Lone Wolf: Walking 1,000 Miles in a Wolf's Footsteps with Adam Weymouth

🎧 Follow the show here— it really helps *Adventure Diaries* reach more listeners. Thank you. Award-winning travel writer Adam Weymouth joins Chris to talk about *Lone Wolf*, his account of retracing the epic 1,000-mile journey of Slavc — a gray wolf who walked from Slovenia, across the Alps, into Italy in 2011. It's a story about rewilding, politics, folklore, and an unlikely wolf love story. **Key Takeaways** - **Europe's carnivores are quietly returning.** There are now more wolves in Europe than in the continental US, and more bears in Europe than lions in Africa. Every mainland European country has wolves — and they came back on their own, not through reintroduction. - **Slavc's journey was remarkable for its success, not just its distance.** He walked ~1,000 miles (possibly 3,000 with detours), then against staggering odds met a lone female wolf, "Juliet." Their descendants — 42 pups, 17 packs — repopulated the Eastern Italian Alps. - **Wolves are extraordinarily hard to track.** Researcher Hubert Potočnik boils his equipment, buries it over winter, and works in two pairs of gloves — because if one wolf sees a packmate trapped, the whole pack becomes uncatchable. - **The wolf is one of the world's longest-running culture wars.** Weymouth met farmers whose livelihoods are genuinely threatened; far-right parties have weaponized the issue. After a wolf ate EU Commission President von der Leyen's pony, the wolf's protected status was downgraded. - **Werewolf trials were real.** A lesser-known twin to the witch trials, mostly targeting men — scapegoating outsiders and vagrants, often under torture. - **We embraced the dog but never forgave the wolf** — despite them being nearly the same animal, separated only ~20,000 years ago. Far more people are killed by domestic dogs than wolves. - **Slow travel builds genuine human connection.** Walking and canoeing let Weymouth meet people on equal terms and represent even opposing views fairly — the real purpose of travel writing. - **The book is really about change and fear of it** — climate, migration, dying industries — and the wolf as a model of meeting crisis with movement and resilience. **Chapters** - 00:00 A Chance Meeting of Wolves - 00:43 Intro & Welcome - 03:27 Meet Adam Weymouth - 08:18 Walking to Istanbul - 17:05 The Yukon, Salmon & Indigenous Alaska - 28:42 Tracking Slavc: Why Wolves Are So Hard to Catch - 30:38 Retracing the Lone Wolf Walk Across Europe - 36:27 Farmers, Politics & the Wolf Culture War - 42:19 Werewolf Trials & Folklore - 49:57 Slavc & Juliet: A Wolf Love Story - 1:05  Change, Climate & the Wolf's Return - 1:07  Quickfire Questions & Closing Traditions **Links & Mentions** - **Book:** *Lone Wolf* by Adam Weymouth (also available on audiobook) - **Website:** adamweymouth.com — articles and links to buy the books - **Charity shoutout:** Io Non Ho Paura del Lupo ("I'm not scared of the wolf") — working with Italian farmers to shift cultural perceptions of the wolf - **Call to adventure:** Donkey trekking in the Pyrenees for families Send us Fan Mail Support the show **Thanks For Listening.** If you enjoyed this episode, please **leave a comment and subscribe** for more exciting content. Please visit AdventureDiaries.com/GO  For more authentic stories of Adventure Exploration and the natural world The **Adventure Diaries Podcas**t also covers a broad spectrum OF topics withIN the fields of Adventure, Exploration, Micro-adventure, Survival, Mental Resilience, Conservation, Scotland, Hiking, Solo Travel, Cycling, Nature, Storytelling, Mountaineering