Women and fungi – allies in the survival of our planet

“The way forward isn’t a road we take; the way forward is a road women make.” 
Amanda Gorman

I started this blog wanting to write about the current biodiversity crisis, around the time of the UN Biodiversity Conference in Montreal last year. 

I read some of the latest and tragic statistics on the snowballing speed at which our activity is killing other species. 
 
Mammals, insects, turtles, fish, vertebrates, invertebrates, wetlands, coral, forests. 
All life on Earth is under threat.
 
I thought, woah, we don’t want to read more about that. 
I’ll have a mass-extinction of subscribers if I hit you with all that gloom.
I took a break from writing. 

I went back to reading Entangled Life a book about fungi, mycology and ground-breaking research on the remarkable properties of fungi. 
Maybe I'd take some notes, I'd love to write more about fungi. 

I could spend all day reading about them.
I did.
The whole day, maybe two; no notes.

Did you know the largest organism on the planet is a fungus?
Armillaria ostoyae – they call it the honey mushroom; 3.5 sq miles under a forest in Oregon. 

I pushed on with biodiversity.
I made myself read a few paragraphs about the conference in Montreal. 
 
The nations of the world had agreed on a ‘landmark’ global biodiversity framework.
4 goals, 23 targets.
30 percent of the planet protected by 2030. 
 
Hope?
Déjà vu?
Blah blah blah,’ said Greta Thunberg.

I googled Greta to find out how old she was now.  She’s 20 and she’d released a book: The Climate Book.  I downloaded it, put in my earbuds and listened to it for the next 3 days. 

It’s impressive, urgent and angry, with contributions from 100 global leaders in their field; it is also authoritative. 
 
‘When it comes to the climate and ecological crisis, we have solid unequivocal scientific evidence of the need for change. 
The science is as solid as it gets.
We need a new way of thinking,’ says Greta.

We sure do. 
 
When I came back to this blog, it was the middle of February, soon I’d have to write about International Women’s Day. 
 
I sigh, it’s time to pull my finger out.
I google different combinations of ‘women, fungi, biodiversity’. 
 
And there, on the world wide web, women, fungi and biodiversity, I found. 

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN’S DAY!
Enjoy reading about these remarkable women and their important and extraordinary vision and work.

 Suzanne Simard, is a Canadian professor of forest ecology at the university of British Columbia.

She was the first to suggest the possibility that trees move carbon and other resources through fungal networks under the forest floor.

 Then she proved it.

 Unequivocally.

Her pioneering research into what she coined ‘the Wood Wide Web’ showed that forests are intelligent systems.

 They communicate.

They collaborate.

 These systems are sustained by a mutually beneficial relationship between trees and the mycorrhizal networks of mycelia (fungi).

They are also overseen and directed by ‘mother trees’ who ensure that carbon, sugar, hormones, nitrogen, water, and other resources are sent to the trees that need them the most.

 Darwinists, whose ‘survival of the fittest’, competitive paradigm has been turned on its head, were resistant.

 Simard struggled to find funding.

But science is science, and a PhD and more than 200 articles on the subject, could not be silenced.

 Simard is trying to influence logging practices, a principal contributor to biodiversity loss.  

 If logging continues to ignore the role Mother Trees play in the resilience of old growth forests, they will destroy any possibility of survival and renewal.

She makes an analogy to bolts being removed from an airplane.
You can take quite a few bolts and screws out without causing any great damage, but if you take out the bolts that hold the wings to the body of the plane, there is nothing to do but plummet.

Likewise, in a forest, certain trees hold the forest together.

In her book, Finding the Mother Tree, Simard shares this important understanding of forests and their innate wisdom.

She also leads The Mother Tree Project, a research project into old growth forests and all the ways in which biodiversity, regeneration and carbon storage can be protected.

2026 update. Here is a link to Simard being interviewed in 2026 by Atmost editor-in-chief, Willow Defebaugh in the podcast The Nature Of - such a great interview. Suzanne Simard: How to be a Mother Tree

“They (trees) are our life support systems, and they need us to look after them in a really heartful and careful sense. And so we have to get back to that wisdom, that knowledge that we have deep in our DNA of how to care and steward these forests. So yes, we need to return, but we need to return in a really intentional and heartful way.” Says Simard.

Giuliana Furci - Fungi Foundation

Giuliana Furci, is a Chilean mycologist who established and leads the Fungi Foundation, an international NGO completely dedicated to the study and protection of fungi.

Furci and her colleagues (in Chile and around the world) are passionate about their work to influence law, policy, and research to include and protect fungi.

In July 2021, the Chilean government became the first in the world to include fungi in their environmental law.

Their declaration called on world leaders and scientists to

“… create protections for fungi under international, regional and domestic law and policy, both to state the equal significance of fungi among the kingdoms of life and to help address the threats that jeopardize the ability of many fungal species to thrive and survive,”

 Furci was responsible for this important declaration and continues to lead this initiative.

They want ‘funga’ to recognised as the interconnectors of life on the planet and to be given the same protection, funding and importance as flora and fauna.

Why?

Because if we want to have an impact on climate change, we have to take into account the 450 quadrillion km of mycorrhizal networks underground that help sequester at least 5 billion tons of carbon dioxide every year.
(BTW quadrillion is 450 plus fifteen zeros - or one thousand trillions, i.e. a lot)

 Because there are between 2 and 4 million species of fungi, and we hardly know anything about them.

Because the biodiversity of the fungi is integral to the survival and resilience of all life on earth. Fungi were instrumental in the evolution of life on the planet.

 Because without fungi life would not be possible.

 In a recent article in Time Magazine she calls for fungal education to be included in school and academic curricula.

‘Accounts of the living world that do not include fungi are accounts of a world that doesn’t exist.’

Find out more about this important initiative here.

2026 update: Giuliana Furci was interviewed in 2026 by Willow Defebaugh - here is the link to this beautiful interview. Giuliana Furci is Your Guide to the Enchanting World of Fungi.

Guiliana Furci and Suzanne Simard are inspiring leaders in their fields; their work is ground breaking and important.

We celebrate and applaud them.

We celebrate women all around the world.

We celebrate our stories, our intelligence and creativity, our resilience and capacity for love and empathy; our adventurous spirits and intuition, our discipline and physical prowess, our humour and our courage.

But let’s also remember that women still make up a minority in the sciences, in research, in decision-making and in leadership.

Let’s remember that 70% of women live in poverty. And that at the coal face of the biodiversity crisis are women and girls who have to work harder to find wood for fuel, clean water and plants for food and medicine.

So, let’s celebrate.

But let’s also act in whatever way we can.

Imagine the world if all women had the freedom and agency to pursue their passions, reach their fullest potential and offer the world their unique contribution.

Let’s act because we too must be allies in the survival of our planet.

3 reasons why walking makes us more creative

The physical benefits of walking are many: cardiovascular exercise improves circulation, helps maintain stable weight, good digestion, stronger bones, reduces the risk of various diseases, in all, walking is great for keeping healthy.

But you already knew that!

What you might not know, but you have sensed intuitively, is that walking is a way to access higher levels of creativity.

1.  It’s in our DNA

 Why we became bi-pedalled is unknown.

 According to some anthropologists, walking on two feet, may be one of the primary actions that shifted our collective human destiny, separating us from our primate cousins.

 The fossilised footprints dating back 3.7 million years found in east Africa in the mid 1970s are proof that even before we had stone tools we had stood up and walked on two feet.

 In effect, for millions of years we travelled on foot.

 Some anthropologists believe that we became creative from a need to learn as we moved across the planet.

 Walking meant we had to learn new environments, new edible plants, new danger. We encountered new challenges, so we solved problems.

 Learning and solving problems helped us expand our cognitive ability. It may even be that the reason we are creative is because we stood up, freed our hands, and started making stuff.

 We have been making stuff ever since. Walking and making is in our evolutionary DNA.

As Jon Lineen puts it walking has ‘influenced and accelerated humanity’s creative capacity and thus our evolution’.

  2. We are starting to prove it

 In 2014 Stanford University behavioural scientists conducted four experiments to test the effects of walking on creativity, when compared to sitting.

 The 176 participants were given tasks used to gauge aspects of creativity.

 They looked at three main areas associated with creativity: divergent, convergent, and analogical thinking.

 Divergent thinking is the ability to generate a high quantity of possible solutions and ideas. In this area those walking or who had just walked generated 81% more ideas than those who had been sitting.

 Convergent thinking is the ability to discern best solutions out of those ideas. While the increase in this area for those walking was not as high, there was still a 20% increase compared to the sitters.

 When it came to generating analogies, that is, similes, metaphors and complex comparisons, everyone who walked came up with at least one novel and complex analogy compared to only half of those seated.

 Their results confirmed what many have known for a long time: walking increases our ability to generate ideas and often quality analogies.

3.  If they did it…

From Virginia Woolf to Simone de Beauvoir; from the Bronte sisters to Charles Dickens to Friedrich Nietzsche; from Georgia O’Keefe to Daphne du Maurier, from Einstein to Steve Jobs; philosophers and writers; thinkers of many different moulds, have been recorded as being partial to a stroll, predisposed to a promenade, wild about a walk in the park.

Why?

Even before the Stamford experiments proved its benefit on creativity, walking has been an activity attributed with giving us access to a state of ‘flow’ as identified by psychologist Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

Flow is when we stay in a state of heightened focus, like when we do something we love, and we have some skill in it so that we feel so present, and it seems that time stands still.

