I had an email from a reader last week:

“I like your newsletters, Al, but they’re too long!”

So here’s my latest (notoriously hopeless) attempt to keep it short and snappy…

I’m getting ready for an ‘expedition’ next week, to cycle 300 miles around the single map that I live on. It will form the conclusion of the book I’ve almost finished writing about exploring locally.

My latest children’s book was short-listed for the Stanford’s Children’s Travel Book of the Year. It didn’t win, sadly, (well done to Hannah Gold for The Lost Whale) but I was pleased to get close. If you know any primary school teachers, please do tell them about The Girl Who Rowed the Ocean.

Thank you so much to the 90 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 16,000 readers.

Here are some things I’d like to share with you today:

• Skiing, kayaking and cycling from the Arctic Circle to Istanbul, an incredible 5,000 mile journey.
• 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).

Let me know if you have a relevant project that my readers would appreciate. Here’s what you guys have been up to recently:

50 Newsletter ago…

(with horror flashbacks to lockdown!)

Here’s what I’ve got to share today:

• 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.
• Want to turn your steps into trees? Trees for Cities have a plan.
• Five exercises ideal for lockdown life.
• 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.Cheers!