Travel Play Live Issue #5 by travelplaylivemagazine

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ISSUE #5 Spring 2016

The Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Adventure Lifestyle Magazine

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Travel Play Live

ISSUE #5

AU $12.95 ISSUE 5 ISSN 2206 - 4117

One of my all time favourite sayings is an African proverb, which goes: “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Never truer words were spoken when I think about the Travel Play Live journey.

Letter from the Editor. A real journey, one of worth, is always filled with grit, determination, endurance, overcoming, dark valleys and spectacular mountaintops. Martin Luther King Jnr. said: “The ultimate measure of a [person] is not where [they] stand in moments of comfort and convenience, but where [they] stand at times of challenge and controversy.”

quo. It is in the fire of adventure that our true strength and nature is uncovered and we find out what we are made of.

An adventure of worth can most certainly put you in the path of challenge and

I love that when we meet or interview women this truth is a common thread,

controversy. How we determine to face those things will ultimately define the adventure. A real journey of worth is one done in community and relationship with others around you. We would not be here today if it wasn’t for our families, friends, coaches, mentors and even our competitors – all cheering us on, pushing us further, and challenging our status

I have spent the last few weeks fine tuning a presentation message about just this. How when we say YES to adventure, wherever we find it, it makes us come alive to purpose, unlocks our uniqueness, strength and truth.

regardless of what kind of adventures they find themselves on. So today, as you kick back and enjoy our latest offering, stop and ponder - what adventures do you need to say yes to?

CONNECT WITH US

www.travelplaylive.com.au @travelplaylive FOUNDER + CHIEF EDITOR.

Amy Heague amy@travelplaylive.com.au FOUNDER + DIRECTOR OF ADVENTURE.

Kerryann Hayes kez@travelplaylive.com.au ADVERTISING.

sales@travelplaylive.com.au CONTRIBUTING WRITERS.

Tracey Croke, Alice King CREATIVE.

Two Minds Creative TPL PHOTOGRAPHY.

Ben Cirulis COVER IMAGE.

Ben Cirulis www.fotografija.com.au THANKS TO THE TPL TEAM.

Monique Bortoli, Sue Goodison, Copyritght TPL Publishing PTY LTD 2015. No part of this publication may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent of the publishers. DISCLAIMER: A large portion of original material is created by TPL Publishing and its contributors, including text, fonts, photography, and art work - content used from public domain like social media sites we agree are not the property of TPL Publishing, and in all cases media permission has been sought via electronic or verbal agreement. The content and views expressed in this magazine by individuals and TPL Publishing are provided in good faith as information only. No guarantee is made of the accuracy of the information provided. We have done our best to credit all photographers. In some instances photos have been provided to us by those who appear editorially and we have their permission to use the images. We apologise if anything appears incorrectly. It will be a genuine mistake, let us know and we will ensure to mention it in the next issue.

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Maryanne Handford

This Issues

CONTRIBUTORS. Head to our website to meet our growing list of contributors pioneering Australian Women's Adventure.

Hanny Allston

Lauren Heyes

Jane Grover

Kerith Duncanson

Lisa Murphy

Sputnik

Angela Armstrong

Caro Ryan

Leah Gilbert

Alice King

Tracey Croke

Emma Chalmers

www.travelplaylive.com.au/contributors Would you like to write for Travel Play Live Magazine & our online Journal? Perhaps you have a story to share? We are looking to partner with writers and bloggers across a variety of adventure and travel disciplines. Maybe you are a brand looking to get your product or destination reviewed? Contact us with your details and a sample of your work (or wares) and we will get back to you if we feel there is a good fit. submissions@travelplaylive.com.au

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SUBSCRIBE AND JOIN THE ADVENTURE For just $48 + P&H Thatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s four beautifully inspiring, empowering and adventurous copies of our magazine delivered to your door - full of great seasonal ideas to inspire you to travel, play, live! Digital subscription now available - details on the website. Head to our website

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c ontents

I AM ENOUGH Hanny Allston's Journey

FOCUSING ON THE REAL TRIUMPH

Unlocking the element of balance

YOUR BODY, YOUR RULES

Leah Gilbert's fearless persuit of the triathlon

THE UNBEARABLE LIGHTNESS OF BEING

THE RISE OF THE ADVENTUROUS

26 A STRENGTH WITHIN

#ladyboss

The story of a Mum conquering the 1700 kilometre Great Himalayan Trail

AGE IS NO BARRIER

MARATHON DES SABLES 2016

LEARNING THE ART OF NAVIGATION

Are there barriers to adventure as you get older?

It started off as a dare over dinner.

Part Two: Basic Navigation

OUT OF AFRICA

PAINTING ARRERNTE COUNTRY

ROGAINING The Aussie adventure sport

Volunteering - the likes of seasoned travellers alike for many decades

With Artist Jennifer Taylor

11,000KM ROAD TRIP

THE MAGIC OF MACEDONIA

Through Australia's Red Centre

Tracey Croke discovers its special kind of magic.

88 LET'S CELEBRATE DIFFERENT Introducing TPL's first ever male contributor, Sputnik

NOURISH Delicious recipes from Jane Grover

MENOPAUSE

THE TRAVEL PLAY LIVE DIRECTORY

Minimising the impact by changing your diet

For all your adventurous needs, social scene, events & more

READ MORE Head over to our website to for bonus content, competitions and previous articles www.travelplaylive.com.au/magazine-home and our regular online Journal www.travelplaylive.com.au/journal

STAY CONNECTED We love to hear from you, so be sure to tell us all about your travels and adventures. Contact us at hello@travelplaylive.com.au Share your photos with us on Instagram by using #travelplaylive for your chance to feature.

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"YOU CALL ME OUT UPON THE WATERS THE GREAT UNKNOWN WHERE FEET MAY FAIL AND THERE I FIND YOU IN THE MYSTERY IN OCEANS DEEP MY FAITH WILL STAND" - HILLSONG UNITED

enough I AM

{Hanny Allston's Journey}

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STORY BY HANNY ALLSTON

I am doubled over. With hands on hips, I gasp air into my lungs. My head feels heavy and achy… a dull throb enhanced by the altitude. This Italian mountain is a beast! I look up to where the trail squiggles near vertically above me and try to make out where the track crests the pass. It is somewhere up there where the bare rocks merge into the mist. I look down. My hotel where everyone else is still sleeping is just a mere 100m below me. I have barely started and I am feeling… vulnerable.

Vulnerability is... Embarking on a mission to explore somewhere

family and that famous question, ‘who am I?,

• When my heartbeat reminds me that I am

new.

vulnerability and shame screamed in my face.

alive and when the skin on the back of my neck

Opening the car door in a remote car park at

There was no hiding from these moments and

prickles in anticipation.

the foot of a mountain.

I found myself tugging on my vulnerability

• The emotional discomfort that highlights me

Asking where the bathroom is in a foreign

armour and kicking into self-protective

in my most honest form.

place and not being understood.

overdrive. Whilst I achieved successes during

• Where I find courage and gratifying success.

Sitting next to someone new on a plane.

these years, the accomplishments were like

Asking for help.

eating Weetbix for breakfast in Italy - a little dry

Telling someone you are proud of yourself.

and leaving me wondering why I didn’t just eat

The day you find yourself at the back of the

the cake. And so I strived for a tastier goal, one

pack and wondering how everyone else is

that would surely say ‘you are enough’ when it

making it look so easy.

was accomplished.

Looking deeply at yourself in the mirror and

An hour later I stood at 3052 metres on the summit of Piz Boe. There was no audience. No medals. No photo evidence. Just a few struggles, sweeping views from sheer cliffs, sweat, a goofy grin and a long descent back home. Up there I found my new definition of

On and on I ran.

success, one that is so much more fulfilling. It

Admitting that you have taken a wrong turn.

At the age of 30 I have finally stopped running.

didn’t require a race entry, a medal or money.

Asking for help to recuperate from disordered

Not literally. I still love a trail, especially

eating.

one with a mountain finish. But 10 years

Realising you have misplaced your passport in a

and a Brene Brown TED Talk later, I have

accepting your curves and imperfections.

foreign country. Standing on the start line of an event that you have been purposefully preparing for.

finally realised that on my current pathway to destination, enough - there will never be enough. And no matter how fast I run,

It just required the courage to be vulnerable and to say ‘maybe…yes,’ when my body language was screaming ‘NO!’. On top of my mountain I realised that success requires: the acceptance of vulnerability, daring greatly and being content with the result. Success is simply

Being told that your injury may be life

vulnerability will always accompany me.

saying, ‘I am enough’.

changing.

So doubled over near the base of my Italian

After sliding and whooping my way back down

Taking the keys to a hire car in a foreign country.

mountain, I decided to confront vulnerability.

Throwing your expensive raincoat in the

I stopped, acknowledged my fear and looked

my feet, I pulled up somewhat breathless at

washing machine for the first time.

outside of myself. Sheer mountains rose

the doorway to my hotel. Here I was greeted

Calling your mum to tell her you are setting off

up into the mist and the sun was painting

with a cheery grin from a local mountain guide.

on a solo adventure.

small highlights onto the contrasted green

Through a smooth Italian accent he asked,

Looking someone in the eye when they give

meadows. Marmots cheeped. In this moment

‘Where did you venture this morning?’ I

you a compliment.

I realised that despite my fear & vulnerability,

pointed to up there. After following my gesture

Accepting you cannot be perfect.

there was nowhere else on earth I would rather

he looked straight back at my sweaty face.

Admitting fear and vulnerability.

be, especially not indoors. I turned towards

With a slight rise of his eyebrows, he claimed, ‘I

the trail and told myself to take just one step.

can see it in your eyes - you really like to run!’

The TED Talk by world-renowned vulnerability researcher, Brene Brown is one of the most watched TED talks of all time. Her books are a New York Times bestseller. So when I first stumbled across Brene’s teachings and realised almost everyone was listening to her, I realised in turn that EVERYONE must struggle with

Then another. Soon my hands were pumping my thighs, turning my legs into pistons that powered from my greater sense of purpose. As

the peak with scree slopes shifting beneath

I ate cake for breakfast that day. And Nutella. I was highly satisfied.

I headed up and up with increasing courage,

And so here I urge you to never settle for

I realised that at last I really understood the

Weetbix when there is delicious cake on offer!

power of vulnerability.

Get to know and accept your vulnerability. Befriend it and listen to what it is indicating.

vulnerability… even me.

This is what I learnt.

Until this awakening I had used exercise,

Vulnerability is:

direction that shifts you from comfortable

nutrition and perfectionism to combat

• When my confidence falters and my inner

to uncomfortable, onto the pathways less

emotional discomforts, especially fear and what

doubts ask, ‘Can you really?’

travelled. Because from here you can dare

I now recognize, as vulnerability. When I was

• When I need to take a deep breath to plunge

greatly. And afterwards you can remind

faced with career ending injuries, a fracturing

onwards.

yourself, ‘I am enough’.

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Then take a deep breath and step in any

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real triumph FOCUSING on the

It is hard to encapsulate in words what signing up for my first triathlon signified in the overall story of my life. In many ways, it was the epitome of my new, fearless approach to living. I had called off the war on my body and was fearlessly pursuing all the activities I had always wanted to do but never felt were within my grasp; such as running, and above all, a triathlon. 012

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WRITTEN BY LEAH GILBERT

The emotional, mental, and personal growth I experienced during my training for this event was nothing short of lifechanging. Here I was, harnessing my true personal power and was freely, and finally, exploring my limitless potential. Needless to say, the lead up to this first race was incredibly emotional for so many reasons. On the way to racking my bike I couldn’t control the tears, such was the significance of this moment to the life of Leah as we knew it thus far. A true moment of surfacing, ‘arrival’ and triumph. So why was there still an underlying sense that it wasn’t enough? What more did I possibly need for this moment to be the life changing event that it was? You see, back then, even though I had long let go of the focus of weight loss as the sole goal and purpose of my newfound athletic pursuits - I had lost a significant amount of weight along the way. I was quietly aware of it and I wanted to hit the magic number that people class as ‘remarkable’ in the physical transformation sense, because then my achievements would be fully validated. So here I was, on the precipice of one of the greatest achievements of my life, slightly disappointed because I couldn’t quite round off that magic number. I was quantifying something that couldn’t be quantified and it was cheapening every single minute of this significant life moment. It would be easy to look back and be scathing on my attitude at the time, but I now realise it was a result of pure and utter social conditioning, and sadly, I see it playing out - ALL. THE. TIME. Think of the last time you dared to browse the Health and Lifestyle section of a major news outlet. I guarantee you there will be at LEAST one piece in there titled something along the lines of “Woman loses 50kg and Completes Marathon.” Or “Man loses 100kg and Does Ironman.” As a society we have so tightly intertwined personal transformation with a physical transformation that we struggle to separate them and celebrate them

independently of one another. Have you ever seen a headline of “Woman Gains 15kg and Completes Marathon”?

health, and what it means to us. But the question kept arising: “but tell us what has happened to your BODY along the way?”

So here we are, completing Ultra Marathons, conquering summits, exploring the outer limits of our personal and natural comfort zones, redefining our limits and pressing ‘reset’ on the perceptions of what women are physically capable of achieving, and still being expected to talk about what happens to our bodies along the way. We are expected to tell stories of triumph AND transformation – but only physical. The significance of our adventures, victories and explorations are being measured by the proverbial ‘before and after’ photos. It is a conversational trap that we are falling into because the dialogue is so inherently ingrained in us – personal transformation is only deemed significant when it is accompanied by material wealth or physical transformation, the traditional Western markers of ‘success.’

It got stronger. Faster. More stable. It is in a constant state of evolution as any living being is. Next question.

I fell into this conversational trap for awhile. Because I was so passionate about changing the conversation around being overweight and obesity, and determined to promote the power of non-shaming approaches to public health, I felt I needed to play the game and talk about what I had achieved – physically - by pursuing something I had always wanted to do. But deep down I knew that the victory for me wasn’t the physical transformation, and that talking about it like it was the victory was cheapening everything else I had achieved along the way – all that resilience, inner strength, tenacity, the enlightenment – no one ever asked me about what I felt was the true triumph. All they wanted were the before and after shots that I didn’t actually possess because I never took them. So one day I stopped playing the game. I talked only about what I had learned about myself, how I had developed personally, and how it felt to be exploring my potential as a strong, athletic female in the world who believed that we needed to change the conversation about fitness,

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Needless to say, this has resulted in the ire of many a journalist who wanted to document the story that ‘pays’, per se. Only a week or so ago during a radio interview I was asked about the conundrum that apparently exists when people embark on these amazing athletic journeys and (gasp) they don’t get any smaller. “Why do you think this happens?” Was the question, asked in a tone which inferred like it must be the most frustrating thing in the world. “Who knows? Our bodies are amazing, no two are the same, and we all adapt to training and physical activity in different ways. For many of us physical transformation is not the victory, its everything else we experience along the way.” These are the conversations that we each need to have every time we talk about our most recent events, adventures or achievements. We need to change the core talking point of our amazing experiences from our bodies to the experience itself: that view from the summit, the feeling of crossing that finish line, or what we learned about ourselves when tirelessly navigating through tough terrain in order to set up camp before nightfall. Yes, there will be the proverbial blank looks, tumbleweeds and crickets that may need to be weathered from those who are still wanting the old story, so the temptation to fall back into saying what we feel we need to say will be there. But we need to remember that the significance of what we have achieved cannot be measured in centimetres, inches, dress sizes, nor kilograms. It is instead represented by our increased sense of self worth, our resilience, our fearlessness, and that twinkle in our eye that simply says “what adventure is next?”