Flow is associated with creativity and improvisation.

 It requires focus but it’s not so challenging that we can’t think about anything else. Like walking.

Most of us are proficient enough walkers to be able to let the mind wander while we wonder and think, thought after thought percolating effortlessly. While part of our brain is engaged in keeping us upright and putting one step in front of the other, another part is making connections, associations and imagining.

As Rebecca Solnit writes:

‘Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the world without being made busy by them. It leaves us free to think without being wholly lost in our thoughts’

Walking is in our developmental DNA. Walking slows us down enough to let our thoughts travel through unchartered spaces in our minds where they become inklings, ideas and even solutions, where patterns emerge and perspective gain clarity.

How it happens and why is still quite a mystery, but we have some proof that walking improves our ability to be creative.

 Through the ages some have known this intuitively.

Today, you might know this too.

3 reasons why adventuring out of our comfort zone can help us reach our highest potential

In an Instagram-curated world, hiking adventures may be depicted by an image of intrepid, outdoor-gear clad people standing on a remote mountain top or a rugged outback river gorge.

The effort it took to get to that spectacular place is implied but our focus is on the triumph of the arrival – the destination.

We don’t see the grimace that went with that first step to cross a cold river as the icy water fills our boots. Or the rank wet smell as we slide our feet into damp socks and wet boots the next morning.

There’s no sound of gasping for air as altitude and scree conspire against us up the side of a steep mountain.

 There’s no mention of the raw skin left on our hips from the rubbing of the backpack straps, or blisters or lost toenails.

 We have no inkling of how many wrong turns were taken and whether snakes, bears or swarms of mosquitoes were encountered on the adventure.

Murchison Gorge - Kalbarri National Park - Western Australia

More specifically, we do not see what personal fears and limitations were conquered to get to that magnificent spot.

There is no attention drawn to the many times the adventure takes us out of our comfort zone and the transformative impact that can have on our lives.

Because that’s the thing about adventure.

It’s all about getting out of your comfort zone!

 And getting our comfort zone can be life changing and transformative.

 Here are three reasons why:

1.      Stepping out of our comfort zones fosters a mindset of growth and learning.

 Our comfort zone is a state of being in which we are ‘comfortable’ because there is no stress or anxiety; we are familiar with what we are experiencing, and we do not need to do anything we do not how to do.

 Since we are not pushing outside of our limits we don’t get to know what we are capable of doing.

Murchison Gorge - Kalbarri National Park

The first time we step into a river and start to tentatively feel our way around slippery rocks and wade in the opaque, cold water we may not know what we are doing but when we get to the other side of the river, we KNOW we can.

 We will never NOT know that we can.

 That is transformation.

 Plenty of studies tell us that if it’s too easy we do not learn.

 We also get to embrace challenge instead of avoiding it.

 There is nowhere to go once you are halfway up the side of a scree- covered mountain at 4,000 metres. You either come down or keep going. This carries over into other aspects of our lives. It builds resilience. There is nothing more to do but walk if you are half way along a remote beach with limited access.

The Cape to Cape - Margaret River Region - Western Australia

Which means we learn to persist rather than give up.

And as many a self-development guru will tell us, persistence is power. To achieve great things, whether it is a Phd, a successful business or healthy relationships and communication, it takes persistence.

What is more, through persistence and embracing the challenge we get understand why the effort matters and how much it is worth once we get to a place that literally takes our breath away with its beauty.

Turgen National Park - Mongolia

We cannot exist healthily in constant stress and discomfort without it taking a toll emotionally, psychologically and physically. But most of us spend way too much time shrouded in certainty and comfort.

As Maslow proposed, once we have met our most basic needs, we are left with a driving desire to attain higher levels of purpose and self-actualisation.

2.     Stepping out of our comfort zone can give us new perspectives.

 The view from the top of Malchin Peak in the north-west Mongolian wilderness has literally brough tears to my eyes each time I have summitted. The view of mountains and snow peaks and glaciers as far as the eyes can see leaves an imprint and physically changes our brain.

 These new perspectives are not only physically as we see something we have not seen before and that cannot be seen from anywhere else; but they are also, emotional and symbolic as they open our minds to new possibilities and ideas.

 We become able to turn a fear of failing into opportunities for learning

 We learn that there are different ways of viewing EVERYTHING.

Kamchatka - Mutnovsky Volcano Hike 2019

3.     Stepping out of our comfort zone makes us happy.

This may be for a number of reasons. First, as described above, the overwhelming  emotion of beauty can give us a ‘peak experience’, that is, an experience of intense joy that is ‘ meaningful and transformational’.

My first ever solo hike was to the Annapurna basecamp in Nepal. I had decided to do it without a porter or a guide and so I hiked on my own for 10 days. As I approached one of the passes, the mist rose around me covering any view other than the path and nearby vegetation. When I woke up in the morning and looked around at the clear, sharp and breathtaking spectacle of the Himalayan mountain I was overwhelmed with emotion. Something that was intensely joyful and unforgettable.

Himalayas - Nepal

Another reason we feel happy when we step out of our comfort zone, is that we can feel a huge sense of accomplishment that fuels our self-esteem and makes us feel powerful.

On another solo walk, this time in the Turgen National Park in northwest Mongolia, uncertain about the route and distance to my pick up point, I was in a heightened state of awareness as I walked alone over a 3,100 metre pass to a gigantic view of a meandering river that stretched for miles. After more than 35 kms walking, I reached the place and waited, very wary and uncertain. When I saw the driver and his smiling Tuvan wife approach in the distance, I felt an immeasurable sense of achievement and capability.

I had done it! Nobody can take that away.

Lastly, as some post-pandemic research has shown, breaking that feeling of being in a rut can be simply overcome by doing something that is outside our comfort zone. For some people this could be hiking a 4,000 metre mountain in a remote corner of the planet and for others clambering up a 360 metres mount littered with beautiful wildflowers is enough to shake them out of complacency and dullness.

Climbing down East Mt Barren - Fitzgerald River National Park

East Mt Barren - Fitzgerald River National Park - smiles all round.

Stepping out of our comfort zone, in whatever form that takes, fosters a mindset for growth and learning, it opens our minds to new perspectives, and it just makes us happy!  

When was the last time you stepped out of your comfort zone?

9 Days Through the Mongolian Wilderness

The skies are almost always blue, the landscape is breathtakingly stunning & the wilderness unspoilt - Mongolia is a walker's paradise & a perfect setting for exploration & self-discovery.

Since 2015 I have been travelling to the Tavan Bogd National Park, approximately 1,700 km from Ulaan Baatar (UB), Mongolia’s capital, and home to the Mongolian section of the Altai Mountains.

In summer, many Tuvan and Kazakh nomadic herders bring their animals to graze in its pastures. It is an idyllic place to spend day after day walking immersed in unspoilt and remote wilderness with waterfalls, streams, glaciers and Mongolia’s tallest peaks.

The journey to the Tavan Bogd National Park starts in Ulgii, a town of about 30,000 people - mostly Kazakh muslims - in the western province of Bayan-Ulgii.

Ulgii - looking across the River Hovd.

DAY 1

We leave Ulgii from the northwest end of the town, past the airport where the bitumen road ends and almost seamlessly veers slightly to the left and onto a dirt track. Most of Mongolia road travel takes place along this colossal network of dirt roads and paths on which you rarely see a post or sign for directions.

It is an exciting, bumpy ride inside the Russian furgon (like a 4WD Combi van), coasting down the side of hills; bouncing and sliding on the felt seat covers, slowing down often to let the herds of sheep or goats scatter around us, and let us through. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

All around the views are expansive. Long stretches of undulating grassy green hills with yaks, horses, goats and sheep grazing in herds. In the horizon snow-peaked mountains, beside us rushing rivers and creeks whose crossings require skilled 4WD action over uneven, pebbled banks; above us, endless skies.

The 150 km between Ulgii and the National Park takes about 5 to 6 hours and we arrive at the southern entry (only 12 km from the border with China).

Our hike starts here, with a bridge crossing over the southern-most end of Khoton Lake at about 2,000 metres above sea level. 

Because the National Park is found at such proximity to the borders with both China and Russia, there are a number of check points with local rangers. Just past the bridge to the south is the first check-point. Permits and passports need to be shown to the military guard there - they also check that you are travelling with a local guide. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

After sitting in the van for half the day it is great to finally start walking, Khoton lake on the right, China not far on our left and all around scattered larch trees and remaining trunks, hacked, evidence of significant clearing, probably for firewood.

What is most remarkable about hiking through this wilderness is that camp can be set up anywhere. Most of the time we walk for 8 - 10 km on day one and find a grassy patch, free of twigs and rocks, near the lake’s edge.

When the sun sets on this first day of this 9-day hike it is not unusual to see a pack of horses or the silhouette of yaks in the distance...a great last view of the day on this already amazing journey.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

DAY 2

We set off early and continue walking along the edge of the lake, as close to the water as possible, regularly coming across herds of yaks, sheep or goats grazing. Occasionally, in the distance a couple of young children play in front of a 'ger' or yurt. Often local nomads are setting up or taking down their camps, or have cheese drying in the sun.

Walking on this side of the lake means walking through patches of fairly dense larch forest. We also walk through quite boggy terrain surrounding meandering creeks and brooks that empty into the lake. We have to cross many of these waterways by taking off our shoes and wading through calf high water.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

There are times when to get across the delta-like network of streams emptying into one side of the lake, we have to take off our shoes and wade to sandy islands that deceivingly seem to offer a shallower place for crossing. Sometimes we just jump on the horses and let them carry us across.

In the mountains the weather can change very quickly and sometimes we have to hurry to get our wet weather gear out and scramble to take cover in between the branches of a small, bushy trees. 

The second night is also beside the lake, much further north. We camp only 6 or 7 metres from the edge of the lake, the water laps the mossy pebbles all night while the moon and a warm fire makes it a very peaceful night. The fire is a great place to dry wet shoes - there is always plenty of firewood at this altitude.

DAY 3 

I often have the best night’s sleep while camping and wake before sunrise to a faint, early morning moon suspended pearl-like above the lake, usually followed by a sensational sunrise. 

We often meet Kazakh women and children as we walk away from the campground - they are very hospitable and often invite us in for tea, bread and dried cheese.

View fullsize

View fullsize

The third day is a bit more rigorous with some hills offering a welcomed challenge. It is just the right combination of warm sun and cool breeze for it too.

At the northern end of the lake, where the river flows into it from the mountain glaciers, we cross another long wooden bridge that takes us almost directly to the second ranger's station. 

The ranger spots us from a distance and is already approaching on his motorbike by the time we reach the post.

Further north we leave the river on one side as we start to climb steadily up a large rocky outcrop fringed abundantly with juniper bushes and follow the clear path along the rocky ridge of a gorge.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

With the added elevation come impressive views of the lake on one side and snow-peaked mountain tops in the distance on the other. It does not matter where we look, the views are magnificent.

We leave the wide open space of the valley to go into a gorge where the valley deepens and starts to ascend into the mountains.

We camp beside the fast-moving river, loud and powerful, at a spot that has been used as a campsite before; firewood has been left stacked on one side for us to find. 

So many streams as we climb higher into the mountains

At the northern end of the lake, where the river flows into it from the mountain glaciers, we cross another long wooden bridge that takes us almost directly to the second ranger's station. 

Further north we leave the river on one side as we start to climb steadily up a large rocky outcrop fringed abundantly with juniper bushes and follow the clear path along the rocky ridge of a gorge.

With the added elevation come impressive views of the lake on one side and snow-peaked mountain tops in the distance on the other. It does not matter where we look, the views are magnificent.

We leave the wide open space of the valley to go into a gorge where the valley deepens and starts to ascend into the mountains.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

We camp beside the fast-moving river, loud and powerful, at a spot that has been used as a campsite before; firewood has been left stacked on one side for us to find. 

DAY 4

Although the river is loud and the ground hard, neither deters us from sleeping well. It is one of the most magical spots on the hike, with the river foaming white as it races round the rocky bends, speeding past us roaring. 

And yet, from the moment we set off, walking is more than wonderful that whole fourth day. Most people start to get into a groove, become comfortable with the weight of their packs, and start to fully notice, enjoy and appreciate the flowers and insects, the different succulents sprouting out of rock crannies, the sounds of kites, hawks and eagles, the scurrying land squirrels…

We continue to gradually climb. The terrain, a combination of arid gravelly paths over rocky outcrops, clear dirt tracks through patches of forest and bog like wetlands on the lower sections of the valley… fast moving streams cascade down the side of the hills around us and long and narrow waterfalls can be seen in the distant mountain sides.

We walk past a small lake surrounded by wildflowers and it feels like we are truly in the mountains. Walking over the wetlands keeps us alert, leaping over deceivingly shallow puddles to avoid drenching boots. Climbing becomes tougher and steeper, breathing quickens as we ascend above the valley and zig zag up the side of the mountain.  

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

We are starting to climb towards 2,600 metres here and this is when we start to sweat and puff and feel the weight or our packs. We also cross the second widest stream. It is not so shallow, about 30 metres wide and its glacier water is bitingly, painfully cold. We have crossed on foot before but if possible we always choose to cross on horseback. 

Once we get across the stream, we climb a few more hundred meters and camp once again, on the softest, warmest grass next to a narrow brook.

DAY 5

What a sublime view to wake up to and how tranquil is the sound of the brook whispering beside the camping spot. Squirrels and marmots are all around and we once even saw a Mongolian mountain goat - Capra sibirica - but they are too fast to photograph.

Day five is the toughest climb and altitude makes breathing short and fast, but the views keep getting more and more magnificent as we reach the 3,400-metre pass. The ground up here is covered with chunks of black and grey slate and the sharp chilly wind is offset by the bright, warm sun, and being surrounded by a 360 degree views of the top of several peaks and smaller glaciers.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Mountain shrine at mountain pass 3,300 metres

All around are mountain edges, shrines, the river flowing in the distance, glaciers, changing terrain & wildflowers. This is a breathtaking and very dramatic section of walking; a sensory overload from every direction.

As we descend to the valley, we can sometimes see the activities of nomadic Tuvan herders. We can see nomads fixing a truck, or checking on the drying goat skins spread like offerings outside a ger. Or a team of men and women finishing a day of grass cutting (using scythes) and packing it tight into the back of a truck.

View fullsize

View fullsize

DAY 6

Today we walk under the bold and vivid blue of the sky, over the summer green & yellow hues of the grassy slopes and with the murmur of the distant river in our ears. Occasionally, a rabbit, a marmot or a land squirrel scampers in front of us, looking for their underground shelter; wildflowers abound.

Before turning north towards the next pass and our final destination,  we go off the path to a rocky outcrop where ancient petroglyphs are found. These rock carvings are evidence that these mountains were inhabited at least 10,000 ago. 

Once over the pass, the descent to the Tsagaan Gol River is steady; the slope growing steeper as we approach the raucous rushing water. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The Tsagaan Gol River, also known as White River, is milky white from the sediment and silt it carries from the glacier. This part of the National Park is also one of the most popular entries. Many people arrive directly here by 4WD and day-hike up to the base camp then return to camp near the river. Another ranger meets us here and checks our permits.

On all the other camping spots we are alone, here there are usually a few groups, depending on the time of the year. It is a place to have some social contact and to rest before the final ascent to basecamp.

Tsagaan Gol - White River - Tavan Bogd National Park

DAY 7

The ascent from the river camp up to the base camp and the Potanin Glacier is steep for about 1 km, then it steadily rises to over 3,000 metres. The ground is boggy at times, with squelching, muddy sections to manoeuvre.

The five sacred peaks get closer and closer. It is all about the journey, of course, but it is an awesome feeling when you finally get a clear, sharp view of the destination.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The basecamp above the glacier is where most people camp. The Potanin Glacier is the longest in Mongolia stretching for over 14 km through the Altai Mountains into Russia. Sadly, like many other glaciers around the world, the Potanin Glacier is decreasing in size at approximately 11 metres a year.

In the evening, the sky can really put on a show that no photos can do justice to it.

DAY 8 

Waking up to the 180 degree view of the five sacred peaks - Nairamdal, Burged, Ulgii, Malchin, Khuiten and the Potanin Glacier below is one of those moments that gets etched in the mind to be recalled many times over, years after it has passed. It is a moment that holds power, mystery and beauty.

Tavan Bogd - the five sacred peaks

On day 8 some of us climb up Malchin Peak, the only peak that does not require equipment or experience in alpine climbing. It is far from easy though. First, there is the 5 km walk to the foot of the peak.

Walking to the base of Malchin Peak.

Then there is the tough walk uphill, at altitude. It requires stamina and patience as we very slowly walk up the slippery and loose scree. The ‘marked’ path is often not clear and the weather changes several times during one day. There is scrambling over boulders, slushing through wet snow and slipping backwards on the loose scree. And then, after a few hours, and a hundred stops to catch your breath, there it is!  

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The peak and the 360 degree views of extraordinary panoramas that make me pinch myself every time. 

We don’t stay long at the summit, it’s windy and usually cold and we still need to get back down and walk the 5 km back to basecamp. It’s a long day and not everyone is up for it, but if you are, it’s worth it!

DAY 9

About two kilometres after leaving basecamp there is a large shrine or ‘tobo’ where Mongolians - Buddhist, Muslim or not - leave offerings to the spirits of the mountain. Biscuits, juniper, prayer flags, money and even animal sacrifices are left and prayers sent high up into the mountain deities.

Mountain shrine Tavan Bird National P

From this spot the glacier the 5 sacred peaks are clearly visible for one last time before we start to head to the northeastern entrance to the national park.

There is one more stream to negotiate, before reaching the ranger’s post, but this is usually shallow and although still icy, it is very easily managed.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

There is a feeling of sadness on this last day and as we make our way back through the Mongolian countryside to Ulgii I am always overcome with a feeling of great achievement and fulfilment, as well as gratitude for having witnessed such pristine wilderness.

3 reasons why Edgewalkers is a vegetarian company

A couple of weeks ago someone posted a query on our Edgewalkers Facebook Page about one of our walks. 

I asked them what dates they were interested in coming.
Their cheeky answer was: "we'll come the day you serve meat!
I laughed and wrote back that I wished them a happy hike ... with another company!

Of course, there are plenty of other companies choosing to cater for the growing plant-based and vegetarian clientele; however, most businesses that serve food generally provide meat options.  And that is fine. 

Edgewalkers, is a vegetarian and plant-based company.

For some people this is the reason they’ve booked with us. 
For a small minority of people, it may be the reason why they haven’t.
For most, it is not important, they welcome the opportunity to try something different and leave having tried ‘some of the best plant-based food’ they have ever eaten.

Here are some reasons why I chose to make Edgewalkers a plant-based & vegetarian company:

Reason number 1: Me

I am vegetarian. I know; it’s all my fault. 

