‘Walking teaches us the importance of being ‘unproductive’ once in a while.’
Broadcaster, author and Winter Walks star Nihal Arthanayake on walking, talking and the joy of wandering aimlessly…
THERE’S A LOT going on in Nihal’s head.
As the voice of afternoons on BBC Radio Five Live, he flits effortlessly between in-depth interviews (often backed by immense amounts of reading and research), light bants with guests and a razor-sharp awareness of breaking news and how to explain it.
But then he’s also Nihal the acclaimed and multiaward-winning DJ; passionate about rap, hip-hop and Asian beats; a mentor and champion for thousands of breakthrough musicians in a career stretching back to his early days on Radio 1. And he’s an author. His recent book Let’s Talk:
How to Have Better Conversations explores the ‘critical damage’ that has befallen the art of conversation in the digital age, and asks how we can learn to talk to each other again. Its fans include Sara Cox, Dan Snow and Ricky Gervais.
All this is great, but as Nihal admits, it brings a need to decompress.
“I absolutely love it when I can give myself time to not think of anything, and it’s only on a walk that I really do that,” he explains.
“That’s when I discipline myself to turn the phone off, enter that wonderful flow state that walking puts you in, and just listen to the sound of the landscape. We feel so much pressure to be productive, to bombard ourselves with information every moment. It’s so important to rebel against that once in a while. I forget that all the time, and then every walk reminds me.”
Nihal is a relatively new convert to walking. Six years ago he moved with his family from London to Greater Manchester, as Five Live relocated its operations to Media City in Salford. He soon began exploring the hills on Manchester’s doorstep, starting with the vast National Trust estate of Lyme Park and working further east into the Peak District over time. He has a particular fondness for Ladybower Reservoir and its beautifully positioned pub, the Ladybower Inn. (“The landlord there is a Five Live listener so it has become my favourite place to start exploring from.”)
He’s a fan of short walks and ‘wandering
aimlessly’. For Nihal, a mile or so up Ladybower Brook with his daughter, to sit and watch the sunset from the rocks above Highshaw Clough, is every bit as rewarding as a long day on the imposing Kinder Scout.
“However long a walk is, the appeal is the same. It’s about being in the moment, looking closely, at what’s going on in the bark of the trees, the crevices of the rock, and underneath your feet,” he explains enthusiastically.
“It’s not silence because nature makes a cacophony of noise, but it’s a completely different kind from the noise that surrounds us in everyday life. The kind of noise you can love.”
It was this newfound passion which got him noticed by the producers of BBC Four’s Winter
Walks, who dispatched him on a walk around Arnside Knott in Cumbria with the famous invisible selfie-stick camera. The result was a breathtakingly beautiful film in which Nihal’s delight at exploring somewhere that was completely new to him came shining through.
“Winter Walks is like the CBeebies Bedtime Story. You can’t ask to do it, you have to be invited – and then you know you’ve arrived,” he laughs.
“What a beautiful place Arnside is. I was just mesmerised by it. And the feedback I got from that programme was amazing. It seemed to really resonate with viewers. The people who watched it said they found it quite hypnotic.”
In addition to the route itself, Nihal loved the little chats he had with other walkers he met along the way.
“I live a lot of my life having big conversations, so for me little chats are a joy, and a good walk is full of them,” he says. “Perhaps it’s because we’ve usually got a dog with us [Nihal is an avowed doglover with a specific passion for Staffordshire terriers]. Dogs are almost always great icebreakers when I’m out walking.”
He contrasts this real-world friendliness with the ambient perception that Asian people (and other minority communities) are somehow not welcome in the countryside.
“There is this barrier; a perception, often perpetuated by social media trolls, that the countryside is inherently white and middle class,” he explains.
“I think it does have an impact, because I’m often surprised by how few Asian families I see in the Peak District when the communities of Manchester and Sheffield are so close.
“But when you go out there, overwhelmingly you will find that people are just happy. Happy to be there and happy to see you. We live in one of the most tolerant countries on the planet, and whether I’m walking by myself or with the family, I’ve never felt anything other than welcome.”
As with many of the world’s difficulties, he suggests, the answer is conversation.
“The more people we can spread the word to, that walking is healthy and wonderful and normal, the fewer barriers there will be. And the more conversations people have when they’re outdoors, the more they will feel it’s a place where they belong. Just little chats. But they make a big difference.”
● Listen to Nihal on Five Live, Monday to Thursday, 1-4pm. His book Let’s Talk is available now from all good booksellers, published by Hachette. Nihal’s episode of Winter Walks is still available on BBC iPlayer. Follow him on Twitter @TherealNihal