Surrounded by couples in lip locks and rogue packs of 16-year-old Italian boys, we five female travel companions counted together the last seconds of 2011. “Tre, due, uno!” The crowd erupted with slurred shouts of “buono anno!” and I realize this night makes up for a year of lost time.
Spend an afternoon walking in the woods, swim bare breasted under a waterfall, push yourself through waves in the ocean or sing your heart out around a campfire. Feel yourself wild and powerful and a precious part of the life that grows all around you.
When friends couldn’t join me on an adventure, I finally ventured out solo. And, as usual, I had a marvelous time. The moral of the story: You must seek adventure and then make it happen. Which adventure-finding methods work best for you?
Do you feel the effects of the seasons? How do you maintain health and happiness through these chilly months? Winter has just begun, so let’s all band together, striving for wellness and joy this year!
Whether you’re a female skier looking to learn from other women, a couple yearning for the steep and deep, a family wanting to visit South America or an expert skier seeking a one-of-a-kind Alaska heli skiing trip, World Extreme Skiing Champion Kim Reichhelm offers unique experiences with a common theme of progression.
I prefer to travel alone. I’m at my most selfish and self-indulgent when I fly solo. I also feel at my most vulnerable. Sometimes, I go to countries where a wandering single white woman is an attraction in and of itself. Are there moments of discomfort? Of course. Do I feel in danger? Very rarely.
You know that feeling when everyone thinks you are a little crazy? But, instead you know that your choices are the sanest ones you could make? That’s how I felt about a month ago…
As I lay there, face down on the bottom of the passage, I reveled in the quietude of my breath under trillions of gallons of seawater. I was alone and I was content. I knew they would be searching for me and with any luck, they’d find me before my teeth started to chatter.
Women’s Adventure is starting a book club and we want you to join! The first book we’re reading is “3 MPH” by Polly Letofsky, a memoir of her walk (literally!) around the world.
The pace of our training is the first challenge. I start slowly and clumsily; putting my thumbs in the wrong places and struggling to manhandle ropes into messy half-remembered knots. When your life depends on that knot, you’ve got to know it instinctively. The ocean doesn’t give you a second chance because you’re a beginner.
I’ll admit, I was in for this ride for all the wrong reasons. My reasoning for signing up was so I’d hopefully get in better shape and come back a certified yoga teacher. I had no intention to come back with a changed outlook on the world at large.
This is our first adventure race, and we are doing it together, for fun, and with no competitive intentions. We’re the only all-female team in the two-person open division. Our goals: Have fun and don’t finish DFL (dead effing last). But she is smoking me, and we are actually doing pretty well.
They say patience is a virtue, but when it comes to travel, I’m not that virtuous. When I arrived in India a few weeks ago to complete the Rickshaw Run, I realized that mentality wouldn’t work. With a 7-horsepower, two-stroke engine, the auto-rickshaws we’d be steering across India run at an average of 35 mph.
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