I became a vegetarian while living and working in Japan in 1991 - I was 22 years old and I had a moment (you could call it an epiphany) half way down a set of stairs leading into the meat section of a Daiei department store in Nagoya, when I realised that I did not belong in the life-death cycle as a meat-eater. There was something about the beautifully wrapped and glistening meat cuts that I was descending into that had this momentous impact on my life. 

Just to be clear, I am not against other people eating meat. 

In fact, I think that it is a natural cycle of life and death and like many other animals humans can fall into a number of categories. We can be like lions, sharks, hyenas. We can be like chooks, otters and monkeys. And we can be elephants, bison, elks. 

I am an elk. I’m fine with grass. I thrive on plant-based food. I am not naturally inclined to fish or hunt, or to kill anything in general for food. 

So, there is no way that I could be part of an enterprise that involves going out and procuring chicken drumsticks or pork chops. There was no other avenue for me in this business.’ 

Reason number 2: Sustainability

We are aspiring to be a fully accredited ecotourism company.  And yes, it makes a huge difference to reduce how much we participate in animal agriculture. 

• Between 15 - 25% of greenhouse gas emissions come from animal agriculture (depending on what you read and how the carbon footprint is calculated) ...however you work it - it is significant.

• Beef, lamb and dairy contribute almost 60% of all the emissions produced by food production... I know, it’s huge. Even if we cut back on eating beef and lamb to once a week and cheese and milk to a few times a week, we are making an impact. This is according to peer-reviewed journal the Lancet & other reputable sites like the Medical Journal of Australia, not my opinion.

• Our water consumption is reduced by 55% on a plant based diet. For example, there are various calculations of this but generally to produce 100 g of beef protein, it takes approximately 700 litres of water - for the equivalent protein from tofu it only takes about 90 litres of water, 8 times less water.

• It’s the easiest and quickest way we can immediately make a difference…

Reason number 3: Wellness 

Edgewalkers is also a wellness company. Therefore we are here to promote wellbeing and health. 

There is plenty of evidence out there to show that the consumption of animal products, especially in the quantities that we consume them, are making us sick. 

I want to stress that I am NOT against animal consumption and believe that many people are naturally inclined to do better by eating meat. However, eating meat every day is NOT healthy. Look into it. Here is a start

Cooking plant-based food at one of our retreats

Most of us are passionate about our food.
Nobody likes to be told what they ought to be eating or that what they eat is part of our environmental problem. 

I don't like it. You probably don’t like it either. 

But you don't have to be a militant vegan or radically change your diet to make an impact. 

At Edgewalkers we want to support all our fellow adventurers and creative souls in reducing our impact on the planet and helping to regenerate the pristine wilderness and care for the diversity that our amazing natural environments offer us. 

WOMEN WANDER WIDE AND WRITE - 2 women travel writers who continue to inspire

Before our borders were slammed shut in March 2020 because of the COVID 19 pandemic, I had plans to travel far and wide like I do almost every year.

2020 held in store a number of interstate and overseas adventures: a quick trip to the Northern Territory to walk through the MacDonnell Ranges on the the Lara Pinta Trail;  a 4-week reccy of eastern European mountains across the Borbalo Pass deep in the Caucasus Mountains of Georgia (country) and two weeks scoping the Peak of the Balkans across Montenegro, Albania and Kosovo. 

I was then going to head east to Mongolia to lead our 4th hiking expedition through the Tavan Bogd National Park, pictured above. And then later in the year, the plan was to travel to Panama to scout a walk across the Darien Gap between Panama and Colombia. 

I had also planned to write about it. 

Of course, these plans were all put on hold for a couple of years, but very soon, armed with a new passport, a trusted backpack and triply vaccinated, I will once again traverse the Indian Ocean and make my way to distant lands. 

Despite travelling not always being easily accessible to women, especially on our own, many gutsy and adventurous women before us, defied untenable obstacles, way more hindering than a global pandemic, and blazed trails to write about their travels and adventures, inspiring others, like me, to do the same. 

In her book Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travellers, Jane Robinson presents a collection of more than 350 women across 16 centuries whose writing stands as a testament to a spirit of discovery and curiosity.

As we celebrate International Women’s Day this week, and as I prepare to run my 7th Women’s Walking & Writing Retreat, I pay homage to two of these remarkable women, both from the 18th century. Their courage and refusal to conform led them to forge new paths for themselves and for women travellers. Reading their words more than 200 years after they were penned, feels like I am being guided; being mentored and connected across time. 

Isabella Bird

Isabella Bird

I first came across Isabella Bird in Caryl Churchill’s play Top Girls - where she is the indefatigable explorer; a character who rejects traditional femininity and talks about her extensive travels. But it was when I first researched travelling to Tibet in 2004 that I came across her book Among the Tibetans. I didn’t read it, to my 35 year old mind it seemed antiquated. Now as a 53 year old, and after living for 2 years in Tibet, I understand and admire the extraordinary feat of its author.

Women in Yushu, Qinghai Province, China.

Isabella Bird, born in 1831 to a wealthy and religious family in north Yorkshire, turned her back on the restricting gender expectations of Victorian England to become an intrepid and adventurous traveller, travel writer, photographer and naturalist.

Suffering from debilitating health issues, Bird was encouraged by her doctor to take an ocean voyage to reap the rewards of fresh sea air.  With one hundred pounds from her father and a command to not return until she had spent it, her journey to Canada would become the beginning of her adventure-filled life and remarkable travel writing.

‘I  have just dropped into the very place I have been seeking, but in everything it exceeds all my dreams.’

Between 1854 and 1901 she travelled to Hawaii, the US, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, China, Singapore, Malaysia, Turkey, Egypt, Persia, Kurdistan, Morocco and Tibet. 

See the map below:

from Victorian Women Travellers in Meiji Japan, Nippon.com

Even hardcore travellers of the 21st century would have trouble matching the globetrotting effort of this extraordinary adventurer. She rode mules, horses, oxen, rickshaws, slept in huts and climbed Himalayan mountains and Hawaiian volcanoes; she even had a romance with an American outlaw while in the Rocky Mountains. Her writing had social commentary and she did not hold back her own opinions:

‘The 'almighty dollar' is the true divinity, and its worship is universal.’

Her first book The English Woman in America was so well received she was able to continue travelling with the money she earned. Her second book, A Lady’s Life in the Rocky Mountains, was her most popular, and gave her not only the ability to finance her travels but also some notoriety.

Among her 9 travel books, is an 800 page tome Unbeaten Tracks in Japan where she was one of few foreigners to explore Meiji Japan extensively at a time when travel for foreigners was very restricted; and, Among the Tibetans in which she recounts her astonishing and arduous journey through Tibet.

‘My first yak was fairly quiet and looked a noble steed with my Mexican saddle and gay blanket among rather than upon his thick black locks.’

View fullsize

View fullsize

For me not such an arduous journey through Tibet

View fullsize

View fullsize

She came to love the freedom of travel and the unencumbered simplicity of few possessions, and travelled light.

“I still vote civilization a nuisance, society a humbug and all conventionality a crime.”

Not satisfied with her success in writing, she took up photography in her 60s and provided images of lands and people few had ever set eyes on in Europe. 

Isabella Bird was well known in Britain and became the first woman to be made a fellow of the Royal Geographic Society.

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft

Mary Wollstonecraft was also an English writer and radical philosopher who is more famous today for her significant contribution to the feminist canon with the Vindication on the Rights of Women, than for her travel writing. I came across here while studying feminist theory at university. She was one of our first true feminists believing in the rights of everyone to learn, express their views and make ‘improving our minds’ a life pursuit.

This extraordinary and inspiring woman, born in 1759 to a family whose patriarch had little value for girls, defied the expected role of women of her time in so many ways. She disregarded traditional roles by pursuing a career in writing, travelled extensively in Europe on her own and refused to marry her American businessman boyfriend, with whom she had a daughter. 

More than 100 years before she would be allowed to vote Wollstonecraft travelled through Sweden Norway and Denmark - with her 1-year old Fanny and maid in tow - on a ‘clandestine errand’ to help her lover recover some silver that had gone missing from one of his commercial ships. 

For four months, as she risked life on dangerous sea voyages, dealt with greedy port officials, and experienced the natural beauty she encountered, Wollstonecraft wrote letter after letter to him. The collection of these letters was later published as a remarkable travel book Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark.

View fullsize

View fullsize

Wollstonecraft’s travel writing did not focus on customs, manners and traditions as did most women travel writers emerging at the time. Instead, she engaged with topics relating to contemporary life, politics and social issues, with critical observations and reflections about the society she was travelling through: 

She discussed the French Revolution, the way men treated women, the horror of slavery ‘slavery has retard the improvement of every class in Denmark’; she criticises the folly of commercial enterprise,

‘Everywhere wealth commands too much respect; and it is the only object pursued’. 

And many topics which at that time commonly left out of travel writing including many existential wonderings.

‘What a long time it requires to know ourselves; and yet almost every one has more of this knowledge than he is willing to own, even to himself’

Spending time in spectacular natural landscapes she wrote passages that were moving and inspiring:

‘Reaching the cascade…my soul was hurried by the falls into a new twin of reflections…I asked myself why I was chained to life and its misery? Still the tumultuous emotions of this sublime object excited were pleasurable; and viewing it, my soul rose, with renewed dignity, above its cares - grasping at immortality - it seemed as impossible to stop the current of my thoughts, as of the always varying, still the same, torrent before me - I stretch out my hand to eternity, bounding over the dark speck of life to come.’

