National Parks – everyone has their own story to tell

9 November 2021

As the deadline for our National Parks: New Perspectives bursaries draws closer (Monday 15 November 2021), Chris Quevatre, Lead film maker at Ocean City Media which is partnering with us for the scheme, explains what National Parks mean to him…

National Parks haven’t always been a big part of my life. I grew up in Guernsey – one of the tiny Channel Islands off the French coast. Whether we were on the beach, walking the cliff paths, or playing on the commons, the outdoors was a huge part of my childhood. But being an island just a few miles long, we never got the amazing sense of scale that a National Park can give you. You can’t stand at the top of a mountain, or in the middle of a moor, and feel that incredible sense of perspective that comes with being part of something bigger.

I was nearly 18 when I went to the Lake District for the first time. I’d never seen so far and so wide without being sat in an airplane before. I’d never walked so far, gotten quite so sunburnt and been so drenched by the rain all in the same day before. I’d never felt so remote and been quite so lost before. I loved it.

In the years since, I’ve been to most of the UK’s National Parks, and still find new experiences, new terrains, and new ways to misread a map. I love the camaraderie you experience with strangers at the top of a mountain in Wales when you can’t see more than a few feet in front of you, as well as the feeling of freedom when you don’t see any other walkers for days at a time.

Everyone has their own history with nature, and their own stories of how they discovered incredible National Parks. That’s just one of the reasons Ocean City Media is so proud to be working with Campaign for National Parks and supporting the National Parks: New Perspectives bursary scheme, amplifying young and under-represented voices.

Real, human stories are the best way to give a platform to the diverse users of National Parks, and to highlight the major issues such as climate change facing this generation. National Parks have something for everyone – you just have to go out and find it.

To find out more about the National Parks: New Perspectives scheme, see HERE.