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Outlandish
- Walking Europe's Unlikely Landscapes
- Narrated by: Nick Hunt
- Length: 9 hrs and 4 mins
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Outlandish
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Summary
A dazzling plunge into the four strangest landscapes scattered across Europe.
In Outlandish, acclaimed travel writer Nick Hunt 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.
From snow-capped mountain range to dense green forest, desert ravines to threadbare, yellow open grassland, these anomalies transport us to faraway regions of the world. More like pockets of Africa, Asia, the Poles or North America, they make our own continent seem larger, stranger and more filled with secrets.
Against the rapid climate breakdown of deserts, steppes and primeval jungles across the world, this book discovers the outlandish environments so much closer to home - along with their abundant wildlife: reindeer; bison; ibex; wolves; and herds of wild horses. Blending sublime travel writing, nature writing and history - by way of Paleolithic cave art, reindeer nomads, desert wanderers, shamans, Slavic forest gods, European bison, Wild West fantasists, eco-activists, horseback archers, Big Grey Men and other unlikely spirits of place - these desolate and rich environments show us that the strange has always been near.
What listeners say about Outlandish
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Paul Blakemore
- 29-04-23
Just beautiful.
This review will probably show me as Paul, but I'm not Paul, I'm Emma, and I live in the French Alps where for half of the year, there are no tourists. I love to go out into the hills on my own to have my mind blown by the very existence of the mountains and all the implications. I call it 'going to church'. I walk up to the high mountains where the altitude makes your head spin until you get used to it, to get above my life and the humans in it, to feel my connection with the world as it is and to behold the awe of the magnificent old glaciers, grinding their way through the millennia. It is bittersweet indeed to admire them and at the same time to see their sad efforts against the heat, and their drastic decline. This book, Outlandish, captures so completely that vivid sensation of proximity to something sacred when you are alone in the wild places. He does what I love to do: he just walks away from busy human complexities, to be fully immersed in the vastness of nature and exposed to the mind-boggling scale of time. I love the way he writes. You travel with him.
This book put tears in my eyes more than once, sometimes for the shared grief and disbelief at how quickly things are changing but also for the sheer and complete joy of just being in the world and being conscious of the profound wonder of that. It was a joy to hear someone articulate so many of the feelings I have when I'm out in the wilderness, small and apparently insignificant and yet intrinsically connected and a part of all things. Thank you Nick Hunt. Just beautiful.
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