Adventure She magazine - April 2021

Adventure She magazine, Issue 13, April 2021

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Adventure She Empower Educate Entertain

Featuring Interview with former New Zealand Prime Minister Helen Clark Saving Elephants in Tanzania Literacy in Rural Nepal Bike packing Peru #ShepaddlesCymru and lots more

Issue 13, April 2021 www.adventureshe.com

1 Price £5.00 for 1 issue or £15 for all 3 of 2021’s issues

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Welcome From Our Editor

a lifetime of body

worry, my interview with her wasn’t political in nature, but more along the lines of learning from a woman who has been there and done that, which she most definitely has.

Welcome to the April 2021, the 13th issue of Adventure She magazine.

It’s spring here in the northern hemisphere. For nature, a time of renewal after a winter of hibernation.

Many of us might also feel like we’ve been hibernating, thanks to lockdowns in several countries.

Semi regular contributor Caroline Powell is back with more about her cycling adventures. This time it’s Peru.

Not a story about cycle touring the world famous parts of Peru, but a look at those forgotten in between places and the graft we need to put in, if we choose to pursue our dreams.

The thing is, hibernation isn’t about giving up. Hibernation is about surviving and getting through tough times, so we can once again thrive. I very much hope this issue will help you thrive, it’s certainly packed with stories that empower, educate and entertain.

So what’s in Adventure She magazine this time around?

What about people who are new to the adventure scene? Ascertaining where and how to start, can be a mind bogging challenge to some. Canoe Wales have identified a number of reasons why women don’t participate in paddle sports to the same extent as men. Clare Rutter reveals all about the initiatives Canoe Wales have implemented in order to start to redress this imbalance and her role in their #ShePaddlesCymru campaign. In case you don’t know, Cymru is the Welsh for Wales.

With so many of us finding our planned adventures on hold, this time around there’s more emphasis on the choices open to us and how we can choose to give to the world, rather than take from the world. Francesca Mahoney writes about helping a community in Tanzania deal with their elephant ‘problem’ by building a bee hive fence. Meanwhile Jacqs Leui’I has found her preferred way of giving back, is through helping with health and educational initiatives in Nepal.

Of course some people prefer to explore the great outdoors alone.

Nicola Gaskell is one of those people who chooses to run alone, rather than run with others. Her journey to understanding what brings her joy hasn’t always been a smooth one.

Thank you Nicola for sharing your story. After all, so many people post purely glamourous images or stories on social media, we need more people like you, who are also happy to admit to the tough times, for life can be tough.

Our cover person this time around is Helen Clark. She has chosen to give her life to the issues she cares about.

Her modus operandi, initially local politics, then national politics – including serving as New Zealand Prime Minister - and then as Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme from 2009 to 2017. As you know, Adventure She doesn’t do politics, so please don’t

Choice is a wonderful thing. Lucja Leonard is a very different runner to 2

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Nicola Gaskell and that’s the beauty of choice, so often there is no right or wrong answer, so long as we make the choices to live our life as best as we can. For Lucja that’s a semi nomadic lifestyle, but that’s a life that suits her and her family. In this issue she shares about the joy of wintering over in warm and sunny Arizona, a land of shorts, cacti and snakes.

In this day and age it’s almost impossible to avoid mentioning Covid19. This time around I’ve really tried to ensure the magazine doesn’t focus on it, whilst still acknowledging the new world order (hopefully of course a temporary one). One person who hasn’t let Covid-19 stop her, is Mel Steventon. Like many hikers and runners, Mel’s chosen to focus on what is possible, rather than what’s impossible. In her case, focusing on possibilities led to her gaining a world first. Huge congratulations Mel. You guessed it, she shares all with us.

Animals have also suffered in the pandemic. What to do, if you have an intense love of animals and hate to see them suffering? Lesley Hammam writes about choosing to hike 100km in Egypt, for an animal charity that’s close to her heart. She’s also very kindly shared with us some other choices she’s made in life and is living proof of how, when we actively choose to do something, as opposed to simply sit around, we can achieve so much.

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Apart from our regular book review, UNESCO feature and ‘What A Woman’ award which goes to the amazing Pip Hare, who recently sailed solo, nonstop, unsupported, around the world, we also have one final story. Lisa Barlow decided to make the most of what was available to her last year.

She chose to make maps. She chose to improve her mountain biking. Then when the rules allowed, she chose to mountain bike across Wales. Well done Lisa. I’m personally very impressed at your proactiveness and I love your maps.

Alas once again there’s not enough space for all the stories I’d hope to share with you this time around. So a review of the Royal Geographical Society’s Micro lectures evening by Ellen Piercy and a few other articles will now appear in our next issue.

Remember, please do keep sending us your stories, for we love sharing them.

Besides, when we share our stories, we share a greater depth of knowledge and different perspectives, things which are surely good to share.

Here’s to empowering, educating and entertaining each other for another year.

Jane

Following Adventure She on social media If you'd like to follow Adventure She on social media and / or join our Facebook Group, we'll be delighted to see you.

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Adventure She is published by TNA Consulting Services Ltd, the address of the registered of which can be obtained from Companies House. The entire contents are protected by copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction without prior permission is forbidden. Every care is taken in compiling the contents of the magazine, but the publishers assume no and responsibility in the effect arising therefrom, Readers are 3 advised to seek professional advice before acting on any information which is contained in the magazine. Neither TNA Consulting Services Ltd nor Adventure She magazine accept any liability for views expressed, pictures used, or claims made. Copyright © 2021 TNA Consulting Services Ltd. All Rights Reserved.

From The

Adventure She magazine, Issue 13, April 2021

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Topics In This Issue Of Adventure She Magazine Page 6 – helen clark Page 6 – Elephants v Bees

Page 20 – Nepal, Women Health & Literacy

Page 50 – UNESCO Feature – Te Wahipounamu Page 30 – Interview with Helen Clark – Prime Minister and Administrator UN

Page 56 – Bikepacking Peru

Page 54 – Book Reviews 4

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Page 68 – #ShePaddlesCymru

Page78 – Running Solo

Page 82 – Embracing Opportunity - Running Arizona

Page 92 – What A Woman

Page 104 – Charity Hiking Egypt

Page 94 – A First For Women – Running The Wainwrights

Page 114 – Maps, Mountains and Mountin Bikes - Mountain Biking the Trans Cambrian

Page 128 - Coming Up

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ELEPHANTS v BEES BY FRANCESCA MAHONEY 6

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In an article published on 3 June 2015 at https://eiainternational.org the Environmental Investigation Agency (EIA) reported that the Tanzanian government admitted “it has presided over a catastrophic 60 per cent collapse in its elephant population due to poaching in the past five years.”

One of the people who’d been reading and watching reports of this devastating elephant poaching was Francesca Mahoney She couldn’t believe what was happening. In 2007 she’d volunteered at an elephant tracking programme in South Africa. Seeing her first elephant was such an emotive moment for her, it even brought tears to her eyes.

Hearing about the plight of the elephants in 2015 lit a fire within Fran. She was determined to do something to help the elephants. So she left her job in London and headed off to Tanzania, firstly to learn more about the situation and secondly, to see if she could find a way to, and of course with the help of others, keep the remaining elephants alive.

The result was setting up of a charity, Wild Survivors.

B

ees are often referred to as powerful pollinators, but the world underestimates their true value to a healthy, functioning planet. They are responsible for one third of every mouthful of food we consume, as well as the coffee that keeps many of us functioning. Bees are

prehistoric environmental heavyweights, having evolved over 80 million years. For thousands of years wild bees have provided people with medicine, sustenance and more recently, livelihoods.

Athletic honeybees fly with precision, their mission, to collect pollen and nectar to

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feed the 60,000 sisters that are working overtime to build comb, protect their queen and produce the golden reward we call honey.

Bees v Elephants In Tanzania, honeybees are going beyond their normal duties of keeping the planet functioning.

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African elephants sheltering under a baobab tree in Tanzania Image by Erich Röthlisberger from Pixabay

They are also helping protect elephants. But how can a tiny insect make such an impact on saving the world’s largest land mammal? It’s all in the sting.

https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.00 10346] concluded, the elephants were sprinting away from colonies of wild bees that inhabited cavities in those trees. In her research Dr Lucy King had put folklore to the test using an audio recording of bees that was remotely triggered through speakers close to a popular shady tree, where a large herd had congregated. Sure enough, after hearing the bees, the elephants displayed alert behaviour heads turning, ears stretched out wide, trunks sniffing the air, and the decision

Folklore has stories of elephants dashing from underneath the shade of the iconic baobab trees. Scientists dug deeper. A Kenyan study [King LE, Soltis J, Douglas-Hamilton I, Savage A, Vollrath F (2010) Bee Threat Elicits Alarm Call in African Elephants. PLoS ONE 5(4): e10346.

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was made to clear out in a cloud of dust.

sprawls and widespread agricultural development has shaped a new landscape across many previously wild areas of Africa. Where once wildlife roamed, now people and wildlife live in close proximity.

So why is a bee sting so frightening to an elephant? Despite their rough and wrinkly tough exterior, elephants have areas of very thin and sensitive skin around their eyes, inside their trunk, plus on their stomachs and paper-thin ears. Bees are clever and direct their sting to these precise spots. The stings hurt. Ensuring the safety of their young from stings is more important than an elephant’s desire for shade or a tasty source of food.

Elephants will do whatever it takes to avoid bee stings.

Elephants have found some of their habitat ranges and migratory routes taken over by humans, with tarmac roads and cultivated land, where there used to be prime elephant country.

Whilst pockets of protected areas have been set up for elephants, no one has explained the new ‘rules’ to the elephants! As a result, elephants frequently enter farmland that border national parks and forests.

Dr King’s finding saw the development of a simple, natural solution to humanelephant conflict, local bees could be utilised to deter elephants away from precious farmland.

Elephants raiding farmland, has placed huge pressure on local subsistence and cash-crop farmers, who are already at a disadvantage with climate change and uncompetitive market prices. Losing an acre of maize in just fifteen minutes to an aggressive elephant, pushes farmers to breaking point. Retaliation occurs and there can

Human - Elephant Conflict Human - elephant conflict is a historic and complex issue. Increased urban

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be fatalities on both sides. Alongside poaching, human-elephant conflict and habitat loss are the greatest threats to elephants.

- listening and learning to their experiences and concerns with wildlife and farming challenges.

But how does one build co-existence with bull elephants that raids farmers’ crops and destroys livelihoods? With a person’s livelihood gone, how does that person and their family survive?

How can one explain to farmers who’ve seen their neighbours lose everything, that they shouldn’t put down poison in an attempt to kill the raiding elephants? Poison doesn’t just lead to a slow and painful death for elephants, but also to predators of the elephant carcasses.

We cannot easily undo habitat fragmentation, and we must also be mindful of the economic development and stability that commercial farming and infrastructure brings to a developing nation. So how do we ensure people and elephants can live peacefully alongside each other, and not only survive, but thrive?

Wild Survivors I set out to research the little known issue of the role of human-elephant conflict in poaching. This led to my setting up Wild Survivors (which is a registered charity and subject to all the governance rules associated with charities), with the aim of building a healthy coexistence between elephants, communities and nature.

Bees This is where our powerful pollinators come back into the fold, specifically an innovation that has now been adopted in seventeen countries across Africa and Asia, the beehive fence, which was first developed by Dr Lucy King in Kenya.

Wild Survivors has two core objectives:

Wild Survivors has worked with our partners and the local community to build a beehive fence in the northern highland forest area of Tanzania, which you may have heard of, as it encircles the world famous ancient volcanic caldera known as the Ngorongoro Crater.

1. Protecting elephants by creating meaningful coexistence between elephants and people; preserving wild habitat; and engaging communities in wildlife education.

2. Empowering rural communities with alternative livelihoods in beekeeping, new employment opportunities, and livelihood stability with improved farming techniques.

First a wire fence was erected on the boundary between farmland and the protected area. Then hives were hung every ten metres along that fence, alternating with ‘dummy hives’ - two dimensional beehive boards that appear as real beehives to the elephants – which allow us to reduce the loading capacity of bees in the area. The team then baited the hives with lemongrass, wax and propolis.

Wild Survivors is however far too small to do everything. Besides, why reinvent the wheel? With the help and support of our project partners, PAMS Foundation, we began establishing crucial relationships with communities

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As the local wild bees migrate across landscapes in sync with the seasonal rains, the combination of aromas being emitted from the hives acts as a sensory magnet for the bees, telling them this is a home which other bees have approved and it’s worthy of a visit by the colony’s scouter bees. The colony subsequently moves in.

the wire or push it away. Never in an aggressive way (unlike the bulldozer buffalos), but the elephant’s force is enough to spring the beehive fence into action. The beehives begin to swing, like a pendulum, backwards and forwards all along the chain-link of hives.

The bees awaken, they’re alert, they fly out to investigate who or what is disturbing their sleep and threatening their home and that of their queen.

The elephant is caught out. Halfway over the fence, or right up against it, the elephant must turn quickly on its heels to avoid being stung. The elephant makes a hasty retreat back into the safety of the forest. The farmers’ crops are safe. Initially farmers, up late to guard their crops, couldn’t believe their eyes on seeing the elephants’ reaction.

Elephant Raids Elephants largely crop-raid at night, under the cover of darkness, a time when bees have returned on mass and are asleep. Upon approaching this strange new barrier blocking their highway into the farm, the elephants investigate. Using their trunk to gently investigate the wire, they might decide that this in fact a very easy, almost laughable barrier blocking their way.

Often, we capture elephants on our camera traps attempting to step over

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Win Win

The farmers are currently supported by the Wild Survivors community field team - the Bee Guardians who maintain the fence, monitor the beehives and provide beekeepers’ training. But Wild Survivors’ next goals include helping the community take over responsibility for the fence.

Another goal is to establish a honey harvesting cabin, where wax comb and fresh honey can be stored and processed in a clean and protected enclosed room.

The humble honeybees have created a win-win situation. Crop raiding has reduced, farmers are harvesting greater yields of maize and wheat, and many farmers have been able to return home to sleep at night.

The bees are also helping save elephants from retaliatory attacks and providing low-income farming communities with an additional source of income, through honey and wax production. To ensure the bees are happy and healthy inside their hive, which is essential if the beehive fence is to be a long term success story, only the surplus honey and wax can be harvested, bottled and sold.

We also plan on more collaborations, so we can put the spotlight on soil health, Ultimately, by putting the spotlight on soil and soil health, we can help shape a sustainable future in farming, and prevent further wild habitat fragmentation. This is the key to the survival of elephants - protecting their connectivity, and empowering people living alongside these magnificent giants, to farm in a way that not only preserves elephant habitat but prevents conflict and provides food security for families on the front line of conservation.

The Future Placing the solution, training, and skills in the hands of local people who know their land best, is key to long term conservation success.

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Keystone Species Elephants are a keystone species, responsible for the efficient dispersal of thousands of tree seeds, across hundreds of miles, cultivating biodiverse forests that many other species depend on. Mowing down thick bush, they create savannas that work to the advantage of predators such as lions on the hunt for prey. Creating bore holes of water that zebras, wildebeest and hyena can drink from, whilst their giant footprints fill with rain to form micro-habitats for insects and fungi. In essence, elephants are giant gardeners of Africa, ecosystem engineers.

Elephants are herbivores and consume between 150 - 170kg of vegetation every day, eaten over the course of sixteen hours. Much of this consists of leaves, seeds, bark and grasses. A pretty bland but necessary diet. So, when these giant vegetarians find a luscious field of highly nutritious crops such as maize and wheat on their doorstep, they head straight for it.