Wollstonecraft was not only one of the first instigators of feminism, she also opened the door for women travel writers ‘to present themselves authoritatively in a narration and within a vocation’.

Some sources

Bird, I. Among the Tibetans,

Harper, L., The Stigma or Emotions, Mary Wollstonecraft’s Travel Writing

Parks, C., 2014, The Peripatetic Life of Isabella Bird, The Appendix, Vol 2, no 4

Robinson, J., 2002, Wayward Women: A Guide to Women Travellers, Oxford University Press

Sterry, L., 2009, Isabella Bird, Victorian Women Travellers in Meiji Japan, Brill

Wollstonecraft, M., 1895, Letters Written During a Short Residence in Sweden, Norway and Denmark

2021... AND THE GREAT COVID 19 PIVOT

18 months ago I sat at my dining table, paper and markers in hand, brainstorming what direction to take Edgewalkers in.

My plans to expand our International adventures in Mongolia and Russia and to explore new possibilities in Panama and Georgia (country) were suddenly halted; the international and interstate client base that we had been building over the previous 4 years was gone and it was looking like we would not have much work to the new staff member I was planning to hire: i.e. the amazing Kirra Diconza.
(pictured above at yoga weekend)

The word 'pivot' was everywhere. At first, I thought it was some netball or basketball-related business analogy.  I soon learnt that as a business model, ‘pivoting’ is a business strategy (used a lot by start-ups) that allows the business to drop one aspect of the business and refocus on another, usually letting go of the previous direction.
 
The point is to allow the enterprise to change course and discard anything it no longer needs, this could be its partners, its key client base, its activities, its revenue streams; its resources. Basically, change whatever allows it to adapt as the climate changes around it.
 
Well, we pivoted. 

Working with Kirra is total joy!

We created the 2-day Cape to Cape Quickie & the 3-day Walking & Yoga Weekend. We dropped our margin and priced them so that our local WA market would find them appealing. We got to hire Kirra and keep our small team working the whole time. 

Walking & Yoga Weekend - Margaret River

We built on the success of our Walking with Wildflowers and offered more dates. We adventured further north in WA and trialed an outback adventure featuring the Murchison Gorge in Kalbarri. 

Walking with Wildflowers - Fitzgerald Biosphere

We continued to have success with The Creativity Retreat and the Women's Walking & Writing Retreat and decided to try a few others. We added a Leadership Retreat (so, so 😐) a Mother-Daughter Retreat (no go 😞) and then a Walking, Yoga, and Plant-Based Cooking Retreat (oh yeah baby 😁). We cut costs by buying our own van, having my partner John join the company, and working our little butts off.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

2021 has been all about trial and error, adaptation, flexibility, patience, and continuing to walk our talk by providing wholehearted and high-quality experiences that leave people feeling fulfilled and reset.

Edgewalkers is not out of the woods yet, but 2021, despite the refunds, the impending lock-downs, the tight-shut WA borders, and the shortage of staff, has been a WILD and STUNNING year!

Bring on 2022 and our seventh year bringing people close to nature and to their most creative possibilities. 😁

A walk through the Fitzgerald Biosphere

On St Mary’s Beach at Point Ann, the powdery white sand squeaks beneath our hiking boots as the dazzling turquoise of the Southern Ocean gently laps the shore. About 50 metres out from the beach a dark, grey fin waves to us. Then another. We are all excited at the sighting. Whales!

 The water is not always this calm. Sometimes the southerly wind is icy and the ocean wild, the wind strong behind us walking eastwards along the beach.

About a kilometre along St Mary’s Beach we turn off the beach, and walk up a dune and into the bush.

We are on the Mamang trail (Mamang is a Noongar word for whale), we will see more whales once we are back near the ocean. Now, we wade through a pink carpet of melaleucas and verticortias.

The Mamang Trail - in the Fitzgerald River National Park…

Blue Leschenaultia claw flowers sway in the low coastal heath and red grevillea nudiflora flowers reach out onto the rocky sandy path, alone on their stems.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Exposed hakea seed pods range in sizes as the end of the curly white tendrils start to brown and come to the end of their bloom.

Low on the ground Honey Pot Banksias and Petrophile Longifolia give texture to the path, softened by the pastel blue of a subtle smoke bush. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

This year, probably due to the plentiful rainfall they have experienced after almost 3 years of drought, the Banksia lemanniana shrubs are heavy with yellowing flowers, in various stages of growth. Like lanterns these textured banksias illuminate the bush.

Banksia lemanniana - Fitzgerald River National Park

Not much later, I shriek when we find the Western Tiny Blue orchids in the same spot they were last year.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

On the way to the Ravensthorpe Range we stop for a short stroll through the Kukenarup Memorial. Like sweet surprises, Purple Enamel and Lemon-Scented Sun orchids appear throughout the low heath. Scattered in small groups, colonies of Spider Orchids, sway peacefully in the breeze.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

On the Ravensthorpe Range the pink Kunzea flowers spill out onto the rugged red of the four-wheel track where we walk, oohing and wowing at the floral spectacle. The views of the mine below us do not detract from the sheer enjoyment of being immersed in a diversity of wildflowers that is hard to match.

Kunzea sp. on the Ravensthorpe Range

Yellow Grevillea Shuttleworthiannas and Acacia opheolithica hug the edges of the trail.

View fullsize

View fullsize

There are Purple Dampiera and white Goodenias, Grevillea coccinea (toothbrush), Grevillea pectinata, Grevillea tripartite, Grevillea fulgens, and two different species of Boronia. The Ravensthorpe Bottlebrush is also flowering early and the Acacia glaucoptera is full of yellow blooms.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Tennis Ball Banksia - Banksia laevigata

The Hake Trail - Fitzgerald River National Park

Further south, we walk on the west side of the FRNP where the Hakea trail follows the coastline from Quoin Head to Cave Point. Our walk from Hammersley Inlet to West Beach is about 13 km. There are plenty of Melaleucas in flower; more pink. Royal Hakeas sway and rattle above red spiky claw flowers (Calathamnus sp), light pink boronias, and Banksia lemannias are plentiful.

We sight purple enamel orchids and cowslips too. Trigger plants litter the edges of the trail as we approach West Beach - tall pink ones and creamy cow-kicks; here also the yellow of Eucalyptus preissiana flowers shine to the brackdrop of the breathtaking coastline.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

All over the biosphere, we see Qualup Bells, but nowhere are they more colourful and abundant than at the Barren’s Lookout. Several bushes there are heavy with scoops of pink-yellow blooms.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

And, this year, also flowering early, the Barren’s Regalia or Regelia velutina, lines the track all the way up to the magnificent views from East Mt Barren

Barren’s Regalia on top of East Mt Barren, Fitzgerald River National Park

Wildflowers of Western Australia - Lesueur National Park

It may be raining and blowing a gale outside right now but as we get closer to the Djilba season (Noongar name for August and September season), you can already see the bright yellow acacias brightening up the bush from the Pilbara to the great southern regions.

We love the wildflower season in Western Australia. And this year is already proving to be a bumper season.

If you want to see some stunning wildflowers right now within 3 hours drive of Perth, then head north to the florally diverse Lesueur National Park. There are currently 3 set trails there (with a multi-day trail being built at the moment) and these will take you on a magical meander through some florally rich landscapes.

The Lesueur National Park is home to over 10 declared threatened species and over 900 species of flowers. It is a hub of diversity and the trails are well posted. Here are some captures from a recent scoping trip into this magical wildflower wonderland.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Mt Magog, Mt Talyuberlup and Wildflowers - Stirling Range National Park

Peaks, Wildflowers & Fascination in the Stirling Range National Park

The Stirling Range National Park is one of Western Australia’s most visited national parks and has been called a ‘coral reef out of water’ for its great floral diversity and environmental value.

Early in May (autumn in the southern hemisphere) we took a much-needed, unstructured day off and travelled the 5 hours south of Perth to hike Mt Magog and Talyuberlup, two of the more demanding peaks in the park.

From the very moment we turned onto Stirling Range Drive to access the trailhead, bright and glistening blooms covered in the morning dew and soft rain adorned the way.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

On the trail too, which starts with a gentle slope and steadily becomes more demanding, an abundance of flowering plants lined the path.

Fascinated by the fabulous view of Mt Magog and Talyuberlup we hiked up its craggy & slippery granite footholds and muddy slopes, captivated by the floral natives that lit up the path all the way up to the increasingly challenging peak. Acacias, hakeas, banksias, bottlebrushes endemic to the area and a scattering of Kingia australis visible throughout, to name just a few of the more prominent plants.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The day was damp and the trail was challenging. We made our way over the densely vegetated ridge on the less travelled trail from Magog to Talyuberlup and by the time we had hiked all the way there and back, and down to the car, we were exhausted and wet but filled with a deep sense of wellbeing.

Sure, physical exercise results in a myriad of physical and mental benefits – our bodies have evolved for physical activity, but much of the feeling of wellbeing may well be due to the beauty we were immersed in.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

When we fascinate, it was discovered in 1890 by American psychologist William James, we switch on the parasympathetic system and help the brain regenerate mental energy.

Fascination may be why natural organisms and environments can engender such a feeling of wellness and peace. Fascination, regenerates mental energy and although the body might be tired from the physical exertion, the mind is calm and fresh and more aware of its surroundings.