YOUR BODY YOUR RULES Unlocking the element of balance

It wasn’t until I was knee deep into my career as a personal trainer did I realise that my formal education and professional peers had equipped me with only a small fraction of what was truly required to educate and facilitate fitness for my clients, most of who were women. Missing from the equation was the vital components of how the female psyche and physiology talked to each another. For many of you reading this, you would appreciate how complex that relationship can be. WRITTEN BY EMMA CHALMERS

Traditionally we were trained along the principles of ‘more equals more’ and simply ‘move more, eat less’. This was a dangerous simplification for most women as it didn’t factor in the variable influences of her menstrual cycle, hormonal balance, stress levels, chronic or acute states of illness not to mention her previous emotional inflictions with body image or dieting. In 2016 there has been fortunate development in the research and adaptations into training the female client for the new up and coming professionals. However; it still leaves a trail of women who were training in gyms through the 90’s and early 2000’s who are still anchored to the idea they need to ‘go hard or go home’. When it came to exercise prescription, most clients claimed weight loss was the goal. Therefore, a natural workout regime would involve as much caloric burn as possible through hi-impact or volume of cardio with resistance combined, otherwise known as Cross Training. It makes sense right? Burn as much as you can in the shortest amount of time because most of us were time poor. Exercise was mainly broken into two components of aerobic (in the presence of oxygen) or anaerobic (without the presence of oxygen). One was rhythmic and consistent whilst the other required explosive movement to fatigue. Cross training drew from both into 3060 min session in the hope it would deliver the desired outcome. It didn’t take long for a pattern to appear where drop off, burn out and exhaustion would kick in for my clients. We could normally drive an intense workout regime for 12 weeks at best until the body would start to show some sign of imbalance. As a trainer my goal for my clients was long term adherence for a fit life. I dived into further study of the women’s psychology and physiology and came to discover what biorhythmic, multi-faceted being’s we are and how we need to be trained much smarter than what the industry was dishing out. While most clients were demanding weight loss, the body

was screaming for homeostasis: balance. During that study and case work over the following years I developed 4 primary modalities that allowed me to cycle a woman’s training. This was dictated by multiple indicators such as her hormonal state, menstrual cycle, cortisol levels, mood, sleep levels, energy levels and lack or presence of injury. I took the inspiration from mother-earth that is governed by balance and adopted the acronyms using the natural elements of fire, earth, air and water for each training style. Unless my clients were training towards a sports or outcome specific goal, it was my job to ensure she was drawing from all four elements in order to obtain a homeostatic state of wellbeing. It was designed as a way to communicate context of training in a way client’s could understand as opposed to scientific analogies. This formula not only expanded my scope of exercises and programing, it assisted in the repair of metabolic damage, balanced out her energy levels, evolved her knowledge of her body and for most it resulted in healthy sustained weight loss. However the greatest triumph was the emotional empowerment of redefining her beliefs systems around exercise and her body. To finally release the shackles attached to the notion she had to smash herself in the gym day in day out to now experiencing a state of wellness was revolutionary to her. It reached the point my client’s and I were fluent in speaking terms of the ‘elements’ and they could intuitively pin point what they needed at the start of each session. I simply delivered the sequence of movements required. Asking her before each session “what element do you feel like training today?’ I gave her the opportunity to feel inside herself for the answer. Naturally this developed a clear communication between the body and mind that liberated her both in and outside the gym. Here is the basic overview of each element and their suitability.

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FIRE

High Intensity, interval exercise to a fatigued state allowing a short recovery in between sets or series of stations. These styles of workouts are highly inflammatory, elevate core temperatures and will stress the body. This was prescribed (however would vary) when my clients were well recovered with sleep, had sustained energy levels, positive mood, need to release acute anger or frustration and I noticed it was effective when she was pre her menstrual cycle.

WATER

Fluid, rhythmic movement in the presence of oxygen that was sustained for a minimum of 20min. This could be classified as jogging, yoga flow sequence, swimming, cycling or any movement that was consistent in pace, intensity and load. The water element is wonderful for cleansing and releasing which is why so many of us feel ‘clearer’ after a run. This was effective for any stage of the menstrual cycle, however I would specifically apply this element with no impact if my client was in recovery from burn-out or a sustained period of sympathetic overdrive of the central nervous system.

EARTH

The grounding element of weight and strength training where a full recovery was required in between sets. Big compound movements under load that required 100% focus on form and execution with minimal repetitions were favoured. The earth element was highly effective when my client’s felt mentally scattered, stress or anxious. It gave her a tactile focus while moving a heavy weight from point A to B which helped stabilise her physically and mentally. It became evident she was stronger during ovulation and pre her menstrual cycle. I would avoid both the earth and fire element during menstruation.

AIR

Pure stillness. Every session would close with the Air element. Whether it be a 5 min meditation or a full practice. The air element is vital for our body’s recovery and rejuvenation. We spend our lives switched ON that sometimes we have to consciously apply periods of complete stillness into our day to balance the central nervous and endocrine system. I make a deliberate point of stating Air training is a part of your fitness regime, not something done on your day’s off. If a client was suffering a state of fatigue or burnout I would prescribe non-impact water and air for a series of sessions until the body started to show clear signs of recovery.

The principle of the elements is simply to build in a metaphor of context around types of exercise that give us permission to view our bodies as a multifaceted organism of intelligence rather than an outer shell we have to force into subservience for our weight goal. I expand on the principles in my online course, YOUR BODY YOUR RULES that runs twice a year.

When consulting with gyms and boutique fitness studios, I emphasise the importance of having a range of all elements available to the class timetable or trainers tool box. Now the industry has diversified where people can search out one outlet for one element such as yoga and the other for their fire such as a Cross Fit box. It is an exciting time to be involved in the fitness industry as both a professional and consumer as the fusion of fitness and wellness is finally coming together. The days of being bombarded by trainer dictators shouting ‘suck it up princess’ are rapidly being replaced by smarter more intuitive acts of wellness that nourish the body, mind and spirit as a whole. Because let’s face it, it’s your body, shouldn’t it be your rules? Emma Chalmers travels the country as a presenter and educator to the fitness industry on coaching and cultural psychology. Her podcast and insights are shared on www.rebelology.com.au

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The Unbearable Lightness

OF BEING

My children are my teachers. They greet each day with wonder, openness and love. Quill opens her eyes most mornings, sees me in the bed and sighs, “hmm-mumma”. She says it like she feels it; the words thick with love. STORY GABRIELLE JOYCE FROM MARINER BOATING

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deciding which character they will be and what

the lessons my children teach me; that there

land they journey to as we climb the fence and

is a very fine line between the every day and

start out through the long golden grass. When

the magical. It compels me to say “Yes!” to

I walk with them I am astounded by the detail

adventures as they present themselves and to

they see in the world that I would usually blunder

be child-like in my approach. So, despite the

past; a bright red leaf, a tiny pebble shaped like

pressing schedule of a working mother who lives

a love heart, all sorts of tiny critters. Their world is

on, and runs a farm; regardless of the relentless

a safe haven, leaving them free to be inventors,

responsibilities of the adult world and all the

raiders and queens.

things I cannot change, I ask myself “who will I

When I was their age, my family lived in Greece. It was a golden time. Fuelled by my parents

This September I load up my pack, put on my

formative years sailing the summers through

lucky cowgirl boots and return to the salt seas

sapphire seas, legs swung over the quays of

on which I was raised. My quest? To assist in

many a cobble-stone dock. I remember the

guiding twenty four clients, on six yachts, from

smell of the bakers in the morning, a lump of

Split to Dubrovnik, Croatia. The concept is

warm sticky dough given over for fishing with. I

called a Yacht Rally and includes racing, cruising,

remember the rhythm of the language rat-ta-ta-

land excursions, dinners and presentations and it

ta-ting out across the bay as men with leathery

promises to be the kind of experience that gets other adventures.

I used to lie on the deck when dad dropped the

I know saying “yes” to adventure and being

and I imagined a land of wondrous white caverns until I fell asleep. Salt encrusted ropes and the

Ask my children if they want to go for a walk and it is treated like a quest. As they don cloaks, swords and leather satchels, the adventure has already begun. They are

used as a yardstick to measure the authenticity of

the quay. big white headsail, its folds would enshroud me

and to what quest do I owe the pleasure?”

“hippy phase”, my sister and I spent our

skin caught our bow line and welcomed us to

eing 6, I am still her whole world. She wraps her little arms around my neck and envelops me in the moment. She smells like butter and honey and her cheeks are the softest, most kissable things in the world. Moments like these push the heavy burden of adult responsibilities away and I can be in my self; lost in the myriad of details, lost to past and future and firmly planted in the now. There is a whole world in the soft white down of her arms, the morning light makes fairy rainbows on the net above the bed and the world sings anew.

be today, what treasures shall I pack in my bag

smell of the sea, sun-warmed figs and peaches that dripped juice to the elbow if you let them; these are the still-life memories that charm those years spent sailing in Greece. Once, while running through a field of yellow grass, a feeling of lightness came over me. My legs pumped effortlessly and I was propelled as if in a dream. Between strides my feet felt as though they might never come back to earth. It was like the whole world existed in that moment alone. There was something magical about that afternoon, I remember it lucidly. The warmth of the soft Mediterranean sun, the salt crystals caught in the hairs on my arms, the cicadas shrill rhythms growing raucous and subsiding in waves.

child-like in my approach sends ripples out into my intimate social ecology; I am a better mother, lover and friend as a direct consequence of this choice. And, like the bards of old, telling the tale to a larger audience draws strangers and other adventurers into that ecology. It is no coincidence then, that an old friend, professional photographer and aspiring film-maker cycled back into my life and is now happily colluding to film this amazing experience. The word enthusiasm comes from the the Greek word enthousiasmos meaning “possessed by a god”. Children are inherently enthusiastic, you can see it shining out of them, it is infectious too and collects collaborators like metal to a magnet. Like an alchemist then, I collect up the openness to wonder taught by my children, the magical moments of my childhood and the enthusiasm that holds a god inside me. I pack them alongside my lucky boots, my camera and editing suite and I launch myself at this next

Not only is that memory clear, it is also decisive;

adventure...Croatia Yacht Rally, ready or not,

it inspires my journey through life. It reinforces

here I come!

Sail your next adventure... • • • •

www.marinerboating.com

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global destinations great company fun challenges 24/7 support

TECHNOLOGY WE ARE LOVING

THIS SPRING

Spring has sprung and as some of you come out of hibernation we have uncovered some cool tech that will help you get the most out of your ‘unplugged’ outdoor time. These cool little gadgets will help you travel, play and life.

APPLE WATCH® NIKE+ It is no secret that we are Apple fans here at Travel Play Live, so we were a little excited to hear about the new Apple Watch Nike+. It is the ultimate tool for anyone who runs. It features GPS, water resistance 50 meters, exclusive Siri® commands and iconic Nike watch faces along with deep integration with the new Nike+ Run Club app for unrivaled motivation to go for a run, coaching plans that adapt to your unique schedule and progress, and guidance from the world’s best coaches and athletes. Available in late October. To find out more www.apple.com

DIENO CHARGER There may be one or two of us here at TPL Headquaters who really need one of these when we head out on adventures.Because we all carry technology wherever we go; phones, music players, cameras, e-readers, tablets and navigation device's, there is nothing more frustrating than when our technology runs out of power. DieNo uses free solar or any external power to charge all your devices. It is a shock-proof and water resistant portable accessory. DieNo chargers provide you with the assurance of powering your items at any time in any place. Put it where the sun DOES shine! www.dienochargers.com

MEEM – MIRROR YOUR LIFE This little baby is one gadget that solves the backup issues for those who travel, are mobile or don’t want to send their info to the cloud. MEEM is the only product of its kind in existence. A phone charger and automatic back-up device all in one cable. Every time you charge your phone,

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MEEM automatically backs up the personal data held on it to the cable itself: a simple solution that fits into your daily routine with no third party access to your info. The Beach Geek is the exclusive distributor for Australia. thebeachgeek.com.au/product/ meem

OSPREY SOJOURN. FOR PATHS WELL TRAVELLED, TO NO PATHS AT ALL. Convertible wheeled luggage with carry comfort that matches Osprey’s large, industry–leading backpacks. The updated Sojourn – Expand your trip’s horizon.

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T: 1300 784 266 Travel Play Live

ospreypacks.com

RISE adventurous The

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#LADYBOSS STORY BY LAUREN ROSE HEYES

Travel Play Live #ladybosses Kerryanne Hayes and Amy Heague

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There’s that little voice inside so many of us that whispers, ‘go on, climb that mountain’. A deep desire to head outdoors and dig our toes in the sand or feel the crisp mountain air on our cheeks. It’s not even a want. It’s a need. A need to connect to the world we live in and truly cherish the earth we have been given. For so long as women we have held roles that allow us to explore and be in touch with our world. But with the rise of increasing numbers of women in the workplace, we are spending less and less time traipsing through the forest and more and more time walking the halls in three inch heels. Even though we have fought for the right to be represented equally in a corporate setting, too often something feels amiss. More and more women are realising the values and schedules of modern working environments don’t align with the way they want to live their lives. Women around the globe are grabbing their piece of the entrepreneurial pie; from mum-preneurs making the dollars from home and raising the next generation of leaders, to women who build mega businesses in the sassiest locations around the world.

From trekking, trail running and cycling businesses, to outdoor education, magazines, retail and everything in between, women are now leading the charge in offering adventure to female consumers around the globe, in the manner in which they connect. Traditionally, adventure has been considered by many more a male domain, due to the perceived manliness of the outdoors; you know, the ‘strength, endurance and conquering’ required.

the values of compassion, collaboration, connection and inclusion, among others. Our adventure ladybosses know this. They know we strive for more. We want to know what we are truly capable of and secretly, deep down, many of us like to know that we are able to fend for ourselves. We seek adventure as very little in our life requires us to truly test our boundaries anymore. By getting out into the great outdoors we can push the comfort zone,

Which is why, in my opinion, the working world is changing.

And then, there are those pioneering women who have paved the way for women to have an equal place in outdoor business ventures and fields.

needs of women. In fact, group adventure provides a means to express

and by joining a group or following in the footsteps of other women for such an adventure we can do it with confidence, knowledge, support and laugher along the way. Adventure is a true test of a woman’s

Over the last few years it’s become apparent that we, the more nurturing of the species, interact and connect with the outdoors differently to our male counterparts and are bringing our own special flavour to the discovery of the great outdoors.

will. You never know how you are going to react when it’s raining for six days straight and you have no chance of feeling cosy, dry or clean for the next 72 hours. You don’t know if you can get down that rock face, or carry that 20 kg+ pack until you find yourself in that situation. And then you do it, because you have to, there is no other option, and you succeed! You are more incredible than you could possibly imagine. The same goes for entrepreneurialism. Starting a business takes a huge dose of courage, a touch of insanity, a never say die attitude, patience and an unwavering desire to make a difference. Every day entrepreneurs are faced

with the decision to keep going or to ‘go back to how things were’.

