Tag: Guest Blogs
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Walking Every National Trail in England and Wales
This time last year, a 19-year-old Abbie Barnes wrote an article for this blog declaring her ambition to walk the length of every National Trail in England and Wales. Now, a year later, she’s reporting back on how she’s get on… (Abbie won £200 from my adventure grant. You can read more about it, make…
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Nate’s Big Commute
We’ve had some big expeditions come through The Next Challenge Grant: running 5,000 miles around the coast of Great Britain and crossing Kyrgyzstan on foot to name two. But we’ve also had some smaller adventures too like cycling the Berlin Wall and up Alpe d’Huez and today we have another. Nathan Freeman’s idea was as…
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5 Nights in 5 Bothies with a 5 Year Old
Anyone who applies for The Next Challenge Grant has to summarise their idea in a single sentence. I get people to do that partly because I think it’s good practice to be get your pitch as succinct as possible. It’s also partly because it takes ages to read the hundreds of applications I get so…
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Running Across Kyrgyzstan
Grant winner Jenny Tough has recently returned from a remarkable trip: running the length of Kyrgyzstan. My first ever expedition was to Kyrgyzstan so I’ve got a soft spot for the place but even without my rose tinted memories it would be hard to conclude that running across a Central Asian mountain range was anything…
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Cycling the Berlin Wall
It barely seemed as if last year’s grant winners had finished their adventures when this year’s lot got under way. Nick and Nell, in particular, did not hang around. They set off the very morning after winning the award. Their challenge was to hire a pair of bikes and pedal them the length of the…
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Difficulty Isn’t Proportional to Distance – A 5,000 Mile Run Around the Coast of Great Britain
At the start of 2013, Elise Downing was not a runner. But a little over two years later, she was setting off to run 5,000 miles. Her remarkable run around the coast of Great Britain kept me constantly entertained, inspired and mind blown for its entire ten months’ duration. How could someone run that far?…
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Can You Help Build A Bamboo Bike?
Kate Rawles is one of the many impressive people who form The Adventure Syndicate. She cycled across the United States to engage people in climate change and is now about to take on South America with biodiversity as her theme. But first she needs a bike… [divide] Can you help build a Bamboo bike for…
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Could You Camp for 100 Nights in a Calender Year?
Last week I announced the winners of the 2016 Next Challenge Grant with a wonderful mix of ideas. But whilst I’ve been reading through this year’s applications, some of last year’s winners have been out there, in the hills, having their adventures. One such person is 23-year-old Canadian student, Carmen Braun. Her idea was as…
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Cycling Over The Alps On A Bike With No Gears
Mikey Bartley was one of the winners of The 2015 Next Challenge Grant. He is planning to cycle up a classic Tour de France mountain in the Alps, eight times in a row, on a bicycle with no gears. [divide] Climbing Alpe d’huez on a track bike: Crazy idea right? by Mikey Bartley So this…
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The Great Glen Canoe Trail: Not Recommended For Inflatable Boats
2015 Next Challenge Grant Winners Ben Smith and Judith Pope recently completed their paddle the length of the Caledonian Canal in Scotland. Here’s Jude’s account… You can apply for – and donate to – the 2016 Next Challenge Grant here. Paddling the Caledonian Canal in a Packraft Made for Two by Judith Pope In April…
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Wouldn’t It Be A Dull Life If Lived Firmly Within The Comfort Zone?
2015 grant winners Jude and Ben are about to tackle the Caledonian Canal in an inflatable boat. Here, Jude shares her dislike of water and the cold but why life would be dull if we always lived within our comfort zones. Jude and Ben’s trip is one of ten expeditions sponsored by a Next Challenge…
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For Want of a Nail on The Great Wall of China
We recently wished good luck to Richard Fairbrother, winner of a 2015 Next Challenge Grant, who set off to hike a remote stretch of the Great Wall of China in winter. He had some difficulties out there in the snow but he’s made it back to civilisation in one piece and shares his story below.…