Small Feet, Big Mountains.
words by Laurence Ward
This is the story of our Purposeful Adventure family holiday in the Highlands of Scotland.
We didn't set out to change the world, we just went for a walk.
The thing about a purposeful adventure, you don't need a grand plan, just the ability to look a little closer at the ground beneath your feet, and the world above it and you’ll be amazed at what you see when you really look around.
Why adventure in the first place?
'Why' means many different things to people from all walks of life. Why bother, why care, why does it matter, why am I enjoying this so much, why can’t we do this all the time? Each individual answer has a personal resonation of why.
For me the ‘why’ I love a purposeful adventure is to help shape the minds of tomorrow. As I sit here writing this my eldest child recently received their exam results and the youngest just started school, neither with an idea of where the future will take them but knowing that keeping the adventure in mind will guide the way of whatever path lies ahead.
So I choose my ‘why’ to show them everything the outdoors can give when you really look and listen so they don’t take it for granted. Whether that is singing a daft song whilst walking through the woods or counting how many pine cones we spot on our walk (lots for those interested, we need separate counters for SUP & pine cones). As a side note did you know that pine cones can forecast the weather…it’s true, look it up!
I was fortunate to grow up with parents with outdoor past times and this is something so important to pass on to the next generation to take hold of the torch and keep that fire burning for all to see and protect those wild places we love now for future generations to enjoy as we have and do today.
The difference of scale
So back to the day in hand… as we walked along the roadside path in Glen Nevis the eco chat had already started. (Proud Dad moment, it wasn't instigated by me but the tiny crew). The chat of why we pick up litter when we can, why plastic doesn’t disappear in the natural
environment and ultimately why we need to keep the burn (stream for those not in Scotland) we were walking next to, clean for the local wildlife.
Now a reminder that the world looks different at three feet tall…
One of my favourite moments of the day came when the youngest of the clan ducked to get under a clump of ferns that barely reached my waist. Watching him disappear beneath them while the rest of us stood staring up at Ben Nevis in the distance was a proper reminder of how differently a landscape appears depending on your size. To him, the ferns were a forest. To us, Nevis was the whole horizon. Same walk, two completely different scales of wonder each with their own sense of adventure of the day.
A little further on we found tiny frogs hopping along the path edge, small enough to miss if you weren't looking, but impossible to ignore once you'd spotted the first one. That's something I try to remind myself regularly, slow down enough to notice the small things around you.
You're never too far from adventure
Keeping the tiny crew motivated took some ingenuity and plenty of snacks, on this occasion we used a clicker counter to record every piece of SUP we spotted which gamified it for the young crew whilst providing data for the adults on our purposeful adventure to submit to the Trash Free Trails, State of Our Trails Report.
What we found by the end of the walk, the clicker read 30 items of SUP and far too many pine cones to count (next time take more than once counter, lesson learned!) On this occasion we used the TFT “Trash Count” method of recording SUP. Tissues, forestry works tape, and oddly, one lone energy gel wrapper, definitely dropped by someone moving a lot faster than we were.
To close off, the smaller you are the bigger the challenge but the bigger the impact and enjoyment of a purposeful adventure, but remember you’re never too far from an adventure if you look…
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