Earlier in the year our Patreon supporters decided that the theme of this Edition (slightly delayed to make space for our special Edition: Ride the Change - Cycle to COP 26) would be Slowing Down. It’s a fitting theme, after a year of confinement and reflection, about so much more than moving slowly. And as expected, our contributors’ many interpretations have delighted and provoked.

Physical slowness is one form of slowness, but it attunes us to others. Adam Weymouth explores this idea in a meditation on the significance of pilgrimage in times of social change. Annie Voigt, more accustomed to adventuring quickly, introduces us to the gentle art of swimpacking. And we speak again to travel writer Nick Hunt about his latest book, Outlandish - a peripatetic investigation of four unlikely European landscapes and their glacial geographic and cultural undercurrents.

Photo: Annie Voigt (Annie Voigt's piece)

Photo at the top of the page: Kashif Afridi, Unsplash (Anam Hussain's piece)

Averting environmental catastrophe will require slowness. Slowness means burning less, noticing more and cultivating care. John P. Milton knows this more than most. He is a revered elder of the environmental movement, and one of the world’s leading practitioners of the contemporary vision quest: a ceremony of still, solitary communion with nature rooted in various indigenous cultures. Could it change us?

Other forms of environmental communion have more recent roots. Writer and campaigner Nick Rosen is an expert on off-grid culture and told us why the off-grid movement is about so much more than quiet escapism. More recently, Covid has forced new forms of communion. Poet Rob Cowen’s The Heeding - excerpted alongside a short interview - wonderfully captures this seemingly mundane but potentially profound cultural shift.

Slow adventure can provide the space to meet personal and political challenges, too. Simon Baxter’s photography is the astonishing result of a patient, life-changing relationship with local, typically overlooked woodland. It was a joy to speak with him about his work.

Photo: Simon Baxter (Simon Baxter interview)

Anam Hussain, a British-Pakistani journalist, is using slow adventure, and slow journalism, to creatively challenge violent stereotypes of Pakistan through an important new magazine. And Slow Ways’ fantastic work nation-sourcing a network of slow pathways criss-crossing the UK is a different challenge to the culture of speed. We caught up with Daniel Raven-Ellison about the journey so far. 

Photo: National Parks Service and public domain (Ashli Blow's piece)

Slowness isn’t always good, of course. Although prevailing adventure culture is characterised by speed, like most cultures it can be slow to shift. This is perhaps the central theme in contemporary adventure storytelling. Ashli Blow tells it through the life of Alma Wagen, a formidable mountaineer who in 1923 became the first woman mountain guide at Mount Rainier National Park.

We could have filled this Edition ten times over. In homage to everything we don’t have space to cover, we close this Edition with a list of eleven incredibly thought-provoking perspectives on slow adventure. This piece will remain a Patreon-only piece. We hope you will consider supporting us so we can sustain and improve our storytelling at the intersection of adventure and social and environmental change.

We wish you a slow, adventurous festive season. See you on the other side!

The Adventure Uncovered Team