Anna, is a British born adventurer, motivational speaker, influencer and author. She was recently named by Condé Nast Traveller as one of the 50 most influential travellers of our time (http://www.cntraveller.com/article/anna-mcnuff) , and by the the Guardian as one of the top modern female adventurers (http://www.theguardian.com/travel/2016/mar/30/top-10-inspiring-contemporary-uk-female-adventurers) . She is also proud to be the UK Ambassador for Girl Guiding (https://www.girlguiding.org.uk/what-we-do/our-stories-and-news/news/anna-mcnuff-and-girlguiding-join-forces-to-encourage-girls-and-young-women-to-take-on-more-adventures/) , and the co-founder of Adventure Queens (https://adventurequeens.co.uk/) ; the UK’s fastest growing women’s adventure community.
Show notes
• Social Media Experiment…. riding across Europe…
• Thinking about journeys
• Being a planner & getting uncomfortable
• Climbing over her back fence…. left, right, straight on??
• What’s going to happen next?
• Making a change from walking to cycling
• Having an element of control
• Wanting to see the monkeys
• Focusing on the new opportunities & not dwelling on missed opportunities
• Accommodation while on the road
• Warm showers – https://www.warmshowers.org
• The kindness of strangers and the people she met on the way
• Getting home.. train..plane?
• Going to Gloucester
• The love story…. following your passion
• Trying to be the sunshine in people’s lives
• The next adventure idea!
• Missing her brothers wedding
• Making it work with Jamie
• Deciding on the route?
• Testing out Kick Scooters
• Loving the mountains and cycling up hills
• Starting at La Paz & being hit with altitude straight away
• Cycling Death Road, as a bikepacker
• Navigation with MapOut
• Accommodation while on the road… Wild camping!
• The challenges on the journey…
• Facing your fears and getting naked!
• The wild dogs…. & being bitten by a dog..
• Travelling with Faye and what she learnt from the experience
• Being ready to finish the adventure & how they celebrated the end!
• Dealing with the post adventure blues…
• Heading over to Canada on a book tour with Jamie….. Plannada….
• Book writing… the Prequel… (Cycling the 50 states America)
• Being an Ambassador for the Girl Guides
• The Adventures Queens….
• The next challenge… A running adventure in 2019
• Final words of advice and wisdom
• Live your life, like no one else is watching!
Connect with Anna – Support & follow!
Website – https://annamcnuff.com
Twitter – @AnnaMcNuff (https://twitter.com/AnnaMcNuff)
Instagram – @Annamcnuff (https://www.instagram.com/annamcnuff/)
Facebook – https://www.facebook.com/AMcNuff/
Hello and welcome to the tough girl podcast which is all about motivating and inspiring you I’m your host Sarah Williams this is a special episode of the podcast because this is tough girl extra so what that means is that we’ve gone back to speak with one of our
Favorite guests the awesome animic nuff this is raw this is unedited you get to hear it all we’re going to be catching up with Anna as she shares more about her European cycling Adventure directed by social media her incredible Adventure cycling the Andes with Fay sheeper Anna also shares more about the adventure
Queens becoming an ambassador for the Girl Guides and as well as updating us on her next book enjoy so we are back speaking with Anna mcnu the adventurer the speaker and the Mischief maker hi Anna hello how you doing I am so well it’s so great to get
To speak to you again because I think it was must have been a year ago now when we first SP or maybe even a little bit longer than a year I feel yeah I feel like it’s been longer it’s definitely been quite a long time it is high time
We got some chatting in absolutely and Anna you’ve just been off like all over the world doing these different adventures and challenges so I want to basically hear all about what you’ve been up to since we last spoke so in our last episode we obviously we covered your incredible cycle ride around
America and we discussed you know running the full length of New Zealand but what have you been up to since then oh goodness me since then I’m not sure if when we last spoke whether I’d done the social media ride across Europe um which done that no so yeah no so yeah I
I I spent a month cycling across Europe directed by social media which was uncomfortable but amazing um and then guess the biggest trip is I went and spent six months pedalling through the southern Andes with a friend of mine called faay Shephard and that’s probably been the most major thing and then I’ve
Recently just got back from spending three months in a camper van going across uh Canada so that was pretty cool as well oh my God they all sound amazing so let’s let’s be logical then so let’s start at the social media experiments the the social media right across Europe
So where did this idea spring from well that’s it it was definitely an exp expent you’ve got that one right I started to think about how I’d been doing Journeys that had challenged me physically and I thought there are loads of different ways to challenge yourself I know you’re all about the challenges
Tough girl challenges of course and after New Zealand it pushed me to a place in my my where my mind was so fragile that I just started to think about like I always think of uh you as a person you’ve got this kind of solid Circle in the middle which is the part
Of yourself that you know and you understand and you’re comfortable in that and then around the edges there’s all these kind of fuzzy bits and they’re really really uncomfortable if you go and explore them but I find that over time that little tiny solid circle gets bigger when you absorb the fuzzy bits
And the uncomfortable bits and so I started thinking about what happens if I do a trip where I sort of explore the edges of myself and being a planner I I love to plan and I’m quite aware that it’s something that not everyone does especially when it comes to adventures
And so I thought well why don’t I do a trip where I don’t actually plan and I see what happens and it coincided with me thinking you know what I’ve done all these Big Adventures miles away from home I’ve went to the other side of the world for goodness sake and I’ve hardly
Seen any of Europe and I thought that’s ridiculous so I decided that I would set aside a month in my diary I had a month between two speaking gigs and I thought right I’m G to leave my my back Garden in London Brixton where I was living at
The time I’m going to climb over my back fence because it didn’t have a gate so just climbed over and I’m going to leave it open to social media so every two days I threw up a post that said left right or straight on here we go I’ve got
A month where am I going and uh that’s what happened oh my God I can feel like my heart rate is starting to increase just because I am definitely a planner and I like being organized and I like to know where I’m going I like to know that
I’m on the right path whether that’s on a challenge or just in life in general so yeah that just sounds uncomfortable scary oh it’s scary and that’s exactly why I did it and and the thing is I mean I love I love be I love being a planner
Because I think planning is like double the excitement because you get excited before you go because I get excited of what it’s possibly going to be like and then you get excited while you’re there and it’s double excitement but um I yeah it was definitely uncomfortable and and
And one of the things is what was so it came at a point in my life where everything was was transient so when I left when I left when I I climbed out of my back gate I’d handed in the notice on my house I’d just given up my final few
Days of um corporate marketing work uh so I had no clear Direction in my adventure I had no idea how I was going to earn money when I came home I had nowhere to live and so the first two days were really exciting because I had
Some friends with me and then after that the friends all left me and it just hit me and I thought what am I doing and I had this meltdown I cried my eyes out on a dual Carriage we in essics and uh and I thought this the I started off walking
And it wasn’t quite working for me and I just thought I I’m at such a point in my life where I feel like I need some movement I need I need to go faster this walking thing is too slow for me at that point I was out in my life where
Everything was so up in the air and so I thought oh can I switch to a bike I don’t know is that really bad I’ve just told everyone I’m going to walk and uh in fact everyone loved it so I called my mate Stace he went and brought my
Touring bike to me the outskirts of ess6 and I carried on on a bike and everything got a lot better from that point on what was it like you know the social media post when you put it up sort of saying left right straight on I mean how long did you give
It before you got your answer well I’d give it I’d let it run out for about 24 hours normally and what was amazing is that everyone kept bringing their their own experiences and their memories to my journey so when I got closer towards um when I was in Germany actually I was
Posting about whether I potentially wanted to go to Vienna then people were posting pictures of them in Vienna from Years Gone by and saying oh you have to go there I had this amazing experience so people were getting very very animated and very passionate about why I
Should go to a certain place and it was quite nice because I felt like it was giving them a chance to relive their memories as well as kind of be a part of my own adventure and obviously I had some element of control so I had to
Choose what the three options were um so I did I did have one team there was there was a group of guys that were trying to send me north and it was February at this point and I only had my bivy bag and they were they were
Hellbent on sending me to Finland and um and so after about two weeks and I was in the Netherlands I started just giving options that were either straight along East or South because I said I’m not going north that’s just not fun and they were so disappointed um but yeah mostly
It was just it was but what I realized that was quite funny is that all I did was PL shrink my planning cycle down from usually I plan a week ahead to just planning in two day cycles so I was kind of throwing up the post planning two
Days ahead and that made me feel more comfortable with it being a little bit more unplanned well was there ever a point where you really had your heart set on going somewhere whether it was Vienna and they sort of said nope you’re going left instead of right or you know
I wanted to go and see the monkeys in the Netherlands right there was this there was this that was the only one I missed the monkeys um but I I was in the far the Far East of the Netherlands and there was one place that would take me
To go and see this monkey Palace and I got voted to go south and I was really gutted but I just had to let it go but but that’s the only memory I have and actually what it showed me and I kind of live my life like this anyway is you you
Generally if you’re a kind of a focused you know happy person you don’t think about the roads you didn’t take I think all you’re doing is focusing on what are the New Roads coming in front of you what the new opportunities are from the the path you have decided to take and so
For me it it really showed me that actually I didn’t dwell on on missed opportunities because I thought well you know I can’t be getting fear of missing out fomo about what’s going on over there because this is awesome in front of me you know I’m cycling alongside the
River the R River and there’s Carles and everything and um yeah it was amazing oh no absolutely and that’s such a great way of looking at it because I think sometimes you can almost stand when you’ve got these options with like this indecision like which way do I go is is
That fear of missing out um but actually sometimes you’ve got to appreciate the the path that you’re on the journey that you’re going on Def yeah definitely I was going to ask how did it work sort of accommodation wise and you’ve recently just sent a tweet not that I’m stalking
You basically saying you just updated your profile on warm showers um but when you were traveling throughout Europe were you while camping were you in your bivy bag were you staying with friends strangers how was that working for you yeah I intended to stay in my bivy bag
Because I just thought I love the Simplicity of it I thought great if I’ve got everything with me then I’ll just I’ll just I I don’t you know i’ have to worry about getting to a certain place each night and that would take the pressure off but what actually happened
Was after a few nights of viving I bivi while I was in the UK and then once I got on the ferry to I went to the Netherlands and I I thought I remembered warm showers and I thought oh that’s that’s quite cool and um and so I
Started looking on there and seeing just but it’s quite difficult because I didn’t know where I was going so I was kind of roughly looking and then what actually started to happen is because it was a social media trip people on social media just started getting in touch they
They were sending me screen grabs of where they lived in the Netherlands and doing big circles and saying things like bitter ball and here and pointing and um and so sometimes that became part of the options for people so if if someone had sent me a random message saying I live
In the Black Forest you have to come and I’ll buy you a whole Black Forest gateau I’d say right guys someone in the in the Netherlands has offered me black forest gate like and in Germany sorry at that point do I do I head south and go for
That or do I take these other two options so it really started to kick off with just not even warm showers but people randomly just messaging me and wanting to host me and so it became a mix of that and out of 28 nights away so
I ended up going all the way across the Netherlands down through um Germany back across Switzerland twice and all the way through France to the Mediterranean Sea I ended up being hosted for 28 Nights 24 of them were with strangers and people from the warm showers hosting website oh
Do you know you know what I just love so much is about is is one like how the experiments sort of change but also how involved people get because theyve they’ve got this like element of you know control and it’s like they’re part of your adventure they’re helping you
With it you know not even in the in choosing the direction that you get to go but also you know inviting you into their home putting you up feeding you cake that obviously sounds amazing I mean getting to stay with people 24 nights out of 28 or 28 nights
Out um out of out of the days that you’re away traveling I mean there must have been so many highlights from your adventure you know could you share just a few of the moments that really stand out for you yeah I think one of them was
Um the woman who wrote me a message about giving me bitter ball and that was which are like these kind of meaty it’s almost like a scotch egg but without the egg in the middle and you have them with beer basically and um she was an artist
And so I went there and she she took my picture and she took this really cool picture of me and she started painting me and just things like that were just random and I got to connect with some friends that I hadn’t seen for ages that
Had moved overseas um yeah there was the woman who she made good on her promise with the the black forest gateau and and then when I went down to my hel my bike and I looked in my helmet in the morning as I left her house in the Black Forest
She’d given me um she knew that I was going to a town called bon bon where there’s a spa and she bought me a day at the spa basically so I went there and just all these little things started happening and it did make me realize
That there is you know there’s more than one way to skin an adventure cat basically because even though I like to plan these people loved the fact that I hadn’t contacted them months in advance and asked you know asked me to them to confirm a date in their diary they were
Just saying oh God we hate it when people get in touch so far ahead we love it when they just rock up or give us a day’s notice and so it just made me realize yeah that people do it in different ways absolutely it’s just amazing so how did your adventure come
To an end or finish it I know obviously you had the the time pressure on like were you planning to cycle back or you going to fly home what was the plan yeah no I wanted to I thought about cycling back but I thought well that kind of you
Know it would be a bit stressful maybe not knowing how I would get my route back so I thought I will I will fly back from wherever I end up or I’ll get a train and that was one of the things about Europe I actually thought God if
I’m on my bike that’ be great you know I can just maybe I’ll end up somewhere in front and I could just throw it on a on a train and get it back and um I did I ended up in Marseilles on the Mediterranean Sea and I kind of had
About 3 days notice because the the the the final vote was made and I had three days notice and so I started looking into ways to get home and I booked a train home and there was some big confusion where basically it turned out you can’t take your bike on the Eurostar
Train from Marseilles because the connection from there to Paris you have to have it in a box and I didn’t have a box and then I was trying to ship it home with DHL it was a disaster so in the end I canned it I got a really Hasty
Ride to an airport and um threw my bike in a bike bag that I’d bought at some local bike shop and I and um and on a plane home so it was a little bit stressful because I had to make it home for um it was one of alist Humphrey’s
Night of Adventure events actually and I had to make it home for that I couldn’t just not turn up yeah I was gon to say I can imagine you sort of like rushing at the door at the last moment just making it with minut to SP and the final host that I
Stayed with they were so lovely but they were the most chilled out people in the world and I was sort of like okay do you think we could you know you said you’d give me a lift to the airport could we do you think we could sort of leave now
And the the the guy so so French he was like oh you’ve got so much time andna don’t worry and I was like oh my God I’m going to miss my fly you know it’s quite funny where did you come home to so you said you know you left where you were
Staying in Brixton you know you left your house you’ve left your job what what was happening did you have a plan well um I just so Mr Jamie McDonald and I had got together six months earlier so Jamie is the the love interest in my parents of perspective book but he’s a
Real life character too um so we got together six months earlier and he lived in Gloucester and so i’ made the decision to move out of London and move to Gloucester with him so that’s what so but we didn’t know we didn’t have anywhere to live he was actually living