They face levels of ambiguity and frustration which those in ‘secure’

You see, women are naturally designed to be caring, empathetic and collaborative. Rather than considering these as weaknesses I would say they are quite the opposite. To be surrounded by caring empathetic and collaborative humans sounds like the best way to be hiking a mountain, navigating a white water river or lets face it, any adventure into the unknown.

So if you are thinking of joining the #ladybosses of the world, in partic-

So here we are, taking this moment to celebrate all those women who have started adventure businesses designed specifically for us, the women of the world.

You must know who you are and what you stand for before you invite

Women seeking adventure are more often than not using the outdoors to look inward, to re-connect and to make a difference, which are core

world. It is through you and your vision women will see the world in

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jobs will never truly understand. I often say to my business clients “I wouldn’t wish business on my worst enemy, but I would recommend it to my best friend”. ular those opening the doors to our incredible planet, here are a few things to consider. You must know why you want to go on this adventure and what’s going to keep you going when the proverbial hits the fan. people into your world. Most of all, you must know what beautiful window you will open to the which we live!

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#LADYBOSS

BIG HEART ADVENTURES

LISA MURPHY

www.bigheartadventures.com.au

So here is a shout out to all those courageous women out there who have turned their dreams into reality and changed the face of adventure in the great outdoors forever. May your footing be sure and your laugher be often. Be courageous…

Lisa and her Wise Women Walking tours give women an opportunity to complete multi day walking adventures but also to give back to charities that specifically support disadvantaged women. Her vision is to the change to the world through travel, supporting both local and overseas charities through a ‘Give Back’ program.

S PA R TA C H I C K S

GONE RUNNING TOURS AND FIND YOUR FEET

JEN BROWN

HANNY ALLSTON

www.spartachicks.com

After a former career as a Lawyer, Personal Trainer and Triathlon Coach Jen Brown established Sparta Chicks, an online community of adventurous and brave women involved in triathlons, trail running and outdoor adventure. Specialising in sports and mindset coaching, Jen helps women achieve their goals (despite their fear and self-doubt), to feel more confident and to live life as the strong, resilient women they are. Her work has grown to include numerous speaking engagements and the release of her first book ‘She Believed She Could So She Did: How To Train, Race and Live with Confidence’ is available from her website or on Amazon.

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www.gonerunningtours.com.au

Hanny Allston has been a World Orienteering Champion and is record holder of many famous trail-running races in Australia. However, her heart lies in wild places, and she strongly feels that competitions are only one small way to experience new places and to challenge yourself. In 2014, with her business partner and now fiancé, Graham Hammond, Find Your Feet instigated Gone Running Tours, non-competitive trail running holidays for anyone of any ability. Whilst many tours are centered on showcasing the beauty of wild Tasmania, her home state, they also host tours to Hokkaido in Japan and the mountains of Europe. Hanny and Graham guide most of these small, boutique tours themselves.

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ADVENTUROUS WOMEN

TRIBAL CYCLING

SUE HILE

TRACY WALKER

Desperate to change the course of her life (too longer story right now), Sue tells us she had a meltdown closely followed by a 'Branson Brainwave' in April of 2008 which led to her starting Adventurous Women Travel one of Australia’s first women’s adventure networks. She soon realised that not all women were comfortable travelling alone or with others they didn’t know, so created an Australia wide Adventure Club. Her intention, to help women feel more comfortable and supported whilst providing opportunity for them to meet like-minded women, get involved with activities, events, hikes, camping and weekends away within their local state.

Tribal Cycling was founded by Tracy Walker, a passionate XC mountain biker and road rider. Introduced to the sport through friends, Tracy was convinced to join a 24hr mountain bike team as the 'token chick'. With no practice, a borrowed squeaky bike, she turned up and raced. It rained for 24hrs, she had a blast, and a month later bought herself a mountain bike and hasn't looked back. Her business Tribal Cycling, has a mission to educate and inspire more women to chase cycling adventures of their own and if she has her way, women will eventually outnumber men on bikes.

www.adventurouswomen.com.au

www.tribalcycling.com

KARMEA

MOJO ADVENTURE

JO THOMAE

SARAH ANNE EVANS

One of Jo’s greatest passions in life is to see people get out of their "box" and experience the outdoors. Since falling in love with adventure racing, Jo and team mate Erren, have been actively promoting the sport of adventure racing delivering events that they would love to do, pulling together all the great things they enjoy about the sport. In the past two years they and a band of volunteers have worked hard, between full time work and individual family and outside interest commitments to deliver two very large and very well received events including the recent Mojo Rogue Six12.

Three years ago, Sarah Anne Evans, with an impressive endurance sport background, a collection of fitness certifications and infectious enthusiasm traded in her career running a successful events company to pursue her passion - creating an active community helping people live vibrant, healthy lives. And so Karmea was born, a friendly fitness hub and multisport coaching service soon to launch into business phase two; adventure training retreats and outdoor getaways.

www.karmeafitness.com

www.mojoadventure.com.au

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M O X X I

SHE WENT WILD

LAUREN ROSE HEYES

EMMA WALKER

Moxxi is a mindset coaching business for high performance women. Moxie as a word means to have courage or be courageous, and the xx is the female chromosome, so Moxxi

Emma is the creator of She Went Wild, Australia's first outdoor and adventure expo designed purely with women in mind. The event will see world leading adventure brands showcasing their newest technology, apparel and clothing. Free interactive workshops will empower visitors with new skills and the Travel Play Live sponsored stage area will inspire all to get out and conquer any dream. Black Diamond are hosting a free climbing wall, our Himalayan shack and live music will set the Après-ski mood while Sydney’s best food trucks keep your belly full!

www.moxxigroup.com.au

www.shewentwild.com

means women with courage. Lauren believes courage is required every time we step outside of our comfort zone, which in our opinion is one of the greatest things about adventure. Moxxi run retreats and events which not only offer an opportunity to re-train the brain but also show you what you are truly made of. The Moxxi flagship retreat is held in Bali where women get to come together to push themselves both mentally and physically.

AT H E N A M U LT I S P O R T M A G A Z I N E

TREKFIT AUSTRALIA

LEAH GILBERT

RUTH RAMPLING

As an Athena division Triathlete herself, Leah Gilbert (of Body Positive Athletes) recognised there was a large segment of the multisport community that was not being acknowledged in mainstream publications, and a segment of women who wish to read about performance and nutrition without an obligation of 'smaller' or 'leaner'. As a result, she created Athena Multisport Magazine, a technical publication that provides athletes with information they need to perform in the bodies they have right now. This groundbreaking digital magazine is available quarterly.

Ruth Rampling started her trekking journey back in 2009 when she signed up to walk the Kokoda Track, since then reaching the summit of some amazing destinations. After completing her personal training qualifications, Ruth embarked on setting up her own business, TrekFit Australia, specializing in preparing clients for their own trekking experience, ensuring they are well equipped with the right training, gear and knowledge of where they are headed.

www.facebook.com/athenamultisport

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www.trekfitpersonaltraining.com.au

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A Strength

WITHIN More people had walked on the moon than completed the entire 1700 kilometre Great Himalayan Trail…until an ordinary Sydney mum took it on.

eather Hawkins came “out of recovery” from her Coogee home to meet me at the World Expeditions office in Sydney. As the lift opens, I scan the room for a fatigued 51-year-old. The receptionist introduces me to a cheery woman with a glow that looks fresh out of a wellness retreat. “Hi I’m Heather,” she beams. The only clue I’ve got that Heather has just spent the past five months crossing 16 high altitude passes, with only ten rest days, is her loose fitting pair of jeans. It could well be a part of her chilled relaxed style, or down to some weight loss (six kilograms she later confirms), but I can’t help wondering if she’s camouflaging a superwoman outfit. The latter would explain a lot.

WRITTEN BY TRACEY CROKE

For starters, it would explain how, in the space of a few years, Heather propelled from “having a go” at a family fun run in an “old pair of gardening shorts” to running grueling multi-day ultra races and winning a polar marathon in one of the planet’s harshest environments. It would certainly explain the resilience needed to take on the world’s longest and highest alpine walking track - an extraordinary 152-day trek from east to west Nepal - literally learning the ropes on the way. “I’m just an ordinary Sydney mum,” she says looking me right in the eye. For Heather, that could be taking dog Rusty for a walk, ocean swimming at Coogee beach and then rustling up a batch of banana bread – voted the tastiest according to her two grownup children, Bek, 23, and Callum, 21. It also means smashing out

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some of the world’s greatest challenges often “on a whim,” she laughs. Heather is the first to admit she has time to pursue her dreams of living life to the full after she and husband Doug – both surf lifesavers – sold their business and retired early in their late forties. But what makes Heather’s achievements all the more extraordinary is her self-styled training regime. Apart from moral support from her family and “Ted the Girl”- her childhood teddy who joins her on every challenge - there are no expert trainers in the background, no nutrition gurus, not even Googled tips. “I do what’s right for me,” she says. This is a one-woman endurance show who knows herself well and trusts her own judgment and intuition – instincts

It gave me enough courage to know that I’d be okay out of my comfort zone and that I can get through.

that possibly saved her life – because, for Heather, completing The Great Himalaya Trail was a realisation of a much bigger journey. “I’m just so grateful to be alive,” she says. In 2007, Heather, a former nurse, was busy running a video production business with husband Doug, when “her world stood still.” She’d been suffering from abdominal bloating and little bit of discomfort. “At first I wrote it off as a heavy month, but when it persisted, I thought I better go and get it checked out.” She explains. The following morning she dropped the kids off at school and went to see her GP. A few hours later she was sitting with scans in hand dealing with the shock diagnosis of ovarian cancer. “The doctor could see from the scans it was quite a large tumor on the ovary

- about a 7cm growth at that stage. By the time I came to have surgery a week later it was 20cm, it was incredibly fast growing,” she recalls. Thankfully, surgery dealt with the cancer, and pathology tests showed it hadn’t spread. Heather feels her fast actions and faith in her own intuition saved her life. “Ovarian cancer is hard to define,” she says shaking her head, “but I just sensed something wasn’t right.” The experience made Heather reassess her life and it changed her whole headspace about getting really fit and healthy. Two years later in 2009, Heather took her bronze medal in Surf Lifesaving. Although she didn’t know it at that time, swimming longer distances in open water and paddling huge rescue boards pushed Heather’s limits for things to

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come. “It gave me enough courage to know that I’d be okay out of my comfort zone and that I can get through. That was certainly a game-changer, becoming a surf lifesaver meant a great deal to me.” Heather’s running spark came after five cancer-free years in 2012 aged 47. She got off to a sketchy start at the Mothers Day Classic – a 4km family fun run to raise funds for breast cancer. Daughter Bek and son Cal ran in support. She says she remembers so clearly rummaging in the wardrobe and finding an old pair of runners and gardening shorts. “I looked just gorgeous,” she laughs. A cycling accident many years earlier left husband Doug with longterm knee injuries and supporting from the sidelines while the rest of the family set off on the 4km loop. Unfortunately, Heather’s swimming

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fitness didn’t seem to help. “About halfway, I remember thinking this is tough, it’s a long way.” She sat down on the grass and almost gave up until Bek and Cal urged her to the finish. Determined to do better, Heather returned to Centennial Park the following day and ran it again. “That was a huge light-bulb moment,” she says, and on the momentum she immediately signed up for the 14km City to Surf. Within the space of a few months, Heather had gone from gasping for breath in her gardening shorts to comfortably running half marathons. She continued ticking challenges off her “second chance at life” list with full 42-kilometre marathons. When her big five-0 approached, she wanted to mark the occasion with something really special. In her quest to have a truly fabulous and healthy a midlife crisis, Heather stepped out of her comfort zone once again. She entered The North Pole Marathon - a race on a shifting ice floe in minus 40 Degrees Celsius, where every inch of skin needs to be covered to prevent serious frost bite. Heather signed up with 43 other competitors (10 women and 34 men) of all experiences from elite athletes to those, like Heather, who wanted a lifetime adventure. “Incredibly surreal” is how she describes running ten laps of four kilometres around a Russian research base. “There were guards with rifles in case polar bears wandered past,” For the Polar Bears’ sake, none did, she happily reports. However, pounding ice that’s only two metres thick in places is not without other risks. Along with Polar Bear spotting, competitors had to lookout for cracks opening in the ice floe. So how does a sun drenched Sydney-sider even prepare for a challenge where you have to run in thermals, multiple layers and a balaclava you can barely breathe in? “I thought about finding a butcher with an industrial freezer and seeing if I could convince them to put a treadmill in there.” I burst out laughing. “No really, I tried,” Heather smiles, but with only eight weeks to prepare, her ingenious plan was a nonrunner. However, can-do Heather figured the soft sand would be good training for running in ankle-to-knee deep snow conditions. She got that right, but mostly she learnt the

hard way – on the run itself. Heather’s preparation went spectacularly wrong in the first lap. She was sweating from too many layers, which in extreme cold is a fast track to hypothermia. “Also my hand and foot warmers froze - the ones you crack that are meant to stay warm for eight to twelve hours. I had to get them out quickly.” After one lap, Heather was already in the heated support tent making survival adjustments and losing time. Another non life-threatening problem actually turned out to be her salvation. “I listen to music when I run, but I didn’t know that batteries die in extreme cold.” Nevertheless, her frozen iPhone became a blessing in disguise. “I was left very much with my thoughts and I dedicated each lap to people I know - cancer sufferers and survivors, friends and family. I had a purpose to each lap and that really willed me along and somehow I didn’t feel

This is a one-woman endurance show who knows herself well and trusts her own judgment and intuition – instincts that possibly saved her life. fatigued.” After six hours and fifty-eight minutes of discovering a greater inner strength and realising a new level of endurance, Heather was the first female across the line and finished eighth overall beating 27 men. “To run through a ribbon and hold up the Aussie flag was just an incredible wonderful moment that I’ll never forget.” But celebration and recovery had to wait. The struggles and needs of others had Heather summoning extra energy to aid those who finished up to another eight hours after her. She got stuck back into nursing helping doctors in the medical tent treat competitors who were suffering from hypothermia. The experience helped Heather take on the World Marathon Challenge just a few months later – seven marathons on seven continents in seven days.

