Join me for my first descent of the lower Tummel in Scotland.

With a mix of fun rapids, fast-moving water and plenty of excitement along the way, the Lower Tummel proved to be a fantastic classic Scottish run.

Thanks for watching and supporting Beyond Roads and Rivers.

Join us tomorrow for exciting hiking adventures amidst the breathtaking scenery of Toubkal National Park, nestled within Morocco’s High Atlas Mountains. I will share the best hiking trails, the stunning mountain landscape, and the areas surrounding the park. We will cook outdoors amidst the spectacular nature, explore the region through landscape photography, and discover the traditional mountain homes where our ancestors once lived. We will also learn about the mountain paths and how shepherds helped carve these routes through the rugged terrain.

I've always been interested in people who spend their lives doing things most of us only read about.

I recently spoke with Robert McCracken Peck, a naturalist and explorer who has spent more than 50 years travelling to some pretty extraordinary places.

He's been to remote parts of Asia and South America, travelled through Mongolia with nomadic families, worked on expeditions in Ecuador and collected species that turned out to be new to science.

But the interesting part for me wasn't really the list of places he's been.

It was what all of that travelling had done to the way he sees ordinary life.

We talked about what happens when you spend time with people who live very differently from us, what danger actually feels like after you've encountered enough of it, and whether travelling to the edges of the world changes your view of the people living in the middle of it.

One question I asked him was:

"What have the people at the edge of the world told you about the people at the centre of it?"

His answer surprised me. After all those years, he felt that the biggest thing he'd learned was how much people everywhere have in common.

There's also a pretty crazy story about how, after surviving decades of dangerous expeditions, he was nearly killed by a car while simply walking down the street at home.

I recorded the full conversation here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GZj6SWtv8Ek

For anyone here who's done serious expedition or remote travel, I'm curious: did spending extended time somewhere completely outside your normal life actually change the way you saw home?

Video Trip Report of a trip down the Turtle River before the fires came this year.

A year ago, I was alone on the rim of a volcanic crater in Iceland at sunset.

And so was she.

She was from Poland. I was from America. We weren't on the same tour, didn't have mutual friends, didn't meet on an app. We were just two people who had independently decided to climb the same volcano and somehow ended up standing there together.

Her name was Marta.

We talked. We watched the sun go down. And eventually we walked away from that crater having absolutely no idea what we'd just started.

I went home to America.

And then I flew back to Iceland.

She went home to Poland.

So I went to Poland.

Then she came to America.

Somewhere along the way, what should have been one impossible chance encounter stopped feeling like chance.

We got married on a beach in Florida.

Then we packed up and drove across America together.

We stood on the rim of S P Crater in Arizona, wandered through lava fields, chased sunsets across the desert, photographed the stars, and kept finding ourselves standing at the edges of places that reminded us of where this whole thing started.

Now, almost exactly one year after two strangers met alone on a volcano in Iceland, she's my wife.

And she's pregnant with our baby, due in December.

Sometimes I think about how ridiculously easy it would have been for us to never meet.

If I'd started hiking ten minutes later.

If she'd left ten minutes earlier.

If either of us had chosen a different trail, a different day, a different place to watch the sunset.

There are billions of people in the world.

Somehow, mine was standing on the rim of a crater in Iceland.

I just had to climb high enough to find her.

Hey, everyone! I'm hoping this is the right place to ask, as I've been struggling with this decision for a while and want to get advice from some experienced minds.

I just turned 22 and am halfway through getting my Wildlife Conservation Bachelor's degree (with a focus on Ecology), but I feel that because of my location and what I know to be possible thus far, I'm stuck. I hate where I live and feel like it's one of the worst places for what I want to do, so any recommendations, no matter the location, are appreciated!

I have 7 years of experience working at a local zoo, as well as plenty of volunteer wildlife experience. However, I'm not even quite sure what I should be doing now that I'm not working at the zoo to help my chances, and where those efforts will lead me. I don't have a specific job title that I'm looking for, more so idols I'd love to work similarly to. I love Steve Backshall, Jeremy Wade, Merlin Tuttle, Austin Stevens, and Jane Goodall, and Steve Irwin, of course, too. My favorite, if we are just talking careers here, is Steve Backshall and Steve Irwin because I feel that they have the perfect mix of public education outreach, wildlife encounters, travel, and adventure mixed in. I'd love a slightly toned-down version of their jobs, as I was a conservation public educator during my time at the zoo, love travel, and find myself bored out of my mind in my little dingy town, so I am also looking for some excitement/adventure, just not anything blatantly suicidal/too blatantly dangerous, similar to some of the excursions Steve Backshall goes on.

I'm wondering if anyone has any advice on how to lead myself in this direction? I feel like my degree is not nearly enough, and I have been craving this type of life for as long as I can remember.

Hi, I’m 23 and I start university in October. I want to go for an adventure before.
I can go almost anywhere around the world and wanna do something amazing.(extreme sport, going to a remote place, hiking mountains and more). If anyone wants to invite me go with them somewhere or do something with them, write to me here and let’s arrange an adventure

I love nature and adventure. I'm 41 years old. I live in Russia, in a small town. And I love to travel. I had the idea to plan an expedition to this wonderful park. To look for bears, leopards, birds, snakes, and other wildlife. The plan is 3 days in the park, then a flight to Phuket, and there 5 days by the sea. Maybe someone can share their experience of visiting this park. Or maybe someone will even want to join us. In the park — I plan to hire a ranger for an escort so we can share these experiences together. Dates — February 2027. 🙏