At home with his parents at the time sleeping on a mattress behind their couch because they they had like five foster kids in the house so um we were sort of trying to work that out and he’s not the most planned person on the planet uh the other end of the spectrum
To me so um yeah that’s why I was coming home knowing that I would probably go to Gloucester but not really having anywhere so it was a sort of a few weeks at my parents before we finally got ourselves sorted out oh congratulations and I just say I loved reading the book
And I love the Love Story element it gave me hope I was like oh I could go on adventure and still somebody fabulous do you know what though that’s what the whole thing showed me is like I I you know I was just doing me Jamie was just
Doing him he was following his passion I’m following my passion and our path just collided and I think that’s when the most amazing relationships happen I mean there was actually I mean there was actually a really key Moment In the book which stood out for me actually was when
Jamie said to you like you’re not okay and you don’t have to put on a brave face about everything you can you know like be be upset or be tired or be whatever it was and I I felt that was like a real key turning point in in the
Book for you in terms of just sort of admitting that you weren’t strong all the time which I found like incredibly empowering to hear yeah it really was and it was painful to hear as well because especially you know Jamie is one of these people he he can see he can see
Exactly what’s going on he’s incredibly emotionally intelligent and he could see what’s going on and he’d also been through it because he’d run across Canada himself so he knew and and it was a really hard thing for me to take because as I explained in the book you
Know I I feel that my role sometimes in people’s lives is is to be that Sunshine is to bring that sort of like it’s okay we got this um but what I realized is that I was doing everyone a disservice because you can’t help people if you pretend that everything’s fine all the
Time because the reality isn’t and then that means that when other people aren’t fine they think it’s abnormal because all they see is everyone being fine um yeah it was a huge turning point in the journey for me and so I I always make a
An effort to be a bit more honest and and normally I find if I’m writing a blog post and I’m nervous and I’m hovering over the keys then I probably need to press publish yeah no 100% it’s just incredibly powerful to be able to share you know the high points of your
Journey but also you know the low points that the challenge points I mean it was great to to follow your journey um in the Andes cycling the Andes um with Fay who we’ve also spoken with on the tough girl podcast Oh yay good she’s awesome absolute absolute Legend 100% so tell us
How did you know this next adventure come about you know deciding a what you going to do where you going to do it um and also I suppose taking into account your new relationship as well like did you want to be a no not that you would
Want to be a part for six months but you know you you want to obviously continue your your passions and your hobbies but how did you get that balance between between everything yeah so I’ll tackle the the actual Adventure idea first and then I’ll come back to the relationship
Part because I think the the relationship Parts a really interesting one so I um so I decided that I wanted to go somewhere different again so I’m always trying to find somewhere new for adventures and I mean that in the sense of something I think is going to test my
Comfort limits in a different way and I am really nervous speaking other languages which is ridiculous cuz I’m so gobby and confident in English and I think perhaps that’s why I struggle in other languages because I I I feel like I’m trying to communicate and I love
Communicating but I can’t and so I just get all tongue tied and so I thought Anna enough of this English-speaking country exploring malaky like you need to go somewhere where you’re out of your comfort zone the culture is very different and you can’t speak the language and I’ve been looking at South
America for a while and I’ve seen so many amazing pictures and I love mountains and for the Andes it always had little sort of draw for me and and I thought well if I’m going to go to the Andes I want to be somewhere really beautiful and remote and if I’m going to
Do that and I can’t speak the language the reality is I I probably I knew from New Zealand that I didn’t want to spend too much time by myself so I decided that I I’d probably like to take someone else with me and the other side of that
Was I think it’s it’s great to do Adventures on your own and I highly recommend it as a a tool for getting to know yourself but it’s all it’s actually quite easy in a way because you can completely lose your Rag and it doesn’t affect anyone else whereas when you’re
In close confines with someone else you just you have to you have to hone your patience and your tolerance and you have to have so much more understanding and self-awareness and I thought what a great way to test that than going on a big adventure with someone um and it
Just so happens that I most recently met faay and I knew that she wasn’t particularly happy in her job and so I called her up and said yeah basically do you want to would you consider going on a six-month adventure to South America with me and she just got made redundant
She was like yeah bring it on let’s go for it and um and that was it yeah love it and then in terms of like the the relationship part as well so that was like the adventure part so the relation part you know having this conversation because I think you also missed your
Brother’s wedding as well didn’t you I did yeah so I did and that was um that was I guess it’s one of those things that to sometimes I feel embarrassed telling people but I then have to remember that my my family we love each other very much and we understand one another
And so I’d arranged to go to South America it was kind of in the diary we all set flights booked and then my brother proposed his fiance amazing and said they were going to get married and they said uh when are you think when are you going on your adventure because
We’re thinking of getting married in December and I was going from October to April and I had this horrible moment where they were saying oh no we’ll we’ll we’ll move the wedding we won’t get married in December and whatever and it was my mom and I was going oh no maybe I
Can fly back and then I thought I can’t fly back it just it changes the whole dynamic of the the adventure if you come home halfway in between and um it wasn’t about cost or anything it was more about this the sensation of being away from
Home and and it was my mom who sat there in the living room both of us she was like oh for goodness sake well you too jonty who’s my brother she’s like you just do what you want to do you get married when you want to get married
Anna you do what you want to do you’ll both be happy and that’ll be great and we were just like yeah do you know what that’s fine so um yeah it was great so I made him a um him and his wife Kate I made them a love heart out of donkey poo
On their wedding day and sent them a picture um and my my dad oh being my dad Jamie my boyfriend went to the wedding on my behalf and my dad arranged for a life-sized picture of me to be at the wedding i’ blown up full CBO cut out and
Um he chose I would say the most overweight image of me from the past 15 years of my life to be blown up to life size um so thanks for that one dad so yeah so I got loads of pictures of me like on the Dance Floor people taking
Selfies with me and um yeah it’s hilarious that is absolutely hilarious and what says love more than a heart shape made out of donkey poo exactly I actually thought it was llma poo and then someone on Twitter corrected me they were like I think you’ll find
That’s donkey poo and I was like you’re so right actually llma poo is smaller yeah who knew amazing yeah um and on the so on the relationship side so I think when when Jamie and I who’s also an adventurer when we got together I think we both knew that we were always going
To be going off and and doing stuff and would have to learn how to cope with what is not only time apart but actually two incredibly independent people we are so independent and so fine by ourselves that you know sometimes it’s difficult to actually make sure we sort of steer
Our train tracks in a similar Direction um but originally it was kind of planned I always knew I’d be going on next adventure and so did Jamie and originally it was planned that he would be on his next adventure while I was on mine and then while I was away he had a
Visa problem and he couldn’t leave and so it ended up accidentally him being at home for 6 months while I was away and it was one of those things I was so worried about I thought you know are you an idiot Anna you’ve just met the love
Of your life and you’re taking off because your adventure it is so big and you have to scratch it and you might lose this boy and and actually it was fine it was so romantic it was like we had 140 characters from my my satellite my GPS device I was sending him each
Night you know he’d kind of get a bite-sized rundown of the day which was you know climbed climbed a mountain pass uh got rained on wind terrible ate sausages for tea love you and um and that’s how we maintained our relationship and then he did fly out
After three months and we spent a couple of weeks together in Chile and then um but yeah but he’s now just gone for what is a year and a half away so I’m just entering into it again um but yeah I think if it’s the right person you can
