Micro Adventures – Straight Out Your Front Door
Photographs and Text By Chris Morris
Published on 29th October, 2020
The View of Ashton Court Deer Enclosure
The hint of a summer holiday has seems to have come and gone, autumn rears is auburn head and winter begins to creep in. I missed my yearly dose of cheap alcohol, European accents and sweltering beaches, but I think I found a nice alternative.
These days the word “home” has taken on new meaning, for many home is now synonymous with office. Perhaps the place that has been home for the last few months, hasn’t been “home” in one sense or another for a long time.
In my case both were true, heading back to my parents house in Portishead (just outside of Bristol) and that place becoming my home office. It was a chance to rediscover what a place that had been “home” for so many years, feels like now.
In many ways it was a great experience (I’d forgotten the magic cupboards and fridge that refill periodically throughout the week) but in some ways it was difficult. I missed the sense of independence I had achieved over the past few years. Aside from that, a single location being my office, gym, pub, etc. was a surprisingly tricky world to inhabit.
And so in an attempt to regain some independence, and remove some of the weight from my brain that had been my first year PhD review, I decided to go for a little adventure straight out of my front door. I decided I’d walk to Ashton court (possibly Bristol’s most glorious park) and back, roughly a 15 mile round trip.
I went on my own and carried everything I needed for the few days of walking I’d be doing. Even this was its own little adventure, working out how to dehydrate chilli to save on weight, marking the locations of streams where I could refill my water (after sterilising with chlorine tabs!).
A strange squirrel taxidermy near a country house
A tree that reminds me of the" “Mad Dummy” from Undertale
I decided to not use any technology other than a map and compass and judge the time only from the sun. This aspect certainly isn’t required for your own micro adventure but adds a nice digital detox aspect to the experience.
The result was a strange feeling, waking at sunrise and sleeping at sunset, having no clock to slice up the day. Time seemed to stretch out in a slow relaxing way, it reminded me intensely of the feeling I had as a kid during those long blissful summers. The feelings of stress and anxiety that had run through me in the previous weeks before my trip had never felt further away.
On my first night camping I was treated to a glorious sunset and though it might seem like I’m exaggerating for a literary effect – I think it might honestly be the most beautiful sunset I can recall seeing. This particular situation reminds be of a line from a book I recently read: “The landscape is only ever a reflection of what you feel inside”.
Often we think about that line in its negative sense but in my case, the freedom of finishing my first year review and the childlike joy of the never-ending summer days imbued that sunset with a special significance, something I still feel looking at that photo now.
The countryside in and around Bristol is nothing special: woods, field and farms. But I loved the exploration, I think there is something innately human about learning about and exploring the area that is your home, marvelling in the beautiful ordinary.
I started my summer missing cheap European sun, instead re-explored my own little world. Both physically in the form of fields and farms, but also mentally in my recontextualization of what it really means to be home. And I’ll tell you, coming home after three days of walking to dinner ready on the table – now that’s home.
“The landscape is only ever a reflection of what you feel inside”
Chris Morris is a First Year PhD Student at Imperial College. His PhD involves the investigation of Creep Crack Growth in Stainless Steel Welds for the UK’s current fleet of AGR reactors.