Is there a more peaceful way to travel than by canal boat? You sit back and relax as you potter slowly along the Monmouth-Brecon canal. But what's this? It's action – you've got to operate the lock in order to continue your journey.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Mark Turner, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image by Getty

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Come to the centre of Cambridge to walk along the River Cam with Tony Juniper. Conservationist and chair of Natural England, Tony is one of the world's most influential environmental campaigners and he has written a book, Just Earth, that addresses the critical and drastic change society needs to embrace to counter climate change and biodiversity loss.
Listen on to find out more. Fergus Collins is your host.

Tony's new book, Just Earth, is published by Bloomsbury.

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:
The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

UK Plodcast listeners can take advantage of a special subscription to BBC Countryfile Magazine where you can receive you first 3 issues for just £6. Head to www.ourmediashop.com/plodcast25

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

You pause beside the river, watching sunlight play on the rapids. Above the rush of the water, you hear the excitable snickering of common sandpipers – a pair are flying in wide circles, low over the water, their wingtips skimming the surface in a daring courtship flight.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Poppy Okotcha explains how to garden for contentment, health and deeper connection with nature and community. Plodcast host Fergus Collins met the fashion model-turned-horticulturalist at her beautiful spring garden in Devon to learn a simpler way to be.

Poppy's new book, A Wilder Way: How gardens grow us, is published by Bloomsbury.

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

UK Plodcast listeners can take advantage of a special subscription to BBC Countryfile Magazine where you can receive you first 3 issues for just £6. Head to www.ourmediashop.com/plodcast25

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

It's early evening on a remote sheep farm in Warwickshire. The orange sunset slants through the trees and the lambs are softly bleating.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Lewis Dobbs, introduced by Hannah Tribe.

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week we're heading to a sheep farm in Warwickshire just south of Birmingham. It's lambing time and young farmer Bizza Walters and her family reveal the ups and downs of this crucial, stressful, delightful few weeks in spring.

Plus we talk about why farmers need mental health support and discuss other big issues facing the farming community.

You can find Bizza on Instagram (@bizza.walters), other social media and her website www.bizzawalters.co.uk/

And now you can get in touch with the Plodcast team via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

UK Plodcast listeners can take advantage of a special subscription to BBC Countryfile Magazine where you can receive you first 3 issues for just £6. Head to www.ourmediashop.com/plodcast25

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

In a peaceful Dorset valley, a garden looks onto wide farmland. As a blackbird sings seductively from the hedgerow, a yellowhammer tests out his rising song of summer joy from somewhere out in the open landscape.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Kevin Parr, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

To celebrate the 60th anniversary of the opening of Britain's most famous long-distance footpath, Plodcast host Fergus met folk singer Johnny Campbell to walk part of the route.

Johnny is spending 19 days walking the entire route from Derbyshire to the Borders of Scotland – gigging almost every evening. His powerful songs are rooted in the landscape and the struggles of ordinary people to gain access to nature and fresh air. Listen on for a live rendition of one of Johnny's most famous songs.

You'll also hear the voice of Johnny's friend and walking companion 'sherpa' Freddie.

You can find out more about Johnny on his website www.johnnycampbell.co.uk and you can find his songs on all the major streaming services.

And now you can get in touch via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

UK Plodcast listeners can take advantage of a special subscription to BBC Countryfile Magazine where you can receive you first 3 issues for just £6. Head to www.ourmediashop.com/plodcast25

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

We're on the cusp of spring but winter clings on in rasping voices of ravens. As you walk in the cold sunlight of early March across a field to a stand of trees, starling song cascades, while skylarks erupt sporadically, dreaming of warmer days. But you also catch the chack-chack-chack of fieldfares, winter visitors escaping the deep cold of their Scandinavian homeland.

BBC Countryfile Magazine's Sound Escapes are a weekly audio postcard from the countryside to help you relax and transport you somewhere beautiful, wherever you happen to be.

Recorded by Fergus Collins, introduced by Hannah Tribe. Image from Getty

Email the Plodcast team – and send your sound recordings of the countryside – to: [email protected]

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This week, join Plodcast host Fergus Collins as he explores a local woodland for the first time in search of a legendary woodpecker – with gorgeous birdsong along the way.

Plus, author Kerri Andrews reads from her powerful new book: Pathfinding: On Walking, Motherhood and Freedom, published by Elliott and Thompson

And after all that, join the Plodcast team in the studio for a round up of listener messages and nature chat. And now you can get in touch via:

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast group on Facebook & BBC Countryfile Magazine's Instagram page.

UK Plodcast listeners can take advantage of a special subscription to BBC Countryfile Magazine where you can receive you first 3 issues for just £6. Head to www.ourmediashop.com/plodcast25

The BBC Countryfile Magazine Plodcast is the Publishers Podcast Awards Special Interest Podcast of the Year 2024 and the PPA Podcast of the Year 2022.

If you've enjoyed the plodcast, don't forget to leave likes and positive reviews. Contact the Plodcast team and send your sound recordings of the countryside to: [email protected].

If your letter, email or message is read out on the show, you could WIN a Plodcast Postbag prize of a wildlife- or countryside-themed book chosen by the team.

The Plodcast is produced by Jack Bateman and Lewis Dobbs. The theme tune was written and performed by Blair Dunlop

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices