Armchair Explorer

In this third episode of our seven-part road trip through Arizona, we explore one of the most unusual national parks in America: Petrified Forest. But this isn't like any forest you've ever seen. Here, giant trees that fell more than 200 million years ago have turned to stone, their insides glowing with reds, purples and yellows and their crystals sparkling in the sun. There are many places in the world where you can see fossils, but this is one of the few where you can actually reach out and touch them.

We hike through fire-painted badlands and fields of rainbow-colored logs, uncover 13,000 years of human history carved into the rock, and go behind the scenes with the paleontologists still unearthing creatures from the dawn of the dinosaurs.

This is Arizona - the Wonder of the Forest.

Episode Highlights:

A Forest Turned to Stone

Walk among the fallen giants of the Rainbow Forest on the Giant Logs Trail, home to "Old Faithful," a petrified log almost ten feet wide at its base. Then follow the Crystal Forest Trail, where quartz glitters along the path like stars in the midday sun.

Into the Painted Desert

Travel the park's single 28-mile scenic road through badlands striped like candy corn and past the Tepees, cone-shaped hills banded in rust and white.

Back to Time

Travel back more than 200 million years with Dr. Bill Parker, to a time when Arizona lay near the equator and looked more like Costa Rica than desert. Picture towering conifers lining an Amazon-sized river, ferns and cycads underfoot, and not a flower or blade of grass anywhere. Then find out how volcanic ash turned those fallen trees to stone.

Messages in Stone

Discover 13,000 years of human history, from Ice Age spear points made of petrified wood to an ancient pueblo built from it.

A Real-Life Jurassic Park

Go behind the scenes with lead paleontologist Dr. Adam Marsh as he reveals the skull of a Postosuchus, a crocodile relative that looked like a T. rex and ruled this land more than 200 million years ago. It's one of only a handful ever found.

What's Latin for Funky Worm?

Find out why paleontologists named the world's oldest known caecilian after a 1970s funk song, and hear our humble request for the next new species found in the park.

PLAN YOUR TRIP

This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a road trip you can take. Recorded entirely on location over two extraordinary weeks, Wonders of Arizona follows a new, bookable itinerary designed and road-tested by presenter and award-winning travel writer Aaron Millar (The Times, National Geographic Traveller and more), told through the voices of the people who know these places best. Hear it first, then make the journey your own.

To find out more go to:

USA and Worldwide Listeners: wondersofaz.com

UK Listeners: search up Wonders of Arizona at HaysTravel.co.uk ... Or phone: 0800 408 4048.

Thank you to our guests:

• Dr. Bill Parker, Chief of Science and Resource Management, Petrified Forest National Park
• Dr. Adam Marsh, Lead Paleontologist, Petrified Forest National Park
• Matthew Smith, Museum Curator, Petrified Forest National Park

Plan your visit: nps.gov/pefo

FOLLOW VISIT ARIZONA:

Instagram: @visitarizona

Facebook: @visitarizona

CREDITS:

The Wonders of Arizona podcast is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Field recording and audio production by Jason Paton. Pre-production and itinerary by Brian Thacker. Produced by Armchair Productions for Visit Arizona.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

In today’s episode, we’re traveling in style. You probably know the film maker Wes Anderson. He makes those stylized, slightly absurd movies like the Royal Tenenbaums, Grand Hotel Budapest, Life Aquatic and more. His sets transform the real world into peculiar, perfectly symmetrical scenes that look like a cross-between a stage play and an acid trip.

Accidentally Wes Anderson has flipped that idea on its head. They set out into the real world to find places that look like they belong in one of his films, places that are accidentally as bizarre and beautiful as his imagination: the unique, the symmetrical, the atypical, the most interesting, idiosyncratic locations on Earth. Since 2017 they’ve built a community of millions, with best-selling books, exhibitions and an utterly beautiful Instagram page.