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The clock starts at the first marathon in Antarctica. From there, the field of 15 mixed ability athletes are at the mercy of commercial airlines and jetlag, surviving only on adrenaline and a few hours sleep on the plane….and jelly snakes in Heather’s case. After “the frozen continent,” the race continues through temperatures that fluctuate by 50 Degrees Celsius in North and South America, Europe, Africa, Asia and finally Australia. A fall in Morocco set her back and she had to “dig deep” to enjoy the highlight of a Sydney finish, where friends and family turned out in the middle of the night to cheer her in at 9th place. From a fun run all those years ago, that initial ambition to get “healthy and fit” came full circle in February this year when Heather, Cal and Bek and Bek’s boyfriend Matt, decided to take on another challenge as a family. Until that point, more people had walked on the moon than completed this The Great Himalaya trail. If successful, Heather and her family would equal that figure at 12. Husband and dad Doug was supportive as ever. “He knew it was an adventure we wanted to have.” The 1,700 kilometre traverse of Nepal, from Mount Kanchenjunga in the east to Yari Valley in the west, took the Hawkins family into wildest and most remote mountain environments on the planet. “We only stayed in tea houses four nights of the whole trek, the rest was camping, sometimes on glaciers.” Nepal relies heavily on income from trekkers hiring support, paying for camps and buying their fresh produce along the way. The Great Himalaya trail goes through the most isolated mountain communities that currently receive little to no income from this source. Although described in mountaineering terms as “technical grading- basic”, this adventure is classed as an intermediate mountain expedition and not for the faint hearted. The team trekked over 16 passes above 5000 metres, negotiating narrow ledges and terrain that required harnesses, ropes and crampons. While son Cal has technical mountaineering experience, the rest of the team learnt the skills on the go. Experienced Sherpas set fixed lines ahead and made sure that all in the team

A Strength

WITHIN

were sufficiently trained and competent. “The logistics of the trail are quite mindboggling. We were so incredibly well looked after.” In the first few days, Heather describes being left breathless by climbing a few steps. “It was incredibly steep and rocky at altitude, but we became fit as we went. We might do six kilometres daily, towards the end we were doing over twenty and keeping up with our Sherpa team.” Emotions rose as the team passed through areas affected by the earthquake, which hit Nepal on 28th April 2015. Langtang, once a popular trekking region, was already reeling from earthquake damage, when a few days later, a huge landslide buried Langtang Village killing over a thousand people. Heather joins in the global chorus of Nepal visitors who continually praise the resilience of the people. “It was so

confronting, but people are so positive. It was wonderful to see rebuilding had started, people had moved back, some teahouses were up and running and trekkers were coming back.” Sharing the experience as a family added to the purpose of the journey. “Seeing how well my son and daughter coped, strengthening our bond as a family - we’ve always been close but sharing those experiences has made us a lot stronger. And there were moments of deep reflection. Sitting on a narrow ledge overlooking the Honku basin - a vast panorama surrounded by sharp rugged peaks, Heather realised this journey didn’t start in Kathmandu, but in that doctors surgery almost ten years ago. “I had a moment of clarity…. this journey consolidated all these experiences from the past. I was breathless and cold but felt on top of the world. I came back a far more

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whole person I felt who learnt to live in the moment.” From the wonders of Nepal and clinging to life-affirming ledges, Heather had no worries settling back in to regular Sydney life with Doug. “After I hugged Doug, the first thing we did was drive down Coogee beach, got a takeaway coffee and stood at the headland looking out at the open space and listening to the waves– I’d pictured that for weeks.” So what’s next for Heather the ordinary Sydney mum? She’s got her eye on running the world’s highest marathon in a desert around a bunch of Volcanoes. This time I don’t make the mistake of laughing because I know she isn’t joking. In fact, I would believe Heather if she told me she was planning to run an ultra race on the moon in between baking batches of banana bread for a Surf Lifesaver fundraiser. I stand to say goodbye. We instinctively

HEATHER’S TOP THREE TIPS FOR TREKKING THE GREAT HIMALAYA TRAIL • Invest in a great pair of leather trekking boots and spend plenty of time breaking them in pre trek. • Prepare yourself physically: train on hills, stairs and walk on mountainous trails wearing your backpack, also do some rock climbing, as this will increase your confidence and agility over high passes and traversing glaciers. • Buy a diary (or three!) so you can record your experience - it makes for a wonderful personal record later.

hug and I’m already thinking how much Heather resembles her namesake plant, which softly flourishes in the harshest of alpine environments where others give up. Heather is a humble, determined, inspiring and resilient survivor. It’s a perfectly natural strength - but I can’t help giving her a cheeky pat on her back… just to make sure she hasn’t got a cape stuffed up there. Heather completed the Great Himalaya Trail with World Expeditions. The Great Himalaya Trail can be broken into separate treks that can be completed individually or joined together.

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Barrier AG E I S N O

{Are there barriers to adventure as you get older?} The barriers to adventure collectively diminish as you get older and more experienced at life. It's a bold statement and counterintuitive to what you might think. As you get older, wiser and more in touch, your adventures only get grander, more sophisticated, more grounded and have greater depth. ARTICLE BY BRETT NEAGLE - WALKER AND CEO OF AUSWALK

Firstly what is adventure anyway? It's usually defined as an unusual, exciting or daring experience. Whether an activity meets this criterion is entirely a personal thing. What might be one person's idea of adventure will be another’s version of hell. Climbing the Himalayas is an adventure, unless you're a Sherpa risking your life on a day-by-day basis in order to be able to feed your family. Then it’s just a job. Adventure can't be defined as a specific event, pastime or task; in my view it's simply anything that takes you out of your comfort zone. We get older and die that's the truth, that we can't deny. Everything dies in the end including ideas and organizations. The idea that people should concede or even forfeit their right to be adventurous as they get older, must be challenged and is clearly not the case. The idea itself of being adventurous into older age is not following the norm. The proof is in the numbers, it always is. If you were to take a measurement on sheer numbers of older Australians who are living large and seeking out adventure, some on a daily basis, what you'd find would amaze you. Minding the grandchildren, playing bowls and taking naps are all part of the great adventure. But we're taking naps because we're walking the Camino de Santiago and it’s siesta time in Spain. Then there are the grey nomads reinventing the whole stereotype of what it means to get older. However, there are barriers to adventure. It's undeniable and it's worth having a

closer look at these 'alleged' barriers to see how they play out as we get older and to show you how in most cases those barriers disappear gradually as we get older.

liberated by it; there’s no need to impress

One barrier to adventure is access to resources of time and money. With the 'accumulative years' done and dusted, the kids gone, it’s now about making the hard decisions on how, where and what to spend the kids’ inheritance on. As C.S Lewis writes, "you are never too old to set another goal or dream a new dream'. Thus, if anything, as we get older we are advantaged from having more time and if we have played our cards correctly, blessed with more disposable income.

who cares what you look like doing it,

Of course the second and main barrier is fear - fear of failure, fear of appearing stupid, fear of being different and the fear of getting hurt. Aside from the fear of injury, none of the other fears sustain any impact on the individual as you age. This is because as you get older you give up on the notion of caring what people think of you. You begin to subscribe to Dr Daniel Amens’18/ 40/ 60 rule. ‘When you’re eighteen, you worry about what everybody is thinking of you; when you are forty, you don’t give a darn what anybody thinks of you; when you’re sixty, you realize nobody’s been thinking about you at all’. In fact older people will testify that many of the made up fears we experience are more intense in our younger years, shadows of events that were never going to happen in the first place. They see their drama clearly and are

than we could have done as a young

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anymore. There's another factor as well. As you get older, there's literally less and less peer pressure. You feel liberated to do what you want, when you want and the very antithesis of the straitjacket of youthful peer pressure. It's becomes easier to step out and try some new adventure without the weight of expectation. As we relinquish our grip on life's demands and relax, we're rewarded with an enormous amount of freedom from a psychological perspective. We're freed up to challenge ourselves on a completely different level adult. Let me throw in some interesting detail. Several studies have shown that older people have more and better sex than you might think. A survey of people over the age of 60 found that 74% of men and 70% of women reported a greater sexual satisfaction than when they were in their 40s. Why mention this at all? Well if sex is not an adventure, then it's probably not good sex. A healthy sexual appetite can be attributed to having a good imagination, which goes hand in hand with other appetites such as the one for learning and adventure. It’s the fear barrier on the physical plane where many of us become unstuck with age. But get this, research has shown that with right diet and right exercise, you can stymie the demise that aging has on

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your body. A good example of this was Josef Pilates. Up until his sudden death at age 84, he possessed the same physical prowess as he did in his 50's. He's not on his own, there are now millions of people out there defying aging. It may be a bit more work to maintain good health but clearly, it is well worth the effort and is achievable. Realistically the 'how' of maintaining good physical health as we get older, is not a recent discovery. It's our modern life-style of bad posture, inadequate diet, over eating and inefficient breathing that are the roots of our poor health. Overall health, stamina, fitness and agility are a barrier for some people as they get older, but largely it's out of choice, bad ones, but choices, none- the- less. Society often equates being adventurous with youth and often assumes that sorrow, quiet desperation, bad health and hopelessness go hand in hand with getting older. None of this has to be true. Emotional pain or a feeling of numbness, the spiraling out of control downwards, physically and mentally, are symptoms of living the wrong life, not a long life. As George Bernard Shaw says, ‘we don't stop playing because we grow old: we grow old because we stop playing’. If there is a barrier, it is largely to do with people's mindsets and individual and unforeseen circumstances such as accidents, which has little to do with getting old. We have come full circle to people's mindset or the fear factor. This is another one of the nice surprises I was talking about. It's not just our attitude to fear that improves, it's also our approach.

Fear informs. It's our sensory feedback system that keeps us safe from things like falling or not being eaten by a tiger. But fear can also be harmful. The balance between what is healthy fear and stress and unhealthy fear and stress is something that we learn from experience. The older you grow, the better you get at coming to your learning edge, knowing what's good for you and what's not. People develop a greater perspective of what’s important; the ability to problem-solve is streamlined after years of practice. Your understanding deepens, you can see what connects and you can weave stories of experiences and apply this to real life adventures and as a result, fear recedes. The accumulation of this type of knowledge is what’s called crystallized intelligence. It's this type of intelligence that you can apply to taking on new challenges or adventures that you can't possibly fathom when you are younger. To be truthful, it feels as though there's actually a barrier to adventure when you are young. The younger brigade might take the view that hyper exciting, risk-taking activity is what characterises adventure. A random string of ecstatic heart pumping adrenalin charged experiences is what it’s all about. To be scared shitless may be a valid step in the path but it's not the final outcome and as adventures go, it ends up being a pretty shallow experience. Interestingly that's something that women seem to work out more quickly then men. For most people, there's a real disconnect with this type of experience and those that are in complete denial are from my experience, the most disconnected of all. Nevertheless, ‘out of the comfort-zone’

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type adventure does play an important role in that it forces us to be in the moment and is worthy of further scrutiny. During adventurous activity, there is no room for dwelling in the past or dreaming of the future. Our mind has to concentrate on the present moment. It's when we are fully present that we feel the most. Buddha says "the foot feels the ground when it feels the ground" or "the thousand mile journey begins beneath your feet". The simple translation is that the importance of touch and sensation cannot be emphasized enough. Adventurous activity is a powerful conduit to connection if we choose metaphorically to feel the ground beneath our feet. It also strengthens our body and sensory system and a precursor to being able to keep our minds strong and clear. It's the adventure of life as a whole, building something, having it knocked down, building it again and again, taking calculated risks, learning and investing yourself in ideas and loves that is the true adventure. And the biggest adventure of all is doing all of this and trying to remain connected whilst all this is happening. It's all about arriving at our true self, one adventure at a time. You know you're getting older yourself when you feel that the supermarket music is getting louder and that everyone seems so young looking. But regardless of what music is playing, it doesn't seem to be stopping people from taking on new adventures, regardless of age. Today is the youngest you're ever going to be again so continue to hop into it and get out there and be the best you can.

It started off as a dare over dinner. “Even Bronwyn could do Marathon Des Sables.” And that was it. We came home from that dinner with friends and my husband signed me up. Now, I know I could have said no, but by then pride was on the line. STORY BY BRONWYN HULL

MARATHON

Sables

2016

des

Morgantown West Virginia. Training through the summer in Australia was helpful. Walking in the 30° heat certainly helped, and trudging along our beautiful coastline with a summer breeze was great. Can’t be that much hotter than this can it?

I wasn’t really worried. My lack of research into the race probably helped. And so I began training. I wasn’t all that ignorant as to what was expected, my husband and his friends had been doing this sort of stuff for years, but I was a newbie to this kind of event. I had the Morgantown Marathon in USA and Sydney Oxfam 100km coming up in my year of training, but the jump to Marathon Des Sables was pretty big. I knew it was possible and if I didn’t think about it for too long it would be okay.

We arrived at camp to find our black tent set up. There are three Aussie tents allocated. By tent, I mean a black blanket stretched over poles to sleep under. There are six of us all lined up together. Luckily we are all friends, but even if we weren’t we would be by the end.

id it occur to me that I had just committed to a 257km run through the Sahara Desert? Not really. What about carrying 12 kilos of food, water and bedding in a backpack? How hard could it be? It’s only billed as the toughest foot race in the world. Nah... I’ll be right. After all, I’d seen friends do it and they survived. My close friend Mari-Mar said she’d look after me.

I had 16 months to train. I started just keeping up the base fitness I had, and slowly added more miles, hills, sand, weight in the pack. Training was fun. We trained on the bush tracks around the Central Coast and Bobbin Head way. Oxfam Trailwalker was in the August so training for this was a great start. Our team consisted of myself, Robin Lennon, Turia Pitt and Kate Sanderson. All very inspirational women with a strong mental capacity. We smashed Oxfam in 29 hours and were on top of the world. Three weeks later I was off to the USA to do my first marathon in

The day came to leave Australia. Getting to Morocco was half the adventure. A flight to Casablanca, an overnight stay, a bus to Ouarzazate, and then another eight hours into the desert. It was exciting. It was beautiful. It was very, very surreal and we had no idea what we were in for.