Make it through anything absolutely I love that so how did you I mean South America in it’s an incredible continent but it is a big continent there’s just so many countries there’s so many mountains how did you decide what route you were going to cycle where you were
Going to do was that sort of a joint thing between you and Fay or did you already sort of planned it before you sort of um got Fay involved no it’s definitely a joint thing and I was really conscious because I’d done some Big Adventures before and this was to be
Fa’s sort of biggest one I mean she’d done killer monjaro and she’d cycled the link of New Zealand but this was to be her biggest trip away I was really conscious and I said this to her really early on I don’t want this to be oh my
Trip and FaZe coming along long I really wanted it to be our trip you know our journey together and that meant that all the decisions we made were together right from the start so we were originally going to go on on Kick scooters um we found out that they don’t
Go up pales so we we couldn’t go on Kick scooters but we went and tested them out together and and then we made that decision about we even questioned after the scooter idea failed do do we want to go to South America do we want to still
Stick on suit scooters and go somewhere else but the route came about because after the scooter Fiasco we realized that we both really loved going up mountains up hills we both have this sick love of cycling up hills and the pain that it brings us and she knew that
She liked altitude from kilamanjaro and I’d never really been up at altitude and so it was definitely said that if we were going to South America we were going to follow the spine of the Andes quite closely and that uh what you know we decided Well if we both love
Mountains and we love going up mountains then let’s not rush you know let’s go up as many Peaks and passes of the Andes as we possibly can in the six months that we’ve got so that’s what we did we started in laaz in Bolivia and we made
Our way down to Ashu which is the very southern tip of Argentina and we went up around about yeah 100,000 meters of a cent I think we did 103,000 meters of a scent on our bikes by the end I mean it’s an incredible when you look on a
Map as well and see like the distance that you traveled so you spent 184 days pedling 5,500 miles and then I think you’ve also worked out that you know ascending over 100,000 m is equivalent to 11 times the height of Everest on bicycles I mean it’s it’s phenomenal
It’s a bit silly isn’t it silly but fun which we love so tell us about bivia lael’s you know highest city in the whole world you’ve obviously got death Road in there you’ve got the Salt Flats um you incred incredible place to start what was it like flying into into the
City you know did you find you liked altitude because you must have been hit with it almost straight away oh my days I couldn’t we couldn’t even we we were laughing because we could not get our bike boxes off the conveyor belt I mean leaz airport for being a huge
City airport is a tiny place and we had to get our bike boxes off onto the ground and drag them out into the arrivals ho and honestly we were doing it one step at a time it was so funny we were just so breathless and it probably
Took us two or three days before we even got over that vague breathlessness but the thing that struck me was actually how we were in laaz for um Days by the time we left fully in the end but I was just struck by how little I ate my I
Mean I’ve got an appetite like a horse and I’d buy a burrito in the morning and it was an achievement if I’d managed I quarter it it was an achievement if I’d managed to eat the third quarter by like 5:00 in the evening you know it was just
Ridiculous um yeah so we spent 10 days in laaz taking we took three days of Spanish lessons because we had no Spanish whatsoever which was hilarious and um and then we did a few little test rides and I have to say on those test
Rides at one point we we we tried to go up to around about so laaz is 4,000 M we tried to go up to um almost 5,000 m on bikes and we made it to 43 and I just my body said no you know I just started
Getting a bit delirious and stuff so we turned around but over the the next few weeks we really did start to climatize but I love laaz it’s mental it’s completely Bonkers there’s no other way to describe it and there’s hard there’s hardly any chain STS and it’s just independent just Independence everywhere
And people just selling stuff on the streets and noise and chatter and traffic and people dressed as zebras helping you cross the road I mean it’s ridiculous love it so did you because I um when I was over in Bolivia I cycled down death Road and found it absolutely
Uh one of the scariest things that I’ve ever done but I was doing that as part of like a tour package there was about 12 of us going down in our in our black and red I think it was with a company called gravity and oh yes yeah I know
Them yeah and um it was it was quite an exciting experience bear in mind that I hadn’t actually been on a bicycle since I was probably about 13 but um you you have you have a lot of tourists out there doing that for for fun um and
You’re out there like bike packing um yeah well how was you remember that road was it wasn’t the hilarious yeah because PE the tourists thought we were mental and and they just thought we were Bonkers but what was funny is that to get to that road we did a big loop
Through um the jungus which is that area where it’s in very jungly very dense kind of looks like really Amazonian and um very humid not what you would necessarily imagine Bolivia to look like at all but um we we’d I think before we made it to that road we’d gone a along a
Few dodgy roads before then I think the thing we realized about the death road is that it’s called the death road because it it’s got some fantastic views and amazing drops but actually it is it is now maintained better and the car you know cars don’t go it except the tourist
Vehicles they don’t go along it anymore so it’s actually relatively safe compared to other of Bolivia where if you’re going by yourself you’ll come across a road that’s crumbled away completely and you know there’s no there’s no tourist office there telling you that it’s safe so um the death row
Was okay by the time we got there but I still stuck to the wall I mean Fay was going closer to the edge and I was thinking I can’t I can’t fight this feeling that there’s a 2,000 meter drop there and there’s nothing nothing to
Stop me going over it um but yeah the tourists were hilarious like because you know like people would come down packs of them in their mountain bikes and they were they were having a way of a time and then they’d stop at us and they’d
Say you on your own bikes with you know all our gear on it and we’d say yeah and they were like you can do this I was like yeah yeah you can do this um and they seem to they just seem to find it just crazy that we had just come here on
Our own bikes and not on a tour um we looked completely out of place and ridiculous and our and our bags were bouncing around whereas we’re a bit jealous really to be honest they like more fun without the bags on oh no it’s still an amazing experience how are you
Navigating um I we we actually discovered um um a really good iPhone app called mapout which is it’s like a Fiverr to to download and then you down and then downloading the tiles after that is free and what I love about it is it’s so easy and you you you can trace
You can trace your roots you can plan your roots and you can look at elevation as well and you can send roots to your friend and whatever so we found that that map out was actually a really really good tool for navigation because before that I was looking at there were
There were there there were so many um GP app tools out there for your mobile phone and I did have a backup Garmin um an rrex but I sent that home in the end because with two of us we always had a backup so um yeah we’re just using a GPS
App on our phones and what about sort of accommodation and stuff like that I mean where we was it wild camping was it b&bs used hostels what did you do wild camping all the way basically um we might when we got further south into Chile and Argentina every now and then
We probably treat ourselves once a week once every 10 days to a night in a hostel um just to charge up phones and everything and actually have a shower um but in Bolivia oh man it is there is just so much space and wild areas and just no one cares you can just
You know you won’t have seen anyone for two days so you just put off the side of the road and and and even if someone does come along like a man came over for breakfast one morning with his llama he just we just peared from the hills and
Just came over and chatted to us in Spanish and brought his llama with him and then wandered off and um wild camping in South America is just amazing it’s just it’s so different to to certainly USA and and even New Zealand and the UK like there’s just so much
More freedom there to pitch up wherever you like oh love it what was I mean there must have been challenges sort of Left Right and Center you’ve already sort of mentioned about the langu language barriers but You’ had you know a couple of days of lessons on that
Which is amazing you’ve got your navigation sorted out with map out what were the other challenges that that you face on this Journey um in I mean in Bolivia it was quite we got nutrition was a real struggle because they they don’t seem to have the best diet there they really love bread