Male elephants, known as bulls, are particularly attracted to the opportunity of raiding farmland. With females only coming into heat every five years, bulls need to be as big and strong as possible, to ensure he can outfight his rivals and his

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genetics are passed on to the future generations. Multiple strong bulls are also needed to ensure a diverse elephant population. Almost nothing can stop a bull from finding the best source of food. What’s more, bulls love the adrenaline rush.

They are hard wired to seek high-risk high-reward situations. Raiding farmland is a risk worth taking.

Bees too share this accolade of being a keystone species, as the predominant pollinators of flowers and trees, ensuring continued reproduction of plants that also support other organisms. Their role in the planet cannot be underestimated.

Without bees, agricultural crops and wild plants would not survive, ecosystems would collapse, and according to Albert Einstein “If the bee disappeared off the surface of the globe, then man would only have four years of life left.

Learning More About Wild Survivors Wild Survivors is a small charity which focuses its efforts on the conflict hotspots around the Ngorongoro Crater and Tarangire National Park. There’s lots more which you can learn about Wild Survivors on its website and its social media channels. We urge you to have a good look.

Website:

www.wildsurvivors.org

Facebook:

www.facebook.com/wildsurvivorsorganisation

Instagram:

www.instagram.com/wild_survivors

About Francesca Mahoney Francesca (Fran) Mahoney is the Founder and Director of Wild Survivors. She has a background in Broadcast Journalism, filming, photography and broadcast equipment sales. Camping and exploring from a young age ignited Francesca’s passion for the great outdoors, wildlife, and environmental protection. Traveling and volunteering in Southern and Eastern African in 2007, prior to University, Francesca was captivated by the wild magic of Africa, the majestic elephants, and the generosity of people she met along the way. That feeling never left and she felt compelled to do something, however small, to protect the wild. She often thinks of Jane Goodall’s words “What you do makes a difference and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make.”

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Nepal Women, Health & Literacy

By Jacqs Leui’i

What does it mean to be a woman in Nepal, a country which in the Global Gender Gap Index 2020 rankings, produced by the World Economic Forum, was ranked at number 101?

Admittedly that was four places higher than in 2019 and ten places better than in 2017. So at first glance it might look like the lot of women is improving in Nepal. But is it?

Alas the answer is there is still much to be done to help the women of Nepal. London based New Zealander, Jacqs Leui’i, reveals more.

ost the horrendous earthquakes that shook Nepal in 2015, and with no previous experience at all, I began a collaboration with my Nepali Bai (brother), Laxman, that went on to become what we now call Unite for Nepal.

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Unite for Nepal is a UK based foundation dedicated to the support, development and growth of community driven health and wellbeing initiatives in rural Eastern Nepal. Our main area of focus has been the Dudhakunda District in the Lower Solukhumbu of eastern 21

Nepal, and in particular, the remote villages of Najing and Simkharka.

Using the framework of the United Nations Global Goals for sustainable development, we chose to focus on Gender Equality, Good Health and Wellbeing and Reduced Inequalities.

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There have been two predominantly important key focuses: Firstly, all initiatives had to come from the community (if they don't drive it they'll never own it).

Secondly, all initiatives had to benefit girls and women equally with the boys and men, as without equality, there can never be progress.

Our work began in Najing Village. A small community perched on a mountainside along the single dirt road linking Nele Bazaar to Salleri (and almost impossible to find on Google Maps if you don't know the area well).

We teamed up with Najing Ghau Ghar Clinic, a basic two roomed health outpost established by the local community, as the 4 to 6 hours walk to Salleri Hospital was proving too much for those requiring ongoing or emergency healthcare.

Despite no running water or ablution facilities and limited resources and medicines, the resident health carer had been providing a welcome service for the community. The

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ongoing challenge was that the number of women attending the clinic was noticeably lower than the men.

Investigation into this through conversations with the local women revealed they were hesitant to attend the clinic because the health carer was male and also related to many of them.

“…the number of women attending the clinic was noticeably lower than the men.”

Such a simple cultural oversight meant that many of the women in the community would not attend the free clinic and so continued to suffer in silence.

The employment of a female nurse from outside of the immediate community easily resolved this issue, and Najing Ghau Ghar Clinic became a welcome hub for open discussion and 22

treatment of women's health issues.

Sometimes it's the most obvious and easily solved challenges that we completely miss, and this is often the case if we don't consult the local community, and in particular the women. I have found this to be particularly true in strongly patriarchal societies, where men tend to have the louder voice, yet women tend to influence through action.

By 2017, the voices of the women in the community of Najing and the surrounding villages had become even louder.

Legislation had been passed at a national level stating that it was now a legal requirement to have female representation on all community boards. With the full and willing support of the men in the community this was easily achieved, but another challenge arose from historical social norms, for in Nepal, a lot of women have a much lower level of education than the men.

Whilst the law had provided women with a platform to speak,

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many women were unable to fully utilise this platform due to their limited education.

So we set about establishing vocational training and literacy programmes for women, as well as providing teaching resources for two of the local primary schools that had a good level of girls enrolled.

Through vocational training the obvious benefits of employment and income would result, but equally as important, it would build confidence and selfesteem, and provide them with social interaction with other women in the community. The hope was this would all contribute to higher

“You educate a man; you educate a man. But if you educate a woman; you educate a generation.”

Brigham Young

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levels of mental health and wellbeing.

We rented a disused one room building with dirt floors and no electricity and set to with our first sewing vocational training using pedal powered sewing machines with the only light coming in through the small windows on one side of the building.

At this early stage the big question was how would these women find the time to attend training? For rural Nepal predominantly functions as a subsistence society, where most women not only take care of their home and children, but also work their land. Again, through consultation with the women we worked to find solutions.

It was agreed the training would take place at a time of day that suited them, allowing them the time to fulfil their other obligations. We would provide a free hot meal, and we ensured someone was available to look after their children, should they want to avail themselves of that facility.

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Over time we noticed the majority of attendees at the training programmes were younger women, 20 - 30 years of age.

Then we noticed that most of the women utilising the health facilities at Najing Ghau Ghar Clinic, were also young. We began to question where were the other women?

Foolishly we believed we had overcome many of the barriers preventing women from taking advantage of what was being made available, yet the absence of older women showed we were clearly missing something.

We were learning very quickly that providing resources of support was far more complex than serving up packaged solutions from a western perspective. What unknown cultural/social complexities existed and of which we were completely unaware, that meant we were failing to reach an entire demographic of women? The search began again to find out what was happening with other women in the wider community.

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Sometimes in life things can be so obvious you miss them completely, and this was no exception. Particularly in rural Nepal, women tend to marry at a very young age (sometimes whilst still a girl). Your husband is usually chosen by your parents, and you often then move to the village of your husband and move in with his extended family. You begin childbearing almost immediately

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(contraception is not an option), and are expected to parent, care for the household and other family members, as well as physically work the land. It is an incredibly hard, demanding life that leaves no time for education or opportunity. Conseque ntly, illiteracy levels for women are high.

If this is 'a women's lot' then being able to read and write may not be of 25

value, but here's the twist. Remittance work contributes hugely to Nepal's GDP so is strongly encouraged by the Nepalese Government. It's predominantly carried out by men who can be gone from home for many years at a time whilst working in construction in the Middle East and India.

If you are lucky enough to have a husband working overseas who sends money home,

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“If we're going to see real development in the world then our best investment is women.”

Desmond Tutu

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The February 2021 Demonstrations In Kathmandu February of this year saw young women protesting on the streets of Kathmandu, in response to proposed legislation that demands women under the age of 40 obtain permission from their families and local government ‘ward officer’ to travel outside the country. The proposed legislation is yet another example of how the Nepal Governments constitution (which claims to guarantee equal rights for women) is potentially failing them. It has been widely condemned, including by Human Rights Watch.

The proposal was apparently intended to cut down on the number of women trafficked overseas. However it has far wider reaching implications and has been seen by many as enforced international travel ban for all women under 40, in what is a strongly patriarchal caste-based society. It really does emphasis the need for consultation with people impacted by decisions, policies and legislation, so that policies and initiatives apparently intended to help, do not actually hinder and backfire.

you have a very welcome income to support your subsistence way of life.

After consulting with the 'older' women in the community (35 plus) we identified two challenges.

Firstly, if their husband was away working, that meant one less pair of hands to work at home, so even more work for the woman. There is no time, energy, resource for anything else.

Secondly, and far more importantly considering development and progression for these women, with illiteracy being so high amongst them, they couldn't

access the money that was being sent home. We are all aware of the varying identification processes of financial institutions, and with these women being unable to even write their own names, how could they possibly sign let alone read the documents required?

With such a strong (and much needed) focus to provide education for youth and in particular young girls, many of us working in this area haven't paid any attention to those already out of the official education system who may desperately need these skills.

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We started our first women's literacy programme in Simkharka, a tiny village accessible only by foot and a seven hour walk from the main district town of Phaplu. It is so remote you need a local guide to take you, but out by the men who can be gone from home for many years at a time whilst working once there it's the kind of place you never want to leave. The smiles and hearts of the locals are huge and it's the kind of place that reminds you that heaven can exist on earth.

The average age of our students was 52 and our classroom was

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a blue tarpaulin on the ground outside. When it rained everyone raced to the nearest house and huddle around until the lesson had finished.

The women giggled like children, and their excitement and enthusiasm at being able to learn was almost tangible. They spoke of sharing their learning with their grandchildren and delighted at the process.

experience of learning and of life.

Through my personal journey with the development of Unite for Nepal I have been humbled, honoured and privileged to have been welcomed by the communities of Najing and Simkharka. I have learnt more about the complexities of 'problem solving' on a community and cultural level than I ever realised existed.

Alongside the practicalities of improving their literacy skills they had inadvertently also connected with younger family members, and with each other. Sharing the

I now know that you don't have to have all of the answers and that you don't have to be 'big' or 'loud' to elicit change in the world. I understand that sometimes people are clever, intelligent,

motivated and skilled, they just don't have the resource they need.

Finally, I have learnt that for true change to occur and development to be sustainable, that change must come from within.

About Jacqs Leui’i Jacqs Leui’I established Unite for Nepal in response to community members from the Dudhakunda District approaching her to support a newly established Outreach Health Clinic in the area. As a long time visitor and supporter of Nepal, she saw this as an opportunity to support those in rural and marginalised areas motivated to create change from within their communities but unable to access the resources required to do so.

How To Follow Unite For Nepal On Social Media Website:

https://www.unitefornepal.com

Instagram:

@unitefornepal

Facebook:

@unitefornepaluk

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The Big Interview Helen Clark – Mountaineer, Prime Minister and UN number 3 With Jane Harries All photographs courtesy of Helen Clark

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Kitted out in a flak jacket for the drive from Mogadishu Airport into the city centre, for meetings with Somali leaders and Speaker of the Somali Parliament.

August 2016

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In 2016 Forbes.com named Helen Clark as the 22nd most powerful woman in the world, ranking between Oprah Winfrey at number 21 and Ruth Bader Ginsburg at number 23. At the time she was Administrator of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), the 3rd most important role at the United Nations (UN).

She was the first woman to head up the UNDP, a role she took up /elected / appointed to in 2009 and which she held for two full terms.

In 2017 she was a candidate for the top job, the UN Secretary – General, the election for which was ultimately won by António Guterres of Portugal. Now I don’t know about you, but I remember hearing a lot about the previous incumbent, Ban KiMoon when he was Secretary – General, likewise Kofi Annan, Boutros Boutros-Ghali, and Javier Pérez de Cuéllar (who was appointed in 1982 and which is about as far back as my knowledge of the UN goes). Of António Guterres I know nothing.

Why is that? One thing for sure, if Helen Clark were Secretary – General, we would all know about it, after all Richtopia.com regularly ranked her as being in the top 10 female social media influencers, with one report I’ve read ranking her third after Hillary Clinton and J.K. Rowling.

Way back in 1999 Helen Clark become New Zealand’s second ever female Prime Minister and the first woman to lead a political party to victory in a general election (Jenny Shipley the first having taken over leadership whilst her party was already in power). You might have noticed, I haven’t mentioned what party Helen Clark belonged to. That’s because this isn’t an interview about politics or political thinking, this is an interview about so much more, it’s an interview about global issues, understanding, leadership, health, education, opportunities for women and girls and the impact we can all have on this world and others around us.

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When I lived in New Zealand, I was fascinated by the fact that whilst you were Prime Minister, you went mountaineering in South America.

Can you tell me about that trip and how you got into mountaineering?

So I came from that kind of outdoors background. Then I think apart from one year joining University ski club, I didn't have time to pursue those interests again, until the beginning of my 40s.

I grew up on a farm on the edge of a Forest Park in New Zealand now renamed a conservation park, so I always had a familiarity with bushwalks and tracks and bush crushing and leaping up streams on boulders.

At the beginning of my 40s (we had been in government) we lost the 1990 election. I thought, well, maybe it's time to start doing all the things I've always been interested in, such as cross country skiing or ski touring. A field had just opened in New Zealand

With husband Peter Davis, a professor, in New Zealand’s Southern Alps

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on the top of the Pisa mountain range near Wanaka. So that got me back into snow, skiing and the outdoors.

From there I linked up with a small company that did backcountry ski touring from a wellappointed and well stocked hut. I started going up there every year for a five to six days ski tour. Then the guide who used to take us there got us thinking about other things we could do. So from those experiences, Peter and I went on to climb Kilimanjaro in between Christmas and New Year 1998-99.

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Then at the end of 2001, we went to Argentina to go to Aconcagua. We were up in the National Park and mountain there for I would say a solid couple of weeks. I forget the exact time now. But it is a three day walk into the base camp on the side that we went. And then of course you've got acclimatisation to go a bit, a bit higher and higher still. So that was a fantastic experience.

Also we began regularly going to Norway for ski touring.

There’s always very reliable snow in the mountains of Norway,

in the Christmas new year period.

So it really goes back to the love of cross country skiing, wanting to be out and about in the mountain environment.

You refer to the 2000s. You were of course New Zealand’s Prime Minister from 1999 to 2008. What advice do you have for people in respect of time management, especially for those who say ‘” I couldn't possibly do that, I'm too busy”, because clearly a Prime Minister is going to be busy.

Yes, but you don't do yourself or your country any service if you work 24 seven and never take a break, nor is that a good signal to two people. I mean, people in New Zealand wouldn't put up with, you know, the level of golf playing that tends to go with some US presidencies. But on the other hand, people don't expect to have politicians in their face through the Christmas New Year, you know, two thirds of the way through January period. So that was quite well suited to the northern hemisphere skiing holiday. And

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then, you know, again, taking a break for a week in August to go ski touring no one would think that was out of the ordinary. So you just have to program around. As you know the great New Zealand summer shutdown means people aren't around, they're not demanding much, it's only something very unusual, like the Boxing Day tsunami that will bring you back from a holiday. But generally you've got a pretty free period of time there when you wouldn't be working. So you're either going to be sitting, sheltering from the savage New Zealand sun, or you can go north and do something in a cooler climate.

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the skills to lead. Every member of the team plays their part. I've had a number of occasions where we have roped up. Again, you're very dependent on everyone on the team playing their part, whether it's, it's doing a minor peak on the Southern Alps, or going over the Ball Pass as people used to be able to do, you had to really follow all the safety precautions.

I think, you come out of mountaineering experiences, and let's stress you know, mine

are relatively minor, Hochstetter Dome, Chancellor Dome Ball Pass, etc, you have a great respect for nature and, and its power. You need to be with people who have the skills to, ensure you have a great experience, but also come home alive.

During your time with the UN did you manage to continue with those hobbies and if so, how did people New York react?

Well, the great thing about New York is that

This and opposite page, enjoying the snow in New Zealand’s Southern Alps, 2015

What did you learn from your mountaineering and from your ski touring in terms of leadership and teamwork?

Firstly if it's a back country ski trip or sort of alpine ski touring, I always go with a guide, I mean I haven't got time to learn the skills to do self-guided in the back country and mountains. The guide is always the leader.

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it's kind of almost on the southern end of regular snow in the northeast of the US. I mean, New York got about three falls a year.

But if you went up Hudson, of course there's the skiing.

With a friend I began going up for weekends and long holiday weekends to Vermont which had pretty reliable snow most winters. So actually, New York was a great base for cross country skiing. It would be a very rare winter where you wouldn't find somewhere within at least several hours drive to go. I've done some of the best cross country skiing I've ever had in Vermont, Massachusetts and upstate New York.

Many women complain about the glass ceiling.

Could you tell me about your rise in New Zealand politics? And whether being a woman made it any tougher on you and if so, how you overcame those barriers to become Prime Minister?

I was really oblivious to barriers for I guess about three decades, because I came from an all-girl family, there were no limits on the expectations of me or what I thought I could do. I went to an all36

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girls grammar school, I went to university starting in 1968, the women students were equal in number to the male students. I of course noticed, as you would, that there were very, very, few women on the staff. But the girl students were there with every bit as high an expectation of doing well and going places. So that was an advantage of being a post war baby boomer, there was no limit.

What I noticed, though, was when I came to contest a safe electorate for my party, that's where you started to run into “Oh, we don't know whether a woman could do that”.

The reality is prior to my election in 1981 for one of the Auckland electorates, only one woman had ever been a member of parliament from the Auckland area, and that was from 1941 to 1943. So apart from the few who remembered this remarkable woman who was elected in a byelection and then defeated in a general election, there had never been any other woman MP [from the Auckland area]. So, you know, it's not surprising that it was thought to be quite

Spring blossoms by the United Nations building on New York City’s 1st Ave.

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Speaking at the 2014 Sustainable Energy For All forum in New York. It was a huge gathering of the cross section of those interested in energy issues. For UNDP the three linked priorities in energy are clean & renewable generation, efficient distribution and use, and universal access. June 2014

unusual. There was comment like, “oh, she'll not do very well on that seat, it's a working man seat”, despite the fact of course, that women were an equal number on the electoral roll.

And then there was the issue of, you know, how could she be the patron of the bowling clubs and the League club and so on. But these are minor irritations, you stare them down.

But then, when I was elected parliament, out of the 92 members of parliament elected that year, eight were woman, which is around 9%, a very, very small group, and that was twice the number that had been elected the time before. The maximum before it had been four, and usually it had been one or two or three.

So I was very much in that first wave of 38

women of my generation coming through into politics.

But we weren't particularly well accepted.

One of the women who was there, Marilyn Waring, a well know New Zealand feminist, had a very, very bad time. It’s only in the last three years or so that she says she found the strength to write a book about her experiences.

It's quite an interesting

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After addressing the Abu Dhabi Ascent climate event on the huge potential for reducing emissions, from curbing deforestation & forest degradation. May 2014

book, a very reflective book about what she was dealing with.

The expectations of the woman MPs were not particularly great. There had been by the time I arrived in Parliament, I think only ever three woman cabinet ministers in New Zealand, one on the 1940s, who'd been the daughter of a previous Member of Parliament and Minister, one in the in

the 1960s and then one in the 1970s, but that was it. I mean, expectations were low, now these women were suddenly arriving, and no one quite knew how to deal with them.

My aspiration at the time was that I hoped, one day, I would become a minister.

Even to get there would be hard. There were a lot of barriers and then I eventually, of course, became a minister and 39

rose up, even to become a deputy prime minister in 1989-90.

But when I put my hand up to be Leader of the Opposition in 1993, there was a tremendous amount of criticism. I mean, I was obviously quite a wellknown personality, but still all these issues, could a woman do this job? I mean, every bit of nastiness came out.

And no, it wasn't easy at all.

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So I always say to women trying to go to places where women haven't been before or haven't been in very great numbers, you can't do it on your own.

You have to have networks of your family and friends and political colleagues who are going to stand with you, because people don't give up space and power willingly for the most part. You have to jostle for it if you're going to break your way in, and you need support for that.

Your website describes you as a respected global leader on sustainable development, gender equality, and international cooperation. What do you see as the three key criteria to achieving sustainable development, gender equality, and international cooperation?

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Yeah, well, I mean, what a surprise that I would say, first and foremost, political leadership, because if you can't get leaders to accept that these causes are important it's going to be very difficult to move.

Obstructive leadership becomes an obstacle to progress. So, enlightened and progressive political leadership is rather important.

Secondly, I would say, empowering women, youth, communities in general, with the knowledge and capacities they need to be able to move forward, whether it's on gender equality, economic empowerment, being able to contribute as a citizen, to support for cohesive and inclusive societies, to doing the right thing by the environment. This requires knowledge

“I think it’s a question of countries and leaders being able to see where the shared interest is, a shared interest that overrides all the obvious differences between political philosophy, types of government and so on.”

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and access to technology. Underlining all that, I suppose is that if you are living in extreme poverty or any degree of poverty, a lot of the concerns become almost academic, because your only concern is how do I get food on the table?

So an indispensable part of moving forward is decent work, social protection, hope and opportunity for people.

If you have that, you can move mountains.

But the mountains haven't been moved in a lot of places.

For international cooperation, one of the tests is going to be how the international community resolves to work together better on pandemic preparedness and response, which is of course the topic of the panel that I'm cochairing at the moment.

Because if we can't resolve to do better on an existential threat to the health of every single one of us, what could we resolve to do better on? So in a sense, the pandemic is a real test of how we go forward. But on the other hand, if you can get it right, if you can get global resolve to do

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“These children are in Misolo Zambia. They’re waiting for our event which begins this Saturday, and which is in support of the community's leadership against gender-based violence.

I’m proud that the United Nations Development Programme @undp in Zambia, is playing a full part in promoting the #HeForShe campaign on gender equality. @heforshezambia July 2015”

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“Visiting Jordan to see UNDP work in response to the Syria crisis. A big increase in Syrian residents in Jordan has created a need for many more services, including waste management. I went out to the Al Akeider landfill, 1km from the border with Syria, where UNDP funded

by Canada, is supporting improvements at the landfill which has been struggling to cope.

Part of the strategy is improved recycling and sanitary conditions for waste pickers on the site. This photo shows a waste picker at work.

November 2015”

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things differently, multilaterally, as a result of pandemic, it could bode well for other areas as well.

I think it’s a question of countries and leaders being able to see where the shared interest is, a shared interest that overrides all the obvious differences between political philosophy, types of government and so on. Last year the 40th anniversary of the eradication of smallpox was marked.

So that occurred in 1980 and the effort to do it, of course, began a number of years before. Now those were years at the height of Cold War tension and not withstanding that, the world came together across this fundamental division, to say the eradication of smallpox is a global priority, and it was achieved. So you can take an example like that and say it, it does give you hope that people might do the right thing.

I've often referred to this pandemic, as being like the Chernobyl moment in global health. Out of the tragedy of Chernobyl, came an empowered International Atomic

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Energy Agency with greater powers of inspection and access, a new convention, and far more experience and knowledge sharing around nuclear safety and incidents than had ever been the case before. This is the kind of moment that we have now in global health.

That's fascinating.

It's, really rams it home by calling it the “Chernobyl moment in global health.”

Again your polio story, it really rams home, how countries can work together on global health, despite political differences.

I think the geopolitical environment has got so polarized, we've forgotten that there's

never been time in human history since the formation of states, where states haven't had significant differences. Significant differences are not new. So what we have to get back to, is the maturity in international relations to say, yes we have a serious disagreement on this, but we can all come together around this, because it's so critical to human existence, whether it was smallpox, whether it's now averting future pandemics, whether as it was with Chernobyl in 1986, the imperative of nuclear safety to stop cross border and terrible tragedies. We have shown we can do it before and that's what we have to show again.

“I've often referred to this pandemic, as being like the Chernobyl moment in global health. Out of the tragedy of Chernobyl, came an empowered International Atomic Energy Agency with greater powers of inspection and access, a new convention, and far more experience and knowledge sharing around nuclear safety and incidents than had ever been the case before.

This is the kind of moment that we have now in global health.”

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It's almost like a Maslow's hierarchy of needs for politics, in that if we aren't alive as people, then we can’t climb up Maslow’s pyramid to look at wider issues such as social and tax policies.

Yeah, it's basic needs, isn't that? So, and as I say, we shouldn't let what are, you know, profound differences of political philosophy and democracy versus authoritarianism, in the end, we have to navigate around those to deal with these very, very basic needs.

Talking about basic needs, one of the things, that always strikes me, is the plight of women in countries like Afghanistan. I remember when I was in my 20s, and they were starting to have to wear that blue outfit, the burkah, where they couldn't see anything.

Nowadays the peace talks in Afghanistan occasionally make the news. There was going to be an article in Adventure She magazine about Afghanistan, but at the last minute the author asked it to be withdrawn, for fear of a potential negative

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impact upon the peace talks.

Afghanistan’s certainly had over 40 years of problems, what were the Russian invasion, the Taliban and then post 911. During those years Afghan women have suffered immensely and seen their rights and freedoms severely restricted, even withdrawn. How do you see the future for Afghan women? And what can women from across the world do to help women in countries where they're treated as nothing more than chattels?

I have been to Afghanistan three times in my life, as Prime Minister to Kabul, in it must have been 2003. I went as UNDP Administrator just to Kabul. And then just two years ago, I went when I was invited by World Vision to go and see programs they had supporting girls and women in the west of the country. In many ways I found that the most fascinating visit of all, because you're really up against the reality of the constraints on women's lives from extreme poverty.

Actually it’s that extreme poverty which 44

causes a12 year old girl to be seen as an economic asse that’s sold into marriage, because that may pay the rent for a year, for a poor family. And I saw the efforts being made there, through support for training of Imams, for them to be among those who intervene when they saw a girl put up a marriage. The official structure for Imams, the Ministry for Religious Affairs, I think is the correct name, were very much in favour of this initiative, because of recognition that marrying at 12 and having very early childbearing is very, very bad for health and wellbeing.

It was very, very sobering to sit with the mothers and these little girls who because of intervention, had not been sold into marriage. Then we went to an area I remember on the outskirts of Herat, where a tremendous number of people had come seeking refuge, not from civil war, but from devastating drought in the west of Afghanistan. Up in the back hills, where people have lived traditionally in villages, the stock had all been killed or die, there was no food for animals or

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people. So they start the trek to the edge of the city in the hope that there might be service or food or something.

And I remember going into the hospital on the edge of town, which have been built by the Italian Provincial Reconstruction Team back in the early 2000s, which was now exceptionally busy servicing this very large informal settlement. It wasn't a neatly ordered UNHCR (UN Refugee Agency) settlement, it was just whatever people could gather to

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have some sort of covering for a family to live under. There were some tents from one or two of the European refugee agencies, but mostly very informal.

I saw there mothers, desperate mothers with, not to put too fine a point on it, starving little children, in a neonatal area which was supported by World Vision and UNICEF. Then we went over the mountains to a city in a small province north of Herat. One of the main

Women in Herat Afghanistan

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points of interest there was a woman's market, because up until the woman's market was developed, the woman couldn't leave their home to sell goods and services, because they always had to be accompanied by a male member. We're talking now, not Taliban times, so strong are the conventions about what is appropriate.

The great thing about the women's market is, it provides a safe space for the women to have stalls, cut hair, take

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fittings for clothes, and to put all the different things that they make on sale. It was enormously empowering.

When we visited, many of the women who I met in that market, or who had been in these difficult circumstances with pressure to sell their 12 year old daughter, were either widowed or the husband was missing an action. It is a very traumatized society from this four decades of shock with quite a level of heroin or opium addiction amongst the men.

I follow the talks with the Taliban. I can sympathize with Americans for wanting out after almost two decades post 911. But you have a sinking feeling that you're doomed if you do and damned if you don't,

because a rapid exodus, would see quite a rapid return to the Taliban, even if the government could hang in Kabul and through a siege.

So all of this has huge implications for the women of Afghanistan because the Taliban period was so shocking. Many have experienced something better from the last 20 years. But as I saw out in the very poor and marginalized communities in the one part of the country I was visiting, even the last 20 years hasn't changed anything much for a lot of families. So it's a very, very long haul.

When you ask what can we do, I think, on a human level, just supporting whatever organizations are working to help girls

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finish their education, helping women have access to family planning, and supporting small entrepreneurs whether it's on a farm, a bit of land, or in the market.

This is incredibly important. Certainly, I found the woman's market story very, very empowering.

Outside one of these regional towns, I visited a village with a cooperative of women who were beekeeping.

This was very nontraditional. I saw them all dressed in their white trousers and honey bales, something you don't usually see in these communities, especially as it meant the women were wearing trousers!!!

Next time – more from my interview with Helen Clark.

About the photo on the facing page: “I met this woman in the women’s market. The market began as an initiative of World Vision and partners; then the Government supported it by building a new three-storey market in which women can produce and sell in a safe space.

This woman is a widow with 2 children; her earnings from embroidered goods help her to keep them in school.

I asked her 11-year old daughter what she would like to be when she grows up? Her face lit up as she replied, “a doctor”.

Education is transformational: every child and adult deserves the opportunity to be educated. This mother was illiterate; she wants the best for her children. Adults also need second chance education.

Meeting families like this one reminds one why support for human development is so important. Many thanks to World Vision and other partners who work to provide opportunity 47 for many who would otherwise not be able to access it.”

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Enjoying New Zealand’s Southern Alps, August 2019

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A huge thank you to Helen Clark from our founder and editor, Jane Harries A huge thank you for all the time you have given to me for this article.

Somehow I still can’t believe that I’ve interviewed you. It only goes to prove ‘don’t ask, don’t get’.

I’ve lost count the number of times I’ve heard phrases such as “men put themselves forward, women hold themselves back”, or “but there’s no female role models”. It’s time we women in the west stop playing that card and instead put ourselves forward and don’t hold ourselves back. You strike me as epitomising that philosophy and for that, I thank you.

I very much hope after reading this article, readers of this magazine will not only be further empowered but will also take action to pursue goals they may previously have put on hold. Who knows, perhaps someone reading this issue will one day become Secretary-General of the UN. After all, whether we belong to Generation X, Y, or Z, whether we are Millennials, or Coronavirus teens, we all owe it to baby boomers like yourself and to other women who went before you, to keep up your work, so that well before the end of the 21st century, women will no longer be marginalised, stigmatised, or harassed, but instead truly be regarded as an equal part of society right across the world.

Next Time Helen Clark actually shared lots more information with us, including tips on landing a role at the UN, working with the Himalayan Foundation in Nepal, and giving to charities which make a difference. We very much hope to bring you more from Jane’s interview with her, in the next issue of Adventure She magazine.

You can follow Helen Clark on these social media channels Instagram: @helenclarknz Twitter:

@helenclarknz

Facebook: @helenclarknz

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UNESCO Feature Te Wahipounamu South West New Zealand

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Te Wahipounamu is situated in the south west of New Zealand and encompasses four national parks, Fiordland, Westland, Aorkaki / Mt Cook and Mt Aspiring. It was inscribed on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 1990 and is one of only three New Zealand listings.

your way home, but your body might never been found. In listing Te Wahipoumanu as a world heritage site, UNESCO even states “The temperate rainforests of the property are unmatched in their composition, extent and intactness by any such forests anywhere in the world.” Te Wahipounamu – South West New Zealand - UNESCO World Heritage Centre

Te Wahipounamu is a land of rocky coast, glaciers valleys, fjords, mountains, lakes, waterfalls, ancient trees and home of the world only alpine parrot, the kea. Undoubtedly it’s a land of immense beauty. But with beauty can come danger. For in this sparsely inhabited forested and mountainous area, to get lost, might mean not only never finding

On the upside, New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) has developed a phenomenal system of trails. Some are suitable to novice hikers, others to the slightly more experiences, whilst some are only for the extremely

Fiordland National Park

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Photo credit Jane Harries

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experienced. Some trails need to be prebooked. Check out www.doc.govt.nz for more on the trails, where you can stay (huts / camping) and whether you must prebook. Whilst some might lament the need to prebook, limiting numbers actually helps conserve the precious flora and fauna.

The multiday trails in Te Wahipounamu include the world famous Milford Track, plus the Routeburn and Kepler tracks. If you are a very experienced mountaineer, or a capable hiker with the right gear, the right attitude and use a licensed guide, the mountains of Mount Cook national park are also accessible, as

Routeburn Track, Fiordland National Park Photo credit Jane Harries

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demonstrated by Helen Clark on her climbs of Hochstetter Dome and Chancellor Dome and her Ball Pass crossing.

Kea, Fjordland National Park Photo credit Jane Harries

New Zealand really is a place to explore, for there is so much to see and do there. To spend all one’s time in a camper van merely stopping off in the usual tourist spots, isn’t ‘doing’ New Zealand.

The real New Zealand lies there hidden amongst those glaciated valleys, waterfalls and mountain tops. Te Wahipoumanu is a place where you can live, breath and taste the land of the long white cloud. Just be sure to take sunscreen, the world’s strongest insect repellent (the sand flies are a nightmare) and your rain gear.

Oh and always remember all the usual safety stuff too.

We hope to bring you more about hiking in New Zealand and in particular New Zealand’s Great Walks, in a future issue of Adventure She magazine.

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Books Reviews Diplomatic Baggage

By Brigid Keenan We all need laughter in our life, after all, isn’t laughter meant to be good for us?

Pandemic or not, this book should have you laughing out loud.

International travel for pleasure might be impacted right now, but planes are still flying. So have you ever wondered who are those passengers still boarding international flights? Some of them could well be diplomats, taking on a new mission or returning home. Others might be people heading off on an international posting with some organization. Both might have family in tow.

In this often hilarious read, Brigid Keenan shares what it was like to be a trailing spouse to a diplomat. The book takes us from life in a chicken shed in 1970s Nepal, to the Ambassador’s residence in post-Soviet Kazakhstan, via places as diverse as Ethiopia, Brussels and Syria, to name a few.

Given what has happened in Syria during the last decade, not just to its people, but to its antiquities too, the chapter on Syria is particularly poignant, for as told in Diplomatic Baggage (which was written way back in 2005 - I know, why hasn’t everyone been raving about it, for it’s a really entertaining read), Brigid Keenan used her time there to research her book 54

Damascus: Hidden Treasures of the Old City.

If you’re thinking of heading abroad to work, or especially if you are heading abroad to support someone else, definitely have a read of this book. You never know, reading about some of the mistakes the author made during her years abroad, might stop you from accidentally making a serious faux pas.

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The Fishing Fleet – Husband Hunting in the Raj

By Anne De Courcy Some might think adventure travel is an invention of the late 20th century. As we of course all know, those people are wrong.

Adventure travel has been with us for centuries, before the pandemic, it was just more easily accessible nowadays.

But what would it have been like in the 18th century, when young British women started heading out to India in search of a husband?

Whilst that line and the title of the book might at first glance put you off reading it, if you are at all interested in history, especially the history of women, and women who’ve travelled, then this book makes for a sometimes fascinating, sometimes funny and sometimes tragic read. It is definitely informative.

Undoubtedly many of the women in the book had adventures beyond our wildest dreams, heading off as they did on sailing ships to an unknown land, on a mission, that could make them, or break them.

The book also of course has a second role, in that it teaches us about the British Raj and the impact of people when they descend enmass upon another land and people.

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Bikepacking Peru

By Caroline Powell and Noel Waterston

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We’ve all read articles that glamorises the world of long distance hiking and bike packing, articles full of tales about days full of nothing but perfection as one cycles / hikes a long desired dream.

We’ve all too heard tales of hardship and suffering, where the protagonist faces snow storms that almost sweep them off a mountainside, or floods that they barely escape from with their life.

But what of the bits in between?

In a frank conversation with our editor, Caroline Powell and Noel Waterston have revealed all about their cycling adventures in Peru. They’re not bloggers or social media afficionados. The only reason Adventure She magazine has access to their stories is Caroline’s our editor’s best friend. Don’t worry, there’s been no breach of trust here, they know this story is being shared and they are more than happy to share their knowledge with others who might be planning a bike trip of their own.

Remember, if you have a story to share, do get in touch. We love receiving your pitches and story ideas and would adore to publish more of them.

Now over to Caroline and Noel and their warts and all story of cycling the Pan American highway south from Lima.

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Lima

Cycling out of Lima

Lima is one of those cities that some people travelling through South America skip. Yet Lima’s city centre is so full of historic monuments dating back to the days of the Spanish conquistadors, it’s been an UNESCO World Heritage site since 1988. So, our first tip (if you like history) is to make sure you allow plenty of time for Lima, especially if you’re bike packing and / or camping, as you’ll need extra time to bike together and to source gas for your stove.

A hierarchy appeared to exist in Lima’s traffic, with cyclists and pedestrians as the lowest of the low. As for the motor-taxis, they acted as if they owned the road, swerving between cars exactly as if they were in a James Bond film. It all seemed pretty chaotic.

So as we headed south on the main highway, we got off our bikes and pushed them for the first 10 minutes.

It just wasn’t worth the risk to ride them through that melee.

Once we were out of Lima things got a lot better. We saw very few saloon cars driving past us, it was mainly trucks and pickups (most of the big long distance buses tended to go at night and we didn't often cycle in the dark). These truck and pick up professional drivers, were really courteous to us cyclists. So unlike Britain, where there's a lot of road rage, the lorries gave us the width of a lane and never sat right on our behinds.

Putting our bikes together again was easy. We’d packed them carefully and we’ve plenty of experience in putting together bikes. What we had done was book a direct flight from London to Lima, to minimise the number of times the bikes would need to be handled whilst in bike boxes and therefore, we hoped, to minimise the risk of their getting damaged. Our plan worked.

What was harder and what we spent a couple of days doing in Lima, was trying to source gas for our camping stove. We eventually found some in the back of a hardwear shop that seemed to be full of knives! It did however take not just a lot of time, but a lot of walking and a lot of Googling mapping, before we found that shop.

We know some people use a petrol cooker, but we find getting petrol can be just as awkward, as some petrol stations won’t let you buy the small amount you need to keep your petrol bottle topped up. So then you end up having to rely on the kindness of strangers to sell you a litre or even half a litre of petrol. We prefer to source the gas we need and then we know we’re fine.

Cycling the Pan American From our research before heading off, there appeared to be two main routes for touring cyclists, which is what we were. (If you were on mountain bikes, with mountain bike tyres and have bikepacking gear as opposed to paniers, there might be other options).

One route headed north east out of Lima in order to cut across and then head down towards Cusco. But we wanted to take the other route, going south along the Pan American highway, then heading east inland, so we could take in the Nazca lines.

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on the hard shoulder, which was often lumpier, dirtier and therefore slower.

Clockwise from top left: Day 1 - Clean and tidy before setting off from Lima

It might surprise you to learn that whilst the Pam American Highway runs parallel to the coast, it doesn’t always run alongside the coast. So please don’t expect uninterrupted beach front vistas and ocean side cafes serving up every possible permutation of the best Peruvian coffee.

Day 2 - Pulling over to make way for a taxi (we didn’t dare pull our cameras out when the traffic was bad, for fear of causing an accident) Day 2 – A really rather smooth hard shoulder on the Pan American Highway Day 3 – A typical traffic scene in Peru’s towns

Instead (and we do have a good laugh about this) the view for our first couple of days was a giant nothingness full of sand, dust and dirt. Occasionally the nothingness got interrupted by a basic wall enclosing a vast area of land on which a lone basic building had been constructed. The only sign of life

inside those walls were barking dogs.

We never did find out what those places were. Had people bought up tracts of land in the hope of one day making a speculative profit from developing them?

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www.adventureshe.com A typical vast empty compound completed with discarded rubbish

Another type of structures we passed during that first week as we cycled south along the Pan American Highway and then headed inland toward Nazca, were chicken farms.

Buildings several hundred metres long in the middle of nowhere, from which emanated this most horrible stench.

There wasn’t a blade of grass to be seen. It was all battery farming.

greenery and cafes, we could simply have stayed at home!

If you look at Google Maps, you’ll see there’s a few other roads in that area.

We did try to leave the Pan American Highway and investigate a few of the more promising roads and tracks which seemed to be heading in our direction. Alas on days one and two of our ride they tended to peter out, meaning we had to backtrack. At least thanks to one of these detours we did find ourselves on an almost deserted Pacific beach. Day three though we did finally manage to cycle on a coastal road.

This certainly wasn’t a holiday magazine picture postcard type of cycling. We liked it though. After all, we wanted to see the real Peru and we were seeing as much of it as we could.

Plus, we kind of enjoyed the graft of cycling in those conditions, we were riding a good fast road with decent drivers and there was less traffic than we’d anticipate. If we’d wanted

If you cycle this route you may like to investigate the small towns about 10 miles (or was it kilometres) off the Pan 60

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A typical track to nowhere

A shaded spot for a picnic lunch felt like luxury

American Highway, but we didn’t, deciding we already had enough cycling to do without adding more.

all day on the bikes, so in a way it was good to stand up and have a stretch.

We could have perhaps stopped at petrol stations, for we usually passed one a day, but we preferred to find a signpost as and when we felt like a break, rather than stopping where there was a station and perhaps we didn’t feel like a break at that time.

As we didn’t head into those towns you might be wondering where did we eat during the day? Over time we became very adept at working out the best places to eat. Ideally there was shade, for it was hot. That’s how on the second day of cycling we ended up picnicking outside an onion farm, for there was shade. Spotting the onion farm also solved the riddle of why we saw so many lorries full of onions!

As for food, we carried snacks. Lunch usually involved cheese with sand / dust, or for a change, avocado with sand / dust. We also had things like cucumber, an unleavened bread and muesli bars.

Secondly, we looked for a place we could lean our bikes. So road signs became a popular lunch spot. It didn’t matter that much if we couldn’t sit down, as we were already sitting down

One thing that did surprise us was the lack of running water. We’d anticipated finding streams and 61

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filtering and boiling that water. What we discovered thought was the stream beds were dry. We had a choice, we could filter and / or boil water from wherever we stayed (whenever we could we stayed in accommodation, thereby contributing to the local economy, rather than wild camp), or we could buy bottled water.

Rubbish was actually a big problem.

The amount of rubbish tossed aside had us in shock. It really blighted the landscape. Clearly though in some places people acknowledged rubbish is bad, not just visually but for the environment too, for in Chinca Alta they’d built a rubbish bin in the shape of a fish.

Throughout our time in Peru we found water for sale everywhere there was a shop. Even a tiny shop in the front room of a house out in the middle of the country, sold bottled water. Much against our believes, we also ended up buying bottled water, justifying it by saying at least we were contributing to the local economy by buying water.

We hated discarding all those bottles though.

The Towns The church, trees and fish shaped rubbish bin might look nice, but these were only a tiny part of the town. In so many towns and villages we passed through on our ride, nothing seemed really finished. We labelled it the ‘rough and ready’ look as opposed to ‘shabby chic’.

But what was immaculate in every village we came to, was the beautiful school uniforms worn by groups of

Rubbish

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The fish shaped rubbish bin reminding people of the environmental impact of rubbish.

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immaculately dressed marching children. From the little we saw, a lot of the schools seemed to be run by foreign Christian charities, particularly in back of beyond. In case you’re wondering, we didn’t see any children begging.

Later though, high up on the altiplano, in really remote communities, we saw children as young as ten working. We’d stop off a shop (often in the front room of a home) and there a girl as young a ten would be working, making the tea and selling us stuff.

Paracas On our third day, a day with coastal views, we cycled into Paracas, a place where the Peruvians go on holiday, for it’s known as ‘the poor man’s Galapagos’.

Apparently, the local fishermen can’t compete with the Chinese boats that come in and allegedly hoover everything up. So the local fishermen now make a living from conducting tourist trips around (but not landing on) the Ballestas Islands.

These tiny islands are a nature reserve and home to seals and sea lions, plus numerous types of birds including pelicans, Inca terns and the endangered Humboldt penguin. The islands were apparently previously inhabited and

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Education in Peru The Borgen Project and other resources we have found online, highlight the inequality of education between urban and rural communities, with those in rural communities not having the same access to education.

According to the Borgen Project:

“Children in Peru are required to be enrolled in school until age 16.

After secondary school, however, student enrolment numbers begin to dwindle. As the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) reported in 2010, … From primary school to tertiary school, enrolment rates decline about 50%.” https://borgenproject.org/ruraleducation-in-peru The Borgen Project also point out that children in rural areas “are more likely to drop out of school due to family labor responsibilities”.

An additional factor is language. As in many countries the local indigenous language can be different to the official language. In Peru, the official language is Spanish, but in indigenous communities, the language spoke is Quechua or Aymara. Historically this caused problems in education when teachers and children spoke different languages.

If you are interested in learning more about the state of education in rural Peru, you may want to check out Education in Rural Peru: Exploring the Role of Household Electrification in the School Enrolment by Veena S. Kulkarni and Douglas F. Barnes Journal of Research in Rural Education, 2017, 32(10)

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The Ballestas Islands near Paracas

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‘mined’ for guano. ‘Mining’ guano is now however strictly limited with permits being granted only every 10 years. The mined guano is then sold as fertiliser and has, we were told, in the past been sold to the UK.

shower down a bit and just “bwff” flew across the room. So treat with care once you start the shower going, don't touch anything.

For us, a day’s rest in Paracas was just what we needed after all the running around we’d done in Lima and then all the cycling in boiling heat through that vast almost empty landscape. We could understand why Peruvians choose to holiday here.

Are we glad we rode this often desolated stretch of road? Absolutely.

Life isn’t always a bed of roses. If we want to really know about places, doesn’t that mean seeing the nontouristy places too? Besides we love cycling and the cycling was definitely good.

Final thoughs

Accommodation We’d used Google Maps, iOverlander and MapOut to help us work out our route and what towns we could to stop off at night. Then we used booking.com to book ahead. After all the last thing we wanted was to arrive somewhere as it was getting dark, only to find there was neither a place to stay nor a safe place to camp.

About Caroline Powell and Noel Waterston Caroline and Noel are passionate cyclists who has traversed both the Alps and the Pyrenees, whilst carrying all of their gear. Their idea of a great day involves cycling up as many mountains as possible.

Caroline has won the Female Veteran category at the Brompton bike world championship on multiple occasions and together with various friends, they have also won the Veteran Team category at the Brompton bike world championship. Neither do much social media.

En route to Nazca, Paracas was the exception to the rule. Paracas had all sorts of accommodation at all sorts of prices. No so in the other towns.

Night number six saw us in Palpa.

That’s where Noel could have died thanks to the shower. In some places there was only cold water. In others, there was hot water showers. The hot water showers weren’t however exactly what we were used to. It appears that what's happened is that in recent years, showerheads have been retrofitted with water heaters.

We hope to bring you more about their adventures cycling in Peru’s altiplano, in a future issue of Adventure She magazine. You can read more about the Nazca lines in issue 9, the March 2020 edition of Adventure She magazine.

Instead of the electrics being in the wall or in an enclosed unit, here the electrics were on the end of the pipe where the water was coming out. So you’d see these two wires disappearing in the wall. When rinsing out a shirt I (Noel) decided to turn the 66

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A typical view whilst cycling Lima to Nazca

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WATERSPORTS FOR ALL

By Clare Rutter How many of us dream of doing something physical, perhaps taking up a new activity, improving an existing skill, or even going on an expedition? But how many of find ourselves putting off our dreams? What is it that holds us back?

