Magazine

The benefits of nature for both our mental and physical well-being are limitless. The natural world directly affects positive changes in our entire nervous system and brain. Being in nature can take many forms, such as walking in the woods, listening to birds, watching the flow of a river or stream, or hiking. Spending even a small amount of time in nature and doing something you find pleasant can substantially reduce stress, anxiety, depression and improve overall well-being.

I recently had the pleasure of speaking with Anoushé Husain, a para-climber based in London. Anoushé was born missing her right arm below her elbow, she also has multiple health conditions and is a cancer survivor. Not only this but she is breaking barriers for minorities being a muslim woman in sport. Her charitable work includes being an ambassador for Ehlers-Danlos Support UK and Limbpower and she supports the Grit&Rock Foundation which aims to help teenage girls aged 13 to 15, from deprived inner city backgrounds, develop greater grit, determination and self-confidence. In 2017 she won the Asian Women of Achievement Award for Sport and was the recipient of the Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration at The Sunday Times Sportswomen of the Year Awards. Then, in 2018 she went on to co-found Paraclimbing London, a social enterprise which helps remove barriers people with disabilities might have when accessing climbing in London. As if that wasn’t enough, she works a full time job as a civil servant and has just started a Masters degree. Her whole life she has been challenging her own beliefs as well as societies. She talks us through her life changing climbing journey below.

As many of you might be aware, next Friday isn’t just any old Friday.... Oh no. Forget the relaxing, pre-weekend Fridays you’re used to, and prepare for carnage. Why? This year, 26 November is designated as Black Friday, a day when many retailers will mark down their prices and offer “deals” to ready-and-waiting shoppers. Having originated in America as a post-Thanksgiving pre-Christmas shopping day, the last few years have seen the tradition make its way across the pond. Not only that, but it seems to be expanding and has spawned an entire weekend’s worth, sometimes even several weeks’ worth, of discounts. Weeks of bargains, sounds great, right? Well, at Meander, we’re not so sure;

Behind the Lens series 2: In this instalment of our Behind the Lens series, we caught up with Michael Lazenby (@michaellazenby), an outdoor adventure photographer and drone cinematographer based in the North of England. He has taken his passion for photography to new heights with the evolving medium of drone photography. The unique perspective provided by drone photography offers an infinite number of compositional possibilities compared to standing with two feet planted on the ground. I had the pleasure of discussing drone photography with Michael, and he has very kindly given us an insight into the background, rationale, and technique underlying his craft, and also shared some of his many beautiful shots with us.

Now, this might sound as if I’ve been living under a rock, but it was only a matter of weeks ago that I was completely unaware that Scotland had a rainforest. A small part of me hopes that this comes as a surprise to you, too, as I’ve lived in Scotland my entire life and I’d feel a little less silly about it. I've been learning more about them this week after a chance encounter with a friend in-store who is working on conservation project. I had always thought that rainforests could only be found along the equator, although I now know that those are tropical rainforests. Scotland’s rainforest, on the other hand, is a temperate rainforest, the likes of which are found in cooler, coastal areas in the middle latitudes. When you think about it, it’s obvious that we’d have one here, considering we do have forests and our reputation for rain…

Many people dismiss mangrove forests as merely tropical, swampy wastelands. However, we’ve since come to know that they’re anything but that. The value of mangroves is often well understood by local communities, yet their global significance is widely overlooked. Despite mangrove forests being critical ecosystems, both for biodiversity and for humanity, their losses have been considerable, and so it is imperative that we do what we can to protect them.

Nicholas J R White is a photographer based in Dartmoor. His photography projects examine the landscape and the ways in which we interact with our natural spaces. In 2017, Nicholas won the Lens Culture Emerging Talent award and he was awarded the The Royal Photographic Society Environmental Bursary for his project Black Dots. Black Dots is an exploration of mountain bothies and bothy culture throughout the United Kingdom. As well as being drawn by the impressive landscapes that surround the bothies, Nicholas was keen to investigate their human element, capturing the faces of those who trek for hours to temporarily inhabit these spaces. We caught up with him to talk bothy culture and about his journey across the UK taking pictures in the wild.

Based in Edinburgh, South African born Jacob Mellish recently completed an epic adventure: paddle boarding from Edinburgh all the way to England. Jacob is no stranger to spending time in the ocean, considered one of Scotland’s top surfers. His time spent in the water has made him all too aware of the challenges we face if we are to clean up our coastline. This was the basis for The Paddle Against Pollution, a challenge that aims to raise awareness for Surfers Against Sewage, and how we must act in order to make our waters a safer environment for all. We caught up with Jacob recently to chat about his experience.

If, like me, you feel a pang of guilt every time you throw something out, but don’t know where to start with improving the situation, then just trying to be more conscious for one week can make a huge difference and kickstart some good habits.

Like many people, I found myself getting into a bit of a slump during the first Lockdown. Without any end in sight, and the fear of the unknown, I found myself searching for something to keep me occupied and lift my mood. Daily workouts, reading, and painting, amongst other hobbies helped, but it wasn’t until I found the joy of swimming in my local loch that I really started to notice a difference in my lockdown-induced mood.

Earlier this summer, we had the pleasure of meeting Tommy Aucott and Lydia Routlege as they were meandering through Scotland on an epic wild camping adventure. After chatting with them both and seeing their obvious passion for Scotland, Wild Camping and Photography we asked if they would be willing to share their story for the Meander magazine and they very kindly agreed. In this awesome photographic journal, they share their adventure, some great advice for wild camp newcomers and some great spots to pitch up.

Most people arrive at Scotland's bothies on foot and seeking some sheltered refuge from a long day walking in the hills. However, Paul Brett isn’t most people. Below, Paul tells the story of an epic cycling adventure across the Cairngorms, linking up several bothies that sparked the idea for an all new, super high quality cycling magazine - Proper Cycling.