And and sugar and um which is great at first because you’re burning loads of calories and your altitude and you know you’re not really putting on weight but it would get start to get frustrating when we come into a small town and really the only thing they had for you
To stock up on you know we we’d have to buy some water because there wasn’t any Taps there that we could drink from so we’d have to buy bottles of water and then the only other thing we could buy would be Wafers or dry crackers or um
Packets of cookies and by the time we left Bolivia I was just thinking I’m going to end up diabetic like this is terrible I’m so sick of eating sugar you know that and um only as we got further south and things got a little bit more
Populated did we then start to go okay we can have raisins and nuts now and um so we were caught in Bolivia we really struggled with the nutritional side of things and also we did this we did this really remote Loop um we were trying to go up this volcano called Vulcan uru
Which is goes up to about 6,000 meters high and we didn’t make it all the way to the top in the end we made it to about 5,800 M before it was getting too dark and we both completely topped out and what our bodies were C coping with
But um on that Loop every time we get into a town which would be three to five days between towns we’d only have had one day spare food with us and we’d get there and the the only shop in the town would be shut because everyone was at a
Football game two two Towns over and we’re thinking oh my goodness me you know so um I think if we’ done it again we probably would have carried more food because sometimes we were down to around about 800 calories a day which is ridiculous absolutely ridiculous at
Altitude um and and yeah so that made it really tough and and by the end of that really remote loop everything just started to break down you know you get cracks and cuts and things and um I was ready for a pizza and a beer at the end
Of that oh God I’m not surprised 100% definitely a pizza and a beer um I heard there was some naked cycling tell us more about that yes well so f um part of this journey F you know when you have a friend you you really want to see them
Kind of Blossom and I knew that there were certain things that faay was nervous about on this journey one of the fears she had was she was worried that she wouldn’t keep up with me and which was ridiculous because she just destroyed me on loads of it and we just
You know as the days went on some days she’d have a good day some days I’d have a good day and so I think that fear leveled out one of the other things is f f hates get naked she she’s like really nervous and a bit self-conscious and so
I thought I had a little plan that I was going to try and get her naked more often and um and one of the places was I’d seen pictures of people cycling naked on the Salt Flats and the thing about the Salt Flats is other than it being the most Serene incredible place
To ride your bike because you can’t see anyone or anything and it’s perfectly flat and still and there’s blue sky and white salt and just the crunch of your wheels going over the little hexagons of salt other than that it’s a great place to get naked because you can see anyone
Coming for about half an hour um so you’ve got plenty of time to get your clothes back on and so I told Fay I said before we go to the Salt Flats you know we’re going to get naked don’t you and she was like yeah right whatever I said
No seriously this is part of your your learning your training we’re doing this and um and on day two in the Salt Flats I pulled over and stopped my bike she was like what are you doing I was like now fa it’s happening now I just started
Stripping off and um she was like oh my goodness I was like come on come on and um it was just amazing yeah so we both got but naked then got on our bikes and at first fa’s like covering everything up and I’m going F I’ve Seen
It All Before You know I got bits too it’s fine and then and then we set off and then oh just being naked have you ever cycled naked Sarah I’ve never cycled naked no right it I it like screw like visiting countries like it needs to go on a bucket list because the
Sensation of being on your bike with like this warm breeze passing you and the heat on every single part of your body even the heat from the saddle on your bum she just so liberating and so after a few minutes of kind of awkward cycling we’re then doing like naked fly
By high fives and like and then next time we go past I’m like slapping a boob and um it was we had so much fun in the end and we kind of didn’t want to put our clothes back on but we we had to um
But yeah so that was but but for for faay she just said she was like that was something that I was so terrified about and funnily enough it wasn’t scary at all and actually it was amazing which is my experience of everything in Adventures facing your fears absolutely
Fa your fears getting naked so it I mean one of the one of the posts that I remember that you that you shared on Facebook which actually sort of really quite scared me I have to say was when you got bitten by a dog um tell us a
Little bit more about that and like what what happened well yeah and it’s kind of unfortunate really because you hear about things like that and I almost didn’t want to share it cuz I thought I’d never want to do anything to reinforce the fears that people have
About travel but um I’m generally a cat person anyway I mean I absolutely love dogs but generally team cat and we were waiting for a package to turn up in um punter arenus which is down at the start of the carera orra in in Chile near Patagonia and we’ve been waiting up and
We we were just going to go out for one more little ride on our bikes without our bags on just as a little sort of stretch of the legs and we we were halfway through the ride we just turned around and we quite used to being chased
By dogs I mean they’re just you there’s just lots of wild dogs in South America and and we got used to what to do to to get rid of them and and we had a couple of different tactics and one of them was to stop still on your bike and to scream
At them and they would normally Retreat you know don’t show them any fear and just scream at them until they Retreat and so this dog ran out of the house and started going mental at me and F had already gone through and I I stopped my
Bike and I was screaming at it and it stopped and was backing off and then out of nowhere this other dog flew around the side of the house just ran straight up to my right leg clamped its jaws around the front of it it just bit down
On it and it happened so quickly and it felt like my shin had gone into a vice I’ve never been in that much pain and I was just in shock and then this dog was gone and I was just like limping off and faay was looking back at me being like
What just happened um and I was so angry at whoever’s dog that was I thought how can you not control your dog you know how can you let it go and bite someone and anyway so it was pretty painful and it had kind of sunk in in three places
Out of its four Vol canines three of them had gone through and at first I thought oh great it hasn’t broken the skin and then it quickly became apparent that it had and uh my biggest thing was just rabies um and I for some reason I’ve
Been reading a book about rabies I don’t know why someone had it on the train and I thought it looked like a cool book so I bought it um and it’s it’s quite a frightening disease anyway it just ended up being a bit of a hassle because I had
To go to two different hospitals to convince them that I needed some follow-up Raby Jabs I’d had my pre my prej Jabs but all the prej Jabs do is they they slow the spread of it I mean the likelihood of that dog having rabies was Tiny but still I wanted to be really
Super cautious so um yeah it was just a pain and then I had to have follow-up Jabs a month later while I was still in Chile so um yeah it just turned out to be a hassle in the end and it did leave me a bit frightened of dogs for the rest
Of the trip but I was very very conscious that I wasn’t going to let it make me have a fear of dogs cuz I thought you just got get back on the horse um so I’m still a bit nervous but I’m I’m sort of getting over it yeah oh
No 100% 100% so you’re cyly through all these incredible areas like the photos on your Instagram account are just absolutely stunning what was it like how did it work out traveling with another person you mean that you must have had um you know disagreements if it’s just
The two of you how did you decide you know what you were going to do you yeah how did that how did that work out or did you sorry you yeah no no no sorry what were you gonna say I was going to say did you put like rules and
Regulations in s of say you know if if I feel really really uncomfortable I don’t want to Wild cam we’re just going to continue on or we could veto ideas just like yeah how you worked it yeah I know some people they kind of have a discussion and they set rules before
They start and I think that’s a good way to go sometimes but for Fay and I I think we both we the reason I chose Fay to to call and ask to come and Adventure is because I know she’s got an absolute Heart of Gold and I sort of thought if
You’ve got two people together that really their only intention is to do good and not to hurt another person then surely you’re going to be able to make it through and so it just so happened that we the we the first few weeks was definitely us getting used to one