Is it lack of time, or procrastination, or even self-doubt? Or could money, lack of childcare facilities, or social conventions, be the reason why we don’t pursue our goals?

In this article Clare Rutter shares her experience as a #ShePaddles ambassador for Canoe Wales, an organization that is determined to get more women into paddle sports, pandemic or no pandemic, for yes, this article is based on Clare’s experience from 2020, the year our world changed.

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n 2019, Canoe Wales identified a major gender imbalance within Welsh paddle sport, with statistics showing less than 3 in 10 of their paddling members were female.

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Canoe Wales decided urgent action was needed to tackle this gender imbalance. It elected to get on board with the #ShePaddles programme that British Canoeing had been running for 3 years, and which was successfully addressing what had been similar, sobering statistics.

primary housekeepers with no hobbies or interests of their own; and lack of confidence in trying new things in male dominated environments.

Developing an action plan An action plan was developed with the aims of: • breaking down or completely eliminating some of the identified barriers many women faced; • increasing female participation, membership and retention; • the provision of more femalespecific paddling opportunities including skills development; • if desired, support and signposting towards training, awards and qualifications across the broad spectrum of recreational and competitive paddle sport including for example, white water, surf, river running, freestyle, canoe slalom, canoe polo and sprint & marathon.

Identifying barriers to participation Research carried out into why female take-up of paddlesport may have been lower than for men, identified a number of barriers faced by women and which stopped them from doing things.

These barriers included: • lack of money; • lack of suitable childcare; • lack of time; • expectations - being expected to live in a certain way, to be the

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Funding from Sport Wales was applied for and obtained.

Driving the programme forwards One of the aims as part of running the #ShePaddles programme in Wales, and as part of the national campaign from British Canoeing, was to recruit a #ShePaddles Ambassador, who would help drive the programme forwards.

The recruitment and application process began early in 2020 with the view to appoint a fresh cohort of #ShePaddles Ambassadors across the UK as had happened in previous years. However, as we all know, Coronavirus hit and in all of the nations which make up the UK, of which Wales is one, lockdown began in late March.

Becoming an ambassador I was one of the people who prior to lockdown being introduced had applied for one of the ambassadorships.

You can image my shock then when a few weeks later I received a phone call that completely changed my

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life! I had been successful in my application and was announced as the first British Canoeing #ShePaddles Ambassador for Canoe Wales!

I had a long history of volunteering and working within youth organisations such as the Scouts and in the Youth Service, so I knew that I had something to offer, but never having been an Ambassador before, let alone the first one and having no benchmark to work to; I figured that it all depended on what they wanted or maybe expected from me.

The pandemic and a long and very strict lockdown in Wales, wasn’t what anyone had expected when the programme had been launched. Plans to get more women and girls into the outdoors and to try paddling, suddenly seemed uncertain.

I needed to get my thinking cap on.

During my first video call with Gayle Penn (Canoe Wales Development Officer) who had been the driving force in formulating the proposal and acquiring the funding, and Jen Rigby, (Canoe Wales 70

Membership & Communications Officer), I asked how they wished me to be perceived and how they would like me to operate in my role?

Their response was: “Clare you can mould the role as you wish! If you have the ideas, we'll make them happen!”

Having that freedom and encouragement right from the start played a huge role in my generation of ideas and what we've been able to successfully achieve in such a short space of time.

Impact of the pandemic Starting an outdoors programme in the year of Coronavirus was difficult, but not impossible, it just meant we needed to be even more creative than expected.

In my opinion, the situation proved to be the catalyst for an unexpectedly, explosively successful programme. For having to stay at home and having to socially distance, made so many people appreciate the freedom we once had, that people began planning for a future outside of a global lockdown

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scenario. Canoes, kayaks, paddleboards, buoyancy aids and associated accessories began selling like hotcakes and soon went out of stock, as people clamoured for kit that would enable them to access the outdoors.

Making the most of the situation

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Operating solely on Facebook and not being permitted to paddle, was frustrating.

But at least we could communicate with people. The platform became a vital firm base and a central hub from which we could operate. Initially the group was actually quite slow to take off,

In the meantime, I mooted the idea of a #ShePaddlesCymru Facebook group to provide a platform for new, beginner, experienced and wannabe ladies to start networking, make friends, share tips, ideas and knowledge, to make paddle plans for when restrictions started easing and ultimately, to feel supported by Canoe Wales and I on their paddling journeys, whatever their experience.

with only around 25 members, and most of those were people that we knew! But then BOOM! #ShePaddlesCymru exploded and it hasn’t slowed down yet!

Back on the water In Wales lockdown had been introduced in

#ShePaddlesCymruOnTour Top - the first session, Llanelli.

Bottom – a later session, Barry

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March 2020. With the various nations that make up the United Kingdom having power over health, it meant lockdown was eased at different times across the United Kingdom.

May 2020 saw the introduction of the 5 mile rule in Wales, which meant exercise including paddling being permitted within a 5-mile radius of one’s home. I’m fortunate to live near a river and the sea and I managed to get some paddles in.

But we had to wait until restrictions were lifted further, before the campaign could move from just online, to the water.

Once we could travel further from home, I posted on the Facebook group that I was intending to go for a paddle and if anyone wanted to join - that would be great. Some ladies immediately jumped at the chance and said they'd be there. A short while later, I received a call from Gayle who said more ladies fancied joining but didn't have any of their own equipment and could I perhaps help out?

Top: Llanberis Middle: Bala Bottom and opposite page: Llandysul

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Fortunately, I worked as an Outdoor Activities & Paddle sports Instructor at Adventure Beyond, a local activity provider and so had access to a range of kit.

My boss, who is really supportive of the #ShePaddles idea, gave the go ahead to take and use what was required and so I went with the works vehicle loaded with sit-on-top kayaks, paddleboards, wetsuits and buoyancy aids!

The paddle couldn’t have gone any better if we’d tried! It was a nice, informal meet and we had a fantastic paddle with lots of smiles and laughs all round and a few tips thrown in here and there.

What next?

After we’d finished, and all the equipment had been handed back in and disinfected, Gayle, Michelle (now one of our key volunteers) and I had a chat and discussed how it went.

That’s when I had a light bulb moment and said to Gayle “We should go on tour with this!”

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#ShePaddlesCymru On Tour Within three days the first tour date was planned - female instructors organised, a risk assessment carried out, kit acquired, and tickets release online.

A week later we were at Llanelli Dock with canoes, kayaks, stand up paddleboards, all the safety gear and full instruction to around 25 new women and girls.

Once again, the smiles and the laughter said it all and we knew we were doing exactly the right thing!

Part of our ethos within #ShePaddlesCymru is to offer opportunities to our ladies to have their say, to place decisions in their hands to help mould their own experiences. I’d posted a poll on our Facebook group during the week between that first informal paddle meet and the Llanelli Dock pilot event, to say we were planning on doing a tour around Wales and asking where would people most like us to go?

With the results in, I needed to find water that was suitable for beginners within the suggested areas, and which had kit hire

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available nearby.

Canoe Wales came up trumps with locations and within a matter of weeks; we had an exciting 6-date tour schedule planned for some beautiful locations all across Wales.

Word was spreading fast that Canoe Wales were ‘on the road’ bringing paddlesport taster sessions to each corner of Wales.

Participants told their friends, who then told their friends and it just snowballed from there!

As we made each tour date available to book online by purchasing a low-cost event ticket, the space availability went from being fully booked over several days down to just a matter of hours! We’d hoped for that kind of success, but we never expected it! The very idea of a fully sold-out tour was almost unimaginable, and it totally surprised us each and every time.

We even ended up having roadies who followed us, supported us and volunteered with us throughout our incredible, action packed summer road trip tour!

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disinfecting equipment throughout was very different to what we’d all been used to and expected but having seemingly already achieved the impossible; Team #ShePaddlesCymru were capable of anything!

As the ‘Grand Finale’ to #ShePaddlesCymru On Tour 2020 we planned a 4-day paddling expedition on the Monmouthshire & Brecon Canal during October, which was intended to be suitable for all paddling abilities.

There was also a 2 day option for those unable to make the full 4 days.

Unfortunately, at this point Wales once again started bringing in local restrictions due to a rise in Coronavirus cases across the UK. This cast doubt on the expedition being able to go ahead so instead, we limited it to a single day's paddle expedition. This went ahead, a despite a very rainy day, everyone had lots of fun and we even got to paddle by torchlight through a 343m long and just 3m wide tunnel – what an experience!

Opposite page: The expedition

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Measuring success I think that the #ShePaddlesCymru programme has been so successful due to the evident gap in the market for female-only multi-discipline paddlesports provision.

What we were able to provide tackled many of the identified barriers that some women face in taking on a hobby and so it was suddenly a huge opportunity that was presented for the taking for them; a lowcost event in an allfemale, female-led, supportive and nurturing environment.

We even had childcare available at one of the venues!

My opinion is one thing, but what do the numbers say, for some people like to measure success in numbers. In case you’re a numbers person, in total the #ShePaddlesCymru events led to 256 women and girls participating in

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paddlesports. All of them also achieved their ‘British Canoeing Paddle Start Award’, which is the foundation step for developing knowledge and skills in paddlesports. On top of that, half of the participants have become full members of Canoe Wales, something we’re totally overjoyed at.

2021 and onwards Planning for this year is in progress. Alas (at time of writing – February 2021) Wales is again in a state of national lockdown.

We’re hoping though that with the advancements in detection and treatment of Coronavirus, that we’ll get through it and we’ll once again be able to have another incredible year of women’s paddlesport in Wales.

As for the volunteers from last year, this year we’re supporting them

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in their own journeys, as they work on their paddle sports training, awards, qualifications and in some cases, careers.

Reflections I am so glad I put myself forward to become an ambassador, for I had so much fun in my role.

There were so many smiles and gutwrenching bouts of laughter. It made unforgettable memories, travelled lots, paddled in some jaw-droppingly beautiful locations, worked as part of an enthusiastic, passionate, positive and motivated team that makes up #ShePaddlesCymru and Canoe Wales.

Plus I’ve met some incredibly amazing ladies along the way.

Being part of the team that has brought more women and girls into paddlesports, has been a real treat.

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Getting Into Paddlesports If you would like to get involved, whether as a beginner, novice or helper, why not get in touch with one of the following?

If you live in Wales: Email: Clare Rutter:

shepaddlesambassador@canoewales.com

Gayle Penn:

gaylepenn@canoewales.com

Facebook:

#ShePaddlesCymru

Website:

www.canoewales.com

If you live in England, Scotland or Ireland: Email:

Becky Lovatt via rebecca.lovatt@britishcanoeing.org.uk

Facebook:

Women’s Paddling Community

Website:

www.britishcanoeing.org.uk

If you live elsewhere: Why not look up your local canoeing, kayaking, or paddle board association and ask them about how you can get into water sports safely. Remember, don’t ask, don’t get, so if you can’t find a club near you, why not ask your national association as to what it takes to set up a club. Hopefully they will be able to help you. Alternatively ask a question on Adventure She magazine’s Facebook page and either ourselves or a member of the group, will hopefully be able to point you in the right direction.

You can follow Clare Rutter on these social media channels: Facebook:

clarerutter.DBA

Twitter:

clare_rutter

Instagram:

clare_rutter.ba.hons

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Running Solo

By Nicola Gaskell Strava, Garmin, Polar. Brands. Big brands. Brands that deal in data, our data, our heart rate, our pace, our elevation gains. Brands that have no doubt helped and motivated many people. But what if numbers simply isn’t your thing? In this very honest article, Nicola Gaskell explores the joys and pressures of running in today’s number crunching world.

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‘ll be 43 this year. I’m 160cm tall. I weight 55kg. My dad died at 62 in 2009. Numbers. Figures. Facts. All of which can become entangled as “statistics”.

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it is to get going again, to regain fitness, the ache, the pain, the breathlessness. I was getting there though. Running on my own meant no-one knew where I was at with my training, and no-one could comment on my pace. I was almost looking forward to the main event. Then a month before the Manchester race things changed.

It was an April Saturday morning when I received a phone call from my mum telling me that my dad had (another) heart attack and was in hospital again.

On previous occasions when I asked, “shall I come down?” she’d always replied “no, it’ll be fine, just letting you know”. This time she said “yes, I think you should”. He survived four days.

People love statistics, number crunching. Aims, goals, targets – must improve this, must reduce that.

Numbers, numbers, numbers. It’s why I ran away from running.

As a child in the North of England it was something I enjoyed at school.

Apparently I wasn’t too bad at it. At high school we would occasionally go to the local athletics track and that felt very grown up. I badgered my parents to buy me a shell suit (this was the late 80’s early 90’s) and some Reebok running spikes so I would look like “a runner”. My high school Physical Education teacher would voluntarily pick me up one evening a week and drop me off at the track so I could run with the local club.

Dealing with grief is unique for every person but it literally set something off in me. I kept running and running and running and running. A decade on and I see it for what it was now. I’d been running away from reality.

I was a sprinter. Somehow I ended up in the wrong group. Off we’d go for a 5 miles road run, or else we’d do endless circuits of the track. I never questioned this, but I do remember the night when I totally ignored the knock on the door to pick me up. Shameful I know, but I didn’t know how to say I wasn’t enjoying it. Instead I hid.

I completed the race with a lot of snot and tears and resolved that the next time I ran, I would raise money for the British Heart Foundation. People were generous and when I ran the Carlisle 10k later that year, I felt as though I was making some kind of difference.

Then there was another change. I decided to join the local running club.

A big, enthusiastic, welcoming, encouraging, we-run-anywhere kind of club. I got fitter, faster and made new friends, finding relief in stretching my heart, busting my lungs and maximising the power my little legs could produce.

There were a few inter-school competitions here and there, but by the time I got to 16 there were other distractions, then university, then work.

I didn’t run again until 2009 when the company I worked for, paid to submit 8 runners to The Great Manchester Run which is usually held in May. I was living in a village in Cumbria and thought the quiet country roads would be a good training ground. I soon discovered I’d had forgotten how hard

We trained on fells, or in the streets, went to races in Cumbria, just over the Yorkshire border and Lancashire. My 10k times were decreasing and I even ran two half marathons, oh yeah, things were super-cool, I was a runner

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again. But there was a little niggle… a tingling at the back of my neck. I was taking medication for the anxiety I was feeling after my father’s death and the doubts were starting to creep in again.

Perhaps I couldn’t run fast enough or far enough from grief?

If I go back to the beginning when, rather than speak up, I hid from my teacher, too ashamed to admit that I thought I couldn’t do it – that I wasn’t good enough for the group – those insecurities were starting to return.

After each race the questions between members of the club were always “did you get a PB? No? Oh well, don’t worry next time you’ll go faster”. “Mine was slower because I’m using a 10k as training for half-marathons / marathons / fell races / ultras now…”

Once again I felt as though I was not good enough, that I couldn’t compete with those grand aspirations. I walked away again, physically, emotionally and mentally exhausted, not satisfied with my own abilities. I pretty much cut all ties with people from the club.

This little tale does not have a miserable ending, no. It’s about a lesson learned, a long, hard one. Low self-esteem and low confidence in my abilities has dogged me for most of my life. In your early years you’re maybe not overly aware of what it is.

However, when you’re faced with a major challenge in your life, such as the loss of a parent prematurely it comes as a seismic shock as to how you view the world and your place in it.

The grieving period I went through was long, about 6 years. I changed my employment yet again, met a new partner and moved to another part of the country (running away again?).

I stopped running in approximately 2013 not long after I acquired my rescue Labrador. She became my Nikki with her mother after the Great Manchester Run 2009, one month after her father passed away.