Below are some of the spectacular plants we saw along the way.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

The first bright yellow & orange flower is a Hibbertia selkii. I was delighted to see this beautiful species of the Hibbertia genus just casually brightening up the side of Stirling Range Drive, it’s a priority 2 listed species, which means that we don’t really know too much about this species because there are less than 5 locations where it is found. It means that the species needs to be studied more but is possibly going to be labelled threatened.

In the middle is Hakea cucullata, or Scalloped Hakea - a pretty plated offering of curly pink tassels. This is quite a tall plant, a couple of metres or more, sometimes leaning right out from the edge of the road.

Next to it is another hakea, Hakea lissocarpha, also called Honey Bush, and is widely spread around Western Australia from Geraldton to Esperance, its flowers creamy with pink hues.

Hakeas are endemic to Australia – most are found in WA - and were traditionally used as a source of food by Noongars for their sweet nectar – sometimes they sucked it straight from the plant, sometimes the flowers were soaked in water. The fruit of some hakeas, which is woody and hard was also roasted until the seeds popped out and were eaten like nuts.

There are so many species of flowers in the Stirling Ranges - 1500 to be exact and many only found here, as in nowhere else on the planet. Like this one: Darwinia hyperifolia. There is always something to fascinate about.

Here’s a short video of our exhilirating day!

BIOPHILIA – does spending time in nature really help?

Biophilia refers to our human love for all things living, but more specifically, to the idea that we possess an innate (even genetic) inclination to want to be around living organisms & systems and that it makes us feel better.

The Cape to Cape track - Western Australia’s epic coastal trail offers a range of natural environments and wildflowers.

Since the term was popularised by Edward Wilson in the 1980s, there have been many studies into the positive effects that nature has on our wellbeing.

 Do humans have an affinity and an innate tendency to feel better when they are affiliating with living organisms?

Yes! And it’s not just nature-loving, tree-hugging ‘hippies’ who think so.

Being in contact with nature makes us happy … Boranup Forest - southwest Australia

 Numerous studies have concluded that being in contact with nature has strong positive physical & psychological effects. It makes sense, as a Japanese study on natural forest therapy points out, we have already spent almost 99.9% of our evolutionary history in natural settings. It’s only for a miniscule fraction of our existence that we have been industrialised and living in urban settings.

These positive effects include increased longevity, better physical health, mental recovery, increased focus and attention, positive thoughts and reduced stress. The reduction of stress is particularly important as stress is the cause of so many diseases and conditions ranging from cardiovascular disease to depression to other autoimmune disorders.

Boranup Forest …. Karri, Marri, Jarrah, Grass Trees, Peppies … green living organisms all around

 Another Chinese/Japanese study found that there were significant reductions in stressor markers when subjects spent time in nature as compared to urban settings. Including 12.4% reduction in cortisol levels, 7% decrease in sympathetic nervous activity (which alerts the body to respond to danger) 1.4 % decrease in blood pressure and 5.8 % decrease in heart rate.

In addition, the parasympathetic system function rose by 55% showing increased a relaxed state in participants. 

In other words, stress can be relieved by being out in nature.

‘… exposure to natural stimuli can mediate the negative effect of stress reducing the negative mood state at the same time as enhancing positive emotions.’ (Berto, 2014)

Walking and spending time in nature may lead to longevity and healthier minds.

Another important positive effect of spending time in nature is the increase in Natural Killer cells and anticancer proteins with suggestions that walking through forests and other lush and natural environments can help in the prevention of cancer and other diseases. (Miyazaki, 2011)

The list of studies goes on, all supporting the central premise that generally, we not only feel better spending time amongst living organisms, but they lead to quantifiable improvements in physical and mental health issues.

But what exactly causes the benefit? This is still a mystery.

 Is it the colours? The green in the leaves of the Karri trees or the grasses in our wetlands? The deep blues in the sky and ocean?

The deep red in the West Australian earth and rock, the diversity of colour in our flowers?

Ancient red rock in the Kalbarri National Park, Wester Australia

Or is it the sensations of the wind in our hair, sand between our toes, the sound of birds calling out, the taste of salt and fire? Or the patterns that we see in bark and granite; in shells and fish, intricate yet familiar?

Are we really genetically programmed to be at one with nature?

But do your own research:

 How do you feel when you are driving around a multi-storey car park, sitting in an airconditioned, neon-lit office, a supermarket?

How do you feel when you are out in the garden, dipping your feet in the ocean, walking among trees?

The deep turquoise blue of the Indian Ocean - Boranup Beach

As we celebrate Earth Day once again during this time of Covid-19 pandemic I invite everyone reading this to reflect on how our urban and industrial environments are making us sick and how a simple stroll on a park, in a forest, on a beach, in a garden, or a simple grouping of pot plants in a corner can have such a positive effect on how we feel and on our mental and physical wellbeing.

2020 - The Year We Stayed Home

2020 was a year that will be remembered in history as a year of global disease, political disillusion, and forced distance from loved-ones. The tourism industry will most probably remember it as the year we stayed home.

The video below is a visual account of our 2020.

Beyond sustainability – 3 important messages about the future of tourism in Australia

The 2020 Global Asia-Pacific Ecotourism Conference was held in Margaret River at the beginning of December 2020. Speakers and participants represented all areas of the tourism industry in the region, mainly Australia.

There were representatives from state and local governments, regional tourism organisations, relevant government departments, tour operators of all sizes and forms; and, some academics. Everyone present was passionate. Everything shared & discussed was important. However, there were 3 messages that really stood out.

1. Trails and ‘trail towns’ on the rise

As the popularity of human-powered tourism increases and more and more people take up hiking and cycling, trails and ‘trail towns’ around the world are going to play a growing & important role in determining the destination of many visitors.

This is great news.

I don’t know how many people walk the Cape to Cape track every year here in WA’s southwest, but I know it’s enough to help sustain several tour operators, including Edgewalkers, a number of driving services, multiple accommodation providers from high end to AIRBNB, caterers and all the other services and businesses in their supply chain, including food producers, small cottage food businesses, retailers, laundry services, mechanics, cleaners, gardeners.

With the WA government recently committed to spending $45 million in the development of trails, there is a distinct move towards developing the economies of some destinations by becoming trail destinations.

Collie and Dwellingup, also in WA’s southwest, are two locations already marked and in transition to becoming trail towns. As more visitors come for the trails, more jobs & businesses are created helping to increase the number of nights a visitor spends in the community and the revenue spent.

This increase in revenue can encourage bigger government investment in infrastructure, always needed in rural areas. Busselton’s new airport, for example, will be opening up the southwest to a whole wave of new visitors.

Alongside the economic benefits, the increase in people using the trails will also increase the need for clear and well-informed conservation and protection protocols to be practised by everyone. With an understanding that the economy of their community depends on the pristine condition of the natural environment, all stakeholders are also responsible for the trails and their condition; everyone is a conservationist.

Cupped Leaf Hakea - Stirling Range National Park PHOTO Erika Jacobson

2. Regenerative is the new sustainable

Sustainability is not enough.  

Intrepid Adventures founder, Geoff Manchester, spoke passionately about the importance of tourism businesses, and all businesses, having the potential for being a ‘force for good’.

As a leading adventure company proud of its B Corp business certification, its adherence to Science-Based Targets & its undertaking of activities informed and aimed towards achieving the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals, Intrepid sets itself apart through its regenerative practices.

‘Regenerative’ was, in effect, the word of the hour.

According to ‘conscious travel’ scholar and consultant, Anna Pollock, even the best practices in sustainability will only lead to a ‘slow-down in our current passage to catastrophe’.

With 70 % of visitors to Australia stating that they are coming here to spend time at a natural location, there is, effectively, no tourism industry in Australia without a pristine and well-protected natural world.

Regeneration, we heard over three days, is the optimal goal.

Regenerative tourism is tourism that partners with nature so that it reflects our part in this living system. Regenerative tourism asks the questions:

How can a destination flourish? How can we contribute to a destination & all of its inhabitants (including the nonhuman ones) thriving?

Southern right whales in the Fitzgerald River National Park. DRONE IMAGE: Gary Quintrell

3. It costs more to do nothing!

That’s right.

 Doing nothing about climate change, according to a recent Deloitte report: A New Choice: Australia’s Climate for Growth, will come at a great financial cost.

If their calculations are accurate, by 2070, if nothing is done to stop global warming, there will be a loss to the global economy of over $300 trillion dollars, and over 800,000 jobs.

If we start (right now) to do everything we can to minimise carbon footprints and stop the rising global temperature, by 2070, we will have added $680 billion to the economy and 250,000 jobs.

I don’t know how the figures were calculated, and personally, these stats matter less to me than the massive loss of natural habitats and the extinction of flora and fauna species. But I know these calculations are crucial and perhaps will be the most important factor in big businesses adopting more earth-conscious practices.

Mt Bruce - Karijini National Park PHOTO Erika Jacobson

3 Wildflower Walking Weekend Ideas ... that you can do right now!

MULLEWA

Distance from Perth: 450 km
Where to Stay: Mullewa Caravan Park - so friendly
Walk: Bushland Trail Walk
Drive: Northern Loop & Southern Circuit
Time visited: August

You’ll be delighted at just how much is already in flower in this area at this time. The drives are great ways to also find out more about the culture of the district, but make sure you park up somewhere safe and take a wander because when you walk, you can spot all the tiny ones you can’t see from the car. You will love it!!
Here are just a few of the flowers we saw. Pop into the Visitors Centre and have a chat with the lovely staff there, and don’t forget to visit Helen Ansell’s beautiful store!

