In the wilderness, no one can hear you scream...

Sitting here watching the last day of the Masters Golf Tournament currently being played at Augusta, Georgia, gives me a good excuse to talk about the great outdoors, and how Americans treat their vast and pleasant land.

They all seem rightly proud of the fantastic scenery that is encompassed in this huge and diverse country. In Texas alone, which I give you isn’t small by any means, there is an ever changing countryside that moves past you as you traverse the state. You have the flat open planes of the Pan Handle in the north, the lush forested regions to the east, the dry, arid tundra of the south, and the rolling hillsides and valleys in the west. All distinct, all unique, but all quintessentially American.

This is surely one of the major reasons why people, like myself, come here to visit. We have all seen those fantastic images and film of the jagged, snow top peaks set against a searing blue sky, the sweeping, scorched desserts or the humid, sultry swamps of the bayou, and when you get here there is no way you can leave feeling disappointed.

Having spent this weekend camping in the hill country to the west of Austin, and watching the sun set over a beautiful lake, and waking up in the woods over looked by vine covered slopes, it felt great to get out of the cities and away from the hustle and bustle of all the people and experience what the country had to offer. For Graham it offered a burnt thumb on a piece of firewood and a racoon trying to steal our food and trying to scare it off with a large beef steak on a long stick! It also gave us an epic drive 90 mins out of Austin along some twisty, curving hillside road, and it turns out the country also has some very nice wines and plenty of vineyards that you can try them at. I have to admit I did not expect to be sat in between rows of grapes, in Texas, sampling home made wines, and looking up at a hill top castle copied from a 16^th century Bavarian stronghold (that you can rent out for your fairytale wedding or your hunting party).

And this is a big part of how the Yanks look at their country; ‘What can I take from this’. Whether it’s hunting, fishing, camping, off-roading or just escaping from the towns and cities, these beautiful wildernesses are now seen as playgrounds and theme parks (or the perfect places to set up your headquarters for your religious cult, and ‘bible camps’ to send your kids to).

And this is a great shame. There are some great small communities in these places that are slowly dying and being taken over by people from the cities buying property as weekend retreats. Being still a relatively young country that only a few generations ago was still being explored and colonised by pioneering families, a land of such huge expanse that space has never been at a premium, and an economy based on vast natural resources that bloomed settlements overnight where there had previously only been dust and sand, Americans have never seemed to have much of a problem picking up and moving on.

In England I think we pay much more attention to our green and pleasant land, mainly because there is so little left of it, where as here people seem a little bit more dismissive and blasé about their natural surroundings. Being treated to such scenic pleasures for your entire life I guess it would be hard not to I suppose.  

Until next time...


This week I've been listening to...