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entire focus. We had new adventures to create, I couldn’t allow myself to feel anxious or depressed around her – she needed me. She prevented me from looking solely inward. Too much introspection and self-analysis lead to distorted views. Something else needed me to be there, to care for her every need. So that’s what I did. Other things paled into insignificance as I put my heart and soul into caring for another living being. I could no longer wallow in my own grievances about myself and my short-comings – real or imagined.

I have come to the conclusion that I am an individual runner (not an antisocial one!). I don’t need a coloured vest to identify myself. I no longer put any pressure on myself by timing my runs or by counting the distance, by doing hill reps, sprint sessions, or trying to outrun the person next to me.

I do it because I want to enjoy it, not torment myself. I do it because no matter how much or how little I do – there are thousands of people that are not able to. Either through illness or injury or circumstances that prevent them from something so basic as putting one foot in front of the other.

So instead, I remind myself that I should feel lucky and thankful that I can do it at all. I don’t berate myself if I don’t go out for two weeks because its cold. I mentally say “well done you” to every jogger / runner I pass when I’m walking the dog at 6.30 am.

We climbed the hills and fells, even a mountain on the Isle of Skye and she showed me what a joy each day could be. There were no time targets, no competition, she did not care if I was ‘better’ than the next person or not.

When we moved for the final time she was reaching middle age, so there was no more mountain climbing, 90 minutes a day is sufficient thank you very much – excluding beach time when on holiday! This gave me more free time, so I started to think about running again. I tried my new local club for about three excursions and realised I didn’t enjoy it, as the conversations were again about stats and figures and who was doing what race, so I went back to basics.

I have worked hard to relieve myself of both my own critical self-judgement and my imagined judgement from others.

Now I run for me, not for numbers.

Now I run for heart fitness because of my dad. It is my pump. Now I run for my lung health in light of the virus the world is living through now. They are my bellows. Now I run for my muscle mass because now I’m in my 40’s and let’s face it, when things start to head south, we all panic a bit, and those legs are my pistons. Now I run for my peace of mind, to have a couple of hours to myself, for my brain is my control room. Now I run when I want, where I want and how I want. Now I run for the love and freedom of the run. So if you want to run, or are thinking of starting, start by being kind rather than pressurise yourself – it’s better that way.

How to follow Nicola Gaskell on social media Every once in a while we receives really inspiring articles by people who don’t write for a living, don’t keep a blog, and don’t do much social media. But they entrust their stories to us, for they know how important it is to share what its really like out there in the big wide world. Nicola is one of those authors. So thank you Nicola for sharing your story with us and for reminding all of us of the joys of life’s simple pleasures.

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Embracing Opportunity

By Lucja Leonard

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Choice. A small word with a big meaning. How do we choose to live our life? For Lucja Leonard her life changed when a dog took a fancy to her husband Dion during a multi-day ultra-race in China.

You can read all about that in Dion’s book Finding Gobi, which very excitingly looks like it will get made into a film. We can’t wait.

But what of the other person? When your partner become a celebrity appearing on CNN, ESPN, National Geographic, CNBC and the BBC to name just a few, how do you react? Do you long for the old days, or, do you choose to embrace a world of possibilities?

Lucja Leonard has chosen the later. Her choice is to embrace the world and all its possibilities, even if this means moving house every few years or sometimes even every few months. She embraces the possibilities that comes from living somewhere new, rather than worry about packing up and having to start over. She really is a true Adventure She. Here she writes about exploring Southern Arizona where she, Dion and Gobi lived this last winter.

Moving to Arizona

that living in our new nomadic style way of life we have chosen to follow the sun! When a friend offered to rent us a house in Tucson, Arizona for a few months over winter, there really was no decision to make.

Imagine a winter where you don’t need to worry about thermals, spikes, hotties hand warmers and hot toddies! Look no further than Southern Arizona, Tucson to be precise. With perpetual sunshine, picture blue skies every day, no humidity and average temperatures of 60-70f (15-21C) there really is no better place to be to see out the winter months.

Tucson (pronounced Too-Saan not Tuxon) is the second largest city in Arizona and is 108 miles southeast of Phoenix and only 60 miles from the Mexican border, hence some amazing Mexican food.

I’ve had my fair share of cold, dark winters after living through 18 years of winters in the UK so it’s no surprise

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Cacti

Cactus all have their own personality.

I’d seen a picture on the web of a ‘kissing cactus’ somewhere near Tucson, but with no real directions as to where it was, I took this up as a challenge to see if I could find these kissing cacti.

The dominant Saguaro cactus is an iconic symbol of Tucson; large tree-like cylindrical cactus some with arms some without, growing to up 60 feet tall, 200 years old and weighing between 3200-4800 pounds! There is estimated to be over 1.2million cactus in the Tucson Mountain District alone.

I began researching and managed to figure out a fairly rough location of where it might be and set out to find it. It took a couple of trips, walking quite a few miles until with the help of my husband, Dion and using clues - in the form of photos of mountains on the horizon – we finally found it.

With about 51 species of cactus in Tucson it adds another dimension to running and hiking, the paths are technical, rocky and rugged so tripping is a very real risk and when you trip you have the choice to hit the dirt and sharp rocks or land in the cactus - your choice!! Either way it’s a painful end to a run which teaches you to really watch where your stepping.

I’m still keeping the location a secret though as I definitely think the fun is in the challenge of figuring out the riddle with the clues that are out there.

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Adapting to desert conditions

This is the desert however and it is cold in the mornings, I have to put a hoody on most mornings for our morning dog walk, at least until 8:30am then it gets too hot. In all seriousness though there was one week of real winter weather, well actually 3 days where it did get down to 30F (0 degrees) and it snowed! It actually snowed for about 30mins in the city and we ended up with snowcapped mountains on the nearby Mt Lemmon (where there is a ski field) and Mt Wrightson. It was a shock to the system and for a couple of days I did have to wear full length clothing, including gloves and a beanie. On day 4 though, I was back in shorts. Crazy weather.

My tan has never looked so good in February!! I’ve been running in short shorts and a t-shirt for months now and I’ve had to be sun smart throughout. High factor sunscreen goes on for each outdoor outing and I never leave the house without sunglasses and a hat. It’s hot here, real hot! Even with the average temperature in winter around 70f (21C) there is no shade and 98% of the time no wind so the sun beats down on you and there have been days where it’s reached the high 80’s (27C) and I’ve been caught out without enough water. I can’t go for a run longer than an hour without taking a bag to carry more water, a handheld just doesn’t cut it.

Tucson is known as the astronomy capital of the world, so whilst the

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sunsets in the Sonoran Desert leaves you speechless most days, once the sun goes down the magic really begins. With expansive dark skies and minimal light pollution stargazing the desert constellations is not to be missed. With 6 observatories within a 50 mile radius the city governments have passed ordinances which limit outdoor lighting levels by businesses to ensure that the magical night skies continue to amaze and dazzle.

away! There are also about 3,500 mountain lions in Arizona, with regular sightings in the mountains surrounding Tucson, along with bobcats, coyotes, bears and even a jaguar! On so many runs you hear the serenade from the coyotes, particularly on early morning runs and to me it sounds magical, but also slightly chilling and it definitely gets me moving along a bit more.

Another common friend on the trail is the Javelina, which looks a bit like a wild pig. They are crazy creatures, they stop dead like statues as they think you can’t see them and they normally move on quickly if disturbed but they can be dangerous if they are cornered or feel threatened and will charge, bark and clack their teeth. We have them come through our front yard every day at dusk and dawn which

I’ve had to get used to not running alone anymore too, the desert is full of danger and its safety in numbers. Rattlesnakes are everywhere! Luckily over the winter they do go into hibernation, but they are about, and they are very hard to see so I normally let my husband lead the run so he can scare them

Photo credit for this photo, Rene Rauschenberger from Pixabay

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“Don't look back push harder than yesterday for a different tomorrow” Dion Leonard

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About Lucja Leonard

which drives our dog, Gobi, absolutely mental!! And there’s roadrunners! It’s not just a cartoon that goes ‘beep beep’ it’s a real bird that is super-fast so most days it feels like I’m in the Disney cartoon with Wile E Coyote & Roadrunner!

Lucja Leonard is a semi regular writer in Adventure She magazine. We believe she truly embodies the spirit of being an Adventure She woman. She most certainly lives a life that empowers, educates and entertains the miniscule team behind Adventure She magazine.

I’ve been fortunate to be living in such a warm location over the winter and I haven’t taken it for granted, particularly this winter with all the covid restrictions. Luckily in Tucson outdoor dining is permitted and with our awesome temperatures we have been able to enjoy going out to our local restaurants and cafes. Where we live near Sentinel Peak it is relatively quiet and underdeveloped, but we have these two fantastic spots half a mile from our house. The Mercado San Augustin has a beautiful outdoor courtyard with trees and umbrellas and houses one of the best Mexican eateries in town, along with a local restaurant that serves sensational margaritas and food and a brilliant family run bakery and coffee shop. There is also a small area made out of old containers that have been turned into little boutique shops and has a bar, vegan burger place and a sushi/ramen restaurant which has become our local. Sushi and beers on a Sunday is now our family tradition! It would have been a different story if we were living in any other location with a real winter and not being able to sit out and enjoy the sun like this.

She has transformed herself from being happy with her life when she was an obese couch potato, to a person who is happy with her life as an ultrarunner and who has a level 3 certificate in both personal training and sports massage.

We think you’ll agree that’s quite a transformation.

In the last few weeks with the summer heat fast approaching Tuscon, Lucja, Dion and Gobi have once again packed their bags and are now in Prescott, Arizona, which is at an elevation of around 5,500 feet.

Both of them are loving checking out nearby trails. Dion is training for the Cocodona 250 mile race which is this May and which goes through Prescott.

So being in Prescott is ideal for him. In June they plan on moving to Lake Tahoe, which will help Lucja with her training for the Lake Tahoe 200 mile race this coming September.

Meanwhile, Gobi looks forward to being even more famous, should that film about his life be made and which you can read more about here: 'Finding Gobi': Sony and Tencent Pictures Nab Movie From Fox - Variety

As they say in Tucson “We salt margaritas, not pavements”

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You can follow Lucja on the following social media platforms: Instagram:

@runningdutchie

Twitter:

@runningdutchie

Facebook:

@runningdutchie

YouTube:

@runningdutchie

Websites:

Www.runningdutchie.org

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What A Woman Award Feature

P

ip Hare. In our June 2019 issue we wrote:

around the world which starts and finished in Les Sables d’Olonne France.

“Pip Hare, is a name currently unknown to many, but 18, 19, 20 months from now, Pip Hare could be front page news on every UK newspaper, plus a few French papers and many other international newspapers.”

The route takes competitors down the North Atlantic, across the equator to the South Atlantic, under South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope, across the Southern Ocean, sailing south of Australia and New Zealand, and on into the South Pacific. This is however no sunshine and cocktails amidst islands such as Tahiti, Samoa or Fiji.

This is way down south in the South Pacific, all the way down to and around Cape Horn at the bottom of South America. Then it’s back into the South Atlantic, back into the doldrums around the equator, and on into the North Atlantic which by now is in the depths of winter.

Guess what. On Saturday 13 February 2021, Pip Hare was front page news in The Times, and well deserved too. For after 95 days, 11 hours, 37 minutes and 30 seconds, Pip Hare became the 8th women EVER, yes EVER, to complete the Vendee Globe.

So what is the Vendee Globe? It’s a single handed, solo, non-stop, race

For her fabulous achievement, we think Pip definitely deserves our April 2021 ‘What A Woman’ award. We hope to bring you more about Pip’s race either in a future issue, or possibly, in a special ‘Pip Hare’ issue.

So keep an eye on our emails, blog and website, in order you as a local reader don’t miss out.

Photo credit Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

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Adventure She Magazine’s April 2021 What A Woman Award Photo credit Richard Langdon/Ocean Images

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RUNNING THE WAINWRIGHTS

By MEL STEVENTON Photographs provided by Mel Steventon

What does it take to set a world first? Does it require being the best? Or does it require grit, determination, tenacity and most of all, a willingness to give it a go?

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What I thought was meant to happen I’m supposed to be living in a three bed semi-detached home with a husband, two children and a nine-tofive by now. Well, that's if my life had gone the way my mum had wished. My choice not to have children and to be happy living with my collie dog, Billy, has taken some getting used to for her.

I grew up in a working class family, in a terraced house in Yorkshire. Both my parents left school at the age of 14, already a couple. They got married at ages 19 and 20, and my mum was 22 when she had my brother, her first of three children. My mum never stopped working, apart from a month or so of maternity leave with each of us. I feel that for my mum’s, and my nans generation of women, it was a really difficult time socially.

Women were no longer expected to give up work once they were married. Women were able to go out and get their own jobs, earn their own money.

However, typically they were still expected to continue looking after the house, the husband and the children, as

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well as working. That may not have been the case for all families, but it definitely was for my mum and her female friends and family. As a child I could sense my mum's frustration. She was always tired and stressed. Her low-paid jobs were physically demanding, plus she had three kids and the house to run too. She seemed to make no time for hobbies. The house and work were her life.

I grew up believing that this was normal. No wonder I found relationships difficult.

To me, being in a relationship meant giving up my hobbies and my independence.

I focused on having an immaculate home and cooking meals, as well as a full-time job.

Playing ‘housewife’. Of course that soon took its toll and relationships broke down, because I naturally need to be independent. I need adventure. In my early 30s, I realised that the way I was trying to live was due to following social expectations and possibly even family expectations. I had to take a closer look at myself, and I realised that the happiest times in my life were when I had been living alone and backpacking

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independently. I wanted a life where I could be free to travel and make my own adventures.

Events in my life have made me realise how short life can be and how precious it is. I want to make the most of every opportunity and appreciate it. I see people struggling in life, maybe with illness, disability, a lack of freedom, or a lack of self-confidence like my mum, which is really sad to see. That drives me to take advantage of every chance I get.

Why wait until it's too late then wish that you had done more? Doing the Wainwrights is an example of something that I have achieved just through sheer dogged determination.

At times I draw on my own life experiences as motivation: “I picked myself up from that, so I sure as hell can do this”.

Enter running I started running when I was 32. Although I always enjoyed the outdoors, I had never done any sport at all. I avoided it at school and as an adult until now.

Within a year of starting to run I had achieved my goal of a sub two hour half-marathon,

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The Bob Graham The Bob Graham is a 24-hour challenge, starting and finishing at Keswick Moot Hall (in the UK’s Lake District). It involves 66 miles (106 km) and 26,900 feet (8,200 m) of ascent) over 42 fells.

The Wainwrights The Wainwrights are series of 214 peaks (which are locally called fells), over an unmarked course, requiring navigation.

The are named after Alfred Wainwright who over the period 1955 to 1966 wrote about them in the seven volume Pictorial Guide to the Lakeland Fells.

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and within two years I was a keen fell runner and completed my first ultra-marathon: The Lakes in a Day, a 50 mile race in the Lake District. By this time I was hooked, and the Lake District mountains were where I spent most of my free time. I felt happiest there. I loved exploring new routes, either just with Billy or with friends. I successfully completed the Bob Graham round and was keen to find a new challenge.

The Wainwrights Paul Tierney had just broken the record for the Wainwrights round, setting a time of 6 day, 6 hours and 4 minutes, beating the previous record set by Steve Birkinshaw by a few hours.

Steve Birkenshaw’s route of the Wainwrights was 320 miles and with 36,000 metres of ascent.

Sabrina Verjee There’s more on Sabrina’s honesty and values in the December 2020 issue of Adventure She magazine.

