Mellow Expeditions - @toby.bewley
For this week’s Mellow Expeditions feature we spoke to @toby.bewley who explores his local mountainous areas vs areas on the other side of the world. Despite some unfortunate weather @toby.bewley describes his trip to Mount Fuji to be an amazing experience and a story to tell…
Whenever I have been on a long hike (specifically in the Lake District), I’ll always be sure to keep track of exactly where I have been or take pictures along the way. This is purely because my Grandad knows every Wainwright inside and out, so can tell exactly where I am based on a single photo - I’ve known him to recognise exactly where a photo I’ve taken is from, before I do. He has always lived local to the Lake District & over the years has become a human encyclopedia for the area, which is definitely where my love for hiking & the outdoors has come from…
Having the Lake District in close proximity to home keeps me intrigued by other mountainous areas around the world. Last year I visited Thailand, and the highlight of the trip was the day we visited Mae Rim, which is a village situated on a mountain in Chiang Mai. Aside from the views, I was fascinated by the people who lived there off locally sourced foods, and appeared to have no desire to leave, dedicating their lives to making the mountain a safe & sustainable place to live, whilst still being welcoming to tourists like us.
Thailand being my inception to Asia further induced my desire to go to Japan, and in particular, see Mt Fuji. I arranged our trip and dedicated an entire day to visiting the best viewpoints for Mt Fuji, however despite the commitment, we chose a day where absolutely nothing but a sky full of clouds could be seen, only to then see Mt Fuji in its entirety out the window of a train journey two days later. Despite the excursion being slightly unsuccessful, no time/money felt wasted due to the insane surrounding areas that we got to explore more thoroughly without distraction.
Hiking and exploring various places across the world will definitely be something that I aim to fit around my Job in Radio/Television production, and would love the opportunity to combine the two at points in my career. One place I wish to visit in the future is the Himalayas, which is an idea inspired yet again by my Grandad, who despises being extremely content with his life exploring the places he has, stating that’s the one place he would have liked to have seen. However the more important/inspiring thing that I gathered from that conversation, was that he is equally as happy with everything around him in Cumbria.
