Friday Detours: 3rd April 2020

3rd April 2020 | Words by Matt Jones @ WildBounds HQ


#1 Rory Southworth is bringing ‘the great outdoors’ indoors
Our favourite thing to follow this week has been former outdoor athlete – now ‘home athlete’ – Rory Southworth’s Insta feed. So far, he has run the height of Ben Nevis (1,345m) and Snowdon (1,085m) on the seven steps in his back garden, completed a half marathon via 2,546 shuttle runs from front to back door, and gone wild swimming in his bin. We particularly love the expressions on the face of his long-suffering girlfriend, who is almost always in shot – priceless.

#2 The 100 UK peaks you must climb in your lifetime
If you’re anything like us, you’ll have been feverishly planning a host of epic outdoor adventures to do as soon as all this is over. Trail magazine’s list of the 100 UK peaks all walkers should climb in their lifetime is a great place to start. They’ve been posting one a day on their Facebook page, too.

#3 Watch! Read! Listen! Learn!
Productive, educational and entertaining? Outside magazine have curated an essential list of movies, books, podcasts, online courses, and virtual tours to help you get an outdoor fix from your bed/the sofa/kitchen table (or wherever you’re currently whiling away the endless hours of lockdown).

#4 Ten great books about adventure
Meanwhile, the guys over at outdoorsmagic.com have rounded up their top ten favourite adventure reads. It’s a mixed bag that offers something for everyone, from classic tales of derring-do to gorgeous examples of new nature writing. Oh, and a couple of books about some seriously long walks.

#5 Tour the US National Parks from home
Also, this vicarious travel thing continues to blow up. First, Lonely Planet offered up their favourite travel videos from around the world (Detours, 20 March). Last week they went one better by creating virtual tours of bucket list destinations. And now, Google Earth are giving tours of 31 US National Parks. Yep, you can explore Yellowstone or Yosemite from the comfort of your living room.

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