That first day lulled us into another false sense of realism. It was beautiful, hot, but not too bad (40°C doesn’t seem that bad). We ate with the other 1170 runners and 1000 volunteers. It was like our own little town plonked in the middle of nowhere. The following day, they took away our suitcase and suddenly it was very, very real. You were unable to keep anything unless you were prepared to carry it for the next seven days. After checking and rechecking our packs we were sure we were ready. And then we waited… The race started everyday with race director Patrick Bower on top of a truck blasting out AC/ DC “Highway to Hell”. Believe me, this is an apt

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song choice. We were advised to take it easy in the beginning. This race was going to be the hardest one yet they said. “Ahh, they all say that don’t they?” Unfortunately for us, it was true. The first 15km had 12 km of sand dunes. Not the sand dunes that I’d been on in Australia. I’m sure these had their own postcodes. I’ve never seen anything like it. There was no way out but up. My friend Kate (Sanderson) and I had a rough plan to stick together if we could, but if we couldn’t then we’d just meet up at the end. After about 5km we got separated and she powered off up into the sand. I could only watch and hope we met back up. ‘You’ll love it’, everyone kept telling me. Well at this point in time, panic was all I could see. It was so hot, the dunes were so huge, and there were people around with their heads down already crushed by the terrain. ‘Oh my god, what have I done?’ was all I could think. Alongside me there was a French couple joined by a wrist strap. The man was blind and he was being shown the way by the woman. They looked like they knew what they were doing so I planned to stick near them. My lack of research into the race came into play here. You had to follow the coordinates of the race or follow these little red flags in the sand. At times there were no flags in sight so you had to trust that the people around you were going the right way. So keeping the blind couple in sight (no pun intended) I trudged on. I wasn’t feeling too well. The day before and

that morning I’d felt nauseous but put it down to nerves. I knew it wasn’t, but hoped. At the top of one of the biggest sand dunes, I sat down and vomited my little scared heart up. Others who passed were concerned, but were probably feeling the same. So, when I could vomit no more, I got up, had a drink and kept going. I soon found Kate and we stayed together till the end of the day. It had been a hard day for everyone and we made it back to camp with 45 minutes to spare. Our Aussie friends cheered us into camp. We made it. But oh dear god, we had to do it again tomorrow. 34 kms down, so many to go. Over fifty people pull out of the race on that first day. It was hot, it was hard, the dunes were huge; as big as tidal waves someone aptly described, and both Kate and my feet were a mess. My feet had become a blistered paradise, and got infected immediately. It was painful to walk, but even more painful to stop. So I didn’t. People asked me what my inspiration was to keep going? Honestly, I don’t know. At different times, it’s different things: I didn’t want to fail, it cost so much money to get there, I couldn’t waste it, I’d told the children in my class at school I’d bring them home the medal to show them when I finished, I had to show my girls I could do it, my mum was at home crying thinking I’d never come back so I had to do it for her, Kate was next to me with only one foot - if she’s still walking, so can I. But, at the same time all these thoughts were going through my head I never really thought of quitting. I just liked being out there. It didn’t really occur to me to do this

just for me. I knew I could do it. People kept telling me “It’s 80% mental and 20% physical”. I remember sitting under a thorny bush telling my friend that I’d just rest for one more minute. After the fourteenth time of hearing that, she yanked me up and off we went - again. The Sahara isn’t just sand. It’s dried river beds, rock formations of every colour and size, windy and calm at the same time, hot and lonely but surrounded by people. It’s frightening and lovely; the sand is fine and gets into everything. My black hair was red by the time we finished. You pass old towns that are no longer inhabited. You wind through little villages of mud huts and wonder where the people are, and then children pop up over a sand dune to see you. Even in the middle of nowhere the teens still had mobile phones! Amazing. Nothing about this year’s race was easy. As we got closer to the finish line we could hear the camp cheering everyone across the finish line. What we saw when we got close still brings tears to my eyes. Most of the camp was there to welcome us home. They were cheering us in and that was a great moment. We’d done it. It was the best and worst moments all rolled in together. There was relief we had finished. Our feet were on automatic pilot and once we sat, there was no getting up gracefully. One of our teammates described the pain in our feet so well; “Imagine burning the soles of your feet, putting Lego inside your

shoes and then strapping them on for the last 17 kms” (Luke Ingold). We’d done it, we’d kicked those sand dunes in the butt and made it to the other side. It was a fantastic feeling that none of us could appreciate at that point in time. Patrick, the race director, gave us our medals and that was it. Onto the bus. With our feet throbbing, our lips parched and dried, our clothes so stiff from dirt and sweat and our hearts full of pride for our teammates and ourselves, we set off back to Ouarzazate. My team mates in Kate, Luke, Waz, Hal, Brad, Tom, Cherese, Michael, Mark and all the other Aussies, were the best to do this with. However, it was Mari-Mar Walton, from Travelling Fit, who held everyone together and supported us all, every minute of every day. She even gave Kate and myself her water. Mari-Mar was always there, for everyone. She really was a pocket rocket. Am I glad I did it? Yes definitely. Am I going to do it again? No. Maybe I’ll go somewhere colder next time…

It was the best and worst moments all rolled in together. There was relief we had finished. Our feet were on automatic pilot and once we sat, there was no getting up gracefully.

Spring

el v a r tessentials

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This Page: Miss Lilly Apparel, Kimocape. Throw over a pair of jeans and t-shirt and wear as a cape, tie as a top or use the sneaky buttons on the shoulders to wear as an a-symetrical wrap or breast feeding cover. The perfect item for travelling versatility. Head to our competition page for you chance to win one! RRP $79.95 Shop Now: www.misslilly.com.au/category/miss-lilly-apparel-kimocape

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Top: Lorne St. Sambar Beach Throw. These beautifully designed throws are surf board shaped with handmade navy oversized tassels around the edges. They act not only as a design feature but to practically weight the throw down on the beach to stop it from blowing away. RRP $119.00 Available from: www.lornest.com

Bottom: Spindrift Collections is a boutique jewellery and lifestyle brand, thoughtfully designing and creating jewellery for the dreamers, adventurers and barefoot wanderers. Keep an eye out for our Travel Play Live & Spindrift collaboration launching this October. spindriftcollections.com

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SPRING TRAVEL

FASHION MUSTS You’ve chosen your next adventure destination, you’ve booked your tickets, you have all your action gear and equipment and are all ready to go. To help you on your way, we have come up with this seasons fashion must haves to add just a touch of luxe to your getaway for those times you are not covered in dust, mud or sea salt.

SUN SAFE & SASSY A modern twist on the 1950’s classic shirt-dress. Designed with a feminine fit that drapes your shape and made with lightweight, quick drying, and breathable fabric that is certified as providing UPF 50+ protection, the highest possible rating available, blocking 98% of the sun’s damaging UVA/UVB rays. Check out our competitions for your chance to win yourself one of these lovelies. www.honeybell.love

THE DRESS THAT KEEPS ON GIVING How cute is this wrap dress? We think it is the perfect addition to your must have items for your next trip. The Giver & Co is a handmade travel and lifestyle clothing label with heart based in Melbourne, that specialises in comfortable and effortless wrap dresses for every occasion. They have lots of lovely fabric patterns to choose from and they will custom make your dress using your measurements! And, 10% of its profits go to community charity groups. Perfect. www.thegiverandco.com

Inspired by his wife Kat - AKA Rollie, who was looking for the perfect shoe to jet set around the world with, Australian designer, Vince Lebon created a shoe so light that you could take as many pairs you wanted whilst travelling. These shoes are so light and comfortable, yet still super cool, and the range of quirky and colourful designs mean that your personality will shine. To find out more www.rollienation.com

ROLLIE NATION

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WHISPER of the Wild

The Travel Play Live family is so very happy to share with you an upcoming collaboration with Sydney based designer Tasha Wakefield from Spindrift Collections. Who doesn’t love a good collaboration right? Well this one is quite special, as Spindrift creates jewellery for the dreamers, adventurers and barefoot wanderers. With pieces in the collection such as the True North bracelet and Wanderlust necklace, it feels like Tasha has created hand crafted designs especially for our readers and contributors. After chatting with Tasha, we knew her creations would be an absolutely divine addition to our Travel Play Live online store. In case you haven’t heard the news, we’re just busting at the seams with excitement to be opening an online store with all the beautiful hand-picked pieces chosen for the female adventurer. We will be officially unveiling our collaboration with Tasha at the upcoming She Went Wild event this November. We have been busy working behind the scenes on an exclusive Travel Play Live + Spindrift Collections necklace design which we just can’t wait to share with you! Tasha, an adventurer and nature lover at heart, founded Spindrift Collections on the desire to do things right by the areas she loved to

adventure most, beaches and mountains. With her deep rooted love of the ocean and wild natural landscapes, Tasha’s vision was to create jewellery and accessories in a way that is responsible, sustainable and with minimum impact on our amazing natural world. It was also important to create pieces that could be worn on and off the adventure, strong enough to survive the elements and elegant enough to dress to any occasion. This is where her brilliant idea to use beach glass made it all come together. Not only was it naturally produced, it had already had its fair share of element exposure. Every piece of beach glass found its unique beauty through its adventure and creation, or through experiencing a lifetime of “spindrift”, which is where the idyllic name came from. Not every piece of Spindrift Collections jewellery has beach glass incorporated, yet every piece is lovingly produced with respect to our planet. With the growing international popularity of Spindrift Collections adventure, travel, yoga and ocean inspired designs,

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they are now in a position to start expanding production. Of course creating the designs in a responsible and sustainable way is extremely important. Tasha wanted to work with 100% recycled sterling silver in her designs, as silver is such a wonderful material that can always be recycled. Tasha set out to partner with a studio that shared her values and had the facilities to work with recycled sterling silver. After many many months of research, Tasha is finally meeting with her selected studio in person, in the beautiful islands of Indonesia where our collaboration piece is going to be responsibly made from recycled sterling silver. Stay tuned for more on Tasha’s adventures; meet the silver smith, finding beach glass and more on creating our anticipated collaboration piece exclusive to Travel Play Live! To find out more: Coming soon to the Travel Play Live Shop & Spindrift: www.spindriftcollections.com.au

BIG HAIR ADVENTURES

BY LISA MURPHY FROM BIG HEART ADVENTURES

Confession time: I don't really like to wear makeup (unless I’m going formal). I actually couldn't care less about my appearance a lot of the time. As long as I am clean and showered, my clothes merely serve the job of keeping me warm and keeping the private bits private. So the fact that I am discussing hair (and

a footpath.

months prior to departure, grow it so you can

offering advice) is a bit beyond my comfort

And then those unexpected downpours

tie it back and essentially forget about it.

zone, but I feel I have a bit to share on this

render you straight haired and small headed.

that may or may not be helpful to fellow big

Remember we will all have bed hair/hat hair/

Suddenly, people don’t recognise you, even

haired people.

beanie hair/dirty unwashed hair that can unite

family.

even the vainest of us all. Enjoy the liberation

Yes, I have big hair. After year and years of

I can't not mention the fur balls in the shower,

of hair freedom and yes, the odd whiff of

fighting the frizz, the curls, the thickness, I've

the bum crack collection point and hair brush

body odour perhaps too. You may wish you

finally given in. Lifestyle, age and a recently

handle snapping…I could go on.

had the opportunity to go “natural” more

Looking after big hair and leading an active

often once you are home again and reaching

acquired zero care factor finally won the battle against the she-beast that is my hair. I no longer straighten, or keep her short for convenience. I’ve given up on anti-frizz products. I wash her less, and she loves me more for it. We are now friends but that doesn’t mean I can control her. She simply can’t and won’t be tamed. Like a nonconforming entity, she is probably the most rebellious part of me, well actually my unused ovaries might want to claim victory there, but that’s another story…

lifestyle with the odd trekking adventure

for that hair straightener for the tenth time on

thrown in here and there has really had me

a humid day…

thinking about hair maintenance – particularly

You know what they say though. You always

when travelling. Especially a sweaty, shower-

want what you can't have. Curly haired

less type of adventure. Hair control (and for

people want straight hair and straight haired

some, the subsequent stress that goes with it)

people want curly hair. The amount of times

creates issues that I hope I can address here.

I had people say, “I want your hair” and my

The lack of shower or power to turn on a

reply when I was growing up was, “go and

hair dryer or straightener means we often

get a perm!”

hear comments like “oh look at my hair!”

There were no GHD’s in the 80’s. And there

after seeing themselves in a reflection

were not that many curly haired role models

I grew up hearing comments like “why don't

unexpectedly or the early morning comments

you let it dry naturally?” or “I wish you would

of “I hate to think what I look like right now”.

wear it down/tied up/just not like you are

Fear not, fellow adventurers, there are a few

wearing it right now” or “oh you do have thick

ways you can manage these hairy situations

hair don't you dear?” or “why are you hiding

before you head off on that camping trip or

those curls?”

trekking adventure.

And of course then there were the days of

You could keep a cap on or a hat on, or try

high humidity which are just hilarious. The

a head band, head sock or Buff (which can

frizz. The volume. More comments. Other

be worn in a multitude of ways – my personal

women with thin straight hair would jealously

fave!). In colder climates you could don a

gawk. Friends stifled a giggle as I negotiated

beanie. In terms of hair preparation, you

So to my fellow adventure buddies worrying

single door ways. Fellow big haired women

could get a short do for a quicker dry and

about their do, my advice is ditch the

offer eye contact and a sympathetic nod as

much easier style to hide under the above

hairdryer, the straightener and care factor.

we allow enough room to pass each other on

coverings. Or if there is enough time in the

Make your next adventure a big haired one.

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for us either. Growing up with curly hair was a point of difference that I hated. But now in my late 30’s it's taken me about 35 years to embrace the 'aff', the boof, the bigness. I am actually grateful for my mop. After hearing of many other big haired women in adventure, I am starting to think it is part of the unique genetic material of so many of us out there.

{Travel Play Live}

ADVENTURE LOVERS PACK The Adventure Lover’s Pack is the perfect added extra to your Travel Play Live magazine subscription, if you are wanting to build even more adventure into your current lifestyle. That’s more connection to the Travel Play Live Tribe, more adventure, more fun and more opportunities to actually get out there with the right advice and resources from our Travel Play Live experts & partners.

What you get: •Access to the private ‘Women’s Adventure, Camping and Travel Hub’ on Facebook. •Invites to join us online for our regular live ‘Campfire Chats’ with experts and leaders in women’s adventure & travel. •A unique Travel Play Live Gift. •20% off your first Travel Play Live purchase in our new store, launching in later this year. •Connection to our experts in their various fields! Our experts have provided some of their top training and coaching resources, to ease your way into all sorts of new adventures. •First opportunity to join us for our Adventure Expressos - micro adventure weekend activities. •$10 of your fee will be donated on your behalf to our chosen charity partner. •Discounts and Special Offers on gear and resources from some of Australia’s biggest brands from our growing Travel Play Live Partners. •Discounted Women Friendly Race & Event Entries from our Partners. •‘Subscriber Only’ competitions, giveaways and opportunities to review some of the latest adventure gear around from top and new brands on the market.

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SPRING ESSENTIALS ... for the places you'd rather be

Mountain Designs provide a huge range of women's clothing, footwear and accessories to suit every adventure. Whether you're planning to climb a mountain, backpack across countries or go camping with friends on the weekend we have the gear for your adventure. Women’s Mountain Designs

Women’s Mountain Designs

ALOLA SHORTS

CUMULUS 15 GORE-TEX® RAIN JACKET

Unfortunately sometimes we still need to go outside when the weather isn’t the best. Mountain Designs Cumulus 15 Gore-Tex® Rain Jacket is the jacket you need to have on hand. It will keep you dry and warm and you will feel good in it. RRP $449. 95

The stylish Women's Mountain Designs Alola Shorts are crafted with an array of features for a practical and comfortable wear outdoors. The gusseted crotch provides flexible movement that is perfect for hikers and runners who want to take on steeper, mountainous terrain. RRP $119.95

MINIPRESSO

MOUNTAIN DESIGNS

Compact, lightweight and versatile, you are free to use any coffee beans, which will give you more flexibility in trying new flavours. Grind at your convenience, you have more control over the preparation which will translate into being able of achieving perfect espresso shots that will please even the most perfectionist coffee lover.

Is relaxing beach days, exciting travel and fun memories with friends all rolled into one. Made from soft and breathable cotton, this stylish summer dress, is as comfortable as it is versatile. Although it’s crafted from 100% cotton, the Portsea Dress has a loosely woven texture that gives it an attractive linen appearance. The fabric also has an anti-crease fabric finish, making it perfect for taking travelling. RRP $99.95

PORTABLE ESPRESSO MACHINE FOR GROUND COFFEE

PORTSEA DRESS

WOMEN'S AHNU MAIA THONGS The Maia Thong is a stylish update to the traditional huarache sandal that can be dressed up or dressed down. The soft, woven metallic leather straps and cork wrapped footbed make this a comfortable sandal for all day wear. RRP $149.95

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LEARNING THE ART OF

{Part two: Basic Navigating}

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LEARNING THE ART OF

{Part Two: Basic Navigation}

In part one of this article (TPL #4 Winter) I covered the basics of map reading including, how to choose the right map, learning to identify the various geographical features and what they look like in reality compared to printed on a map. A RT IC L E C A RO RYA N ( L O T SA F R E S H A I R .C OM )

Planning your route The next step along the path to navigating is route planning. Through what we learnt in part 1, it becomes clear that the easiest and quickest way to get from A to B, isn’t always in a straight line, as the crow flies.