In this episode, host Aaron Millar takes you inside one of those images to spend a night in an asylum. Voluntarily. Recorded entirely on location, the episode tells the story of the former Buffalo State Asylum for the Insane, a vast, castle-like 19th-century building that has been partly restored as a hotel. The rest still lies abandoned, untouched since the last patients left in 1974 (creepy wheelchairs and all).

But this isn’t a ghost story. It’s a story about how what we build shapes how we feel.

Join Aaron as he explores both sides of this extraordinary building, climbs a single ladder to the top of a terrifying tower, and tries to make it through one night in the asylum.

Did he sleep with the lights on? Curtains, please.

PLAN YOUR NEXT ADVENTURE:

Discover more of the world’s most interesting, idiosyncratic places, find location guides and submit your own photos at accidentallywesanderson.com

Join the AWA Community on Instagram and Facebook @accidentallywesanderson

Find out how to stay at the Richardson Hotel yourself at richardsonhotelbuffalo.com

THANK YOU TO TODAY’S GUESTS:

Paris Roselli, President of the Richardson Center Corporation: richardson-olmsted.com

Derek Noble, Principal at Shepley Bulfinch: shepleybulfinch.com

KNOW SOMEONE WHO NEEDS THIS?

If you enjoyed this episode, send it to one person who’d love it. The friend who photographs every symmetrical doorway. The one who reads hotel histories for fun. Maybe they’ll buy you a cheeky pint.

FOLLOW US:

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

armchair-explorer.com

CONNECT WITH US:

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right now. Go on, do it! It helps us grow the show, and continue to bring this content to you.

CREDITS:

Written and presented by Aaron Millar

Produced by Wally Koval for Accidentally Wes Anderson and Aaron Millar for Armchair Productions. Armchair-productions.com

Field recording and audio production by Jason Paton

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

In this second episode of our seven-part road trip through Arizona, we head for the Sky Islands: isolated mountain ranges that rise out of the desert like islands from a sea. This is the most biodiverse region in North America, where jaguars and ocelots still roam and more than half of the continent's bird species have been recorded.

We take a nature tour with one of the country's foremost naturalists and survival experts, then head for Mount Lemmon, passing through six ecological zones in just 35 minutes. In terms of natural habitats, that's the equivalent of traveling from Mexico to Canada. At the top, we rope up for a Native American-led rock climb to hear what this remarkable eco-system means to the people who have lived here for thousands of years.

This is Arizona - the Wonder of the Sky.

Episode Highlights:

Islands in a Sea of Desert

You may never have heard of the Sky Islands, but naturalist Vincent Pinto says there's nowhere on the continent more alive. From hummingbirds and hawks to jaguars and golden eagles, life is everywhere in these mountain islands and the sea of grass between them. Take a nature tour with Vincent and discover this ecological wonder for yourself.

The Art of Seeing

Walk the trails of Raven's Nest Nature Sanctuary as Vincent teaches the art of truly seeing nature. Meet a rabbit that eats its own scat, a plant that smells like grandpa's couch, and the smallest butterfly in North America.

Stone Age Survival

Discover how to turn a rock into a knife sharp enough to use as a scalpel, taught by a wilderness survival expert who has consulted for TV shows including Marooned with Ed Stafford.

Navajo Heights

Travel to the top of Mount Lemmon with Diné (Navajo) climbing guide Aaron Mike, and hear why climbing is how he feels most connected to his heritage, and to the stories his people tell about the land.

PLAN YOUR TRIP

Recorded entirely on location over ten extraordinary days, this immersive documentary podcast follows a road trip designed and road-tested by presenter and award-winning travel writer Aaron Millar (The Times, National Geographic Traveller and more) and his team at Armchair Productions.

To find out how you can take this exact road trip yourself, go to wondersofaz.com.

