Embrace your wild woman

Coastrek, an initiative of Wild Women On Top, is all about embracing that fire in your belly and getting out into nature. Over the past twelve years, Coastrek has inspired over 40,000 people to get moving in nature and raised over $30 million for charity. COVERED. spoke to ‘Chief Adventure Chick’ Di Westaway about being a wild woman and giving back.

Can you tell me a bit about Coastrek and how it started? When I started my business 19 years ago, we were a little women’s hiking group called Wild Women On Top. Wild Women On Top was an outdoor fitness program for women where we trained women for bucket list, big adventure challenges around the world. And we did that by taking groups of women into the bush and doing quite challenging adventure fitness training with them. We got to the point after a few years where we weren’t really growing and we weren’t reaching out to as many women as we wanted to. So I decided it would be a really good idea to have a little event that we would run to motivate our existing clients and hopefully bring new clients in, where we would do a challenging walk, trekking 100 kilometers along the coast of Sydney. Part of that challenge for our girls was that they would also raise money for charity. So that was the beginning of Coastrek.

And Chief Adventure Chick, what does that job description entail? My role is all about creating the next adventure. The obvious sort of thing that you go to in your mind when you hear ‘adventure’ is a hiking adventure. The term adventure can be applied to anything, by taking that adventurous mindset into doing things differently and being prepared to take risks.

What is a wild woman to you? How do you channel your wild woman every day? A wild woman is someone who’s prepared to age disgracefully. I think a wild woman is someone who’s okay about breaking rules, but not all rules. I believe in what the Dalai Lama said, which is ‘know the rules well, so you can make them wisely’. Being prepared to step outside your comfort zone is a big part of what we do because in doing so, you experience exhilaration and magic, and you live life to the fullest rather than just, you know, passing the years.

What long held beliefs do you see Coastrek challenging most for women? I think that strikes to the core of why I created the brand of Wild Women On Top. In the early days, I realised outdoor adventure was very male dominated. Women generally didn’t have the confidence to try really adventurous things. Also I think that girls, quite often, are brought up not to do adventurous things, to play safe. So whether we’re taking a group of women to Everest base camp, or taking thousands of women along the coast of Sydney, our teams of women nurture and lift each other up so that everybody grows in strength, confidence and resilience.

How can women on the Northern Beaches get involved with Coastrek and Wild Women on Top? The Northern Beaches of Sydney is our heartland. There are three ways that Northern Beaches women can get involved with Wild Women On Top; they can sign up for Coastrek, and our Sydney Coastrek event has a 60km trek, 30km hike or a 15km moonlight magic walk where our trekkers raise funds for Beyond Blue.