Edition 01 — June 2020
UK, Uncovered
Welcome
Welcome to the first ever Adventure Uncovered Edition!
Each monthly Edition will be a themed collection of adventure storytelling - interviews, articles, longform features, films, photography, curated lists, how-to guides and more - designed to inspire you to live adventurously and build a better society. Discover more about our thinking behind Editions here.
Recent UK life has been… lively. From the frying pan into the fire, so to speak, it has taken a global pandemic to (partially) eclipse the bitterness of Brexit and the 2019 general election. But the social inequalities underpinning these issues persist, just as surely as the storm clouds of the climate emergency gather overhead. Bad weather, us Brits might say.
Neist Point Lighthouse, Glendale, United Kingdom // Photo: Mike Smith
Why does adventure matter right now?
For one, adventure is an antidote. Physical journeys and lockdown dreams alike give us space to escape, feel joy and revitalise. It is important, in good times and bad, that we celebrate what we love in life.
A taste of what’s in store for this Edition
We collaborated with artist Bryony Benge-Abbott and you, our community, on the UK Adventure, Uncovered Map: an evolving, crowdsourced patchwork of UK adventure hot spots. Bryony kickstarts this Edition by explaining how she created the map, and Adventure Uncovered's family and friends give the lowdown on some of their most treasured local playgrounds.
But adventure can help us respond to things happening in the world, not just escape them. Which begs the question: Is adventure redundant amidst global lockdown? Artist Jennie Savage tells us how getting lost and other psychogeographic methods allow us to experience familiar places anew.
Rosie is quietly optimistic on the future of cycling in the UK and asks if we'll see a nation of independent bicycle travellers emerge post-COVID.
Either way, one thing is clear: local is no less magical. This is the message of Jini Reddy’s new book Wanderland, which charts her search for the Other in Britain’s landscapes. We talked with Jini about the book and her experience as a female Asian travel writer.
Campaigner, academic and hillwalker Maxwell Ayamba questions the inclusivity of adventure this month, in an extremely timely piece on why and how we must increase black and minority ethnic (BAME) participation.
We love adventures that creatively and even literally explore social issues. When British and Polish photographer Michal Iwanowski was confronted with xenophobic graffiti and the Brexit debate, he did what only a person worth talking to would and walked from Wales to Poland armed with a camera and wicked sense of humour.
These pieces are but opening words in a series of big, overlapping conversations. Home seemed an apt place to start, during this great pause, but as all adventurers know: home is not all there is.
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This month we start from home, in Adventure Uncovered's birthplace: the UK. It all started with a map: an evolving, crowdsourced patchwork of UK adventure hot spots.
Read all of Edition 1 below...
Explore more
Bryony Benge-Abbott
Bryony Benge-Abbott is a visual artist, curator and designer who founded Bryony&Bloom in 2013. She grounds her work in ecological and botanical research, referencing tangible and intangible heritage, and works spatially to create immersive narratives. Her paintings fuse myth, memory and maps, playing with colour, pattern and scale to offer fresh perspectives on human connections to one another and the environment, in terms of both space and time. In 2019 she was named as one of the Mayor of London's 'Hidden Credits' as part of International Women's Day.
Maxwell Ayamba
Maxwell is a qualified Environmental journalist and academic having published books chapters, papers and journals in relation to Black & Minority Ethnic Communities and the environment in the UK. He was one of two part-time project managers to set up the Sheffield Black & Ethnic Minority Environmental Network (SHEBEEN) in 2003. He works to promote access to and participation in the British countryside and open green spaces to people from BME communities.
Jini Reddy
Jini Reddy is a travel writer and journalist. Her second book, Wanderland, charts her search for the magical, unorthodox and Other in the British landscape. It recently made her the first writer of colour to be longlisted for the Wainwright Prize. Her first book, Wild Times, showcased extraordinary experiences connecting with nature around Britain, and won the book prize at the 2017 British Guild of Travel Writers Awards. In 2019 Jini was named one of National Geographic’s Women of Impact.
Charlotte Raffo
Charlotte is a brand strategist, copywriter and the founder of This Way - a brand consultancy that works with environmentally conscious, outdoor entrepreneurs to support, guide and clarify their path to success. When she's not building brands, you'll find her fully immersed in water of all kinds… open, cold, fresh and salty.
Michal Iwanowski
Michal Iwanowski is a documentary photographer. He grew up in Poland but has been working and living in Wales since 2001. In 2018, for Go Home Polish, he walked 1900km from his flat in Wales to his mother’s village in Poland, exploring what it means to be at home in response to the Brexit debate and some xenophobic graffiti he had seen in Wales. He is on Instagram @michaliwanowski.
Jennie Savage
Jennie Savage is a public artist and curator who seeks to transform people’s perception of place. Her work takes many forms, from the personal to the political. Her projects include maps, audio walks, a bus tour, public interventions, a radio station, a cinema for the sea, publications, films and other online works.
Joe Reid
Joe has been pedalling around Europe since 2011 when he quit his job as a charity fundraiser to cycle to Cape Town on his own adventure into alternative living. He's now well experienced in starting up and running grassroots environmental initiatives. He's a lanky bean at 6'3 but those long limbs have powered him through ultra marathons, Iron Mans & cross continental bike rides.
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