Thank you to our guests:

• Vincent Pinto, Ravens-Way Wild Journeys and Raven's Nest Nature Sanctuary: ravensnatureschool.com
• Aaron Mike, Altitude Mountain Guides: altitudemountainguides.com

FOLLOW VISIT ARIZONA:

Instagram: @visitarizona

Facebook: @visitarizona

CREDITS:

The Wonders of Arizona podcast is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Field recording and audio production by Jason Paton. Pre-production and itinerary by Brian Thacker. Produced by Armchair Productions for Visit Arizona.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

There is a moment in every great adventure when the world shifts beneath your feet. For explorer Charlie Walker, it came in a Siberian supermarket, comparing brands of pasta at minus 38 degrees, when his phone buzzed with a BBC alert: Russia has invaded Ukraine. He was about to begin a 600-mile solo trek through northern Russia, crossing some of the most remote, frozen wilderness on Earth. The official advice was to leave as soon as possible. He chose to stay.

On Thin Ice is the story of what happened next. A journey across a Siberian Zimnik, a frozen winter road through silent forests and tundra, past Gulag towns and disappearing indigenous villages, into the heart of a country at war with itself as much as with its neighbour. It is a story of extraordinary human warmth in the coldest place on Earth, of state surveillance and midnight knocks at the door, of weeks spent in a Russian prison cell, counting days up instead of days down. And it is a story, ultimately, about the nature of truth and a mirror it holds up to all of us.

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS

Stranded in Yakutsk

Hear how Charlie found himself in Yakutsk the morning Russia invaded Ukraine, standing in a supermarket comparing pasta packets when his phone buzzed with the news that changed everything.

Siberia’s Ice Road

Travel with Charlie along the Zimnik, one of Siberia’s frozen winter roads, through total whiteout, wolf tracks, blinding cold, and drunk lorry drivers navigating in the dark without headlights.

The Coldest Place on Earth

Discover the warmth hidden in the coldest place on Earth: Sakha women who dressed Charlie in traditional ceremonial costumes, fed him horse blood sausage, danced with him, and sent him off with a shaman’s blessing the next morning.

Imprisoned in Putin’s Russia

Find out what it feels like to be arrested, tried, and imprisoned in Putin’s Russia, and how Charlie spent nearly four weeks in an Arctic prison cell, counting shuffling footsteps from one wall to the other.

FIND OUT MORE

Charlie Walker’s book On Thin Ice is available in paperback, Kindle, and audiobook. Find it wherever books are sold.

Explore Charlie’s other expeditions and books at cwexplore.com

Follow Charlie on Instagram: @cwexplore

KNOW SOMEONE WHO NEEDS THIS?

If this episode lit something up in you, do me a favour - send it to just one person. One friend, one family member, one person who needs a little adventure in their life right now. Hit the share button in your podcast app - it takes about ten seconds, and it genuinely helps us keep bringing these stories to you.

FOLLOW US

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Website: armchair-explorer.com

CONNECT WITH US

If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe so you don’t miss a thing, and if you have a spare moment, look up - there’s five stars waiting to be clicked! It goes a long way in helping others find the show.

CREDITS

Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Produced by Armchair Productions. Find our other shows at Armchair-Productions.com

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

In this first episode of our seven-part road trip through Arizona, we walk among the ancient cactus forests of Saguaro National Park. Then we saddle up at White Stallion Ranch for legendary guns, dusty arenas and a campfire under the stars with a cowboy poet. It's a journey into the heart of one of the most remarkable deserts in the world, and into the mythology of the American West that this landscape helped shape.

This is Arizona - the Wonder of the Desert.

Episode Highlights:

The Desert Miracle

Hear why Ranger Jordan Camp from Saguaro National Park calls the giant saguaro a "miracle of the desert," and discover the extraordinary biology behind one of nature's most remarkable survivors.

The Symbol of the West

Find out how a cactus that grows only in the Sonoran Desert became Hollywood's defining image of the Wild West, and why the real desert is nothing like the movies.

Guns of the Wild West

Step into the armory at White Stallion Ranch as the resident gunslinger and raconteur lays out some of the most legendary weapons in American history, from the Colt revolver made famous by Wyatt Earp to Billy the Kid's fast-draw pistol.

