Beau Miles
The Backyard Adventurer – Gippsland, Victoria, Australia
Beau Miles is an Australian YouTuber, educator, author, and outdoorsman as well as an Award winning filmmaker. With a PhD in Outdoor Education, a string of successful short films under his belt, Beau’s exploits are funny, authentic, insightful and being copied all over the world.
Miles’ father was a painter, a hand-to-mouth artist for 50 some-odd years. Miles witnessed the hard work his parents put into making a living.
Though it is his re-framing of adventure, penchant for self-experiments and unpacking of his own worldview that makes for insightful, inspiring and intriguing storytelling. Beau recently released his first book: The Backyard Adventurer, to great acclaim. In it, he explores the idea of conscious experimentation with adventure, making meaning and inspiration out of tins of beans, bits of rubbish, elbow grease and backyard spaces. Beau’s exploits are funny, authentic, insightful and now being imitated all over the world by others looking to live inspired lives.
Ultimately, he’s curious. And, he satisfies his curiosity by undertaking immense adventures like running 655km along the Australian Alpine Trail and kayaking around the Southern tip of Africa. On top of the truly epic adventures, Beau also enjoys exploring his own backyard, in new and creative ways.
He immerses himself particularly in the faded glory of his environment to connect with its recent past and to highlight the difference between thinking we are separate from nature – with a paternalistic duty to take care of it – versus feeling that we are a part of it. Miles deciphers the intangibles of life by working on tangible projects – planting trees, baking bread, running around the block – just putting one foot in front of the other.
“I’m at real tension with history and people of the past and so I want to become this new breed of adventurer that questions those that come before us and tells a story that includes us.”
Websites: Beau Miles
Video 1) You tube Channel
Video 2) A Tree a Minute: planting 1440 trees in a day
