‘Spiritual and very intense’ — Kate’s bond with nature

The Princess of Wales has championed the outdoors, highlighting its restorative power, as she met the chief scout, Dwayne Fields, and children from across the north.

The princess helped the Scouts understand a map in the Lake District to earn their naturalist badge. Picture: Kensington Palace

The Princess of Wales has described how she experiences a “very spiritual and very intense emotional reconnection” when spending time in nature.

Kensington Palace released a video of Kate yesterday (Monday), showing the princess in a bakerboy cap, walking about Windermere in the Lake District with a group of Scouts.

Kate, 43, who has been the joint president of Scouts since 2020, helped troops from Cumbria and Greater Manchester read a map as part of a challenge to earn their naturalist badge. The trip near the shores of Windermere, which took place in March, was her first occasion meeting Dwayne Fields, who took over as chief scout last September.

The princess was filmed in conversation with Fields as she told him how being outdoors was “meaningful for me as a place of balance”. The pair discussed the benefits of enjoying time in nature, as well as the confidence and skills young people could learn through more time outdoors.

Kate Middleton celebrated Mother’s Day in the UK by sharing a post about Mother Nature.

Fields asked Kate: “When you come out here, when all the stresses and strains of regular life happen and you come into a space like this, what do you think about?”

Kate said: “I find it a very spiritual and very intense emotional reconnection, I suppose, these environments. Not everyone has that same relationship perhaps with nature, but it is therefore so meaningful for me as a place to balance and find a sort of sense of peace and reconnection in what is otherwise a very busy world.”

Dwayne Fields, who succeeded Bear Grylls as chief scout, became the first black Briton to walk to the magnetic North Pole in 2010. Picture: Kensington Palace

Kate was shown crouching down as the scouts, aged between 10 and 15, crowded around a map on the ground. Pointing at the map, the princess said: “It’s so beautiful because so many of the walks here, you can see Lake Windermere because it’s huge, isn’t it? Look how hilly it is in here. Have you done any of these big mountains?”

She was also photographed standing and laughing with the Scouts while they sat eating ice-creams at a picnic table at the edge of the lake.

The video echoed her Mother’s Day message last year, during which she said nature had been her family’s “sanctuary” during her cancer treatment.

She also shared clips from a film shot in Norfolk last summer, first released in September to mark the end of her preventative chemotherapy treatment and to announce that she would return to work. The video showed the princess and the Prince of Wales walking through the woods near their home, playing a card game and wading through the water on the beach.

Almost half a million young people participate in Scouting activities every week, with 250 activity badges to earn, ranging from canoeing to coding.

Fields said: “I think it’s really important for young people to have access to nature because it’s a space where they can push themselves, they can challenge themselves, they learn leadership skills, spend time making friends and those life-long really great memories that we all hold on to.

“I think if we can do that, we’ll build up a generation who is passionate about our natural spacets and passionate about protecting them as well.”

Kate told Fields: “What’s so fantastic about the Scouts is that the same foundation has sort of always been there, and still, despite how different the modern-day world is now, it still resonates with so many young people and it’s making such a massive difference to them.”

Fields, who was born in Jamaica and raised by his great-grandmother, travelled to Britain at the age of six to live with his mother in Hackney, north London.

He became a victim of gang violence in Stoke Newington and was made homeless for a period at 20, but after having been a Cub Scout as a child in Haringey, he turned to a life of adventure.

In 2010 Fields became the first black Briton to walk to the magnetic North Pole and has since appeared on Countryfile and Springwatch. His Channel 5 series Endurance: Race to the Pole was nominated for a Bafta.

On filming with the princess, Fields said: “In an increasingly complex world digital technology has its place, but the few hours we spent in the hills without screens was magical. We are often at our best in the outdoors and I want more young people to experience outdoor adventures like this for themselves.”

The Times