Team Penning

Get into the heart of the action as Aaron, mic'd up and in the saddle for the first time, attempts to herd cattle on horseback at White Stallion Ranch. Spoiler: the cows were not impressed.

The Keeper of the Fire

As the sun drops behind the Tucson Mountains and the saguaros turn to silhouettes on the horizon, gather around a campfire with cowboy poet and musician Buck Helton, and hear a song about memory, tradition and what it means to keep a flame alive.

PLAN YOUR TRIP

This isn’t just a podcast. It’s a road trip you can take. Recorded entirely on location over two extraordinary weeks, Wonders of Arizona follows a new, bookable itinerary designed and road-tested by presenter and award-winning travel writer Aaron Millar (The Times, National Geographic Traveller and more), told through the voices of the people who know these places best. Hear it first, then make the journey your own.

To find out more go to:

USA and Worldwide Listeners: wondersofaz.com (https://www.wondersofaz.com)

UK Listeners: search up Wonders of Arizona at HaysTravel.co.uk (https://www.haystravel.co.uk/destinations/americas/rest-of-usa/arizona/wonders-of-arizona/wonders-of-arizona/) ... Or phone: 0800 408 4048.

FOLLOW VISIT ARIZONA:

Instagram: @visit_arizona

Facebook: @arizonatravel

CREDITS:

Thank you to our guests:

• Ranger Jordan Camp, Saguaro National Park
• The whole team at White Stallion Ranch (WhiteStallionRanch.com)
• Cowboy poet and musician Buck Helton (BuckHelton.com)

The Wonders of Arizona podcast is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Field recording and audio production by Jason Paton. Pre-production and itinerary by Brian Thacker. Produced by Armchair Productions

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

At the start of every season, host Aaron Millar and producer Jason Paton preview what’s coming

up on Armchair Explorer, play some of their favorite clips, and reveal the stories they’re most

excited to share. A cross between a highlight reel, an interview, and two people telling travel tales down the pub, our Pathways episodes are your guide to choosing your adventures with us.

Season five episodes:

SEVEN WONDERS: Join us On Location for a 2,000-mile road trip in search of the Seven Wonders

of Arizona. Play cowboy at White Stallion Ranch beside Saguaro National Park, stand on the rim

of Meteor Crater, the best-preserved meteorite impact site on Earth, and hike down into the

Grand Canyon to touch rocks 1.8 billion years old.

SIBERIA INVASION: Explorer Charlie Walker sets out to walk the frozen rivers of Arctic Siberia

and meet the people who live in the coldest inhabited places on Earth. Then, just as he lands,

Russia invades Ukraine, and his months-long journey becomes a story nobody saw coming.

ICE AGE TRAIL: We hike the Ice Age Trail, one of America’s least-known long-distance footpaths.

It follows the edge of the last Ice Age across Wisconsin, where a glacier up to a mile thick

carved out kettle lakes and forested hills. Plus, we paddle by canoe into the wild North Woods.

UNWILDED: Aaron hangs out with adventurer Alastair Humphreys in the UK to talk about his

new book, Unwilded, and why adventure is about your mindset, not your geography. It’s also

the reason Aaron climbed a tree.

PLUS: Our first ever game show, Two Travel Truths and One Travel Lie. Can producer Jason spot

the fake fact about Japan, Iceland and Finland?

ALSO COMING UP IN SEASON 5:

Hiking in Slovenia, an igloo festival in Quebec, long-distance trekking in Japan, a tapas safari in

Spain, a night in a former asylum that’s now a hotel, and Providencia, Aaron’s secret Caribbean

island.

***

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you’re reading this on right

now. Go on, do it. It means you get to choose what episodes you listen to, rather than the

algorithm guess (wrongly) and kick us off your feed.

Reviewing the show helps other people discover it and helps us continue to produce it. If you

like episode, please consider a quick review on your favorite podcast platform. You don’t have

to write anything just click those five (hopefully) stars!

Following the show on socials will definitely maybe bring you good travel karma!

