My Midsummer Morning by Alastair Humphreys

Author:Alastair Humphreys [Alastair Humphreys]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: 2019-05-09T16:00:00+00:00

Loneliness

IN MANY WAYS I feel the sharp end of solitude more when I’m back from the wild. At home, I am a lonely writer. I work in a shed that measures five leisurely paces across, or four purposeful ones. It is my oasis and teleporter. There are pictures on the walls of rivers, mountains, stars, the sea. Stained glass on one window catches the early sunlight; it shows the waterfall where we used to swim in my Yorkshire childhood. I have pinned a big world map to the ceiling, alongside the Born to Run LP sleeve and photographs of the James Caird and Scott at the South Pole. Ordnance Survey maps paper one wall and all the bookshelves. I have a globe, a Red Ensign I picked up when running on a North Sea beach, and number plates from Iceland and Arabia. There are rows of travel books, the dregs of a whisky bottle or two, a pile of old National Geographics and an untidy overspill of books on the floor, among rugs from Iraq and Afghanistan. On my desk is a framed relief map of Suilven – my favourite mountain – a few conkers, a pendant of turned cedar from Paris, driftwood from Canada and the Caribbean, stones picked up on my travels and a 90-year-old penny I found in a local stream.

I pass most of my working days in this shed, drinking tea and listening to the radio. It is where I am writing these words. I spend a lot of time by myself and am often lonely. I have no local social life. I don’t drop into the pub or have any training buddies. I don’t have friends who pop round unannounced to talk of mad ideas or lend me a book.

When I plan journeys, it is the prospect of empty landscapes that appeals most. Yet when I return from an adventure, it is the human interactions that linger in the memory. I relished the isolation of crossing Iceland but preferred how much my friend and I laughed together out there. I walked solo through India but was never far from a friendly cup of chai and a chat about cricket. Rowing the Atlantic with three companions, inching across a month-and-a-half of emptiness, forged friends for life.

Since arriving in Spain, conversations had flavoured every day. Fragments of interaction, a few words, even a smile: this walk was more sociable than anything else I have done. Its success depended on my engaging with people and getting a response to my music. I needed to trust the goodwill of entire towns without knowing anyone there.

Chance meetings are one of the great joys of travel. From my experience around the world, I was confident that nearly everyone I encountered would be kind. In addition, undertaking something unusual and challenging made it more likely that people would respond with enthusiasm. This trust freed me to head into the unknown – as Laurie put it – ‘still soft at the edges, but with a confident belief in good fortune’.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.