4 minute read
The Adventurer
BY DAVID FERGUSON
From the outside, and often the inside too, the adventure travel industry appears fueled by testosterone and facial hair. Bucking this stereotype is Katy Willings, who has been in charge of organizing some of the world’s most renowned adventures including the longest and toughest horse race on Earth; a hair-raising long distance paramotor challenge; and a motorbike ride across the largest frozen lake on the planet.
In the process of running these trips for others, Katy has had some incredible adventures of her own. Katy now hopes to inspire and encourage other women and men to step out of their comfort zones and experience new adventures, with ‘experience’ being the key word.
Born in New Hampshire, Katy was a junior international dressage rider in her teens, representing Britain at three successive European Championships. Her equestrian skills led her to ride in the inaugural Mongol Derby, the world's longest horse race, involving traveling 600 miles through Mongolia on over twenty different semi-wild horses. During the race Katy fell in love with the wild country and its culture and people so much, that when she got home she sent the organizers her CV asking for a job, and so an 8 year career in the adventure travel industry began. During this period, she was a guinea pig for many adventures, a pioneer leading the way; and Katy didn’t know if what she was proposing was even possible.
In her hunt for new adventures, Katy has worked with horses in Europe, Mongolia and Malawi, and with men and machines in Morocco, Siberia and Sierra Leone. She has ridden vintage Russian motorcycles in -30oC (and got the damn things started in -40°C when no-one else could); wrangled with customs and ministries in far flung places to get equipment and people into the country; and managed local and international teams to deliver logistically complex and culturally significant goods and services. Katy also learned to paramotor which basically involves strapping an engine to your back with a paragliding wing above your head. All this occurred without the backup and support offered to those who end up doing the organized adventures themselves.
Throughout her time working on various adventures around the world, Katy’s love affair with Mongolia has stayed strong. In 2018, she decided she wanted a new kind of adventure for herself, and set up her own company called Morindoo (the phrase translates literally as the command “Mount Your Horses” and was reputedly Chinggis Khaan’s battle cry), which has Mongolia and a different kind of adventure travel philosophy at its heart.
“I have absolutely loved working in the industry as part of a team, but I couldn’t escape the fact that I was offering people someone else’s idea of what adventure is. For me ‘adventure’ has a different meaning to the industry norm. I want people to experience adventure as I have, to go to far flung places and experience new things in a more immersive way rather than just scratching the surface. This is when I feel most alive and what I want other people to experience.”
So Katy set off on a new host of adventures in Mongolia to ensure she could provide others with the experiences she hoped for. The last 18 months has seen her meeting shamans and Buddhist lama; riding for days with horse owners and learning about their way of life with favorite sacred and memorable places; as well as cooking and living with herders and their families.
“I’m so excited that I get to share these adventures with other people. My main aim is that they come away from Mongolia having immersed themselves in a new culture and environment; rather than just looking for a great story to tell their mates down at the pub. In today’s age of social media where everyone is trying to outdo everyone else on Instagram and Facebook, people spend so much time looking for the best photo or story opportunity that they forget to live whats going on around them. I want my adventures to prioritize how it feels, in real time and in memory, over how it looks in a photo. So yes we have done spectacular things in beautiful locations - dog sledding, snowmobiling, hanging out with reindeer, camels and wild horses; but the uniting thread is how it feels and how you feel forever afterwards.”
What’s next? Katy has ambitions to cycle the Iron Curtain, to fly a paramotor over Victoria Falls, and to ride a horse from New York to Buenos Aires.
Next year, Katy’s adventures include rafting Lake Khovsgol and visiting Yak festivals, horse riding through snow leopard country and watching the nomad games. Learn more at morindoo.com.