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Armchair Explorer is produced by Armchair Productions. Aaron Millar and Jason Paton

presented the show, Charles Tyrie did the audio editing and sound design.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

Rising over 1,000 feet straight from the red desert of Australia's Northern Territory, Uluru is one of the great wonders of the world. At sunrise it glows pink, gold, and amber. At dusk, it forms the backdrop to one of the most spectacular sunsets you will ever see. But that's just scratching the surface. What most visitors never discover is that the real wonder of Uluru lives in the stories, and culture, of the people for whom it is not just a wonder - but a part of them.

In this Bucket List episode, Kylene Randall, a traditional custodian of Uluru and member of the local Anangu people, takes us deep into the Aboriginal heart of this extraordinary and sacred place.

We'll discover the ancient creation law of Tjukurpa, hear the story of the Stolen Generation and how Kylene's grandfather found his way home, walk the stories at the base of Uluru, learn hands-on bush skills and traditional culture, and find out what the four pillars of Anangu wellbeing might teach us about how to live our lives too.

This is a journey into the soul of Uluru and the people who have kept watch over it for more than 30,000 years.

Episode Highlights:

• Walk the Stories at the Base of Uluru
• Travel with Kylene on an indigenous-led walk around Uluru, hearing the story of the Mala people, their ceremony, their fight, and the lessons it contains.
• Hear the Story of the Stolen Generation
• Learn how Kylene's grandfather was forcibly removed as a small child, spent his life searching for his mother, and ultimately found his way back to his culture - and how that extraordinary act of resilience changed her life and continues to inspire her work today.
• Experience Culture Hands On
• Discover what it's like to make traditional tools, learn bush medicine from native plants, dig for honey ants, cook kangaroo tail on a fire, and spend a night on country beneath a sky full of stars.
• The Four Pillars of Holistic Wellbeing
• Hear Kylene's grandfather's teaching on the four things that make us complete - family, country, spirit, and law - and why, when we are disconnected from any one of them, we cannot truly thrive.

FIND OUT MORE

This Bucket List episode is the second in our series on Australia's Northern Territory. If you missed the first - Into the Wild: A Road Trip Through Australia's Northern Territory - go back a few episodes in the feed. Together they make an extraordinary two-week itinerary that finishes right here at Uluru.

To experience Uluru with Kylene and her family, visit talikatu.com or follow on Instagram at @talikatu

PLAN YOUR TRIP

We designed this itinerary with a company called Down Under Endeavours, who specialise in authentic Australian adventures — wide open spaces, real wilderness, and the kind of local characters you'll be telling stories about for years.

Armchair Explorer listeners get $500 off any trip. Head to downunderendeavours.com/armchair and use the code ARMCHAIR at checkout.

You can literally book this exact trip or design something entirely your own. You can book from anywhere in the world, and even if you're just dreaming right now, the website is worth a visit. The dream is half the fun.

Know Someone Who Needs This?

If this episode moved you - and it will - do us a favour and send it to just one person. One friend, one family member, one person who needs a little wonder in their life right now. Hit the share button in your podcast app, it takes about ten seconds, and it makes a genuine difference to the show.

FOLLOW US:

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Newsletter: armchair-explorer.com

CONNECT WITH US:

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you're reading this on right now. Go on, do it! It helps us grow the show and continue to bring these stories to you.

Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Theme music by Sweet Chap. Produced by Armchair Productions.

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

Wayfinding is an ancient Polynesian way of navigating by reading the ocean, stars and wind. No compass, no map, just deep observation, and experience passed down through generations. But because of that, wayfinding is more art than science. It's about trusting your instinct and using all your senses - and it's exactly the kind of travel Daniel Scheffler believes in, and exactly what this conversation is all about.

Daniel Scheffler is one of the world's most successful travel writers, and in today's episode he and host Aaron Millar swap tales like a couple of mates having a laugh down the pub. Expect scorpion bites in Angola, voodoo ceremonies in Benin, Berber festivals in Morocco, and lots more.

But between the wild stories, this episode is about something much deeper too. If you want to be inspired about not just what to see, but how to see - and how to make travel more than just Google reviews and ticking off lists - this is the episode for you.