Taking a Bearing So now we have our route planned out and we’re standing on Mount Danae. Just imagine yourself there now, with some good (supportive) friends on a beautiful Spring day, whilst you get ready to take a bearing. Looking at the map in image 1, you can see that I’ve added 12 individual arrows, which follow the highest points along the ridges to bring us to Burra Gunama Hill. When it comes to navigating, the idea is to walk in a straight line on your bearing, until the direction you need to go changes. The steps to take a bearing are as follows: 1. On the map, place the long edge of your compass along the route you need to travel.

In this example, I am wanting to go from Mount Danae (A) to Burra Gunama Hill (B). Although the most direct route (dotted line) looks to be just over 2kms, by looking at the terrain we can see that it would mean many steep drops and climbs, gullies, possibly a canyon and waterfalls. Potentially, an impossible and certainly a treacherous route. Therefore, the best and easiest route for this trip would be to keep to the ridges and to travel roughly north west, before heading back over towards the east. The distance then becomes more like 6 kms, but the journey much easier and quicker in the long run. The next thing to look at when it comes to navigation, is a compass. How to choose a compass There are lots of different types of compasses on the market, but the best one for most bushwalking or outdoor adventuring is a simple baseplate one with an adjustable dial. Manufacturers Silva and Suunto are reputable brands who make several models in this style. I would also recommend buying one with the longer baseplate (around 10 cm) which helps for taking longer barings.

MEGALONG HEAD CLIFF, HIGH POINT

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2. Holding the compass firmly in place on this route (ensuring it doesn’t move), spin the compass dial until the Orienting Lines are parallel to the eastings grid lines on your map, ensuring that the larger red Orienting Arrow is pointing to the north.

3. Remove the compass from your map and subtract (spin the dial to the right) the amount of degrees of the Magnetic Declination as shown on your map key (in this case 10.6 degrees… I round this to 10.5). Counting down on the degree dial from the point on the Direction of Travel Arrow. 4. Holding your compass flat in the palm of your hand in front of you, turn your whole body around until the red Magnetic Needle lines up with the red Orienting Arrow.

WHICH NORTH IS NORTH? One of the most confusing things I found when starting to navigate was all this talk about north. In essence, there are 3 ‘types’ of north in the world. • True North means the North Pole • Magnetic North means the direction the needle in your compass points (somewhere in northern Canada!) • Grid North the direction the northern grid lines on your topographic map point (see Part 1). But the great news is that it doesn’t have to be confusing as when we navigate in the bush, we really only need to know about the last two, Magnetic North (what our compass says) and Grid North (what our map gridlines say).

5. Walk in the direction of your Direction of Travel Arrow. Based on these steps above, our first bearing is 281 degrees. When to take the next bearing? Or am I there yet? Now you’ve got your bearing, you need to calculate how long it’s going to take to get to the end of that bearing before you need to reset. This is where the ruler like measurements on the edge of your compass come in handy. As we’re using a 1:25,000 map, we can see the 1:25k marks on the side of the compass. Using these measurements, it’s easy to calculate that the distance from the summit of Mount Danae to the saddle (the end of our first bearing) is 450m. Once you get confident with navigating you’ll find yourself guestimating calculations like this, in the knowledge that each grid square is 1km.

This is just the start in learning to navigate with a map and compass. There’s lots of other skills you can learn such as finding out your current location on a map, by what is called Triangulation (no GPS needed!) and also navigating to a particular feature that you can see in the landscape and translating that onto the map. The real secret to gaining confidence and improving with navigating is really only by doing. I encourage you to join a bushwalking club in your area, get into the great sport of rogaining, study some reputable YouTube videos, such as those put out by Silva and just get out there and practice, practice, practice. There’s two key ways of determining if you’ve got to your planned reset location. The first is time and is based around working out how fast you walk through this type of terrain (and is the reason why wearing a watch is super important to navigating) and the other is keeping all your senses tuned-in to the changes in the landscape, both visually and through feel. Looking at the map we know we need to walk downhill to the saddle, so when we feel and see the ground flatten out, we need to check our watch and if that seems about right, then it’s time to stop and

The rewards of not being contained by the invisible walls on either side of a walking track are well worth the effort.

take your next bearing. It’s also good to have a backup check, a bit of a warning point to know when you’ve gone too far. For instance, in this case, if we find ourselves going further downhill after a flat area, and dropping into a gully, we will know we’ve gone too far and need to turn around.

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AVERAGE PACE 5 km/hr = Sealed surface 3-4 km/hr = Rough Firetrail/single track 2-3 km/hr = Off-track with light scrub 1-2 km/hr = Off-track, thick scrub, scrambling Add 1 hr = Every 500m up or 1000m down

AUSSIE

Adventure SPORT

ROGAINING

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MY FIRST ROGAINE BY ANGELA ARMSTRONG

When this city girl met her action adventure husband there was always going to be a clash of ideas as to what constitutes a great way to spend a weekend. So when my seven-time-Antarctic-expeditioner UN-post-disaster-first-responder husband suggested a six-hour rogaine using just a map and compass to navigate our way around a state park three-hours drive from Melbourne I wasn’t immediately on board. That was until I arrived. Rogaining is a distinctly Aussie-grown adventure sport having its beginnings in Melbourne in the late 1940s through the Melbourne University Mountaineering Club. The term Rogaine was coined in 1976, when the sport came into wide appeal, through a melding of the names of its three found-ers ROd, GAIl and NEil. By chance rogaine also presents the apt acronym, Rugged Outdoor Group Activity Involving Navigation and Endurance. I found rogaining to be an outdoor sport that can be anything you want to make it. It immediately struck me as an inclusive sport, to be enjoyed by anyone who simply loves the outdoors - young, old, the ultra-competitive right down to families just wanting to share a fun activity with their chil-dren. As a first-timer there were no glaring looks at the out-of-place participant starting her first event. When milling around for the final countdown it’s not immediately apparent who the serious contenders really are. After all who looks a real threat sporting a beanie, backpack and gaiters. I was lulled into the illusion that everyone was there for a nice walk in a state park - as I had intended. You cannot underestimate anybody's abilities or intentions. The serious contenders are definitely there amongst the crowd. If you’d arrived two hours earlier, at the official opening time, you’d have seen them - map in hand sprinting towards their sturdy camp table to spend concentrated time marking the smartest most efficient route to reach the greatest number of checkpoints, worth the highest score in the shortest amount of time. If you’d have seen inside their backpack you’d know them too full of their personal tricks for a winning edge. This might be as simple as a spare pair of new

fluffy socks to brighten their aching feet near the end of the event. Rogaining is a sport for teams of two to five and it’s good for the mind as much as the body. For the less serious contenders, who are there in equal numbers, goals are varied. Perhaps to brush up on long lost navigation skills, to outdo friends or fellow families or simply to better their past per-formances. The playing field is even and everyone can run their own race. Participants all return at the same time, or earlier if they choose. There’s no restriction on the number of checkpoints they must visit or the order in which they must visit them. For the most fun day possible it’s best to be part of a team that has the same goals. So if your goal is for a scenic walk with friends with a bit of adult-Easter-egg-hunt-kind-of-interest along the way, don’t join a team planning a more serious challenge of endurance and navigational aptitude. As the starting call sounds it’s time to remind yourself of your goal. Don’t be rattled by others who choose to sprint from the start to their first checkpoint if your goal is for a more leisurely day. It was clear to me from the outset that my husband had no winning aspirations when his first move was to wander to the portaloos - which were now free of anyone. As he was lead navigator and I was relying on him to guide me through the basics of navigation there was nothing left for me to do but relax and enjoy the fresh country air and joy of being in nature. Then I knew it was going to be a good day. Being on our own and not following the majority heading to the first most logical checkpoint meant it was up to us to get our navigation right. There was a thrill in knowing that finding our first hidden marker was based only on our careful map reading, compass work and pace counting. Despite the number of people involved, the size of the course means you mostly get the sense you are out there alone - adding to the enjoyment. Newcomers can be assured though that there is some level of safety if they do run into difficulties. There’s a patrolled vehicle-accessible-safety-circuit that crosses the main sections of any event course, as well as a requirement at entry to carry a whistle, first aid kit and hand in an intention sheet outlining your planned route.

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Latecomers at the end of the event can be presumed as needing assistance because teams are incentivised to return early, or on time, through significant points penalties deducted each minute late. And, with the added incentive of a hearty feast that awaits, it’s cause for anyone to move quickly back to base. A wide variety of food is part of each event, complimentary to all competitors with entry. Soups, stews, pasta, cheese toasties and veggie burgers help turn any difficulties during the day around, set the stage for a strong social vibe and the surer safety of participants for their drive home. This was a welcome surprise on my first event as was the unfortunate surprise that our score did not receive the fanfare response I’d anticipated. Puzzled I soon realised that while it felt like my longest walk ever, at six hours, it was one of the shortest rogaine events on the calendar, normally 8, 12 and even 24 hours, where navigation continues through the night, and keen participants run the events not walk, as we did. With our score near to bottom, we still held a strong sense of achievement as we stayed true to our goals. We now have the perfect baseline for improvement. Next time we’ll be ready. We’ll arrive early, note the checkpoints attracting the highest scores and do our best at distinguishing a spur from a valley and saddle from a gully. We might even burst out a jog if we’re up to it. We weren’t quite up for the 24 hour World Rogaining Championships this year held in the East MacDonnell Ranges, just outside Alice Springs in July. A congregation of the world’s best endurance athletes took part with teams from Europe, Japan, Scandinavia, USA as well as a large contingent from Australia. Our only regret now is the long pause until the next local rogaine. Understandable, with the hard work at organising the dedicated volunteers who coordinate every aspect of each event. In the meantime we’ll consider one of the many rogaine offshoots: a metrogaine (navigation in the city), cyclogaine (on bikes), snogaine (on skis) or a paddlogaine (in a kayak). We’ll take these as training for next years world championship event in Southland New Zealand from 11-12 February 2017. What is for sure is this city girl now hears the call of the bush and rogaining and its offshoots are a great way to get out there and enjoy it.

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WORDS BY JORDAN ALEX

There is always a certain anticipation in the preparation leading up to a big trip. Making sure you have the right equipment, mapping out your journey and reading travel guide after travel guide in the singular hope that it will capture a sense of reality to where ever it is that you are going. The preparation leading up to a big trip alone, however, is another experience entirely. True, embarking on a solo endeavour can be daunting, but traveling alone as a woman can be one of the most rewarding, challenging and character building experiences that you could ever undertake. So, before I left my sunburnt country that I am so fondly attached to, nothing could prepare me for what I was about to undergo. Volunteering abroad is a concept that has gained the interest of new and seasoned travellers alike for many decades. This notion was something that I was no stranger to. In fact, I had spent more time as a volunteer traveller than any other travel mode. The programs I selected this time round though were somewhat different. They were not as physically strenuous as my recent adventures but instead were more demanding on me as a person. Which is exactly why I packed up, waved goodbye to the familiar and boarded a plane to Africa. “Are you mad?” people would tell me with gaping mouths and a wide- eyed look of disbelief. “Yes,” my subconscious would mutter imploring me to reconsider. My mouth on the other hand had practiced reciting that travelling to some of the most rural and culturally demanding areas of Africa, alone, would be good for me. I wanted to experience something that perhaps a young woman my age needed to undertake. I booked the trip for 2 months and with that, opportunities presented themselves in unprecedented ways.

I arrived in Mlolongo, a bustling town outside Nairobi that had the reputation as the centre of HIV in Kenya. There, I worked with women my age living with the disease. No amount of reading could prepare me for the assault on my senses and emotions. I stood in front of these young girls and had to somehow empower them as women, when in fact they had the unwavering ability to empower me in more ways than I could have comprehended at that time. The stigma behind HIV in Africa is tenfold to any other country. Women here experience social rejection of unfathomable levels. These women became my friends, treating me as one of their own. Countries, cultures and circumstances apart, we bonded as young women wanting something more for ourselves. We worked together to generate sustainable income by selling craft goods the women had produced. This placed things into perspective. These women not only coped but actually thrived.

Volunteering always seemed uncomplicated to me. It presents the rare opportunity to do something far bigger than yourself, for others. You work and live alongside the communities and its people, giving you a once in a lifetime authentic experience.

I worked with women and children living with HIV in Kenya, I dived with sharks and surveyed fish in Madagascar, I taught on the Tanzanian border, I spoke with young girls who had fallen victim to sexual violence in Central Eastern Africa, I beheld the aftermath of ivory poaching in South Africa and most importantly, I understood how truly lucky I was to be a young woman living in Australia. Africa- a word that will forever tug at my heartstrings. Old habits would die easily for me in this amazing country. I wouldn’t reach for my phone to check social media, instead it was my only solid connection to home. My news didn’t come from ‘The Australian’ App but instead from ‘The Star’ written in Kiswahili in Kenya. As much as I had readied myself, nothing could prepare the uninitiated for the riot of noise and colour. Initially, you’re overwhelmed by absolutely everything but for me, it was seeing how the people I grew closest to were living in grinding poverty that had the biggest impact on me.

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Before my mind had the chance to comprehend the notion of leaving Kenya, my body was forty metres down in the depths of the Indian Ocean in Madagascar. Studying the effects of climate change on a remote island was something that I could have never predicted. Nor could I have imagined the lifestyle change from the one I had grown accustomed to on mainland Africa. Nosy Komba is a small – twenty-five square kilometre island located north of Madagascar and it presented no home comforts. With no roads, the only way to get around the island was by foot. Yet with no electricity, running water or internet access, Madagascar welcomed me with open arms. My job? Memorising all 362 species of fish so I could survey their activity. I dived twice a day, hiked more kilometres daily than I do in a week, and in my free time, I read. Madagascar was unique to anywhere I had ever travelled before, something that I wouldn’t have experienced without being a volunteer. Eighty percent of the wildlife is endemic to the country- everything so wild and alien. I will never forget this experience. Volunteering seems uncomplicated to me. It presents the rare opportunity to do something far bigger than yourself, for others. You work and live alongside the communities and its people, giving you a once in a lifetime authentic experience. Coupling this, by traveling solo you return home both a conqueror and a better person for doing so.

