Very High
1 Iceland 🇮🇸
2 New Zealand 🇳🇿
3 Denmark 🇩🇰
4 Portugal 🇵🇹
5 Slovenia 🇸🇮
6 Austria 🇦🇹
7 Switzerland 🇨🇭
8 Ireland 🇮🇪
9 Czechia 🇨🇿
10 Canada 🇨🇦
11 Singapore 🇸🇬
12 Japan 🇯🇵
13 Finland 🇫🇮
14 Norway 🇳🇴
Category: United Kingdom (UK) 🇬🇧 (Page 1 of 3)
James Gingell (via The Guardian)
As a government civil servant, James Gingell was burnt out from working on Brexit and Covid. Trekking the length of Britain, from Land’s End to John o’Groats, was the change he needed.
James Gingell, via The Guardian »
Walking Land’s End to John o’Groats wasn’t the original plan. All I wanted was freedom. I had worked as a civil servant for three years, first in central government as the country grappled with Brexit, then, after the pandemic hit, on the Covid response. Through the tumult, my colleagues were pleasant and supportive, and the material circumstances of my life did not change. When I took a burnout questionnaire, though, I ticked every box: tiredness, torpor, tetchiness. I’m normally a silly person. But I wasn’t smiling much. I’m normally a creative person. But nothing was happening in my brain. I felt bleached.
…
All I wanted was to be free, of emails and objectives and obligations which could only disappoint, of defined, quantifiable purpose. I wanted to luxuriate in pure freedom, to walk in a wild, blank void. If our culture of metrics and targets and progress were more receptive to the idea of pointlessness as a point, I might instead have quoted another naturalist, Henry David Thoreau. He wrote that creative thoughts are like birds, coming to us only if they have branches to settle. “If the grove in our minds is laid waste – sold to feed unnecessary fires of ambition – they no longer build or breed with us.” I needed to do nothing but walk and wallow in swamp and marrow for the trees to heal, for the birds to come back. The walk was more to do with that.
Resources mentioned in this article »
How do you choose your next adventure when there are so many options available?
Wizarding up ideas for adventures is one of my favourite things to do. I find it enjoyable, exciting, but also easy. If I was a specialist I would need to search for something higher, harder and faster within my niche every time I wanted a new challenge. But because I am a generalist, I make the next adventure more challenging by making it differently challenging to previous projects. It is an important part of keeping adventure fresh for me.
I am surprised how often people tell me that they really want to do an adventure but don’t know what to do. Hopefully this walk-through of the way I come up with ideas might get your own adventure cogs whirring…
- Cycling round the world
- The Marathon des Sables
- The South Pole
- The Arctic Ocean
- Iceland
- Rowing the Atlantic
- …
It has taken four winters so far, but wild beauty, nature and the kindness of strangers en route make this slow journey more than worthwhile.
Frances Mills, writing in The Guardian »
I hope to return to the trails soon: I have 2,000-odd miles still to go around Scotland, on the most isolated and challenging terrain. When the storms broke my tent by snapping its poles, as happened during Storm Fionn in January 2018, I was pretty annoyed. Not annoyed enough for it to get in the way of sleep, though. Sure that nothing too important had blown across the field, I stubbornly wrapped my crumpled tent around me and drifted off. It would take a week to get my tent repaired and in the meantime a few friends of friends reached out and offered me a tent to borrow, a couch to sleep on and a chance to stay in a community-owned bright blue converted bus that was parked in the chalk hills of the South Down national park. Before the day was out, I was sitting round a campfire chatting to new friends, something I would have missed had my tent been in one piece.
Laura Owen Sanderson is a cold water swimmer in the U.K. After a life changing medical event she decided to reroute her life and to ‘live with purpose’ and founded We Swim Wild, to help “protect wild waters through adventure, education, campaigning, and scientific research.”
Laura Owen Sanderson »
I wasn’t afraid to die. I was more afraid, or angry if you’d like, that I hadn’t lived, that I hadn’t made the most of every opportunity. So I was waiting for a day that might never come — when you retire or when you’re thin enough or when the kids have grown up — and there was a sudden realisation that that day might never come.
via Vimeo »
Hydrotherapy is a story of adaptation, strength & rewilding set in the raw and beautiful landscapes of Snowdonia National park. Laura has not only overcome a life changing illness through wild swimming, but has also found a greater connection to the natural world. This has ignited her mission to make a stand for the natural environment, and protect wild waters and wild spaces across the UK.
A full length (1h:10m) documentary video of a four-month motorcycle adventure from London, UK to Sydney, Australia, taken by two friends — David Darcy and Darren Higginson — back in 2012.
UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization) on July 10, 2020 at it’s meeting in Paris, designated 15 new Geoparks. There are now 162 designated sites across 44 countries.
UNESCO said »
These sites of exceptional geological and cultural significance showcase the beauty and diversity of planet Earth. Today 162 sites across the world document our planet’s evolution over 4.6 billion years, unlocking our history preserved in the rock record to learn from the past and support local communities.
- Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark in Nova Scotia, Canada (Twitter)
- Discovery UNESCO Global Geopark, Bonavista Peninsula in Newfoundland and Labrador (Twitter)
- Xiangxi UNESCO Global Geopark, in Hunan Province, China
- Zhangye UNESCO Global Geopark, in Zhangye City, Gansu Province, China
- Lauhanvuori-Hämeenkangas UNESCO Global Geopark in Finland (Twitter)
- Toba Caldera UNESCO Global Geopark, on Sumatra Island, Indonesia
- Rio Coco UNESCO Global Geopark, in Nicaragua
- Estrela UNESCO Global Geopark, in Portugal (Twitter)
- Hantangang UNESCO Global Geopark, in Korea
- Yangan-Tau UNESCO Global Geopark, in Republic of Bashkortostan, Russian Federation
- Djerdap UNESCO Global Geopark, in Serbia
- Granada UNESCO Global Geopark, in Spain (Twitter)
- Maestrazgo UNESCO Global Geopark, in Spain
- The Black Country UNESCO Global Geopark, in England, UK (Twitter)
- Dak Nong UNESCO Global Geopark, in Dak Nong Province, Viet Nam
- Kula-Salihli UNESCO Global Geopark, in the Aegean Region of Turkey (Twitter)
More » UNESCO
More » Wikipedia entry for UNESCO Global Geoparks
For Switzerland, the 2020 ranking is the the fourth consecutive yearhas been judged No. 1 by residents of 36 countries. Canada was chosen second, overtaking Japan in the U.S. News’ fifth annual survey.
The Best Countries report, produced from an annual global survey of more than 20,000 people in 36 countries including the United States, reflects increasingly negative views of the world and within countries. Nearly half of survey respondents say conditions around the world have worsened in the past year. Likewise, an increased percentage of people say the gap between the rich and poor has grown and that nationalism is increasing.
According to the ranking, here are the Top 25 Countries in the World
- Switzerland
- Canada
- Japan
- Germany
- Australia
- United Kingdom
- United States
- Sweden
- Netherlands
- Norway
- New Zealand
- France
- Denmark
- Finland
- China
- Singapore
- Italy
- Austria
- Spain
- South Korea
- Luxembourg
- United Arab Emirates
- Russia
- Portugal
- India
The Bottom 5 of the U.S. News 2020 Best Countries rankings are
- Lebanon
- Serbia
- Oman
- Belarus
- Tunisia
The LGBTQ+ Danger Index lists the 25 safest countries for LGBTQ+ travellers »
1. 🇸🇪 Sweden
2. 🇨🇦 Canada
3. 🇳🇴 Norway
4. 🇵🇹 Portugal
5. 🇧🇪 Belgium
6. 🇬🇧 United Kingdom
7. 🇫🇮 Finland
8. 🇫🇷 France
9. 🇮🇸 Iceland
10. 🇪🇸 Spain
11. 🇲🇹 Malta
12. 🇳🇿 New Zealand
13. 🇳🇱 Netherlands
14. 🇩🇰 Denmark
15. 🇿🇦 South Africa
16. 🇮🇪 Ireland
17. 🇦🇺 Australia
18. 🇺🇾 Uruguay
19. 🇨🇴 Colombia
20. 🇦🇹 Austria
21. 🇩🇪 Germany
22. 🇸🇮 Slovenia
23. 🇱🇺 Luxembourg
24. 🇺🇸 United States
25. 🇬🇺 Guam
Antonia Wilson, writing in the Guardian »
Sweden has been named the most LGBT-friendly country in the world for travellers according to new research into gay rights in 150 countries.
The LGBTQ+ Danger Index was created by ranking the 150 most-visited countries using eight factors, including legalised same-sex marriage, worker protection and whether, based on Gallup poll findings, it is a good place to live.
Canada ranked second-safest, followed by Norway, Portugal and Belgium. The UK is sixth safest on the list, but the US does not make the top 20. The researchers, American couple Asher and Lyric Fergusson, who blog about staying safe while travelling, said one reason the US is only at number 24 is because gay rights vary from state to state.
Euan McKirdy and Maureen O’Hare at CNN write »
Japan and Singapore have held onto their position as the world’s most travel-friendly passports.
That’s the view of the Henley Passport Index, which periodically measures the access each country’s travel document affords.
Singapore and Japan’s passports have topped the rankings thanks to both documents offering access to 190 countries each.
South Korea rubs shoulders with Finland and Germany in second place, with citizens of all three countries able to access 188 jurisdictions around the world without a prior visa.
Finland has benefited from recent changes to Pakistan‘s formerly highly restrictive visa policy. Pakistan now offers an ETA (Electronic Travel Authority) to citizens of 50 countries, including Finland, Japan, Spain, Malta, Switzerland and the United Arab Emirates — but not, notably, the United States or the UK.
Read more of this article at CNN »
The best passports in 2019 are:
1. Japan, Singapore (190 destinations)
2. Finland, Germany, South Korea (188)
3. Denmark, Italy, Luxembourg (187)
4. France, Spain, Sweden (186)
5. Austria, Netherlands, Portugal (185)
6. Belgium, Canada, Greece, Ireland, Norway, United Kingdom, United States, Switzerland (184)
7. Malta, Czech Republic (183)
8. New Zealand (182)
9. Australia, Lithuania, Slovakia (181)
10. Hungary, Iceland, Latvia, Slovenia (180)
More at the Henley Passport Index
Notes
» Canada has been ranked 6th four years in a row. They were ranked 2nd in 2014, then dropped to 4th in 2015, and have been holding steady in 6th since 2016.
» The USA been on a steady decline since 2014 when they were ranked 1st. They dropped to 2nd in 2015, 4th in 2016, 5th in 2017 and 2018, and to 6th this year.
» The UK has been on a steady decline in the rankings, dropping from 1st in 2015, to 3rd in 2016, to 4th in 2017, to 5th in 2018, to 6th this year.