HIGHLIGHTS

• Hear how Daniel survived a scorpion bite in Angola, three minutes from death, and the tribal leader who saved his life by sucking out the venom.
• Travel with Aaron to a Festival Fantasia in the foothills of Morocco's Atlas Mountains, the biggest culture shock he's ever experienced, and why that discomfort was exactly the point.
• Discover what it's like to sit inside a voodoo ceremony in Benin, a belief system entirely outside Daniel's own, and why he calls it one of the best things he's ever done.

FIND OUT MORE

Daniel Scheffler writes regularly on Substack at Without Maps find more of his writing and adventures there.

And don't miss his own podcast, Wayfinder: Life-Changing Travel - if you enjoy Armchair Explorer, we think you'll love it too.

Listen to Wayfinder: Life-Changing Travel on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, the iHeartRadio app, or wherever you get your podcasts: Wayfinder: Life-Changing Travel on Apple Podcasts

PASS IT ON:

If this episode lit something up in you, do me a favor - send it to just one person. One friend, one family member, one person who needs a little wayfinding inspiration in their life … Or go old school and tell someone about it over a cheeky pint! Every single share genuinely moves the needle. Thank you for whatever you can do.

FOLLOW US:

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Newsletter: armchair-explorer.com

CONNECT WITH US:

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you're reading this on right now. Go on, do it! It helps us grow the show, and continue to bring this content to you.

Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Theme music by Sweet Chap. Produced by Armchair Productions.

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

There is a state in New England where ancient mountains rise above the treeline into bare Arctic tundra, where sheer granite summits look out over oceans of forests, and where one of the fastest wind speeds ever recorded was once clocked here at 231 miles per hour.

But New Hampshire is also the place where Thoreau came to reflect, Thornton Wilder was inspired to write his seminal play Our Town, and the oldest summer stock company in America stills performs in an 18th century barn.

New Hampshire is art and adventure, natural wonders and quintessential charm. But most of all, like the state’s nickname suggests, it is a place to live free and to the fullest.

In today’s episode we set off on a seven-day road trip through three of the state’s most rugged and fascinating regions - from backpacking in the White Mountains and scrambling up waterfalls to discovering art inspired by nature, and nature infused with an artistic eye.

Get ready for the Live Free Road Trip.

Highlights include:

• Hiking the Presidential Traverse - three days, and four peaks above 5,000 feet, including Mt Washington, the highest (and windiest) summit in New England.
• Discovering the ‘business class of backpacking’ staying in the Apallachain Mountain Club’s backcountry huts - three-course dinners, epic views, and cosy beds.
• Finding out about the MacDowell Institute, a legendary artists' residency founded in 1907, whose past guests include Aaron Copland, Leonard Bernstein, James Baldwin, Thornton Wilder and hundreds of other world-class artists.
• Hiking Mount Monadnock - reputedly the second most climbed mountain in the world after Mount Fuji, with views across New Hampshire, Vermont and Massachusetts. Hear why this was one of Thoreau’s favorite hikes!

FIND OUT MORE

Produced in collaboration with Lonely Planet: LonelyPlanet.com

Find inspiration, itineraries and everything you need - including how to book this exact road trip - at visitnh.gov (Visit New Hampshire) or follow them on social at @VisitNH

Thank you to our guests:

Marielle Fibish, senior outdoor guide at the Appalachian Mountain Club.Find out more at: outdoors.org

Ben Cote, Newport local and outdoor fanatic. Connect with him at tracylibrary.org

Michelle Stahl, Executive Director at the Monadnock Center for History and Culture. Find out more at monadnockcenter.org

Know Someone Who Needs This?

If this episode lit something up in you, do me a favour — send it to just one person. One friend, one family member, one person who needs a little wonder in their life right now. Or go old school and tell someone about it over a cheeky pint. Every single share genuinely moves the needle.