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Painting

ARRERNTE COUNTRY Jennifer Taylor: Artist

Agnes Abbott show where she ran away home from Arltunga Mission, 2015 41 x 50cm

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Meeting Jennifer Taylor feels like catching up with an old friend. Silver haired and slight, she has a quiet, approachable manner and a twinkle in her bright blue eyes. Before long I’m calling her ‘Jenny’ and answering just as many questions as I’m asking. INTERVIEW BY ALICE KING

PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN CIRULIS

Mpulungkinya / Palm Valley 8, 2016 25 x 30cm

Cloud over Mpulungkinya / Palm Valley 8, 2016 90 x 120cm

Painting

ARRENTE COUNTRY

See more of Jennifer Taylor’s art at facebook.com/JenniferTaylorArtist 056

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It’s my first time in Mparntwe (Alice Springs), where Jenny has lived and painted for the last twenty-odd years. She suggests we take a walk up to the Spencer Hill lookout on the edge of town. In the back of her car is all the paraphernalia of an artist’s life, a paint splattered easel waiting patiently for opportunity to present itself. I have to work to keep up as Jenny moves effortlessly across the steep, rocky hillside. That’s what years worth of walking in search of painting spots will do for you! From the crest of the hill we can see the town laid out before us. Nestled amongst rolling ridges, the buildings are soon swallowed by an endless sea of land. This is the heart of Arrernte country. Jenny points out a long ridge to the west of town, silhouetted against the sky. She tells me the Arrernte creation story for this area, of a mighty battle between a local guardian dog and an intruder dog. The local dog fought off the intruder. As she speaks, for a moment I can see the huge wild dog crouched there, resting after his epic fight. Marks of the struggle remain visible as rock outcrops scattered across the valley, these sacred sites now hemmed in by structures and parking lots. Speaking to Jenny, you get a sense of the land being truly alive. She elaborates “alive in an ecological sense…and also in a cultural sense. Creation stories and cultural knowledge of the land are strongly held by Arrernte people. There is a sustained tradition of valuing country as the basis of all life.”

outdoors, connecting with nature. Jenny says about her exhibition “some paintings were made in the studio and some outside; all of them are influenced by plein air painting practice, that is, painting 'on the ground'. They come out of experiences of being on country, through changing light and weather. For me, this physical engagement goes beyond observation. Over time I have found it becomes a way of meeting country 'eye-to-eye', with respect.” But Jenny’s painting process starts well before she puts brush to surface. “It includes research into local histories of contact between Aboriginal people and settlers, such as stories of 'station days' when Aboriginal people worked on the pastoral stations for rations only. In Central Australia, first contact with white people was not much over one hundred years ago, and some contact stories are held in living memory.” She seeks permission before going into country to paint, talking with people who grew up in Arrente country and asking what places mean to them . “I want my work to support Aboriginal peoples’ efforts to care for country and to have their stories heard and acknowledged” Next, “I visit places, sometimes with others and sometimes alone. I then go back alone to camp for a few days, walk around, get familiar with the area, and paint on-site. Along with painting, sleeping on the ground, lighting a little fire, being quiet, saying hello, thank you and goodbye to country - it's all part of connecting with the place.

sad when I am out in country, because of these changes. I remember the people who have gone from there. But I also notice how alive the country is still, how supportive of life. I notice details of plants and birds, and the signs of seasonal changes. I think I now always see the country as someone's beloved home. Going to places over and over I too have a deep sense of home in some of them.” Alice Springs is known for its vibrant Aboriginal art, and is the host of the annual Desert Mob exhibition through September and October, a huge cultural event bringing work produced in remote community art centres under the spotlight of the wider world. I ask Jenny how art helps to connect Aboriginal and non-Aboriginal peoples in the Northern Territory. “In educational settings and art centres Indigenous artists gain inspiration and skills development by accessing other cultural traditions and practices, as well having the chance to express their own cultural knowledge When Indigenous and non-Indigenous artists work together there is potential for collaboration that benefits both sides. Painting country, like writing history, is a crosscultural practice: it calls for an understanding of who has been here before us, how first peoples see the land and talk about it, and the differences and similarities in how we see our past and our future here. It took me a while to understand that painting is also for me, a collaborative practice. It is made possible by the permission and support of traditional owners like Agnes Abott, Doris Stuart, M.K.Turner and their families. It includes examining what I bring to this situation from my own cultural background and training”.

I realize that when Jenny talks about ‘country’ she means something much more than pretty landscapes. “It’s inclusive of people, all the creatures, plants, weather cycles, ecological systems. It goes all the way down deep underground, and all the way up, through the upper atmosphere, solar system and stars.

When it's not possible to paint outdoors, because it's too hot or too far to lug my painting gear, I just walk, on tracks or across country. I do a lot of dawdling and daydreaming and sitting on rocks, looking and listening. I might use my camera to frame up images, and then paint in the studio as soon as possible after being out, trying to remember the atmosphere of those places.”

So people are always in relationship to country, coming out of it and returning to it, dependent on it, supported by it. They are always looking to the relatedness of things, and seeing connections. There’s a sense that the country communicates with us, and we with it.”

For Jenny, “listening to the land is a practice in itself, and painting practice is a form of listening.” Perhaps it is this skill of quietly listening which has enabled her to build friendships with local people over the years despite the town’s checkered cultural history.

Relatedness to country is key to identity for many Aboriginal people. Jenny hopes that it is “possible for non-Indigenous people here to absorb these values and orient ourselves by them instead of objectifying the land and looking only for what to take from it.” Indeed, Jenny herself seems to embody this way of living in connection with the land, believing that “caring for country is fundamental to our life here.”

It is this idea of country that Jenny seeks to capture in her work, both the visual outer appearance, and the human experience.

I ask Jenny if exploring areas guided by Arrente friends influences the way she sees the country. “Yes, it changes me so that I look at things differently and notice different things. I notice what's missing – the 'de-peopling' of the land has consequences, such as more frequent big, damaging fires in place of regular traditional burning.

After speaking and laughing and listening for several hours, and over several cups of tea, I look at Jenny’s paintings again with new eyes. The desert plains, the ragged ridges, the waterholes and moody skies. Many of these have been chosen because they are significant places to friends of hers, the sites of childhood memories and creation stories.

I notice the incursion of cattle, feral animals, and invasive plants, especially buffel grass and couch, which have changed the ecology of watercourses and of plains country. I often feel

Jenny’s words echo in my head: “country is inseparable from people and creatures who have lived here and will live here in future. It is far from empty - in fact it is bursting with life.”

I am lucky enough to be in town while she has a major exhibition called 'Eye-to-eye' on display at the Araluen Cultural Centre. Her oil paintings glow against the white walls, filling the space with the soft pinks, golds and ochres of Arrernte country. The brushstrokes capture the changing light at different times of day and season, the land in all its facets. And there are so many of them! This is a story of days on end spent

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“LISTENING TO THE LAND IS A PRACTICE IN ITSELF, AND PAINTING PRACTICE IS A FORM OF LISTENING.” - Jennifer Taylor

YOUR COMFORT ZONE

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WORDS BY ALICE KING PHOTOGRAPHY BY BEN CIRULIS

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Australia is a big country. Bigger than Europe. As big as the entire United States of America. 7,692,024 kilometres squared big, to be exact. And yet with all this lovely space to explore, most of us cling to the coasts, spending our spare time at the beaches. The heart of Australia remains for the most part a vast wilderness, humans few and far between.

ROAD TRIP THROUGH AUSTRALIA'S RED CENTRE

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“I LOVE A SUNBURNT COUNTRY, A LAND OF SWEEPING PLAINS, OF RAGGED MOUNTAIN RANGES, OF DROUGHTS AND FLOODING RAINS. I LOVE HER FAR HORIZONS, I LOVE HER JEWEL-SEA, HER BEAUTY AND HER TERROR THE WIDE BROWN LAND FOR ME!” - MY COUNTRY, DOROTHEA MACKELLER

I moved here from New Zealand nearly

the year. After our outdoor wedding in

nine years ago, and now call both

New Zealand, our honeymoon would

countries home. But, like many lifelong

be a month-long outback road trip

Australians, I had never been into the

deep into my second homeland, to

Outback - Australia’s red centre.

see the ‘real’ Australia.

Why not? I suppose there’s the sheer

The months melted away, as they

distance to cover; the poisonous

always do. And suddenly it was time.

creatures, the stories of death from exposure, the cheap overseas destinations that beckon.

The van was packed; including essentials like 40 litres of water, extra fuel and fairy lights. The out of

But mainly, it’s that it’s always…there.

office email signature set. To Do lists

You think – of course I’ll go, one day.

checked and double checked.

Maybe next year. After all, it’s not going anywhere. So we decided: this year would be

The vague jumble in my head of Uluru and kangaroos, dreamtime stories and desert was about to become reality.

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two cultures. Alice Springs sits in the centre of Arrernte country, aboriginal land. The Todd River snakes through the township, a dry riverbed filled with soft, powdery sand and crooked eucalyptus trees. We are in the outback now.

galleries, full to bursting with colours and culture. Each brushstroke speaks of a deep love for the land. Art is a meeting point for the aboriginal and white communities here, a chance to have a conversation.

Within ten minutes I’ve seen more aboriginal faces than you’ll see in most parts of Sydney in ten years. Foot tracks are worn into the grass verges around town, walking is the preferred – or only – mode of transport for many.

Yet as we are soaking up the paintings, we can hear shouting in the distance and see a crowd of people gathered. It’s a media interview with Aboriginal community elders, following heartbreaking footage on Four Corners of aboriginal youths being abused in Northern Territory prisons. The anger and heartbreak is palpable.

Alice Springs is considered the art capital of Central Australia, and walking down Todd Street Mall, I can see why. It’s a jewelled strip of

Australia, we have a long way to go.

an ancient land. Desert nights are cold, but worth it for the

The track is hard, jagged rock and completely

starlight. We go to sleep with the milky way

exposed. I quickly learn to avoid the spinifex -

blazing overhead, and wake to a crystal coating

these innocuous looking grass clumps are savagely

of frost.

sharp, piercing through clothing with ease.

A cup of tea helps us defrost, air warming quickly as the sun moves through the sky.

As I gain height, the country unfolds around me. This is truly ancient land. Low rolling ridges are the nubs of mountain ranges, worn away over eons.

The Larapinta trail traces its way through these

My mind struggles to comprehend the sheer scale,

West MacDonnell ranges, an arduous two to three

both of age and size.

week hike covering 223km and some spectacular

We camp on a cliff edge at Redbank, surrounded

views. Rather than take on the whole thing, we do

by sky. Our campfire at dusk feeds a primal urge,

a couple of day runs.

red tongued flames holding back the night.

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heathen paradise. We park in a pretty spot beside the lazy Finke

arrived at Palm Valley – home to the world’s

cacophony of green. Thick emerald grass runs

river.

only Red Cabbage Palms. These prehistoric

rampant, and a river lies dormant at their feet.

Golden valley plains stretch either side as

palms are the only living remnants of an

Even the water itself is verdant green. Red

we pedal our mountain bikes down the 4WD

ancient rainforest, from a time when dinosaurs

cliffs provide sheltering arms, guarding this

track. The corrugated, sandy surface is hard

roamed the earth.

magical oasis.

going, but we’re in no rush.

We make our way along the base of a huge

The cliff top hosts a protected meadow, full

Finally we cross into the National Park and

red slab. Suddenly the path opens out into the

the land changes, enormous rock formations

gorge, and there it is – a Heathen Paradise.

rearing their heads. The earth is redder, the

We have stepped back in time millions of

sky bluer…and the track even bumpier!

years, the very air itself stands still.

A handful of offroad vehicles signal we’ve

Palms soar and stoop and spiral in a

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of wildflowers and tiny jewelled birds. From here we can see into the hidden valley and beyond. The details seem to blur before my gaze. Some things are simply too much to take in clearly, it is only in the heart that they can remain.

life on the road. Exploring a big chunk of the continent means a lot of time in the car. From Alice Springs to Katherine is 1200km of straight, sunbaked road through the outback. But I’m finding that the ‘through’ matters as much as the ‘to’. A road trip is both journey and destination, all wrapped up into one. I discover a Sturt’s Desert Rose growing on the roadside, a soft splash of pink against the sand. It reminds me that beauty can be found in the smallest of details, just as much as in the impressive landmarks. The Desert Rose is the floral emblem of the Northern Territory, a true Aussie battler in the toughest of conditions. While at first glance the landscape looks bare of life, as the miles tick by we see lizards scuttling, birds of prey swooping for roadkill, and countless termite mounds standing guard, their silent armies hidden underground. At sunset in the outback, the kangaroos come out to play. Which means it’s a good time to get off the road, sit back and enjoy the show. We settle in for the night in a small dirt clearing off the highway. Our days have fallen into a steady rhythm of winding down once dusk falls, and rising before the dawn. Morning brings a soft pink land and womblike sky. As we drive the world seems to be holding its breath, watching a huge golden ball tremble on the edge of the horizon. Finally the sun plunges free. Day has arrived, the sky now a pale blue eternity.

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water is life. Most of the time, I take water for granted. I just turn on a tap, and there it is. But here in the Northern Territory, water is life. Leilynâ&#x20AC;ŚNitmilukâ&#x20AC;ŚMagukâ&#x20AC;Śwater sources are sacred places, the home of spirits. Refuges for plants, wildlife and Aboriginal peoples for thousands upon thousands of years, as they still are for travellers like us today.

in the same cool breath. And all around lie endless plains, baking in the sun. Even the empty roads are thirsty here, shimmering with watery mirages in the distance. At the end of another dry and dusty day driving, we climb up and up a rocky cliff path to the very top of Gunlom. A natural infinity pool melts into the horizon, the forest far below.

In Kakadu National Park, most of the rivers have been claimed by over 10,000 saltwater

I dive deep under the surface. Immersion feels so good. Emerging from the water, I am made

crocodiles, promising salvation and damnation

anew.

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the rock. This is a land of spirits and legends. Generations have journeyed across these plains, year on year, to pay homage. Pitjantjatjara Anangu men and women hold ceremonies here in sacred places. What a sense of homecoming they must have had – and still will – returning each time to Uluru. We jump on our bicycles to explore the rock on two wheels, wending our way through the wildflowers around its massive ten kilometre base. From photographs, I expected Uluru to be a smooth red oval rising out of empty sand. In reality, it is a huge, organic seeming entity, formed of curves and hollows and

studded with caves. Colossal rock planes meet smooth connective ribs. Dripping, toothy mouths are set in rolls of stony flesh. Water trickles down its flanks, sustaining a green oasis all around. Grasses sway and finches flutter from tree to tree. From its foot I look up, and up, and up, until finally the red rock gives way to bright blue sky, and I am filled with awe. Come sunset, we set up a cosy spot at the viewing platform. We’ve been carrying a bottle of champagne with us for over 7,000 kilometres to find the perfect romantic honeymoon moment. And this is it: watching the sun set over Uluru, with a picnic made for two.

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homeward bound. Slowly our trajectory angles back again, like a boomerang. We finally leave the vast red plains of the outback behind, crossing the border into South Australia. We visit the underground town of Coober Pedy, marvel at Lake Hart’s ethereal salt flat, and camp a night beside the wild southern ocean. We find sunshine growing in country Victoria, yellow canola fields blazing amongst the patchwork green. We mountain bike in Melrose, and play in a snowstorm up Mt Buffalo. The days grow shorter, the nights longer, and the air colder. I can see the landscape changing before my eyes, like magic.