Another and you just realize how many quirks and habits someone else has and then you think goodness me I must have quirks and habits as well and so we’d have little disagreements but nothing too bad there was I think on both sides there were probably a lot of you know
Just managing it not not saying anything or whatever because really it doesn’t matter um and uh and then as the trip wore on I think we just got more and more honest with one another and that’s something that I learned through my relationship with Jamie actually he’s a
Very very honest person and if there’s a problem he will bring it up straight away no matter how you know ugly it seems at the time and so I started to do that with Fay and Fay was really uncomfortable at the start but then she got better at it and it even started
When we went tried to go up that volcano at Vulcan at tunu and at 4,700 meters there were just some comments back and forth about um we were both basically it was a very high stress situation we were both nervous about making it and there was a comment and it’ been misunderstood
And that i’ said something else and and faay went really quiet and so we got to 4,700 MERS and I honestly I pulled my gloves off threw them on the floor and I was like Fay are you upset she was like yes I am and I was like let’s talk about
It then so we sat there like halfway up a mountain and had this emotional discussion and hugged and it was just I think from that point on we just learned you’ve just got to get clear it out and then we climbed into our tent that evening and Fa calls over she’s like M
I’m sorry for being a douche today and I was like no I’m sorry for being a douche today love you night um and so from that point on even when it felt uncomfortable because if you do it once you think it’s going to be fine the next time you just
Got to keep bringing stuff up um and there was one occasion where I held something in for about 10 days which was just to do with um phase phase as she says on her Twitter Prof she’s very good at losing stuff and um and there were a couple occasions where she’d forgotten
Things which actually turned out to be quite funny but in the end there was a moment where I felt like we weren’t being um working as a team and I chose not to say something and then to the point where it kind of boiled up inside
Of me and I had to say it and it came out on Christmas Eve and on a day when her dog was really sick and I just felt horrendous but I had to say it because I just thought at the end of the day I’m not respecting our friendship if I feel
Like I can sweep these things under a rug because I don’t have to deal with them in a couple of months time that’s not respecting the fact that F and I are going to be in one another’s lives you know until our dying days hopefully and
So I just decided to bring it up and um oh it was a beautiful moment because I I spoke to after a Fed um she was gone to collect her tracker that she’d forgotten and Jamie in his gluster accent he just said to me he like oh my God Anna he’s
Like here it is you’re out there it’s Christmas Eve you’re learning you’re growing as a person and I’m sat here in my pants eating quality streets and I just thought that’s it is it you never know what you’re going to get on adventures you’re always learning
And growing and um I learned so much from being with Fay and she’s got Heart of Gold so we will fine in the end I you know I think that’s such a powerful lesson not just for for when you’re adventuring but just for life in general
I mean I think for me particular I was just sort of like want to keep the peace I I don’t like confrontation I don’t like argument I’m probably very passive aggressive yeah exactly that’s the thing it all comes out you can’t that’s the thing I think both of us realize you end
Up just getting passive aggressive like how are you fine you’re not fine why are those words even leaving your mouth you know um yeah no it’s it’s hard and it needs training it’s like a muscle and I think I think it it’s easier to have the conversation when you know that whatever
Is being said it’s coming from a place of love and a and a a want to sort it out I think yeah I mean it’s a long time to to be away from home from from from your boyfriend from your family you know when you’re coming to towards the end of
Your journey were you were you ready for it to come to an end or were you like oh my God this is this is gutting I want to turn around and go up the East Coast or something oh it’s yeah as I’m sure everyone says it’s both of those things
Were so ready to be done I think I think because um Patagonia was actually in many ways a challenge because it was near we’ve been on the road for five months by the time we got down there and it was windy and rainy and um beautiful
As well but equally we were we were going up mountains that were 800 meters high and we’d been spending two days going up you know 5 and a half thousand 6,000 meter passes and so the the challenge of can I do this today had
Sort of run out by that time and and so that that challenge was gone and then really all that remained was a sort of a homesickness and a actually I think we’d quite like to be done so we were we were sort of just clinging on for the last
The last month I’d say together still trying to enjoy it but there is that that Collision because you know the second you finish and even now I I say to fa I’m like fa do you think we appreciated it enough while we were there because I look back on pictures
And oh it’s just amazing the Landscapes and um but I think we did I think we appreciate it as much as possible but it is a kind of double-edged swort when you come towards the end of it because Adventures are simple we know life is simple out there your daily goals are
Concrete and um you come home to a load of obligations and being pulled in different directions so it’s quite difficult yeah I mean and it’s it is like it’s a it’s a wonderful it’s a tough lifestyle but you know is actually wonderful to to to be out somewhere
Where you absolutely love and and I really like what you just said you know appreciate did we appreciate it you know while we were out there enough I mean it must have been that sense of satisfaction of seeing the the the Ishu sign at the very southernmost
Point of South America must have been incredible how did you guys go and celebrate yeah well what’s funny is this shows this shows our priorities we got into ISU and we were like it was really cold like it was it just hit winter um and it was starting to snow and it was
We couldn’t feel our toes and we got into ISU and we were hit this Crossroads and we said f should we go and pose by the isw sign and kind of do it now or should we go have a burger we like to go and have Burger
So we went and sat for like two hours Burger coffee so I guess that was our celebration but in a way I also think it was a way of prolonging the end I think I think we didn’t we didn’t want to go to that sign and have it finished we
Just wanted a little bit more time for us to kind of process and sit down and think about it and then we were we sort of finished our burgers and said should we go and should we go and finish this then we were like yeah go on there um
But yeah burger celebrations amazing massive congratulations an incredible achievement I mean people definitely have to go and check out your website anim mcn.com to go and see like more about the the journey and just how far you’ve gone and all these squiggles with the red line just from all the different
Mountain passes you’ve done I mean previously we’ve talked about what you know when you came back for from New Zealand you know suffering from the adventure Blues what was was that the same for you or had you already got your Canada Trip planned no that was Heavy it
Was it was Heavy it wasn’t as bad as New Zealand but I did um it did prompt me to write a really long blog post which was the first post I’ve actually written fully about post-adventure blues and and fully from the point of view of trying to help anyone else that was going
Through it and I spoke to a load of different adventurers like Sarah Alton um Laura penal Al humphy Dave corway and I collated some of their thoughts on what they were saying um because it definitely still hit me came back from the Andes I knew it was coming and I
Think it was probably two weeks after I I I this time I tried a new tactic of coming home and then going away again straight away and so I went to the French outs for a week and I found that was really helpful because I came back saw friends and
Family got a little bit back into the swing of life and then I could go back to an environment where everything was quite simple and I I had a kind of bit more clarity and and distance from my life to reflect um but it hit me and it
It was this time it was weird it’s different every time from New Zealand it would last it lasted about three months and was really quite bad this time it would be even more acute but it would only last a day or two and and I’d feel
Hor ous for two days you know completely hopeless lost wondering what on Earth I’m doing my life and then two days later it would pass and then it’d come back again and um but I think yeah it’s just different every time but um writing that blog post definitely helped and
Being more ready for it and and not trying to ignore the thoughts or shove them aside but sort of almost sit them down and talk to them like they’re your friends I think that helped yeah oh no thank you for doing that I think that’s so powerful because it is you know
Mental health is something we just need to talk to talk more about so um I know we’ve only got sort of a couple of minutes left but just a few more questions I’d love to if you still got the time just talk about you like oh