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No woman had yet successfully completed a consecutive Wainwright round. The fell running community was starting to talk about it: who would be the first female to complete the Wainwrights? Nicky Spinks? Sabrina Verjee? Jasmine Paris? Challenge wise, I found I kept thinking about it.

No one knew me, and if they did, not for a second would they have expected me to take on the Wainwrights, let alone successfully complete the round consecutively. Well, I would have a bloody good go at it.

I had no intention of setting a fast time; for me, completing all 214

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peaks consecutively would be tough enough. I just wanted to show other women what is possible, even for someone like me who’d hated sport, who’s middle of the pack at races. If you want something enough, and work hard at it, anything is possible. I seem to only be interested in challenges which push me to my absolute extreme. If I know that I am already capable of completing something then I don't feel inspired – but there must be a part of me deep down that does believe I can do it, otherwise I wouldn't even bother trying, would I? I knew I would have to train hard and specific for the 214 peaks over

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330 miles with 36,000 meters of ascent. This meant lots of long days out, climbing up and down, getting used to the rough terrain and learning the route. I would follow Steve Birkenshaw’s route as closely as possible.

All of my spare time would have to go into planning logistics, support teams, how to finance the challenge etc. I would need a lot of help. For the hill support I’d need at least one person on each leg to carry my kit and food, plus drivers and a person to sort my laundry, cook and shop. Endless jobs.

It is a lot to ask of people to give up their time, especially as I had never taken on anything like this

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before. A multi-day event, with little experience, meant realistically, the schedule could be hours, if not days out, once I had been going for a few days.

However, in true fell running spirit, everyone who I asked agreed to support me in some way.

Covid did interrupt training; recce days were not possible, my planned start date of May 1st was put back and Sabrina Verjee did in fact take on the Wainwrights first in July. She completed the round but, due to extreme knee pain, leant on some of her support runners for about 30 minutes over the course of the 6 days, 17 hours and 51

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minutes which it took her to complete the Wainwrights. Sabrina was hailed in the press as being the first woman to complete the Wainwrights nonstop, but Sabrina refused to claim the record, writing on Facebook “it’s not a record”.

the rest of the day I had three other people supporting me on the route from Troutbeck to Dodd Wood near Keswick. I was moving well. The weather was great with September sunshine making it the perfect temperature for running. Despite the weather there were plenty of bogs, as there always are in the northern fells. I was sliding across mile after mile of sticky mud, pulling my feet out as they were sucked into the sludge. Although this seemed to go unnoticed whilst running on that terrain, I paid for it after two days with anterior tibial tendonitis, a very painful injury which usually requires rest right away. As this was a consecutive round, I couldn’t go

Eventually, on September 10th, 2020, I set off from home and headed for my first Wainwright, Great Mell Fell.

Day one was easy. I didn't have to remind myself of all the sentimental reasons for doing this. I set off on foot from home at 5am with one of my closest friends and we were in the Ullswater valley for sunrise. For

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home and rest for days or weeks.

Rest only meant an extra few hours in the van at the end of each day.

expecting me to quit, or asking why and how I was doing this?

With over 150 Wainwrights left, I had a long way to go and the biggest peaks and most challenging rough ground was still to come. This would require a strong head. I had to dig deep when I was in a lot of pain and sleep-deprived. People who didn't know me too well were now

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I was doing this for all the women unable to do the things they dream of, for everyone who missed opportunities or who never even had opportunities. Although completing all 214 Wainwrights consecutively in all weathers may be far from many women's ideas of accomplishment, it’s a statement: I can so I will, and I will be grateful for every minute of it.

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I was grateful, for everyone who came to hike with me, brought me food, did my laundry and drove my van around the Lake District numerous times a day for almost two weeks. I was grateful to be living in such an amazing part of the world and for being capable of getting myself up and down these mountains.

Mornings were physically tough as my injuries worsened but they were also really rewarding. I would slowly dig my walking poles into the ground to pull myself up the hills, working hard, with steam coming off my air. As we gained height the views changed from a glimpse of the lake below to an inversion, the mountain tops peeping out above the cloud. Maybe this is what drives me. The other reasons are all true – the sentimental reasons that I have in mind, deep-rooted feelings from my past, feeling the need to prove what is possible if you try, hoping to inspire other women.

But maybe it's simply the rush that I get from being in the mountains, being in contact with the rocks and grass and water, descending

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hundreds of meters on loose scree uncontrollably, the sun rising and setting each day in front of you.

Maybe it’s all of these reasons combined?

The toughest day involved the longest section of high-level fells with no road support and 18 Wainwrights. With that out of the way, I was able to relax a little and I felt like I was on my way to completing. The tendonitis seemed to have improved, or maybe my body was getting used to the pain, but at last I was moving much quicker. I was now three days behind schedule, not only due to my pace being much slower because of the injury, but also the rest time at the end of each day was much longer than I had planned. That was essential to let my body recover a little if I were to complete this. My logistics support, Joe Faulkner, had recalculated my schedule after about five days. He had me scheduled to finish on the Wednesday evening, but I was now increasing the pace, so Joe had to adjust the schedule again and update all of my support team. People were now supporting

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me in different parts of the Lake District or doing different days to what they originally volunteered for. With just a few days to go, everyone was pulling out all the stops to come and support me.

I was feeling very relaxed now. Although the pain was much worse overnight and prevented me from getting much sleep, I was still able to enjoy myself through the day.

I was with my friends, having a laugh and generally enjoying the hills and the unexpected late summer weather. It was hot. Temperatures were in the 20s with little cloud, which meant that I had to constantly sip water throughout the day.

The heat may have made me feel physically more drained at the end of the day's hike, but my mood is much more positive when I have sunshine and warmth, so I definitely benefitted from it. Plus dry ground is always a bonus. The weather didn't quite hold, so the last two days were very different with strong wind, rain and cold temperatures.

The day was going to be a big day, with

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maybe 20 hours in bad weather - cold winds, rain and poor visibility. I felt emotional as we gathered to start the final day in Patterdale at 5am in the pouring rain. Still in the dark, we set off wearing head torches and wrapped up in numerous layers of clothing. Daylight came and we had the occasional view towards home. I knew that if the weather had been as glorious as it had been just a few days ago, I would probably be taking my time to soak up this final day, but it wasn’t.

So head down, feet forward.

My last road check point left me with just two more Wainwrights to go. I was on a high.

Becky and Tom, who had done the first two sections with me, were there to take me to the finish. I was actually

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able to run now. The adrenaline kicked in and I ran most of the remaining few miles.

My final Wainwright was Little Mell Fell.

Five of my main support team, the people who had been prominent throughout the whole challenge, were there at the bottom of the fell waiting to summit with me. Looking over Ullswater valley as the sun was setting, mist forming over the lake and the clouds turning pink, it seemed perfect.

For that moment, it was all about me. Everyone and everything I had thought about to get me to this point were not on my mind. My motives, inspirations, thoughts of how or why, had all gone. I was finally congratulating myself.

then set off immediately down to the road to where my van was parked, between Little Mell Fell and Great Mell Fell.

This was my official finish.

I sat silently drinking a cup of tea, in a daze realising what I had achieved. 214 Wainwrights, 330 miles, 36,000 meters of ascent in 13.5 days.

Then a feeling of confusion and sadness came over me. It was over; my adventure was done, and I was going home. I need an adventure, so what next?

I did a celebratory dance at the trig point

About Mel Steventon Mel Steventon’s transformation into a runner hasn’t just led to her becoming the first women to complete the Wainwrights or to her doing the Bob Graham, which is a legendary event in the fell / mountain running world. It’s also led to her helping others to seek their running limits.

Mel now runs Due North Events which hosts running events based in the north of England and specialises in trail running. So if you’re looking for a weekend away or a longer holiday post lockdown, and you want to run somewhere new, but don’t know where or don’t know the first think about running in the mountains, why not contact her.

You can find all you need to know on her Facebook page @duenorthevents

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Charity Hiking Egypt

By Lesley Hamman

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How do we choose to live our life?

That is the question we’ve posed in this issue.

Lesley Hamman is living proof that we do have an element of choice in how we choose to live our life.

Here Lesley explores her journey via broken bones and a dislocated knee, to ultra-hiking in Egypt so she could raise funds for an animal charity close to her heart and from there, to examining what’s next.

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I

used to be obese.

About nine years ago I weighted 120 kg, so over 264 lbs or just under 19 stone.

That’s a lot of numbers, then again, there was a lot of fat.

I hadn’t always been that big. I’d been a competitive horse rider until I’d broken one too many bones to enjoy it any more at a professional level. So after an 18 year break, I returned to karate, or should I say Shito-ryu karate. The competitive streak within me soon kicked in and I rose through the ranks, even qualifying for the World Championships.

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Then the training accident happened. I broke my ankle and dislocated my knee at the same time. It hurt.

It was horrible. My coach broke the bad news, I had to choose between going to the World Championship or doing my black belt, but with my busted knee, I couldn’t do both. (I know, I someone qualified for the worlds as a brown belt, strange but true).

Once I bagged the black belt, the depression hit, because I’d lost something I’d worked so hard to get. With my knee still being ultra-weak and unable to compete at my level,

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I became a comfort eater, ballooning from 80kg to 120 kg.

Regaining control By then I was living in Egypt with my Egyptian husband of 22yrs and our two children. I wish I could say that eventually I ‘saw the light’ and decided to take back control of my life, so I could regain more of what was out there than the school run, the sofa and my job. But I didn’t.

So how did I transition from sofa comfort eater to ultra-hiker?

It is amazing how one moment can turn our life around. For me that

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moment came when another school run mum who’d become a friend, suggested we go for a 1 km walk after dropping our children off at school.

You’ve probably guessed by now that I’m competitive.

Competitive at equestrianism.

Competitive at karate.

Competitive at eating.

Now I became competitive at walking, 1km became 12km which with time became 50km and even 100km! The journey wasn’t always smooth though. My first attempt at 100km ended at the 74km. It was an organised even

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in the UK’s South Downs. I’d been training for ages when at the last minute my husband decided to come with me. I was so excited to have him join me. He did great given he hadn’t trained for the event, but was there to support me, making it to the 74km mark, where he had to stop. Rather than put me off, I found that did not finish galvanized me. I entered more challenges and yes I did finish a 100km hike.

Control the Controllables So what type of competitiveness would ensue for me during

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lockdown? After all, with Covid playing master of our lives and all my planned hiking events getting cancelled one after another, I could easily have done what I did when I couldn’t go to the World Championships, I could have taken to scoffing on the sofa.

This time though I resolved not to let that happen. This time I resolved to be in control of the controllable. As well as enjoying hiking around the outside of the now closed and rather surreal tourist free historic sites, I resolved to use my hiking, to

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help others, whether human or animal.

Ultra-hiking in the desert With organised ultras cancelled, I decided to create my own 100km challenge.

Originally, I’d planned on doing it alone, hiking multiple short loops near our farm on the fringes of Luxor. Two fit friends decided to join me. My mistake was saying yes to them. We hadn’t trained together; we were different paces and we had different ideas about where to hike. Their suggested 26 loop was more

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scenic, but it also meant doing 26 kms before our first ‘checkpoint’.

I thought I was prepared, after all I’d already done five ultras, but they’d been in the UK. My hiking trousers, boots and water bladder had been great for the conditions I’d encountered in the UK. But this was Egypt, and the temperature was over 30 degrees centigrade. My UK hiking trousers and boots were far too warm and heavy. As for the water in my hydration system, well that had had heated up to that yucky lukewarm temperature. Not surprising really then

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that I’d forget to drink, for it was disgusting.

Not drinking in 30 degrees centigrade is a big mistake. The sun was getting to me. My mind was turning cloudy, and self-doubt began to gnaw away at me. On top of this, my friends and I had a different natural hiking rhythm / pace. I was not happy. I began to ask myself, why was I doing this?

Finally we made it to the 26km checkpoint, manned by my husband and stocked with food and drink.

As I sat there cramp took hold of my quads.

I didn’t know which leg to grab first, for the pain in my legs was so intense, as my muscles screamed away. It was terrible. The pain just wouldn’t let up.

Rather than head back out, as the others set off to hike some more, disappointed, miserable, dejected me headed home. It was heart breaking, for I wasn’t doing this just for me. I was doing it for the animals, to raise money to help care for abandoned, battered, poorly animals, animals who through no fault of their own were suffering.

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These animals were themselves victims of the pandemic. Many of Egypt’s population depend upon tourism for their survival. But with tourism on hold because of Covid-19, incomes have dropped.

With less income, there’s less money for food, and that includes food for animals.

My parents had rescued animals when I was a child. Now I was doing the same, here on the outskirts of Luxor, albeit on a smaller scale. Yet instead of spending the afternoon walking to raise money for the animals, I mustered just about enough energy for a shower, then lay on my bed, where I ruminated over the day’s events. I kept thinking what could I have done differently?

As life came back into my body I started to feel physically capable of continuing. But I’d already given up, I thought I was done. I phoned a friend in the UK who was empathetic as opposed to sympathetic. She understood, but she also read me the riot act, told me to stop making excuses and to get up and start walking. Suitably chastened, I stood up

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and just thought, “right just one foot in front of the other and we will see how it goes…”

and I’d raised £500 for the charity.

I started walking around upstairs in my home, a 15 metre loop.

Next I braced for the stairs. Then I headed outside. I walked and walked. For four hours I walked around my house. Step by step I covered another 24km.

Now all I had to do was eat, sleep, recover and do another 50km the following day. I did it though, walking 50 loops of 1 km close to the farm. That way I didn’t have to worry about getting resupplies of water or anything else. Though I admit, hiking the same 1km loop 50 times, was mentally taxing.

May 2020 turned out to be quite a month for me. After the challenge of hiking 100km in Egypt’s heat, it was time for the children (age 19 and 17) and I to headed off to the UK. They needed to be back for their education, and I wanted to see them settled in.

Mentally taxing or not, as I approached the 100km mark, seeing a cheer squad from the local charity I was raising money for Animal Care in Egypt (ACE) - was a real boost, even enticing me to sprint to the finish and trust me, I don’t run for anything!!!!

I had done it. I’d set myself a lockdown challenge, I’d completed it, despite taxing times both physically and mentally

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Hiking in quarantine

Before we could be ‘let free’ in the UK, we needed to quarantine for 14 days. Lucky for us my father offered us his place. He stayed with my brother a few miles away and dropped off groceries at the front door.

Instead of an impersonal hotel room, we had a home complete with a small garden, TV and of course WIFI. We also had something else, a mini stepper, for there was no way I could quarantine my competitive spirit, and I was not prepared to forgo my hiking.

I set a goal of 15,000 steps a day.

Watching 60 minutes on the TV gave me 8,00 steps. so there was only another 7,000 to find. It didn’t matter

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to me if I did them in the small garden or on that stepper, so long as I did them. Some of you might find this a rather dangerous compulsion. But to me, it kept me sane, and it also kept me fit.

15,000 steps don’t however take up all day. So rather than go insane, I started planning post quarantine hikes, starting with short hikes and moving on to longer more challenging routes (I was in the UK for a few weeks). I downloaded the Ordnance Survey (OS) maps app for my phone and went offpiste finding some amazing hikes that were just a few minutes from my front door! I then shared this with others, showing that you don’t have to go miles or to another country to find adventures.

Quarantine over, despite all the craziness and event cancellations, I had a stroke of luck as the

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lockdown rules eased a little during my time in the UK. I even managed to do an organised 50km challenge hike in Chiltern Hills – which I again used as a fund raising platform for ACE – so all that stepping in front of the TV really did pay off!

Hiking mountains You might be thinking, she did horses she stopped doing horses, she did karate she stopped doing karate, she’s done hiking she’ll stop doing hiking. Not quite. I’ve loved doing ultra-challenges and intend to do more. But that competitiveness streak in me is also seeking out another challenge? Of course I could try and push myself by trying to complete 50km and 100km hikes faster.

