Adventure Bulletin August 2021
Hi everyone!
How is it August already? I feel like summer’s only just getting started - although with the rain-pocalypse days in Devon recently perhaps it’s already over! (Hope not) What sort of adventures have you been up to recently? I spent some time in Snowdonia exploring everything that isn’t Snowdon. There’s so much National Park and it’s all empty by comparison.
Cycling Adventures Spotlight
This month’s theme is cycling and all adventures had on two wheels. (Although we definitely should do an unusual wheeled transport month at some point. Like elliptigos, unicycles, skateboards… ). Stay tuned for stories from adventurous cyclists from across the world.
Here are a few more you should have heard of:
Jenny Graham became the fastest person to cycle around the world self-supported in 2018. You can read about her adventure here, an interview with her and what she’s up to at the moment.
Vedangi Kulkarni became the youngest woman to cycle around the globe at age 20. She’s certainly not stopped having cycling adventures either! vedangikulkarni.com
Laura Moss… has actually also cycled around the world too (oops!). But I chose Laura because of her attitude to cycling adventures. Cycle touring is a way of life - and she’s currently proving it by taking her two small children on tour with her too. I had the pleasure of interviewing her last year. And she also organises the Cycle Touring Festival, one for the calendar.
Lee Craigie is a member of the Adventure Syndicate, a group of awesome adventure cyclists who happen to all be women, based in Scotland. On top of her adventures, she’s just helped to put bike carriages on Scottish trains, which we are a huge fan of!
And if that wasn’t enough, Cycling UK release a 100 Women in Cycling list every year. Some more skewed towards racing than adventure, but certainly not all people who have been around the world.
Who have I forgotten from this list? Certainly some mountain bikers and bikepackers. Hit the comments :)
Adventure News
We’re on a cycling roll (whey!) so we may as well start with…
Christina Mackenzie has set a new women's record for completing the Land's End to John O'Groats route, cycling the 839 mile (1,350 km) route in 51 hours, 5 minutes and 27 seconds. You can find her here.
Sally Lisle has done it too - and her Instagram is a reminder that you can have a great adventure without it being record breaking :)
Anna Taylor aims to be the first woman to complete the Classic Rock Round (think a Lake District running round crossed with rock climbing). Full press release here and Berghaus will be doing updates on their social media for her.
Karen Penny is walking around the coast of Britain and Ireland and has just passed the 9500 mile mark. She’s currently on the Cleveland Way and has already raised over £90,000 for Alzheimer's Research UK.
Team Umiaq are 6 women sailing from Iceland to Greenland this year promoting resilience, climate science and advocacy. No dates as yet, but they’re on Twitter.
Open Water Woman swam the English channel in a relay last month. Final tweet here, scroll back for the rest. Also openwaterwoman.blogspot.com
Naila Kiani has become the first Pakistani woman to climb an 8000+m mountain in Pakistan. Fantastic. Original photo on her Instagram.
Olivia Jane Wood will be climbing the Matterhorn on 12th August, 150 years after its first female ascent by Lucy Walker. Follow her journey here.
Cal Major has completed SUP-ing around Scotland (“1200km, 2 and a half months and 3 orca later”).
Book of the Month
This month’s book is Go Far: How Endurance Sports Help You Win At Life by Jennifer Strong McConachie
Go Far is an inspiring look at endurance sports and how they make us better, more successful people. Endurance sports can help personally and professionally as they teach us how to take on adversity, handle challenges, combat stress, and, what’s more, have fun.
Written by endurance athlete Jennifer Strong McConachie, Go Far shares her cross-cultural stories from around the world excelling in different sports and how each new experience translates into life lessons and practical tips. You can learn to cultivate what you have in order to find adventure in everyday life and use the skills you uncover to help you win and go far.
About the Author
Jennifer Strong McConachie is a life-long outdoor adventure athlete. She has travelled the globe, raced an ultramarathon on five of the seven continents, swum the Hellespont from Europe to Asia, escaped Alcatraz, climbed several of the Seven Summits, and conquered an American epic by running across the Grand Canyon and then back again.
For more than 30 years, Jennifer has competed in running, swimming, triathlon-ing, and adventure racing as part of her global endurance sporting lifestyle. She also trains for various kinds of paddling sports and mountain ascents.
Jennifer also writes commercially as a marketing, advertising and public relations executive; and personally about her travels, lifestyle, love for the outdoors, Siberian husky and how to be an endurance athlete as a new mom of two. Jennifer has a degree in Journalism, Mass Communications and Public Relations from Kansas State University, and several certifications in fitness teaching, including from the American Council on Exercise. She is a graduate of Outward Bound, and most recently became a Fellow in the Royal Geographical Society.
You can find Jennifer at her website jenniferstrongmccon.com or on Instagram, Twitter or Facebook.
Read the Book
Here is your link to read the first 35 pages of the book pre-release! You’ll need to sign in or become a member to view it. Here’s your button:
You can buy a copy from Penguin UK (coming soon) and Amazon.
To Watch
“Her Way” is a short film about overcoming stereotypes about women in the outdoors. Sure, it’s sort of an ad by Salomon… but you might like to watch it all the same.
The BMC Women in Adventure Film Competition winners for 2021 have been announced. You can watch the winners here.
Here’s a short film about Emily Harrington climbing Golden Gate in a day. Watch it on YouTube.
To Read
Susi Süßmeier writes a 4 part series on how to become a mountain guide. Given how popular Sophie Nolan’s article on training to become an international wilderness guide was, you’ll probably like this too!
Jasmin Paris writes about her Rigby Round (18 Munros on foot in under 24 hours) here. She also did 29 Munros in one day in July - hopefully she’ll blog about that too soon.
Olivia Jane Wood, who is climbing the Matterhorn for the first time 150 years after Lucy Walker became the first woman to climb it, has done a Q&A about the expedition.
And that’s it for today friends. There might have been a little more, but my computer is insisting on freezing and I have an adventure to pack for.
Have a lovely month and stay intrepid,
Emily