Adventure Ramblings #10
Our latest film festival, wild service, alpine allure, a skateboard cover up, Africa's suppressed surfing history, and an adventure podcast festival.
Greetings, fellow travellers!
It’s been a while …
After momentarily losing myself to summer (rambling, among other things), it feels good to return not only with a bumper collection of adventure sightings, but with tidings of an Adventure Uncovered film festival on 17th October, in collaboration with Blue Earth Summit. We’d love to see you there.
As ever, Adventure Ramblings is curated by Sam Firman. Spotted something worth sharing? I’d love to hear about it at sam@adventureuncovered.com.
If you enjoy these wanderings, perhaps consider forwarding them to friends with similarly exceptional taste?
Let’s ramble.
🎥 AU events
An Adventure Uncovered film night!
We’re thrilled to be teaming up once again with the folks at Blue Earth Summit for the Blue Earth Film Festival: an evening of thought-provoking, fire-stoking outdoor films and conversation. Free at 7pm on October 17th? Join us at Woolwich Works in London. Not free at 7pm on October 17th? Time to rejig the diary.
📂 AU archives
A refugee's journey from Sudan to Europe
This piece, from Edition 11, tells the story of a young man who left Sudan in 2015 in search of a better life in Europe. Written by Hannah Parry in collaboration with Abdullah (not his real name), it’s a tale of hardship, friendship, and hope – and among the most affecting stories we’ve published.
💬 Words
Wild service: a radical new relationship with nature
Wild Service, a collection of essays by Right to Roam campaigners and friends, was my favourite book of the summer. It offers a passionate, thoughtful, empowering vision for a more democratic and reciprocal culture of nature connection. I wholeheartedly recommend it to anybody wondering how normal people might help change the world.
Mountains: what’s the big zeal?
Ramble 8 featured one of my favourite reads this year: a fantastic Noema longread by Henry Wismayer on the delusions of contemporary travel. So in June I was excited to discover his latest Noema essay, on our obsession with summiting mountains.
A dissection of skate-media denial
Whether or not you’re interested in skateboarding, and whether or not you have any idea who Chris Cole is, you probably are interested in how serious allegations against sporting idols are – or are not – reported. This Substack piece by Cole Nowicki, on the serious claims against Chris Cole and how skate media has mishandled them, is testament to the importance of independent journalism – or what Nowicki calls “reporting on the margins”.
Some secrets behind Sidetracked’s success
Sidetracked is one of the most sumptuous and inspiring adventure publications of recent years, sustaining an intrepid print niche during a time of alarming journalistic erosion. In this ‘Insights’ post on Matt Barr’s Looking Sideways Substack (which you should follow), Sidetracked publisher John Summerton ponders the magazine’s continued success.
Life on the technological supercontinent
In this Dark Mountain essay, Tim Fox explores what he calls ‘anthropangaea’: the place in which “all of us now live thanks to the technological tethers that have, in effect, drawn the planet’s continents together once again.” The piece comes from Dark Mountain: Issue 25, an anthology of wonderful work around land rights. Do buy it if you can, not least as Dark Mountain is weathering a storm of grief and financial hardship.
The surprising odyssey of Stonehenge’s altar stone
It’s long been determined that many of Stonehenge’s stones likely originated in Wales. But the provenance of the altar stone, a six-tonne megalith, has been less certain – until now. Striking new research strongly suggests that the stone was somehow transported from Scotland in the Neolithic period. But how? Hannah Devlin asks the question in this Guardian piece.
Can we resuscitate urban swimming?
Urban swimming seems a crappy proposition in our sewage-infested times. But as UK river activism builds momentum, urban swimming areas are cropping up. Writing in The Conversation while Paris was cleaning up the Seine in preparation for the Olympics, Lucy Janes – whose PhD is on the history of urban swimming in Glasgow – asks what we might learn from urban swimmers of yesteryear.
🎥 Films
Blind ice climbing
Ramble 9 featured a piece about blind climber Jesse Dufton’s remarkable ascents. But it didn’t include any video. In this short film, Jesse teams up with elite mountaineer Tamara Lunger for some ice climbing – and to connect over life-changing challenges in the outdoors.
Surfing’s suppressed African roots
West Africa has a long surfing history, but it’s usually whitewashed away by mainstream narratives. Bothered by this, Black surfer and filmmaker David Mesfin decided to make a film about it. Presented by Huck Magazine and The Outsiders Project, this 18-minute preview of Wade in the Water is well worth your time.
Extreme climbing meets psychotherapy
Austrian climber Alex Luger recently completed a five-year multi-pitch project called Seventh Direction, in Switzerland’s Rätikon. This film dovetails epic sequences, world-class grunting, and reflections on the relationship between the cutting-edge project and Luger’s fledgling psychotherapy career.
Jamming with nightingales
The nightingale is one of Britain’s most melodic and beloved birds, but it may disappear from these isles within the next fifty years. In The Nightingale’s Song, folk singer and folk-song collector Sam Lee joins nightingales in spontaneous song. The film offers a portal into the possibility of a more collaborative, reciprocal, creative relationship with the rest of nature.
A psychedelic mooch
Most of what people experience as adventure bears little resemblance to swish outdoor films. But Northend, a short animated film by Una Di Gallo, is an homage to the aimless mooch. It follows two young people kicking about a post-industrial landscape one summer afternoon. It winds a weird and wonderful path from sleepy haze to psychedelic eco horror. I loved it.
🔉 Sounds
It’s that time again …
The folks at Caught by the River have released their latest spoken-word—nature-disco mix. As ever, it’s a delightful sonic journey through the borderlands where nature, poetry, and music meet. Scottish borderlands, this time, thanks to the curation of Andrew Wasylyk and Tommy Perman. Enjoy!
Junk of the new space race
As the commercial space race gathers pace, astronomers are increasingly questioning the impacts of satellite traffic. From potential collisions to unintentional geo-engineering, this Outside/In episode (a podcast I recommend keeping on your radar) launches into the arguments.
💡 Opportunities
A festival of audio adventure
Like adventure, story, and audio? Get yourself down to Tremula Festival, happening next weekend in Lewes: a weekend of talks, workshops, and live shows for outdoor storytellers and storylovers. Grab your tickets here!
🙌