Hello! And thanks for coming to this page to learn a little about me. I'm Belinda, an Australian born in New Zealand, an avid hiker with a lust for travelling the world.
My aim is to inspire and encourage women over 50, to get out there and enjoy hiking and the outdoors and celebrate the golden years. I want each and every woman who is inspired by my blog to understand that this is your time to shine. You don't have to be 20-something to do these amazing hikes!
The fact that I wild camp — well, at first, I was scared, I'm not going to lie! But now, I absolutely love it! Bears, snakes, and possums? OK, I'm not afraid of black bears, nor snakes; I feel really uncomfortable around possums, and I'm terrified of birds!
Things that go bump in the night
The thumping sound was a kangaroo
The stalking sound was an emu
The grunting sound was a male koala’s mating call
Oh, and the kangaroo had a great time “playing soccer” with my cooker!
All of the hikes featured in this blog I've personally accomplished. I've done all the planning and preparation, so I know exactly what goes into every hike. I aim to make it easier for you when planning any of the hikes on this site — where do I buy gas? Where are the trailheads? What do I need in my First Aid Kit? You can find the answers to all these questions here.
My hiking guides are intended to inform and inspire, no matter what hiking style you're into. You can do many of these amazing hikes by tour as an assisted walk, as a guided unassisted walk, with friends, with a partner, or even with your kids. I want you to read about a hike, be inspired to do it, and go do it, no matter in what capacity.
I try to complete a hike in its entirety, but sometimes, I know when to call it quits. For example, on the Larapinta Trail (Australia), I knew the last 4 sections were mice-infested!
Or on Hadrian's Wall (UK), the wall had finished in Hexon, and the weather had turned really nasty – horizontal, freezing cold rain. Yep – time to bail.
Of course, sometimes you can't bail, and I'm pushing myself to my limits. It's during those times I find exactly what I'm made of. Maybe all those life lessons we've learned at our age kick in now!
Let's backtrack to 2020 and take a look (Ouch!)
One day, at the start of the pandemic, I looked in the mirror and had a reality check. The person who looked back at me was overweight, unfit, and seriously unhealthy. My three kids were either at university or in their final year of high school. Years of being a solo mum, putting my energy into everyone but myself—and hey, throw in menopause as well—hadn't been kind. Where was that girl who was full of life? Where had she gone? That was the question I asked myself that day.
I'd often watched hikers come and go through towns near trailheads, and pangs of longing used to overcome me. That day in 2020, I bought my first pair of hiking boots in 25 years, just a week before Covid turned the streets into a ghost town and no one knew what to expect. The hiking shop had no idea that so many, stranded in Australia over the next two years, would take up the sport. Nearly everything, including my expensive boots, went on sale as panic hit the retail sector.
I joined a local hiking group and remember my first hike of 17km being the most difficult thing I've done in years. The hike was Warrie Circuit in the hinterland of the Gold Coast, now one of my favourite hikes.
I loved the camaraderie of the hiking group I'd joined and the excitement of using my new boots for the first time (yep, I went on a 17 km hike in new boots!). I remember returning home, pouring myself a glass of wine and feeling utterly ecstatic. I had done something for myself. Wow!
My work has always taken me to far-flung places, and I've always travelled with my children since they were small. For years, I had booked myself into fancy hotel rooms, possibly close to a convention centre, and rarely ventured beyond an inner city boundary.
I'd sat at restaurant tables alone before returning to a hotel room – to work. My travel was just business travel, and it's a far cry from the travel I do now.
On the trail, my dinner is a dehydrated meal, and my table is probably a rock or a fallen tree log. My hotel is my tent, where I can listen to the rain's pitter-patter and smell the petrichor, or I can draw the curtains (remove the fly) and watch a million stars glisten like diamonds in the dark sky.
So how do I get to travel, you may ask? Well, I work for myself – and I can work remotely, preferably in the USA time zone. So it doesn’t really matter where I live, in fact I can live anywhere with a decent internet connection.
This has allowed me to live in countries that interest me, that provide me with hiking opportunities and allow me to immerse myself in another culture.
My lifestyle allowed me to move to the United Kingdom when my daughter was doing an exchange with Exeter University. It allows me the freedom to bring my adult children to me as often as possible, for one on one or a group holiday, where we have quality time.
My work has always been in the sustainability sector, so I embrace the Leave No Trace Principle as though it's in my DNA. I will always promote products I have personally used and like.
Hiking gear is expensive, and I'm not about to give you a bum steer. As I mentioned earlier, I wild camp where possible, but I fully appreciate that this may be something other than your thing – so I will always have other options if available.
If you have any questions about a blog post or wish to comment, I'd be happy to hear from you. Just send me a message to hello (at) soultreader.com
