The Backyard Adventurer

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If a conversation is by definition a dialogue between two or more entities, then I live on a small property with hundreds of chatty, introverted things. I must look bonkers to peeping toms, but I'd feel even more bonkers going about my solo days in silence. Skulking about the place as if an apple tree isn't worth having a chat with. Create an outdoor chalkboard for your kiddos to draw on! Did you know that there is great physical benefit for children to draw on a vertical surface? I love how to turns your fence into an integral part of the outdoor living room. From the adventures titled '1 mile every hour', to 'the human bean', Beau's excursions, and poetic narrative surrounding them, excited and ignites a fire in the reader to enjoy the little things in life.

As I’m allergic to giving direct advice, general advice would be to ask those personal questions of yourself, then pore over maps and satellite images to conjoin the forces of self, places, and adventure. A: It takes a natural curiosity to want to shift from classical, storybook adventuring to doing odd things close to home with few resources and a strange script. More to the point, it takes discipline, because going to exotic, faraway, newish places tends to be easy, subscriptive, and innately attractive, so you have to put in the hard work to make the shift. Q: You talk a lot in your book about perspective and the power of perception. What advice would you give to someone trying to make that shift in perspective and trying to see a familiar place with new, adventurous eyes? And so students every year would make a paddle out of whatever wood they could get a hold of that they couldn’t buy. They’d have to get it from their granddad’s shed or their grandmother’s cupboard or on the side of the road or wherever. Go and see a hardware and see what pallets are at the front. And so our students did this for years, and I thought, “Well, I could make a film about just making a paddle or I could make a paddle that has a particular story and then I go on paddle with it.” So, I decided to just use junk wood that I could find between the train station and work that I used to commute to, and so I did that. Yeah, I just made it out of old wood that I could find between my 2.2 kilometer walk between the train station and my office and away I went. It was great, I loved it, and it’s actually one of my, I think, the most underrated film on my channel I really like. Ask yourself, “Why do I like adventuring? What is it that I’m looking for or chasing — a feeling, view, physical demise, physical bolstering, skills?” Then look at where you live or have ease of access to and overlay that place with those personal answers.A: I’ve had the luxury of large-scale, non-local adventures as a counterpoint to local and small ones. So, while I’d love to say that local and small can tap into my sense of identity and the world in much the same way as faraway places and experiences, I’m not sure. What is important with all of these experiences is a sense of physicality, a different point of view — even up a tree next to my house — and a sense of depth in terms of how I want to tell the story of the so-called adventure.

Beau Miles: Oh, I was just opportunistic, mate. I’d drink water out of cow troughs or whatever water I could find on the side of the road. And the big one, which people are disgusted by, these old coke bottles and Pepsi cans or whatever, whatever was a half-drunk bottle of Coke or something, I’d drink the rest. For some weird way, I trusted carbonic acid as being so evil that I thought, “It’s not gonna have any pathogens in it, I’ll just drink someone’s leftover coke.” That was one, it was calories, and two, I figured out, well, maybe no baddies are living in this water, and it seemed to work. A lot of people feel like they’ve seen and done everything there is to see and do in their local area. They’re bored of their daily routine, and contemplate going off on some grand adventure in a exotic locale. Convincing my ego that homespun adventures can be challenging, insightful, dirty, intense, intimate and all consuming might be the most courageous thing I’ve ever done” (pg. 33) Developing his storytelling craft is also an ongoing education. Being organic on film while refining the production process and creating films that resonate with people doesn’t just happen. “I have to open my mouth and say the very things I'm feeling or thinking, and I've got to try and be articulate about it - otherwise I'm wasting people's time,” says Beau. “So that's the craft. Sometimes it is harder [than just going out adventures without filming], because I'm having to force the issue or force this internal monologue out. But that doesn't make it a bad experience; it just makes it one where I have to work a bit harder sometimes.” Brian Wattchow - An outdoor educator, author, guide and Beau’s academic supervisor. Beau specifically referenced Songs of the Wounded River,Beau Miles: Yeah. I left school at the age of… Well, 18. I was a school leaver, and instead of going to University, I did an outdoor education traineeship, and then went to University. And so I was able to work all through University as a guide and as a builder part-time, so they were my two work incomes. And making pizzas on the side. So I had a few streams of income through University, but it was always outdoor related. And that took off from there. Sometimes all it takes to inspire play is to introduce some novelty! Have a collection of Outdoor Games ready and waiting for your kids to enjoy in the elements. Like many, many people I came across Beau Miles during COVID-19, through his Trials of Miles video. Like many, many people I fell easily in love with his affable, no-nonsense, slightly unhinged way of looking at things and putting expectations on their head. Avid runner. Award-winning filmmaker. Self-described oddball. All-around adventurer. Beau Miles is many things, but he’s no stranger to gallivanting around the globe. Recently, however, after years of running, kayaking, hitchhiking, and exploring around the world, Beau has settled down in his native Australia and is now devoting his time to finding adventures closer to home. Sound boring? It’s anything but.

Beau Miles: And remove some of the lies that you might have probably put to those things. Don’t take all of the things that will make it easy, just leave them at home. And you know what? You’re gonna have an adventure because of it. Beau Miles: Yeah. So, the walk to work, I had the police both times, the paddle, don’t think I saw them with the paddle, I didn’t, but yeah, I have them, let’s say for every five films I make, I’ll get police intervention on one of five, and they’re really good in a sense, they always take a bit of warming up, the police, because I think what often the problem is, they have to be quite affronting and direct at the start to sort of see how the person reacts, and I’ll always react in a very similar way that I know in my heart of hearts, I’m never doing anyone any harm, right? So, I just talk to them, and then they tend to calm down, and then you just have a chat, and you tell them what they’re doing, and often they’re things that I think they don’t know if it’s illegal or not. So, a lot of people in Australia would think it’s illegal to hitchhike, for example, but it’s just not. You can hitchhike, of course, you can, you can ride a horse next to nearly every road in Australia, unless it says otherwise.

Take a tree house tour, and have a blast playing and exploring with your kids. Treehouse guests have so much fun entering the in real life pretend world! These are the adventures that childhood is made of. Find plans created by a treehouse architecture expert for the best results. 11. Make a climbing wall Imagine the look on their faces when you give them permission to make a mess with the mud, or write on the chalkboard fence. Imagine the look on their faces when you tell them you are going to create a tire swing or a zip line! BM: A good yarn. One bloke’s oddities and habits weaved poetically and candidly into adventure and how this questions their own day to day. I don’t expect, or even condone doing what I’ve done, but I like the idea of a reader pausing within moments of the book and thinking ‘I have an idea …and I’m bloody well going to do it …’ And finally, what’s up next for you? Q: In your book, you discuss the power behind going to new places and how the source of that power comes down to invisible meanings that we conjure. How do those invisible meanings play into your personal philosophy on pursuing adventure?