But that’s not what hiking means to me, besides I’m not built for speed. I know some of you might think I’d be faster if I lost more weight, that 85kg is too much for a woman of 5

Following Lesley Hammam on Social Media www.theadventurewithin.com https://www.instagram.com/the_adventurer_within/

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foot 4 inches, but alas I’ve lipodemia, so those bits of fat around my legs and bum simply aren’t going to disappear and I just have to put up with carrying them around with me.

When we were in the UK my daughter expressed an interest in going up a certain famous mountain. As we hiked up that mountain I realised how much I love mountain hiking. So my new challenge is to climb the highest mountain wherever I am, even down to searching out mountains when I’m away with work. It’s a great way to keep fit and even better, it’s a great way of exploring.

For as John Muir, wrote “The Mountains are Calling and I Must Go”.

Adventure She magazine, Issue 13, April 2021

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About Lesley Hammam British born Lesley Hammam has spent the past 22 years living between the UK and Egypt.

Lesley admits that taking on a new culture can be daunting, even at the best of times. But she’s also found the experience to be fascinating and has relished getting to know the culture, wildlife and landscape. She even credits the desert with its sandy expanses and breath taking vistas, as having played a big part in her journey of selfdiscovery.

As well as her day job, Lesley provides a sanctuary for animals that need a home, particularly badly treated / broken horses. If you would like to sponsor a horse, or a donkey, or a goat, or some other animal, do get in touch with Leslie.

You can follow Lesley on the following social media channels.

In addition to her normal day job (though like many she’s been furloughed) and running the Blue Lotus Farm where she provides a home for animals in need, Lesley also runs virtual tours about life and culture in Egypt. We definitely planning on checking them out? Why don’t you join us?

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MAPS, MOUNTAINS AND MOUNTAIN BIKES

By LISA BARLOW Maps by Lisa Barlow Photographs courtesy of Lisa Barlow

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People say lockdown has been tough. But the truth is, some people have had it a lot harder than others, whether because they live in a tiny, overcrowded, possibly damp home, or because they are struggling big time to keep afloat financially, or because they are struggling with mental health aspects such as loneliness.

For others, lockdown has been a very strange experience.

Some people have made the most of lockdown, whether by learning to paint, or learning a language, or even learning to be a better mountain biker. For yes here in the UK, certain exercise (think walking, running, cycling) has been allowed during all the lockdowns imposed so far, provided it was carried out in accordance with certain rules such as proximity to home.

Lisa Barlow is one of those people who has chosen to make the most of her life, despite these strange times we live in. Her lockdown mission was twofold, namely, to map places she visited by bike and to improve her mountain biking. This is her story.

heard about Trash Free Trails’ ‘Selfless Isolation Project’ during the first lookout. It encouraged people including cyclists, to notice, observe and know their local wildlife, to collect

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litter from bike trails and to create illustrated maps to share on social media. I started drawing maps as visual diaries of what I saw whilst out cycling. I shared one of those maps on Twitter and

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that’s how I was asked to write this article.

I used the maps as visual diaries of wildlife I saw on cycle rides around my home in Shropshire in the UK.

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This wildlife included two day flying moths, the Hummingbird Hawk Moth, and the brightly coloured Scarlett Tiger Moth, both of which are new to the area supposedly due to the warming climate.

Of course cycling isn’t all about exercise, wildlife and the countryside. Cycling’s also about food, whether butter buns bought from a local bakery, or my mother’s Swiss Roll which we ate next to an old mulberry tree. So I also recorded food stops on my maps.

The county of Shropshire where I live borders onto Wales.

One town, Knighton, lies on the border.

Whilst the hospital, museum and supermarket are in Wales, the railway station is on the English side in Shropshire. It so happens the eastern terminus of the Trans Cambrian Way, is Knighton.

The more I cycled and explored my local area, the more confident I became. As travel further afield was allowed and with holiday accommodation opening up, I decided to explore trails beyond

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my local area. I decided to bike pack across Wales on the Trans Cambrian Way.

Williams has even called it the ‘last wilderness of Wales’.

Trip Planning

The Trail The Trans Cambrian way is a long-distance mountain bike route stretching about 100 miles across Wales from Knighton on the English border, to Dovey Junction at Machynlleth, with options to extend the trail at both ends. With train stations at both ends of the trail, it makes it really accessible. (Top tip, should you ever choose to take a train to / from the start / finish, remember to book ahead, especially when travelling with a bike, as some trains only allow a small number of bikes and seats can sell out too).

The trail climbs round 3,700 meters if you go from east to west, as I planned, rather more if you go in the other direction. It snakes its way across the beautiful and wild Cambrian Mountains, home to Red Kites, Pine Martens, Skylarks and many, many sheep. Whilst there are a few small towns along the way, it’s so remote, BBC Wales wildlife presenter Iolo

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I wanted to complete the route solo for a few reasons; the adventure; a confidence boost after spending lots of time in lockdown; to travel at my own pace with lots of time to really appreciate the animals and landscapes all around me; and because organising a trip with friends during the pandemic was extra complicated.

I studied maps to give myself an idea of the type of terrain to expect - bridleways, rough tracks, forestry tracks, grassy hillsides, country lanes and a few fords to cross - and got an idea of the climbing involved by using the OS Online app, which shows the amount of ascent. I also talked to people I knew who had done it.

But despite all this research, plus reading online and watching YouTube films of other people’s trips, I struggled to gauge how tough the Trans Cambrian Way would be for my level of fitness and mountain biking ability. Difficulty

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is of course subjective, both mentally and physically.

Before Covid19 I was a relatively inexperienced mountain biker, so to prepare myself for the trail, I sought out terrain and climbs near me that were as similar as possible to the Trans Cambrian Way. Ride by ride I worked on my skills and confidence. Over time I calculated how far I could realistically mountain bike in a day. Whilst the fastest known time for the trail is 10 hours plus 18 minutes, and three days is most common option, I decided to take four days. After all, I had the time, there was no rush, so why not? Life isn’t all about speed. It’s also as the Trash Free Trails Selfless Isolation’ mapping challenge advocates, about noticing, observing, knowing.

According to the website www.nationaltransporttrust.org.uk the Knucklas Viaduct was completed in 1864. The website describes it as “One of the most picturesque viaducts in Britain”.

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Setting Off There was a lot I didn’t know before I went, I wasn’t even sure that I could do it One thing for sure, I would never know, unless I tried.

It was time to take that leap of faith and set out on my adventure. First though I shared my route and rough timings with family members. It helped me, knowing that others knew where I should be and when.

Day 1 – Knighton to Rhayader, 30 miles, Airbnb

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I set off from Knighton along quiet lanes to Knucklas, passing a viaduct and a campsite.

That campsite would make an ideal starting point for anyone getting the train (I got a lift to the start).

I climbed up grassy banks to Beacon Hill and got used to opening and shutting gates. Gates might be a pain, but for local farmers they are essential. So it's worth remembering to always leave gates as you find them and if they were shut when you got there, to make sure

they are properly shut after you pass through, as opposed to being left slightly ajar.

From walking trips I know I can hike 20 miles a day. Whilst pushing a bike uphill a grassy bank is hard work, I found it reassuring to think that if I had to, I could walk a long way. In fact I did a lot of bike pushing and am amazed by anyone who can cycle the whole thing. To give an ideal of exactly how relaxed a pace I was setting on day one I cycled for nine hours.

I was happy with this slow pace, as it gave

Climbing on day 1

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Day 2

me more time to observe nature, find my way and enjoy the trip.

Other write ups online, also talk about pushing bikes up this grassy bank. So it wasn’t only me.

Day 2 Rhayader – Pontrhydfendigaid, 27 miles, Airbnb It’s worth noting here that Rhayader has a bike shop, the last (at least as far as I found) before Machynlleth in two days’ time. After yesterday’s big grassy climb, I enjoyed the

smooth cycle track through the Montgomeryshire Wildlife Trust Rhayader Tunnel Nature Reserve. It wasn’t all easy though for today also had the most difficult terrain I remember, with very rutted grassy tracks in the middle of nowhere.

I found it impossible to stay on the high bits, as the weight of the bike made me a bit unstable, but the wheels got stuck in the ruts. More biking pushing was called for, which was hard going on the long wet grass.

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There were beautiful views on the trail and an amazing sense of isolation, being surrounded by mountains with nobody in sight and no phone signal. I got used to pushing my bike through streams with soggy feet, one of which looked impossible to cross at first glance.

Day 3 Pontrhydfendigaid – Cwmbiga, 29 miles, campsite

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Day 3

Today had some fun cycling through large areas of forestry. I say fun as whilst there were big climbs, these were counteracted by lots of opportunities to roll down beautiful hills. I also kept my eyes peeled as I hoped to catch a glimpse of the elusive Pine Marten. I stopped quite a few times to look for signs that they’d been there but didn’t actually see one.

I’d arranged to meet my parents at the end of the day’s ride in the Hafren Forest at Cwmbiga. They’d

brought with them homemade curry and a massive cherry Bakewell. We drove to a campsite near Machynlleth, one of the best campsites I have stayed at.

Day 4 – Cwmbiga – Dovey Junction, 20 miles My mum joined me for a while today.

Together we headed off up to Glyndwr’s Way. We rode along moorland tracks, surrounded by Skylarks up to Glaslyn nature reserve. There were

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some steep shaley descends which neither of us fancied risking, so we got off and walked them, after all, why not? We weren’t out to break records, we were there to enjoy ourselves, to notice, observe and know.

The trail isn’t way marked and requires a bit of navigation along the way. Before heading off I’d found a great writeup of the route by Chris Goodman on Bikepacking.com and I ‘d downloaded his GPX route. I used a OS Online app to follow the trail out of range. I’d

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even upgraded my phone to make sure I had a good battery and borrowed an Anker backup battery pack. I am confident with map reading but found having an app reduced the need to take multiple paper maps and keep stopping and starting to get them out in the rain. I also wanted to avoid accidentally rolling down a big hill and adding to the journey.

The app shows your current location, which avoids some potential mistakes.

Alas cycling along with my mum we somehow took a wrong turn, despite the maps and the app. We ended up having to follow a fence line across moorland pushing our bikes to get back to the trail. At least my map reading knowledge came into good use once we knew we’d gone wrong, as that knowledge enabled me to recognise a fence line, which helped us back onto the route.

One downside of bike packing is that things can go wrong with bikes. Whilst I could change inner tubes, my knowledge of bike mechanics was lacking.

About 10 miles into our ride, my gears jammed.

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It could have been a problem given the remoteness on part of the trail. Lucky for me it was on a downhill smooth country lane and close to where my dad had parked up to catch up with us.

I was lucky. Because my parents had brought along my dad’s mountain bike (which my mum had been riding), I could continue albeit alone.

Truth be told, I found it harder to set off again by myself after having cycled with my mum. It had been so tempting to join them in the van as they drove off towards the beach.

Why had I felt that way? I think it was the fear of missing out on a fun group activity, in this case, a family day out on a nearby beach with not just my parents, but more family too, including my young nephews.

I think wanting to be with other people and to have fun with other people is natural. But my goal had been to cycle the whole of the Trans Cambrian Way, not just a part of it. I reminded myself there would hopefully be other family days out at the beach.

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I cycled on. After all I’d had a clear plan to cycle the whole of the Trans Cambrian way and I knew I’d be disappointed if I didn’t complete the challenge which I’d set myself.

There simply wouldn’t have been that same sense of achievement if I gave up before the end. I had the energy and - thanks to my dad’s bike – the capability to carry on.

So why give up?

Reflections Having the confidence to try an adventure was certainly a highlight of 2020 and I am so grateful for the inspiration to go, words of encouragement, loan of kit and most of all the help from my support crew family.

Thank you all so much.

Photographs on previous two pages - day 4 Photograph on opposite page, Lisa’s mother, who joined Lisa for part of the time on day 4.

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Trail recollections and thoughts The weather Best to check the weather forecast before setting out and each day thereafter.

Heavy rain could make some of the fords impassable.

Fords If you do meet an impassable ford, ensure you have the capability and energy to turn back if necessary. I don’t remember how many small rivers there were to ford, but apart from wishing I had some waterproof footwear on, apart from one, they were easily passable. There had been a few days of heavy rain which meant that at that one ford, I did have a stop and think. I studied the river and the terrain all around. Then after deciding it was safe, I carefully selected the best place to push my bike across, making sure I avoided both the faster flowing water and deeper pools.

Challenging sections The most challenging sections, I found were rutted tracks where rainwater had moved the stone, secondly some very shaley downhills, and also those sections of long wet grass which made for hard going with the kit I was carrying.

Kit Most of the weight I carried was snacks, spare inner tubes, a first aid kit, lots of water and - for some reason - a makeup bag, which I only used for the tweezers to take a thorn out of a tyre.

I also took printed maps (and my parents had copies too).

I had some issues with my new lightweight pump as well as the gear jamming issue. A guy I came across very kindly helped me with the pump.

Type of bike A mountain bike is considered the best tool for the Trans Cambrian way, but I hear gravel bikes are popular, if you do not mind occasionally getting off to push. E-bikes are also popular, particularly for those hoping to complete the route in a weekend or if travelling with faster cyclists.

I am not an expert on bikes and used my old mountain bike, which was fine for the job (until that little incident on day 4, but then again, these things happen).

I did however notice a difference when I got to ride my dad’s rather more superior bike the last few miles, that a really good bike can definitely make a difference.

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Whatever bike you use, if you can’t service it yourself, get it serviced before you go. In case you’re wondering, yes I did get mine serviced beforehand. As for the problem I had, my bike enthusiast brother later fixed the problem in ten minutes. It was a broken piece of the spoke protector which had snapped off without me realising. I’ve made a mental note to improve my bike maintenance skills, as it would have been a shame if I’d had to give up for such a mechanical issue that was so easy to resolve.

Accommodation Booking Airbnb’s for the first two nights and meeting my parents who brought camping kit with them for our third night at a campsite, saved me from having to carry a lot of weight in the form of camping equipment. Meeting my parents part way also made it more sociable (we’re in a bubble), something that’s harder to achieve now with the Coronavirus rules and regulations.

About Lisa Barlow Lisa Barlow is a conservation project manager and wildlife enthusiast based in Shropshire.

You can follow Lisa on social media at her blog, https://lisabarlownature.wordpress.com where she has started sharing stories about wildlife conservation and outdoor adventures.

Prior to this trip, Lisa has been cycling “very slowly” (her words) across Europe.

She likes the idea of getting into more remote areas and making the most of the amazing scenery closer to home. She loves the relatively low-cost adventure and freedom of cycling holidays, travelling through beautiful scenery, taking long lunch breaks under trees, meeting other travellers, and carrying whatever she needs, though she freely admits that on the Trans Cambrian, thanks to family joining her for part of the trip, this time around, she could travel somewhat lighter.

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Coming Up We hope you’ve enjoyed this issue and have found it to be empowering, educating and entertaining. Here are some ideas we have for future articles, but please do let us know what you’d like to read about and please do keep sending us your stories. We love publishing them.

Competing in the Eco Challenge

Drinking Tea With Xinjiang’s Uighurs

Ultra-Running Nepal

Getting Your Film Into A Film Festival

The Importance of Attitude

Running Rome

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Exploring Kakadu National Park Australia’s Kakadu National Park

The Grand Canyon - Rim to Rim

New Zealand’s Coast To Coast Race Cycling Victoria’s Rail Trails

Navigation For Hikers And Runners

Coronavirus Cycling in Ireland

Fear and Via Ferrata

Nepal After

Living with the locals in Nepal

India’s Little Tibet

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Adventure She is a brand of TNA Consulting Services Ltd, Pembrokeshire, United Kingdom

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