Imagine hiking up a mountain under a full moon with fresh snow under your feet, breaking through the tree line and feeling that warm glow of sunrise hitting your face. Riding a sleigh pulled by huskies in a winter wonderland, cross- country skiing through villages nestled in the Austrian Alps, tobogganing down a mountain at sunset, swimming in a frozen lake or ski-touring up a mountain and descending through the trees. Imagine ending your day in a rejuvenating thermal spa before dinner and a well-earned sleep, to wake up and do it all over again. Welcome to winter holidays in Austria!
Not many thoughts enter my mind apart from what I am doing. I wish everyone could do something like this once a year, or even once in your lifetime. We need it! I switch off from everything. A challenge like this is so all encompassing that I don’t have space for much else. All my energy goes into the challenge, and the micro world I create with the adventure I am on, the world directly around me and the people I am with. My world becomes small but this gives me freedom to become bigger than I’ve ever felt. My mind is not filled with events going on all over the world, with emails, news, social media, and the need to reply to messages, my mind is filled with fresh air and miles, hills, sweat, tears and food stops. My mind is filled with views so dramatic and mind-blowing, I am speechless. My heart flips a bit with each corner I turn and the awe that the NC500 route delivers again and again.
It’s been a year since I started the project of creating my dream van ↠ @theonelifevan ↞ and as I get a lot of questions about it, I wanted to share the process and some resources with you! If you are thinking of building or buying a van i can say it’s ONE HUNDRED PERCENT as awesome as you might think it is! And my journey with van life is only just beginning... However, it can be a bit of a minefield and hard to know where to start. I hope this helps :)
There are preciously rare occasions in life when you are handed an opportunity to go somewhere or meet someone that truly inspires you. Somewhere that shifts your centre of gravity, allowing you to refresh, refocus and restart. Or someone that has the capacity to capture your imagination and transport it to places you aspire to go but don’t quite know how to access. When your mind has gone there, the chances are your body will follow…
In October 2019, I took 10 girls sailing for five days on a Tall Ships Youth Trust sailing adventure proudly sponsored by KEEN footwear. It was magical and lives were changed!
We stepped off the boat with a different perspective. With love in our hearts, faith in ourselves and confidence to go forth and grow into the women we know we can be. I asked the girls to capture their experiences and what it meant to them…
When GoPro asked if I wanted to collaborate to create a series of films to promote friendship through adventure. Their question was “If you could do anything in the UK and take anyone with you, what would you do and who would you take?"
Scotland has the right to roam act which means it’s legal to wild camp any where. After Lorna and I finish our run on Ben Nevis, we drive towards Mallaig on the West Coast after a recommendation from a friend as a spectacular place. We don’t know exactly what we’re looking for, but have an idea in mind and our eyes peeled. We pass a find a small car park with a sign “Path to Beach” pointing to a cliff top. We park up and unload the car. We’ve found our spot.
“Get the girls some tea” the mountain rescue team stammer, as we walk into the CIC hut half way up Ben Nevis. After a week in Scotland on my own, Lorna North, Founder and writer at Queen of the Mile, boarded the Caledonian Sleeper Train from Euston to Fort William to join me for three days of unadulterated adventure in Scotland.
This was day two and we’d decided to go for a run up Ben Nevis. At 1344m The Ben, as it’s known by locals and climbers, is the highest mountain in the UK. In March, much of it is still covered in snow, beckoning climbers and skiers to adventure in it’s shadows and and dance in it’s light. We were here to run and feel the freedom of nature all around us.
“What’s your next big adventure?” Is a question I’m commonly asked. Sometimes I provide an explanation that may help to maintain the image I portray on social media. Sometimes I tell the truth. “I’m staying put,“ was my response to a friend recently. “Sorry, where’s that?” my friend replied.
When I provided more detail to my answer, my friend replied with “but that’s not what you’re supposed to say. You’re supposed to be off doing all these amazing things that the rest of us can’t do. If you are staying here getting on with life, that makes you normal too.”
Upon arriving in Bolivia, I embarked on an incredible adventure through the Bolivian jungle with Gravity Assisted Mountain Bike Tours and Andean Epics. They promised to deliver an off the beaten track experience to kick off my #NextStopLatinAmerica adventure with Lan and Tam Airlines.
It’s Day 3 of the first edition of Race The World, we woke up in the Arizona desert, ate breakfast in the dark, watched the sunrise and jumped in the minibus.
