Into The Wild: Does Wilderness Work?
November 15, 2010 by Emily Dodd This is the story of my journey into the wild.
I wanted to podcast live from the wilderness and tweet my progress to avid fans.
But the wilderness lacked mobile reception and I lacked avid fans. Besides, it's recommended you leave your connection to the outside world behind, if you mean to truly enter a wilderness.
Last month The National Trust announced Britons were terrified of nature as they launched the Outdoor Nation initiative to address this issue and reconnect the UK to the great outdoors. At the same time the WWF Natural Change Project placed a group of highly influential people from the education sector into Scotland’s Premiere Wilderness, Knoydart. It seems we’re looking outdoors to solve the worlds problems, but can wilderness work wonders?
Is the Sirius Environmental Leadership Scholarship a green and earthy club 18/30 or can an immersion into wilderness foster a connection that inspires and empowers us to ‘be the change’ our world needs?
Journey with me into the wild with me and my mobile phone to find out…..
DAY 1-4: Excited Packing
I packed early. I blame the kit list. Exciting adventures have exciting kit lists, so I got excited. My kit was a little unconventional. Spotty, stripy and uncoordinated. But the wilderness is not a fashion parade.
I recorded my first audio, an introduction to the journey (and a test to see if my android voice app worked):
I think I’m going to Rannoch Moor, the last wilderness in Scotland. It turns out I’m actually going to Glen Finnan, the second to last wilderness in Scotland.
Here are the things I thought I’d miss most. Shoes represent looking nice and the mattress is memory foam.
Day 1: Arrival, the 'River of Life' and Why I Love John Muir
We meet and wander down to Loch Sheil. We hold a piece of red string in a circle and cut a piece each. We keep it with us to remind us we're all connected.
I record an audio as we begin planning for our first exercise, sharing our river of life story. I'm nervous about the exercise and disclosing personal details to complete strangers:
At the end of the first day I record an audio out on the sleeper train terrace, overlooking the misty mountains. I reflect on how much I enjoyed the river of life exercise with a wee dram. I'm reminded of John Muir as I look at the stars. "How hard to realize that every camp of men or beast has this glorious starry firmament for a roof!":
John Muir spent so long in the wilderness his journals were as poetic and beautiful as the wilderness itself. Born in Dunbar, John established the first National Park and pioneered the modern conservation movement.
It seems his connection with nature did change the world.
Day 2: Canoeing, Camping and Solo
We take to the water, this audio is straight from the canoe and includes a fasinating fact about the oak tree:
I record a quick audio after our lesson on toileting-without-a-trace. Contrary to popular belief, I am not digging a hole in this audio, I'm walking on gravel:
What happens on a solo wilderness period, why do we leave the tippee in silence and how do we feedback on each others experience? I hear the story of a woman who:
My time in the wilderness inspired me to write a children's story, all about being yourself. I was brave enough to share this with the group and even sing, here it is for you too, The Little Oak Tree:
Day 3: Wet and Wild in the Wildnerness
We paddle in the rain, set up camp in the rain, I'm cold, wet and fed up. But what does Ecopsychology have to say about the nature of our nature in nature?:
Later, after a meal I feel much better. But it's so windy, THE TIPEE BLOWS OVER half way through this audio interview with Anita Sharkey and Suleman Limbada:
Later that night every peg is pulled out of our tent by the wind, I wave my head torch on it's red light setting and shout for help. George comes to the rescue and re-pegs our entire tent with branches. We love George.
Its so loud we can't sleep. I try singing and it somehow works, the storm calms. I stop and the storm is back within a few seconds. We laugh together and decide I best keep singing. As I start the storm calms once more. I think of John Muir tied to a tree in the storm, as I continue to sing "he is jealous for me, loves like a hurricane, I am a tree". I sing a good twenty songs and we all fall to sleep in peace.
Day 4: Rafting out a Storm
Now it gets exciting, it looks like it's too dangerous for us to canoe out of our beach so we may need to chop down a tree and make a raft! I speak to our leader Craig Tweedie to get a better assesment of the present situation:
So our raft is ready, we're going to get cold so we need to wear as many layers as possible, I'm quite proud of the number of layers I'm wearing and tell you about every one after letting you know we're rafting out of here:
We survived! The waves crashed over the boat, see in the slide show above, the fear on all faces but mine. I'm smiling and taking photographs. It was exciting. But then I realised people were shouting at me to bail out the water, whoops! I made up for this later by providing everyone with caramel rockies and sips of whisky.