FOLLOW US:

Instagram: @armchairexplorerpodcast

Facebook: @armchairexplorerpodcast

CONNECT WITH US:

If you enjoy the show, please subscribe on whatever podcast player you're reading this on right now. It helps us grow the show, and continue to bring these stories to you.

Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Produced by Armchair Productions

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.

Check out the new Smart Travel Podcast

This episode is supported by Smart Travel a new podcast from Nerd Wallet. Travel smarter — and spend less — with help from NerdWallet. Follow Smart Travel wherever you get your podcasts.Smart Travel Podcast

There is a place at the top of the world where the land runs out, a sheer thousand-foot cliff rising straight from the Arctic Ocean, and nothing beyond it but open sea all the way to the North Pole. This is the North Cape - the northernmost point of continental Europe and getting there means sailing one of the most spectacular coastlines on Earth.

From Oslo, we travel north through towering fjords and fishing villages so remote the ship is their only connection to the outside world. We pass the Lofoten Islands rising like a mountain range planted in the middle of the ocean, Alta - nicknamed the Northern Lights City - and on into the deep Arctic silence of Finnmark. Norway's coast is not just beautiful. It is staggering.

The Northern Lights wait for us there too. The Sami called them Govsov - the light you can hear, the light that speaks. Science calls them solar particles colliding with the earth's atmosphere. But standing beneath them, none of that matters. What you are seeing is the invisible touch of our sun, raining down in colour all around you - and it is unlike anything you have ever experienced before.

Join host Aaron Millar, and two expert guests, as we set sail on the North Cape Line with the legendary adventure ships of Hurtigruten. This is more than an expedition cruise, it is a journey to the edge of the world along one of the most awe-inspiring coastlines in the world in search of the Aurora at its most breathtaking.

Produced in Armchair Explorer's signature documentary style, this immersive audio adventure is designed not just to let you hear what it's like to chase the Northern Lights along the Norwegian coast - but to feel it.

Highlights include:

• Sailing the Trollfjord - a fjord so narrow it feels like you could reach out and touch the mountains on either side, sheer walls of rock and snow rising straight from the water around you.
• Standing at the North Cape - the northernmost point in Europe where beyond the cliff edge there nothing but the Arctic Ocean, all the way to the North Pole.
• Sitting inside a Sami Lavvu - warm with firelight and wood smoke - hearing stories, sharing food and listening to yoik, the ancient song form where every melody carries the spirit of a specific person, animal or place.
• Husky sledding into the Arctic wilderness - the moment the dogs stop barking, set off, and everything goes utterly silent. Just you, the animals, and the snow.
• The food of Norway's coast - fresh Arctic cod from the world's largest cod fishery in Lofoten, king crab hauled from the icy waters of Finnmark and cooked within the hour, cheese from a family farm whose recipes are 300 years old, and wild herbs foraged from cliff edges above the fjords.
• The Aurora itself - the crowning corona, where the lights rain down in every direction around you - “like taking a dream out of your head and placing it into the sky”

FIND OUT MORE

Produced in collaboration with Lonely Planet: LonelyPlanet.com

This journey is run by expedition cruise company Hurtigruten, whose ships have sailed this coastline for generations. This is what they promise: If you're on one of their 11-day or longer voyage during the Auroral season and the Lights don't appear, they'll give you another chance on a future sailing at no extra cost.

Find out more at hurtigruten.com

Connect with expert Aurora chaser Tom Kerss at TomKerss.com or follow him on Instagram at @tomkerss

Thank you also to Andre Pettersen, the man behind Hurtigruten's extraordinary food and community connections along the Norwegian coast.

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Armchair Explorer is written and presented by Aaron Millar. Audio editing and sound design by Charles Tyrie. Theme music by Sweet Chap. Produced by Armchair Productions. Find our other shows at Armchair-Productions.com

This podcast is part of the Voyascape Network, a collection of some of the world’s best travel podcasts. Explore more at Voyascape Podcast Network For advertising or sponsorship opportunities on this show and across the network, email [email protected] or you can find more information at Voyascape Advertising.