Brilliant okay F we’ll carry on um yeah so Canada with Jamie in a van H how did that come up oh well that was uh through all the timings of him him planning his next adventure and and he’s doing a big run through America he’s going to spend
A year running across America and there was talk once upon a time of doing a a book talk as he ran across Canada and he wrote a book about it and there was talk of going going and doing a book tour and also for me to meet all of these
Characters in the book that he’d love to introduce me to and it just so happened that when when I come back from the Andes that everything was going to sort of fall into place and actually it worked out that he hadn’t got his visa for America in time and um because it
Meant that we could then go and do this book tour um it is the first Adventure we’ve done together and uh it was it was really funny in the lead up to it because I’m a planner and he’s not I had to sit on my hands and I said to him Jay
If we don’t have a vehicle or you know a plan six weeks before we go I’m going to I’m going to have to come off my hands and they’re going to have to make a spreadsheet and um sure enough six weeks to go we did just about have a vehicle
Uh which had been kindly donated by one of the Canadians out there they bought us a van which is ridiculous um and then and I said do you want me to plan this he was like yes please um and so I made this spreadsheet called Planada um
And I’m quite proud of that and in in creating Planada I realized I was like Jay you this thing we thought it was going to take two and a half months well uh because you stopped every 26 miles when you were running and we have to stop every 26 miles again it’s probably
Going to take four months so it turned out that I couldn’t go the whole way across with him um but oh it was great it was just it’s kind of I say to people it it was an adventure but because I’m so used to doing things like physically
Like on a bike or running it wasn’t an adventure in that sense it was just more of a a a more adventurous way of leading what is kind of a home lifestyle so our home just became our van and um and I was I’ve been writing a book and so I
Was still kind of working and doing my my adventure job while I was out there but I was just moving house every day and sitting in coffee shops in Canada instead of coffee shops in glester so um yeah and I dragged him off to every available National Park not as many as
I’d liked but I loved it absolutely loved it what was it what was Van life like I mean because that’s very close quarters to be living with your with your other half for for that length of time yeah I don’t know I think we it was
It was fine actually and and to be fair we didn’t spend that many nights in the van because we kept getting hosted so much um and then it got down to sort of minus 30 um so people were hosting us even more uh but it was quite nice we
Had our own little routines and and I even put my back out at one point so um I had a disc bulge in my lower back which meant I was laid out for three weeks across the back of the van so he had to drive and we had this giant
Stuffed moose called Monty that we put in the front strapped him in the seat belt in the passengers so he could navigate um but yeah I think we we did well actually and but again we learned so much about one another as a relationship on that Journey because
When you’re with someone 24 hours a day you have to communicate so I’d wake up in the morning and I’d be feeling a bit ratty for some reason I’d have to stop recognize that and then turn to Jamie and say Jay I’m a bit ratty today I just
Want you to know it’s nothing to do with you I don’t know why I’m just in a really bad mood and he’d be like okay thanks um you know so um yeah but I I didn’t think I’d like the cold of Canada but I absolutely loved it absolutely
Love the cold oh amazing who knows a future Arctic Adventure could be could be in the planning definitely I would do that in a heartbeat now I wasn’t so sure before but now I just it makes you feel alive makes feel so alive How is how’s your book writing coming along when’s
The when’s the next installment going to be coming out you know that is what I’ve been doing I’ve spent the weekend in the office in Gloucester um with uh I am just about at the end of finishing the first draft um so it’s not long off
Going to uh for the first edit to my beautiful editor Debbie um so hopefully it’ll come out late summer I reckon so it’s a lot a lot of work still to be done but the draft is done and um yeah it’s yeah about the 50 state cycle so
It’s kind of like a prequel but it’s high time it got written amazing and do you have a title for it um I do but I don’t think I want I don’t want to say it yet no be fine I have to say I’m really chuffed with myself I’m just kind
Of hoping no one steals it before I get there I keep Googling it thinking please don’t steal my title for my book but yeah we’ll see amazing now there’s actually been some really exciting news um for you and for the Girl Guides because you are now their new
Ambassador yay I am and we went to the girl guiding the Queen’s Awards together didn’t we we did I’ve got these pictures still they made me laugh us taking like selfies in the in the House of Commons I think the bit that I remember was where they were taking all these photos and
For some reason I don’t know if it was you or me we thought we don’t want to get in the way of the photos so let’s just crawl on the floor to get away from the photo and they were like girls you’re the guest of honors we kind of
Want you in and we were just there on our all fours being like oh we’re supposed to be in it yeah but that that’s absolutely fantastic because I think it’s so I mean you know one of the things with tough girl podcast it’s all about increasing amount of female role
Models and to do that for the for the guides is amazing so tell us a little bit more about your role what you’re going to be doing yeah I think it’s just in trying to support them and to spread their message and you know I was a
Brownie a rainbow brownie guide and all of that um I think girl guiding definitely went through a phase of being a little bit uncool especially next to the scouts I mean you know Scouts got be grills and everything and the poor Girl Guides you know but but actually what
They’ve been doing in the last few years behind the scenes if they have been re you know rejuvenating the organization and they are it’s got a huge strand of Adventure in there so they’re encouraging girls to be more adventurous but they’re also doing a lot to teach
The girls how to how to campaign for things that they’re passionate about so it it doesn’t matter if you’re not an adventurer if you’re not into sport but what is it that you’re passionate about and they will actually teach the girls how to um give presentations it and do
All that kind of stuff so really it’s just an organization that is about letting the girls be the best version themselves and I am so like for that so I’m just delighted um so the role being an ambassador it just involves me going to some events trying to be as connected
As possible visiting the girls when I can um and supporting them in the press and the media um basically just showing my support for what is a Fab organization getting girls inspired and Outdoors oh love it which is amazing and it’s not only girls that you’re inspiring because you do Inspire women
As well and I love like one of your passion projects which is the adventure Queens um and I’d love everybody at all the tough girls to go check out the adventure Queens it’s like totally awesome but just share a little bit more um about that and you know what you’ve
Been doing in that area oh that has just exploded Sarah like it’s probably like your your tough girl challenges you know we just start something and and I mean it began when I put out a call in the summer I I started some Adventure Queens interviews about um two or three years
Ago with girls that had done big challenges so then name came from that but then last summer I put out a call and I had the suspicion that more women wanted to get out while camping but they just didn’t know quite what to do or
Where to start and so I I put this message out on Facebook and Twitter that said I’m thinking of starting you know a tips and advice thing for for girls who’ like to get World camping but aren’t quite sure where to start if you’re interested sign up here and I had 600
Women sign up in five days and I sat back and went oh my gosh I I think I think I need to do something with this so I picked up the phone to my friend Emma who is a marketing whiz and we’ve known each other for years and she’s
Really um in she’s inspired and she loves adventures and and she and I said Emma will you help me run adventure queens and she that was it she came aboard and then the community I guess was founded then and yeah it’s just Gone Bananas we’ve got like over two and a
Half thousand people on the Facebook group now um and there’s basically a monthly tips and advice emails and we’re moving to we encourage everyone to get out on their local hilltops and help them do that just of of their own and we’ve got 18 local groups with little chief chief Adventure Queens who
Volunteer to just steer them in sort of where the best places to go are and offer advice um and then yeah we’re starting to organize quarterly campouts as well so it’s just it’s just exploding and the whole theme of it is it’s it’s it’s women leading women you know it’s m
