A world traveler's year at home | Alastair Humphreys | TEDxReigate

After years of expeditions all over the world, adventurer Alastair Humphreys spends a year exploring the small map around his own home.

Can this unassuming landscape marked by the glow of city lights and hum of busy roads hold any surprises for the world traveller, or slake his wanderlust? Could a single map provide a lifetime of exploration?

Discovering more about nature and wildness than in all his years in remote environments, he learns the value of truly getting to know his neighbourhood.

This talk is an ode to slowing down, a celebration of curiosity and time outdoors, as well as a rallying cry to protect the wild places on our doorstep. Alastair Humphreys is a British Adventurer and Author of 15 books to date. He spent over four years cycling round the world, a journey of 46,000 miles through 60 countries and five continents.

More recently, Alastair has walked across Southern India, rowed across the Atlantic Ocean, run six marathons through the Sahara desert, completed a crossing of Iceland, busked through Spain and participated in an expedition in the Arctic, close to the magnetic North Pole. He has trekked 1000 miles across the Empty Quarter desert and 120 miles round the M25 – one of his pioneering microadventures. He was named as one of National Geographic’s Adventurers of the Year for 2012. In 2023, the Royal Geographical Society gave Alastair the Ness Award for ‘his long-standing contributions to promoting a greater understanding of our world and wider public engagement with the outdoors.’ This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at https://www.ted.com/tedx