Outlandish: Walking Europe’s unlikely landscapes

Nick Hunt talks about his travels through four of Europe’s “unlikely landscapes”: Britain’s only patch of arctic tundra in the Cairngorms Mountains; the primeval forest of Bialowieza in Poland and Belarus; Europe’s only desert in Tabernas, Spain; and the grassland steppes of Hungary.

Each of these landscapes is a portal to another time and place, from Britain’s long-lost glacial age to the badlands of the Wild West, from the original forest that covered Europe to the steppes of Central Asia. The walks became journeys not only through place, but into deep time, and they offer a glimpse of how our familiar landscapes and ecosystems are changing due to climate breakdown.

Nick Hunt, independent adventurer & author