And I are steering it but really if you look at the Facebook group everyone someone asks a piece of advice and everyone just chips in it’s so supportive and I think what what saw from the first big camp out we had together which was last weekend is that
You know people are so nervous that they don’t know how to put their tent up or whatever and who cares like no one cares you know it’s fantastic you don’t know how to put your tent up because you’re going to learn and then you’re going to show someone else and you’re going to
Learn how to build a fire and um yeah it’s just about a safe environment where girls can feel like women that they can go and do something they’ve always wanted to do and there’s no fear of judgment yeah and and it it creates this like massive ripple effect because you
Know those those local groups you know they’re going to encourage all that the other the other women’s friends and family will see it happening think oh I can get involved in that suddenly the groups are going to grow they’re going to get bigger it’s just gonna it’s just
G to spread out which is amazing and and as I was saying to you earlier before we started recording like so many of them listen to the tub girl podcast like I think actually all of them at some point if they come into the group they end up
Listening to your podcast so which is amazing because that’s great that when they’re not I think the important thing is they get inspired when they’re all together but if they’re not physically together it’s about having other the things that reinforce this is the normal you know you can do this stuff and your
Podcast helps and do that so that’s BL brilliant yeah I love it we’re changing the world Anna it’s amazing we are I’m like like fist bumping you through the yeah boom so Anna what writing the book amazing you’ve got Jamie running across um well seem to be the USA what about
You what’s going to be the next challenge have you got anything planned is stuff you’re thinking about or or can you not share with us yet um I do I hate being one of those people that can’t share but I do have um I do have a uh a
Running Adventure in mind for 2019 uh which is going to require a lot of planning and um logistical things so I’m working on that I’m just about to start focusing on that so it’s a good year and a half away but um I’m going to start focusing on that um and then in
Between it’s about yeah getting this next book out building Adventure queens and then nipping backwards and forwards to America to visit Jamie and run with him um and also just do some mini Adventures around the UK I think so building up to a next big one but in the
Meantime taking some time to do other things that I love oh it sounds amazing and so Anna just any final actually no sorry Anna where is the best place that people can find out more information about you find out more about the adventure Queens where should they go
Yeah if you go to Just Anam mcn.com that’s all about me I’m on Facebook Twitter Instagram anim mcnu and um for adventure Queens there’s Adventure queens. co.uk um and there’s also a Facebook group so if you search for that um yeah those are the ways you can find
Out more absolutely love it I will be making sure I include all of the links um to the websites you mentioned to all your social media and to your awesome book the pants and perspective which I can highly recommend it was actually the first book in the tough girl tribe book
Club which was amazing so I’ve heard that I’m honored thanks it’s an amazing book so we we all love it which is fabulous thanks so much but any final words of advice final words of wisdom anything that you’ve learned over the past year which has really struck a cord
With you and think and that would add value to to our listeners I think you know there’s that expression like dance like no one’s watching um I I’m just extending that to life I think you should live your life like no one’s watching and I don’t mean
That in a selfish way I just mean stop you know stop worrying about what everyone else thinks of you and actually sit down listen to yourself listen to what it is that you do that makes you happy and do that because that that will lead to wonderful things so live like
Nobody’s watching and get naked and get on a bike and get naked oh Anna that was brilliant oh I was say thank you so much for coming on tough girl podcast to share your story I really appreciate it oh total pleasure Anytime hey tribe I hope you enjoyed that awesome episode with Anna mcnuff what a total Legend if you haven’t listened to the first episode I did with Anna then please do go back and take a listen Anna shares more about her backstory her life growing up with both
Parents who are Olympians um tons of great information and she also shares more about how she got into the adventuring World her big cycle Across America when she cycled throughout the full 50 states as well as running the full length of New Zealand loads of information really really inspiring well
Worth a listen equally I’d also recommend you go and and get the book pants of perspective and as book again great story a great read and it’s nice to be able to support other women out there who are doing these incredible adventures and sharing with them with us
On social media it is all about motivating inspiring the Next Generation and also motivating and inspiring you to go out and take a step outside of your comfort zone I’d also recommend lots of recommendations today but I spoke with fa Shepard and as cycling buddy for the
Andes that was last Tuesday so go and take a listen to as well because then you sort of get both sides of the coin and you get to hear about the same Adventure from a different perspective and it sort of completes the circle so it’s great to be able to have both Fay
And Anna on the tough girl podcast normally the tough girl podcast comes out every Tuesday at 700 a.m. UK time I do like doing tough girl extra which is when we go back and speak with previous guests you’ve been on the tough girl podcast we speak to members of the tough
Girl tribe is something I do want to increase um I’d love to get more episodes out there I want to obviously increase the amount of stories and and share them wide and far however it does it’s the time it takes to do it and um and the and the costs involved and the
Reason that this episode was was able to come out was through the support of the patrons my 167 individual supporters who make such a big difference they contribute um between $2 and $25 every single month to help me fund the running cost so I just want to say a massive
Thank you to Louise Johnstone Helen Lacy Ellie Orford and Lydia G who’ve all signed up to support the tough girl podcast in February which is amazing and it makes such a big difference to have this support if you want to learn more about becoming a patron then please do
Go check out patreon p a n.com tgirl podcast sign up and if you sign up at the $5 amount you can come and join the tough girl tribe which is a closed Facebook group for the female listeners of the tough girl podcast it’s an incredibly supportive environment we
Have we run the book club there thanks to Ali Mahoney he’s an absolute legend for doing that we also you know we’re there to support one another to encourage to motivate to inspire to ask those questions to go to that place where you’re not sure where to go I mean
Sometimes it can be very isolating doing doing these challenges or wanting to lead a more adventurous lifestyle and do things which are outside your comfort zone and sometimes you don’t have the friends and family around you who may be understand your your drive your motivation or your ambition come and
Join the tough girl tribe and you will get all the support that you need equally please do go check out the adventure Queens there’s also love her while there’s so many great closed Facebook groups um on on Facebook where you can get a lot of this support so it
Does make a real difference and this is all about women supporting women and I couldn’t be prouder to help to promote Anna and these other women on the tough girl podcast and help get their stories out there and just to encourage more women and girls to step outside their
Own comfort zone and to take the next steps of their life on their journey and to really sort of encourage them to live their dreams and to live their life to the fullest please do subscribe to the tough girl podcast leave a review if you can I know it’s a
Pain and it takes like 30 seconds or a minute to you know to log on to youren’s account and to and to leave a five star review but it does make a difference it helps to get the the word out there I don’t spend any money on Advertising everything is done organically through
Word of Mouth predominantly and it’s amazing to see how far the tough girl podcast has grown we started it in August the 4th 2015 on August the 4th this year it will be the 3 year anniversary we’re coming up to half a million downloads 500,000 downloads
Which is amazing and I can’t wait to help celebrate that with you to learn more about myself and tough girl challenges please do go check out tough girl challenges.com you can find all of the links to my social media you can find all of the other episodes of all
The other women that I’ve interviewed and they are from all ages all backgrounds all stories massive amount of variety and it’s only going to continue so hit that subscribe button keep being inspired every single Tuesday thank you so much for your incredible support it really does mean the world to
Me have an awesome day and I’ll speak to you soon lots of love Bye