And for a great view of the town and short, but beautiful walk, head to the Bushland Trail Walk and be right among some beautiful Hakeas and Eremophilas. Also, the wreath flowers might be out very close to Pindar - follow the signs.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

RAVENSTHORPE RANGE

Distance from Perth: 500 km
Where to Stay: Our favourite place to stay in the area- is the Blue Vista Cottage which is 35 km south of Ravensthorpe towards Hopetoun - it is delightful and you cannot find friendlier and more attentive hosts! But if you don’t want to add any more distance to your journey, there is the Ravensthorpe Motel (call ahead of time) and also the Green Haven Tourist Park.
Walk: Ravensthorpe Range Walk - start at Archers Lookout - access Floater Road via Old Newdegate Road off Hopetoun-Lake King Road.
Time visited: July - November

Start at the lookout and walk up the hill and as far as you like - a few kilometers are enough to see so many species in flower there.
We were early in the season and so from now (the publishing of this post) until October, there will be so many species around, you won’t know where to point your camera. Look below at some of the beauties we saw.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

STIRLING RANGE NATIONAL PARK

Distance from Perth: 400 km
Where to Stay: Stirling Range Retreat is a great and central place from where to explore wildflowers all through the National Park. You can camp, use the power sites for caravans or rent a simple cottage or a really cozy rammed earth bungalow, your choice! Super friendly management and the facilities are excellent.
Walk/Drive: Stirling Range Drive - Mt Magog or anywhere in the park.
Time visited: July to October

There are a lot of places to explore in the National Park, but if you drive down Stirling Range Drive you will start to see flowers from the car and you can stop and walk around and see lots of them in bloom. Make sure you look down to see if you can spot any of the tiny orchids or smaller flowers that are found only inches from the ground.

The suggested walk is the lower part of the trail towards Mt Magog - but you don’t have to climb right to the top 500 metres or so is enough to see stunning wildflowers right now! Like these:

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

REMEMBER:
1. Park safely (away from bends or crests)
2. If you are on the road for extended periods of time, wear a high visibility vest so that drivers can see you.
3. DO NOT pick any flowers or damage their environment in any way!

Enjoy the delightful beauty of our wildflowers and make sure to tag #edgewalkers on Instagram or @Edgewalkers on Facebook and we will repost on our pages.

Why I love the Cape to Cape

Blues, yellows, greens, reds, whites, pinks; so many different colours and shades of the southwest coast.

My eyes are peeled on the rocky ground, trying not to stumble, however, my feet know where to go. My eyes keep wandering, they glance up to the stunning horizon of the endless Indian Ocean. There I can see a crystal vision of seaweed floating in the water, as the offshore wind hits the top of the waves, creating rainbows in the spray. 

What such a perfect haven for a pod of dolphins to play in. Look over there, a school of Australian salmon, what a sight to see jumping and flickering all trying to get their feed. My eyes fall back to the ground, again the floor beneath me has changed. 

Now to soft moist sand, how I want to take my shoes off and feel the coolness of the gritting sand. What such a spectacular experience, from high rise to low. The Cape to Cape is so different at every turn.

I could be climbing rocks, sinking in the sand, or trudging up the iconic red, western Australian bush roads.

If flora is your thrill, your heart will skip a beat with the treasure you will find. Sweet little orchids hiding in the grass to gigantic Karri, Eucalyptus diversicolor trees to wise old Jarrahs, Eucalyptus marginata, djarraly in Noongar language - see how they tower over you. 

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Boranup Forest … Marris, Karris and Jarrahs as well as Agonis flexuosa and grasstrees, Xanthorrhoeas.

Fallen trees housing fungi, moss, and lichen during wetter times. Nothing is more spectacular than the iconic grass trees, xanthorrhoeas. Here you will find them with several heads. Did you know they grow only 2.5 cm a year?

With the stunning array of biota, the Cape to Cape track is never dull.

One day or more of hiking on the Cape to Cape, allows yourself to truly connect with nature. The abundance of beauty you will encounter is endless. You will step off the Cape filling full and proud. As your legs have worked hard, but your mind is put at ease. 

Cape to Cape Winter Walking - Makuru Walking

Maybe it’s because the first time I did it, it was winter; or, maybe I just love how the track feels both peaceful and wild during this time, but for me winter or makuru is a very special time on the Cape to Cape. Here are some winter scenes on the track from the last 4.5 years.

WILD COASTAL BEAUTY

Nowadays camping on the Cape to Cape track is supposed to only take place in designated spots. But when I first walked the Cape to Cape end to end in 2016, walkers were still able to camp anywhere on the track, as long as you were out of the way of vehicles. My first night, it was August, was on a sandy ledge protected between large boulders opposite Sugarloaf rock. Waking up to a chilly crisp morning, the ocean wildly spilling onto the rocky shore, it was magic. A bit like the image below.

Sugarloaf Rock Photo Paean Ng

A lot of people think that winter in the southwest is all grey clouds, wind and rain but believe it or not, below is a scene from a chilly winter morning just before walking across Smith’s Beach. Don’t you love the blues and the sparkling clear water against the mossy emerald rocks?

While the chance of rain is definitely higher, during Makuru, or the height of winter (June/July), there are some perfect walking days throughout the season.

Always check the weather for storms and dangerous weather, otherwise, gear up!

Smith’s Beach North - sparkling clean water.

Winter/ Makuru is rainbow season on the Cape to Cape

Wilyabrup and the Indian Ocean Photo: Donna Wolter

SAND

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

WIND

FUNGI

Winter is the time of mushrooms. I had never paid much attention to this kingdom until I walked through the glistening wet Boranup Forest. If you walk through this majestic realm of giant Karri trees in winter, with your eyes to the ground or to the fallen tree trunks, you are sure to see some of the hundreds of species of fungi that exist in the southwest. Click here for an article about southwest fungi and a simple 9 km loop through Boranup Forest, if you are keen.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

If you are at all inclined to walk the Cape to Cape track end to end in winter: go for it!

Here I am about to start on the last section on the last morning of my first end to end. I had had a great sleep at Hamelin Bay Caravan Park, where you can have a hot shower and do a better job than I did getting the dirt out of your fingernails ;-) before heading out towards the Leeuwin Lighthouse.

Whether you are thinking of attempting to walk the whole 125 km of the track and camp along the way, or just wondering a casual meander for a day: rug up, put on some wet weather gear and get out there.

I think you’ll LOVE it!

7 Reasons to go out hiking in nature...

After yoga class a couple of weeks ago, I asked my friend Jenny Rossen a.k.a. the Sandcastle Girl … former sand castle builder & entrepreneur, present-day mum, health freak and yogini… how I could tell people that walking in nature was so good for them.

‘Well it’s bloody obvious,’ she said. ‘I could list 7 reasons just off the top of my head …here I’lll write something for you. ‘

So she did.

Warning: like me, she’s a bit of a hippy … but I reckon she’s got some great points!

What do you think?

1.  Walking in nature helps us reconnect with our radiant life force or the nature of our being…

We are energy – some call it ‘life force’; it is the energy that animates our physical form, flowing through it and around it.  Modern physics, e.g. theory of relativity and quantum mechanics, explain the duality of matter-energy, time-space, and particle-wave by showing that matter and energy are interchangeable.

If you go to any yoga class you will be reminded that this “Qi” (as the Chinese call it) or “Prana” (as it is referred to in Hindu tradition) is flowing in all living things and we are part of nature.

Quite often, in a sweaty yoga studio we stand on a little yoga mat attempting to harness “the force” - as known by 1980’s self-help hippies and anyone who knows Star Wars, attempting to get in “the flow”… it works.

However, if you really want to reconnect with ‘high vibrations’ you need to get out in nature.  

Did you really need to be told that? Don’t you already KNOW that our energy is reinvigorated when we go and walk in the natural world?

Well, it’s easy to forget that when you are out walking in the open air breathing the ions from the roaring ocean and bathing in the vibrations of the trees, surrounded by an intimate group of people who are most likely very similar to you in many ways; this is when you get recharged; this is the awesomeness of being on country, this is the flow of nature to which we are integrally connected. 

2.  Get out of WIFI range and energy of other people electronic magnetic field (EMFs)

The invisible “smog” created by the electricity that powers our civilisation is giving children cancer, bringing people down with immune system disorders, causing miscarriages and suicides.

It is not just the above-mentioned hippies and weirdos wearing alfoil hats who believe this; scientific evidence is always revealing more about how our modern life is making people sick.

Almost everyone is being exposed to new forms of pollution with countless sources of radiation in your own home: cell phones, television, microwave ovens and our best friend, the computer - and how do you stop using your computer?

But there is more, WiFi & our devices all give off radiation.

Hidden Sources of EMF in your home are electrical wiring, dimmer switches, plumbing, radiant electrical heating and your neighbour’s WIFI, to name a few.

Bad news is that is just the beginning of the list. Don’t get me started on 5G!!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) calls the electronic smog "one of the most common and fastest growing environmental influences" and stresses that it "takes seriously" concerns about the health effects of this modern phenomenon.

So, turn off your WIFI at night, don’t charge your phone by your bed and get out in nature away from all the electronic smog.

Have a phone holiday and give your body a “smog” 2-day break on the Cape to Cape… with Edgewalkers, of course 😉.

3.  Breathing deeply

When you breathe in a certain way it turns on your body’s ability to heal. 

That’s it!

When you breathe deeply your body starts to heal.  

