The Genuinely Interested Podcast Ep 109 Nick Hunt - Walking Through Europe
Nick Hunt is a freelance writer, storyteller, author - and, is also a TEDx speaker (you can listen to him speak here). He has written 4 books, the latest being Outlandish: Walking Europe’s Unlikely Landscapes (available Oct 26 in the US). In the book, Nick takes us across landscapes that should
not be there - wildernesses found in Europe yet seemingly belonging to far-off continents - a patch of Arctic tundra in Scotland; the continent’s largest surviving remnant of primeval forest in Poland and Belarus; Europe’s only true desert in Spain; and the fathomless grassland steppes of Hungary.
In one of his earlier books, Walking the Woods and the Water: In Patrick Leigh Fermor's footsteps from the Hook of Holland to the Golden Horn, Nick details his 7-month walk from Holland all the way to Turkey. On this journey, he encountered human kindness, hospitality, and gained a new perspective on "traveling slow".
Nick and I discussed:
- Why he decided to take on this adventure
- Walking for 7 months
- How he was greeted everywhere he went
- The universal kindness of people
- What glacier funerals are
- His new upcoming book
- How he communicated with locals without knowing the language
- His Ted Talk
- The logistics of such an adventure
- The mental adjustment needed to travel "slowly"
And much more...
My Take: With everyone trying to do the fastest, the highest, the biggest, the boldest adventures, it is refreshing to hear of someone that is not in competition with anyone or trying to prove anything. Nick simply wants to experience the natural world, the people along the way, the culture, and the stories that have existed in these parts for centuries.