We make a sail from a ground sheet and blow back to our first camping spot. I'm cooking as I record this audio. I'm so happy we survived, we've bonded through adversity, there's euphoria in the air:
Day 5: Goodbye to the Wild
We pack up our tents one last time. We've find a moth that looks just like driftwood. It's extraordinary. As John Muir said “When we try to pick out anything by itself, we find it hitched to everything else in the Universe.”
I say goodbye to the wilderness and reaslie I'm at home. I've learnt to wash-up with gravel, drink from the lock and toilet without a trace. I'm at peace and I'm sad to say goodbye:
Later that day we write action plans and have one-on-one coaching sessions. My coach is brilliant. We write letters to ourselves to remind us of the plans we've made to make a difference. I want to go back, I want to take action, but I'm sorry to leave.
Day 6: The Journey Home
We wave the Londoners goodbye on the Glenfinnan Station. We hug our Wilderness Scotland Guides. I feel loss.
We drive back to Edinburgh. I wash piles of clothes but I keep one top from the wash, the smell of wood smoke and the memories it holds are too dear to me to wash away just yet.
Cars are louder, streets are busier. Building are hard and intimidating. Something is wrong.
When you live with it, it’s hard to see. Like a train, when you’re in it, it seems normal. People are sleeping, eating, on their mobiles, enjoying a chat, a beer, watching DVD’s on laptops, listening to ipods, reading. But look out of the train, dare to leave the train and then you see it’s moving fast, maybe too fast. And once you’ve been away, you don’t want to get back on the train. The irony is I’m writing this now on a train, I’m one of the busy I speak of, what time have I to stop and stare?
And that's where wilderness does make a difference. You have freedom to stop, time to think, space to connect. You connect and you care. You see what's really important. And what isn't.
My Fellow Adventurers
John Muir said “One touch of nature ... makes all the world kin.”
I've realised the journey I took was shared with some wonderful people and I wanted to make my last audio a tribute to them all. My last 3 audios are all about them, my kin, I appreciate you:
Thank you for sharing my journey. I hope you will go outside. I hope you will be the change you want to see in your life. I hope you will contemplate the fragility of the great and wondrous dew drop we call home and I hope you will care.
“When we contemplate the whole globe as one great dewdrop, striped and dotted with islands and continents, flying through space with all the other stars, all singing and shining together as one, the whole Universe appears as an infinite storm of beauty. This grand show is eternal. It is always sunrise somewhere. The dew is never dried all at once. A shower is forever falling; Vapour forever rising. Eternal sunrise, Eternal sunset, Eternal dawn and gloaming, on sea and continents and islands, each in its turn as the round Earth rolls. ”
John Muir
UPDATE: This journey is featured on the Wilderness Foundation UK website and the Edinburgh Guardian here and here.
Special thanks to Greener Leith, Changeworks, The Wilderness Foundation and The Tellus Mater Foundation for funding my wilderness journey.
Reader Comments (9)
Also interesting to read the quotes. John Muir has many wise words about such places and experiences, as you know. I always find him an intriguing character, perhaps more pioneering N. American than Scot, for all that he held on to his accent through life. Maybe he shows what more Scots/Brits could be if they opened up to nature in different ways. But then again, I don't think he should be linked to any particular race or background.
we can feel, smell, touch and see newness wherever we are, be this in a city, street, bike,park, pool, beach, hillside, forest, office. All we need to remember is to engage with our surroundings and take care in our path through.
Being in the wildnerness allows you to escape, get back to basics and be honest with yourself.
But the significance of my journey was sharing it with Emily- the smile, the music, the woolly hats, the gentle tone, the comforting laugh, the tasty treats and the green heart.
If you can, go into the wild.
There is rapture on the loanly shores,
There is society where no-one intrudes,
By deepest see ,
and music in its roar,
I love not man the most,
But nature more,
Congratulations for getting out there Into the Wild - if more people had the sense to do this type of thing the world would be a far better place.
To keep it short I'll just say that I agree whole-heartedly with everything above, from the ethos of the trip, to the John Muir quotes, to the importance of the wild and the effect it can have on those who open themselves up to it. For me, it was the John Muir Trail (through the Sierra Nevada, California) which gave me my first real taste of the Wild - I did it over about three weeks in 2009, and can safely say I haven't been the same since. To those of you thinking of doing something similar: It's so easy to put this type of thing off for a while, or to find some excuse not to do it - it's what most people spend their entire lives doing. Stop thinking and just do it. You won't regret it.
I'd love to do the Sierra Nevada, what an awesome experience. I have John's book 'My first Summer in the Sierra'. Did you write a blog? Did you take the book with you on the trip?
I was back in a tepee for the first time last weekend at Glen Strae (see http://www.flickr.com/photos/auntyemily/5545090432/ ) It had me thinking back to the wilderness trip so it was good to see your comment upon my return.
Emily