Welcome to my blog, the outdoor diary of someone who prefers to feel the earth beneath his feet. It’s what I am passionate about, it’s what I live for: to feel the earth beneath my feet. Not pavement, not concrete and especially not carpet, but the wild earth in its many natural forms.
I have written two books about this passion: The Earth Beneath My Feet (published June 1, 2021) and On Sacred Ground (published October 1, 2022). The books take readers on a 7,000-mile wilderness walk into the heart of wild nature, and the purpose of this blog is to add extra background to the books. But it is also to share and celebrate the wild, and perhaps even to inspire. From engaging deeply with nature I’ve received extraordinary rewards, and if this blog can lead even one other person towards those rewards then it will have served its purpose.
Many of my wilderness journeys take place alone, but through this blog I hope you’ll tag along and share the miles with me. Thanks for stopping by!
And for further details on the book, select the BOOKS page in the menu above.
I’VE BEEN THINKING. I’ve been thinking that I can do a lot better. For me, the formation of our beliefs and values, and through them our behaviour and choices (and through these the lives we live, and especially how we treat other people), has long been a fascinating topic. Or, to put it simply: why
NOT THAT MANY years ago, I was a runner. What I mean is: running was a significant part of my daily life. ‘Runner’ was a significant part of how I saw myself. Back in my late thirties and right through my forties I ran pretty much every day, and I ran with real purpose, not
IT HAS BEEN an ‘interesting’ year so far – on the global front clearly not interesting in a good way. A lot of what I see and hear on the news, on social media and out in the ‘real world’ has me scratching my head in utter disbelief, wondering if I have somehow fallen into
I MIGHT OCCASSIONALLY blog about more than nature this year. I’m starting to feel that it’s the right thing to do… even though doing it, being more open about other subjects – especially politics – could well be a poor ‘career’ move, could lose me readers and book sales, and could even damage a few
THERE WAS A time early in my adult life when I felt cut off from who I knew myself to be. Fate… circumstance… cultural expectations… supposed financial realities… the strident conformist opinions of key ‘guides’ in my life… all of these factors (and more) contrived to keep me living a life that felt to me
2024 FINISHED WITH two camps, one in the foothills, one up in the high country. They weren’t many miles apart in distance, but in character they belonged to different worlds entirely. I’ll be honest, both camps almost didn’t happen. Before deciding to go on each, before packing, I found myself struggling with motivation, which is