this piece about the Traditional Seasons and Inventive Microseasons of the World. (Turns out that Japan has 72 seasons!)
• A lot has happened in the 15,149 days since I was born. Since I’ve been cooped up time has slowed down. This collection of stats from your own life is fascinating.
• In the mood for a little cry? Leaving and Waving.
• A semi-retired piano tuner is on a mission to deliver a piano to a remote village in the heart of the Indian Himalayas.
• A good interview with David Roberts, one of my favourite climbing authors.

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

Cheers,

Alastair