There is no point in writing any more, it’s very simple but for some reason we need to keep reading it and hearing about it. 

Just breathe – go outside (or do it in your car at the lights) and breathe deeply this turns on your parasympathetic nervous system and starts your body healing.

 (I am sure we do not need to hear about sabre tooth tigers anymore.) 

Paradoxically, it is usually that moment when we really need to remember this, when something bad happens, when we get bad news or we get frightened (by the press) that we hold our breath.

So just imagine taking 2 … or 8 days off walking and consciously breathing? This breathing alone will completely reset your dial.

 You can do all types of breathing. Pranayama breathing in one nostril on out the other; or the one Anthony Robbins prescribes: tapping your fingers and counting. Wim Hof is trending at the moment and he is all about the Kumbhaka breath-holding system. The Hawaiian breathing techniques are also easy to practise. Google them people.

Just stop and take a full breath in through the nose, and out through the mouth with the sound, ‘Ha.’
The out breath is whispered loudly, and is twice as long as the in-breath.

A wonderful by product of conscious breathing is that it can turn off your brain and the breathing itself becomes a meditation. 

I know one Guru who would make all his followers do Pranayama breathing every sunrise and sunset. In this way opening the channels for meditation.
Take time out, walk and breathe, that’s the third reason I can think of.

4.  Creativity and Spirituality

Creativity – Well, Erika knows all about this; and, she’s probably written about it before - Stanford University researchers concluded that walking boosts creative inspiration and increases creative output by an average of 60 percent. I did not check these figures 😉.

I say let’s get walking.

And if you have a problem that you need to ‘nut out’, why not go on a multi-day hike?

By the time your hiking holiday is over you would have worked out a creative solution for whatever challenges you have, so they say. I sure do solve a good problem while on a walk.

Erika sure thinks it’s worth it – she teaches that at Murdoch and she wouldn’t be running the retreats if she didn’t!

Spirituality – There is something spiritual about moving with the body cadence swinging your arms and putting one foot in front of the other, isn’t there? Or is it just me?

The tradition of the old English poets like Wordsworth & Keats, who would go on long walks together and both the poetry and trail became very popular.

There is a new book out called Path to Enlightenment that talks about the pilgrim writers and spiritual nature and meditation of taking long walks.

Notice the metaphor walking the path to enlightenment. Is it significant?

5.  Walking is health for your body

Walking is a great way to improve or maintain your overall health – duh – did you really near to hear that …. again?!

Just 30 minutes every day can increase cardiovascular fitness, strengthen bones, increase muscle strength, help with digestion, tone your body, reduce body fat, improve your mood, reduce stress; improve circulation, coordination & sleep. Why wouldn’t you want to walk?!

Research has shown it is best to walk twice a day.

BTW - sleep is when most of the healing of the body happens, when we builds stamina and boost our immune system.

Okay so that’s it, the jury is out – let’s all go walking every day for at least 30 minutes and preferably two times a day. Start off with a 2 day walk; a walking boot camp down south with Edgewalkers to get you going, then incorporate walking into your daily routine when you get back home. There’s an idea!

6.  Detox - give your digestion a break

We all know we should give our digestion a little break. The digestion track from our mouth to our bottom is about nine meters long. So, it makes sense to divert the traffic for a while and give your food highway a chance to rest.

Some people only drink water to detox and others believe that juice fasting is better as it floods your body with nutrition. I know one man who only drank and ate watermelon for two months until he literally pooped water melon. He did this as part of recovering from a car accident and his healing time was astonishingly fast.

Edgewalkers provide vegetarian and vegan meals and snacks at all their events, it might be a good detox for all of you who eat meat daily… they also eat a variety of organic fruits.

It is easy to be “good” when someone is preparing the food for you and after a morning or afternoon of walking your appetite will be ready to really enjoy the delicious, plant-based meals.

Special dietary requirements can be accommodated too, if you ask them!

It is not just what we eat but when we eat and what is eating you. Mindful eating and creating a ceremony around food helps with digestion.  Breakfast, lunch and dinner time is an occasion on the walks when you’ll have a moment to sit and eat your meals in peace, grateful for the sustenance.

7.  Meditation and yoga

Walking, breathing, forest bathing or being in nature can all be a meditation. And so on the Edgewalkers walks you’ll find time to meditate as well, if you want.

I know Erika has been experimenting with this but this will be in place during the 2-day walks for those who wish to participate. We will set aside time for sitting mediation and soft yoga stretch meditation; time for silent walking mediation and a discussion of a variety of meditation modalities.

These tools are offered so that you are assisted in being brought into the moment. Meditation that has you sitting in your room on a pillow trying to turn your mind off can be a real challenge. But when you are walking in nature or have the chance to stop at a breathtaking spot, then it is easier to see that it is all meditation.

This is to help enhance self-awareness, “who am I” connection with self – “where am I” connection with space and who is it that is watching the mind.

For those of you who find that all a bit too hippy-trippy, then there is the meditation of putting on some funky tunes on the head phones and kicking down the limestone paths and enjoy the now-ness of great music in the great outdoors. Why not?

Thanks Jen…

3 West Australian Writers on International Women's Day

“I want to do something splendid…something heroic or wonderful that won’t be forgotten after I’m dead… I think I shall write books”
Louisa May Alcott

I recently watched Little Women, the 2020 remake of this classic story about 4 sisters living with their mother during the civil war while their father fought at the front.

For me, however, this story was mainly about Jo, the intrepid second-oldest sister who was always stepping out of line. It’s about Jo defiantly cutting off her hair to help her family; about Jo wanting to do more than just get married, about Jo wanting to make a living from writing.

 Watching the movie sent me back to a memory of 8-year-old me sitting on a low branch of a young jacaranda tree, Little Women in hand, thinking ‘Maybe, I too could be a writer. I want to be just like Jo!’

This International Women’s Day I pay tribute to 3 WA writers, who wanted to write books, who started word by word, and who didn’t stop until they made it happen.

I acknowledge them for the inspiration they have been to me & for the inspiration they can be to all of you also wanting to follow in Jo’s footsteps.

DR ELIZABETH REID-BOYD

Dr Elizabeth Reid-Boyd - nom de plume Eliza Redgold

Dr Elizabeth Reid-Boyd and I met when we were both 17 and attempting to complete our first degrees at the University of Western Australia. We spent a lot of time drinking coffee, sizing up boys and talking about the books we would write… and yes, we did a little bit of study.

Already independent at 17, Reid-Boyd had many odds stacked against her. After that first year of Uni, we travelled our different ways, met up in England a few times in the late eighties and then lost touch for some time.

When we met again in 2000, I was not surprised to find out that Reid-Boyd had already completed a couple of degrees including a PhD in Gender Studies.

Today, she is a respected academic & feminist at Edith Cowan University, she writes regularly for the Australian & as well as many book contribution and articles.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

At the same time, she is the author of a dozen romance novels penned under the name elizaredgold.com ! I was so honoured that she dedicated one to me:

This is what International Women’s Day means to her:

“For me, IWD is a chance to honour women past, present and future. Each year I discover more about the amazing work women do in so many different ways, in every part of the globe, to create a better world for everyone. It leaves me inspired and grateful.”
Elizabeth Reid-Boyd.

DR JULIA LAWRINSON

Dr Julia Lawrinson is extraordinary in so many ways… and yet, she went to an ordinary high school in suburban Perth and even did her stint as a teenager working at Hungry Jacks.

When Lawrinson and I job-shared at an International language school in West Perth, 20 years ago – she was doing her PhD and writing her first novel Obsession.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

I attended the launch of Obsession which went on to win the Premier’s Award in 2001, and the launch of her second book Skating the Edge. Last year Lawrinson published her 15th young adult fiction, which won Children’s Book Council of Australia Notable Book, and I am sure she is working on her 16th right now.

Not only a prolific writer, Lawrinson is one of the only women to have held the job of Sergeant-in-Arms in WA’s Parliament (any parliament actually) and also recently completed a law degree with honours including winning the Vice Chancellor’s Award for academic excellence.

Her thoughts on International Women’s Day:

“IWD is a reminder to us of how far we've come and honours those who fought for us to get here. It is also a reminder of how far we have to go to make sure there is true equity for women around the world.”
Julia Lawrinson

DR JENNY BROCKIS

Dr Jenny Brockis has just completed her 4th book - Healthy Happy Humans – adding it to her selection on books about keeping our brains optimised for high performance and wellbeing.

I met Brockis at a National Speakers Association speaker training course about 10 years ago and from the moment we met I just loved her story. She had been a nurse for a number of years and seeing the way doctors dealt with patients and the lack of knowledge around neuroscience and the plasticity of the brain, she decided to become a medical doctor herself.

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Today Brockis is a medical practitioner, a speaker and a facilitator with a epic mission: to help optimise brains performance to enhance healthy workplaces and high-performance thinking that makes people happy.

“I see International Women's Day as a great reminder that we need to make every day matter for every woman, wife, mother and daughter. It's a day to unite everyone to think about what action we can take to create a world when women can always feel safe, be assured of an education and receive parity in the workplace.”
Jenny Brockis

Back to Little Women; back to Jo. I don’t know whether Little Women had an impact on either Reid-Boyd, Lawrinson or Brockis, but I know that there is something of Jo’s defiant attitude in each of them; and like Alcott, they have all chosen to do something splendid.

And you can too.

Edgewalkers will be running a Women’s Walking and Writing Weekend 20 - 22 November 2020.