The Biggest Picture

Storytelling through walking

A Deep Time Walk is a 4.6km walk representing the 4.6 billion years of Earth’s history. Each kilometre represents a billion years, and each metre a million years.

At various intervals along the walk the guide will point out significant developments from the perspective of physics, chemistry, philosophy, biology, history and ecology. The interval between stops may be as long as a kilometre or as short as half a millimetre. Whilst walking, participants are encouraged to be mindful of their journey and contemplate the vastness of time they are crossing.

Immerse yourself in history

Our brains are unable to compute the meaning of 4,600,000,000 years, but distance is a powerful tool to help us comprehend this vast time scale. A Deep Time Walk is storytelling through walking, it is a learning journey through our body, mind and soul, and a beautiful way to tell the story of life. Part history lesson, part mindfulness session this walk is all about stepping out of our lives and seeing The Biggest Picture.

What will you learn?

In the course of this immersive, interdisciplinary experience you will:

• Grasp the real meaning of 4,600,000,000 years, the age of our home, and put its history into perspective.
• Learn about the Gaia hypothesis of a self-regulating planet, and the inseparable nature of the living and non-living components.
• Explore the impact our species is having on the living world.
• Gain an understanding of terms such as ‘fossil fuels’, ‘mass extinction’ and ‘greenhouse effect’.
• Develop a new understanding of time, providing you with the tools to think about the long-term future as well as the distant past.

Suitable for:

Curious people age 12 and above. Optimum group size is 8-15 people.

Where:

The minimum duration is 3 hours.

A 3-6 hour walk allows for more in-depth discussion, exploration of themes.

Acknowledgments:

The Deep Time Walk was developed by Stephan Harding and Sergio Maraschin at the Schumacher College in Devon, UK.