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It’s hard to believe this can all be part of the same country. Plains to mountains, deserts to snow. Four seasons, in four weeks. All of it, Australia. Hours slip away to the sound of tires humming. It’s a long way home. Until one night we see the lights of Sydney in the distance. A glowing beacon in the dark, signalling an end to our trip at last. 11,000 kilometres. One vast land. We’ve seen so much, our heads and hearts full of wilderness. And yet we’ve barely scratched the surface. Luckily we can go back again…after all, it’s not going anywhere.

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We have partnered with Mariner Boating to bring you this amazing tour, exploring the majestic coastlines of Croatia & Montenegro. We are also currently seeking expressions of interest for an 8 day MTB extension tour of Montenegro. Head to our website for a full itinerary and discover your next adventure: www.travelplaylive.com.au/travel Enquires to: travel@travelplaylive.com.au

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2016 -17CALENDER Red Centre Walk.

10TH JULY – 16TH JULY 2017, NT This guided walking tour samples the highlights of

JULY 2017

the very heart of Australia. The rich reds of the ochre cliffs and rocky gorges contrast with the azure skies. Brilliant greens dot the outback landscape and the startling whites of the ghost gums reflect into crystal clear waterholes. You’ll hike at well known Uluru, Kata Tjuta (the Olgas) and Kings Canyon. Then experience the lesser visited places such as the Larapinta Trail and West MacDonnell Ranges. Learn about the area’s rich Aboriginal heritage and see a range of unusual wildlife. The 7 day tour starts and finishes in Alice Springs.

SAIL CROATIA & MONTENEGRO

14TH TO 29TH JULY 2017

Join Travel Play Live and Mariner Boating for this stunning Mediterranean Rally Adventure of Croatia & Montenegro. Beginning in the famous walled city of Dubrovnik sail north to Sipan, Kobas, Ston and Mljet before sailing south to exit Croatia in Cavtat then on to explore part of Montenegro in the Gulf of Kotor. Cycle extention at the end of this tour is available in Montenegro. Please contact us directly for more details.

MARCH

TPL GREAT OCEAN ROAD WALK

1ST MARCH - 8TH MARCH 2017 VICTORIA

After so much demand, we have decided to once again bring you our famous Great Ocean Road Walk. 104km of stunning coastal and bush tracks, visiting the iconic features including the 12 Apostles and amazing scenery from Apollo Bay, Ryans Den & Wreck Beach. We even have our own chef & modern comfortable accomodation.

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Photo credit this page: Emilija Manevska

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The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia is topping the polls as Europeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s rising star in adventure travel. On a bike and foodie trip there, Tracey Croke discovers its special kind of magic.

a i on d Mace MAGIC of The

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Macedonia MAGIC of The

Did you know that Macedonia has the highest number of Magicians per capita? Okay – I might’ve just totally made that up, but that’s how it feels when you’re there. That’s because the gap between making a wish and that wish materialising is just a matter of a phone call and a surprisingly short space of time. WRITTEN BY TRACY CROKE

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t seems “I’ll call someone,” is a

about. Look past the uncontrolled slapping

On Your bike

local catchphrase of guides and business owners. On a five-day mountain bike trip around the country’s southwest region,

up of the communist era eyesores, (mainly

Road cyclists can take a spin on around the

fulfilling our group’s daily random demands became an informal game of “meet that challenge”.

around the capital, Skopje) and you’ll see how nature has shaped this beauty over millions of years.

countries, so you’ll be popping in and out of Albania.

which is roughly eighty percent mountainous

We headed out with mountain-bike guides

with vast natural lakes, balances a warm Mediterranean to snow-covered alpine

reveling in the privilege of behaving like

climate. And because it’s so small, it packs

a complete bunch of a-holes, but believe

a ridiculous amount of easily accessible and

me, everyone from our guides to the locals

diverse adventure opportunities.

their idea.

The icing on their snow-covered mountains is the Macedonians themselves, fun

Off agenda activities, between our group

personalities full of banter who are bursting

of five, included climbing, slack-lining, an

with pride about their homeland, their, local

outdoor massage in a mountain village, and

food and their cosy B&B family businesses.

popping into Albania for cake and coffee. This game and the banter attached to it

forget your passport because it straddles two

The topography of this landlocked country,

I know that sounds perverse, like we were

willingly joined in on the fun – it was largely

lake’s 87 kilometres of shoreline. But don’t

Adventure Awaits

Goran and Alex’s son, Jovan, to sample the off-road trails of Galicica National Park (one of three in Macedonia) - which offers a mix of old village roads, dirt double-track and narrower natural goat and walking trails. Over the days, the landscape switched between lake vistas, dense beech forest and a wild wilderness, where the clouds shifted in fast-forward changing the landscape in a blink. One day, our guides – also mountain rescue

If there’s an epicenter to this adventure

volunteers – took us to their rescue hut

wonderland then it has to be Ohrid. It’s

for a break. The changing weather can

where our bike trip started and one of the

Alex Jovanoski, owner of Velodrome Bike

occasionally catch out self-guided tourists,

few places in the world where a natural

Tours, substantiates “unique” by explaining

otherwise, rescues on their watch have

and a cultural UNESCO heritage site of

how Macedonia’s southwest businesses came

been few and far-between. “Mostly we

“outstanding universal value” sit side by side.

hang out and play guitar,” Goran explained.

From Ohrid, paragliding, caving, kayaking,

Nevertheless, a framed condom on the wall

canyoning and diving can be arranged in and

with a note “In case of miracle break glass,”

“We created sustainable experiences that

around one of the world’s rare ancient lakes,

proved in the funniest possible way, that

highlight the natural beauty and cultural

described as a “natural phenomena that has

this boy’s club take their duties extremely

heritage of our region,” says Alex, who, along

continuously existed for at least two to million

seriously.

with tourism and aid agencies, was one of the

years”.

The journey was interspersed with other

Sitting humbly on its shores is the UNESCO

special moments such as a boat journey to

Spreading the tourism dollar was key to this

heritage town of Ohrid - one of the oldest

a ‘forbidden’ island and an overnight stay

teamwork and sustainability. “We convinced

human settlements in Europe. Among narrow

at Saint Naum, a converted ninth century

people they can earn extra tourism income

cobbled streets it harbours a preserved

monastery close to the Albanian border. An

from their own lives,” added Alex.

ensemble of ancient urban architecture

opportunity for a bonus short ride to round

Coupled with that, the country’s got some

dating back to the seventh century housing

off the day with coffee and cake in Albania,

serious bragging rights (ones that I didn’t

quaint shops, traditional restaurants and

proved irresistible to the chronically curious

invent) that it’s only just started shouting

boutique hotels.

among us.

became a crucial part of discovering a formula that I believe is unique to Macedonia.

together to create a cluster of experiences for a discerning adventure market.

driving forces behind “we”.

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Macedonian MAGIC

EXPERIENCES 1

Fuelling Up Back in Macedonia, the cuisine was a firm highlight for me. They say the unpolluted air, soil and water, especially in the rural and mountain areas, make the difference in their flavorsome dishes – many are vegetable based. Food is generally meze style mix of Mediterranean and Middle East influence, the latter from the days of the Ottoman Empire. Homemade, organic and locally grown are as common as muck and almost everything, it seems, is turned into their national tipple rakija – a strong spirit washed down with almost every meal. I nick-named Alex “the magician” when, at the top of a long climb, he appeared out of nowhere and produced a picnic of “Gjomleze” a dish from a local village made only from pastry, which considering its lack of ingredients was surprisingly tasty. Apparently the secret of the flavour is slow cooking. “My friend spent all morning making it, Enjoy!” Alex exclaimed. We washed it down with a runny tangy yogurt, another Macedonian favourite I came to love.

BE A BEAR RANGER. Macedonia is one of the few areas in Europe where brown bears wander free without borders. Spend five days trekking in the forest with park rangers. Learn about bear behaviour and how Macedonia is connecting tourism, local people and conservation to protect bears and other wildlife. To join a bear conservation trekking adventure Email: gorki.balojani@balojani.com.mk Web: www.balojani.com.mk

We witnessed Alex’s rural team spirit in action in the mountain village of Elshani, where we parked ourselves and our bikes one night. It doesn’t get much homelier than Risto’s guesthouse, where the multi-tasking Anita cracked jokes while giving us a cooking lesson, introducing us to local friends and mingling with other guests. It was Anita who had a massage organised for us before we had chance to grab a shower – a good thing it was outdoors. This is a place where the hospitality is so warm you’ll want to pay the dinner bill and then offer to wash up afterwards, which we did. On the last day, I thought there might be a chance to pick up a bag of my favourite fruit and Macedonia’s most famous – the Ohrid cherry. “No, they’re not in season,” Jovan explained. Just as I was going to turn it into a challenge, he held up a finger, “wait, my grandmother preserves them, I’ll call her,” he said. It’s no wonder Macedonia is leaping on to the adventure travel scene. This is the ultimate adventurous can-do country with a personal kind of magic. And there just aren't that many places in the world like this. The Author travelled with Velodrome Bike Tours - Email Contact velodrome@t-home.mk For more information about visiting the southwest region of Macedonia see http://eden.mk

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Go to a traditional wedding that everyone’s invited to Every year on 12th July, The tiny mountain village of Galichnik attracts people from all over Macedonia for their traditional Wedding Festival and everyone’s invited -tourists included. For a special experience, stay in the cozy B&B home of Borka and Pavla, a legendary couple who are the only permanent residents of this summer holiday village. During the summer season, their homestay is the perfect base for exploring Mavrovo National Park. For accommodation and more info email: Marko Bekric galicnik@outlook.com

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5 acedonian

MAGIC

EXPERIENCES

3 4

Dive in The Bay of Bones – Ohrid Lake

SPOT A LYNX IN ONE OF EUROPE’S OLDEST NATIONAL PARKS.

The Bay of the Bones is where a stilted bronze-age settlement once existed. “The museum on the water” is village reconstructed from the archaeological remains – or aptly described by a journalist colleague as “the coolest diving spot you’ve never heard of. More info at: www.macedoniaexperience.com

With over 500 kilometres of mixed-use trails, Mavrovo National Park is a peaceful wilderness with panoramic views known for its extensive beech forests, alpine meadows and pristine rivers. It’s home to the critically endangered Balkan Lynx. Latest reports say up to 45 of Lynx wander between Macedonia and Albania. You’ll be very lucky to see one. For Mavrovo trekking and horseriding contact info@macedoniaexperience.com www.macedoniaexperience.com

Visit a 'forbidden island' Golem Grad is not really forbidden but it is highly protected. This uninhabited island of global scientific interest – known for its endemic flora and fauna, significant birdlife and high concentration of ancient ruins - can only be reached by boat. It’s definitely one for the nature-cumhistory lovers and the kind of place you imagine a T-Rex could stomp up at any second. More info at: www.eden.mk

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For Mavrovo Mountain Biking contact Marko Bekric Galichnik Mountain Bike Adventures galicnik@outlook.com

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RED CENTRE WALK NORTHERN TERRITORY

10th - 16th July 2017

Book

NOW PLACES ARE LIMITED

HERE AT TRAVEL PLAY LIVE WE LOVE TO EXPLORE ALL THE GREAT OUTDOORS HAS TO OFFER.

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From overnight bushwalks through the iconic Blue Mountains to sailing in luxury on the crystal waters of Tahiti, we aim to bring you unique travelling experiences with a touch of Travel Play Live sparkle. Head to our website and discover your next adventure: www.travelplaylive.com.au/travel Enquires to: travel@travelplaylive.com.au

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Travel Play Live magazine www.travelplaylive.com.au

{Travel Play Live}

TRAVELPICS

Where will your next adventure take you? Send us your holiday snaps to hell0@travelplaylive.com.au

Lyn taking a detour off Route 66 to Sedona Arizona…simply stunning!

Penny exploring ancient cities in Telouet, Morocco Sisters Leteetia & Janeene walking part of the Cinque Terre in Italy

Sandy discovering her inner Indiana Jones in Karijini National Park Australia

Join us on our award winning North Island Adventure! Come along with us for 5 or 11 days exploring the North Island! Combine your trip with any of our South Island adventures.

Hike

• Tongariro Alpine Crossing • Volcanoes, kauri forests and sand dunes

Plus

• Cycle Whakarewarewa Forest • Snorkel, kayak or dive Poor Knights Islands • Experience Maori culture • Explore Waitomo Caves

Get your FREE BROCHURE at: activenewzealand.com or call: 1 800 661 9073 081

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Come to the Great Lakes for your next holiday adventure and stay at Sevan Apartments

Sevan Apartments Forster is known and loved for its commitment to classic sleek apartment accommodation. We offer guests their own private space, a place to simply relax after a day of exploring. Each apartment has been designed and furnished with elegance and style, all having the comforts of home and heaps of room to stretch out. Centrally located, Sevan is an ideal base for exploring the beautiful and unique Great Lakes Area, and is centrally located for those of you participating in many of the active events the region has to offer.

Your home away from home...

Reservations 02 6555 0300 | sevan.com.au

different celebrate Let's

INTRODUCING; SPUTNIK

We are excited about this…. we hear through the grapevine, and from the ladies who subscribe to our magazine; that there is secretly a few of you guys who read our mag too. So, we would like to introduce you to our fellow adventurer, lover of life and witer of Travel Play Live’s first ever 'blokes corner' - Sputnik. Or Sput, as we like to call him. He is: an author, speaker, photographer, adventure guide and trail runner. By his own admission, he is not a particularly good trail runner, but makes up for his lack of talent with an abundance of enthusiasm, which has seen him complete some pretty cool races around the world. And as someone who is scared of snakes, spiders, bears, coyotes, the dark and a bunch of other assorted creepy crawlies, he is also possibly not the greatest adventurer of all time; but he hasn’t let that stop him having some pretty great adventures anyway. So take it away Sput. Well, first of all I’d like to say how awesome

celebrated it and not try to pretend different

transgender, as if that was somehow insulting.

it is to be the ‘token bloke’; allowed onto

doesn’t exist; men and women are different.

Why did they mention it? Well, because it’s

the hallowed turf of this amazing adventure

There, I said it. But then, it’s not really a

different. It’s exciting. It’s amazing. In fact,

magazine. You’ll notice I didn’t say women’s

newsflash, is it? You may not be allowed to say

it was the entire point of the ad. Besides I’m

adventure magazine, but only because I’m

it anymore, but that doesn’t make it any less

fairly certain they didn’t film the ad without

being politically correct. But then, political

true. I could list off all the ways we’re different,

Chris’ knowledge, so I’m pretty sure Chris

correctness has never been my strong point, so bugger it, let’s call this what it is: a women’s adventure magazine. For women. That doesn’t mean blokes can’t read it. Or write for it, apparently. But it’s certainly different to most other adventure magazines, and that’s fine. And let’s not pretend it's not, because ‘different’ is awesome. It seems to me these days that too many

but I’m pretty sure you’re all over it already. It doesn’t end there either, because you know what? We’re all different. To varying degrees, women are different to men. And women can be different to each other. Some like you, love adventure; some not so much and some not at all, and that’s just the way it is. Not less than. Not more than. Just different.

understands and is cool with it too. It is the different that makes it awesome. Something to celebrate. I think it’s fantastic that we’re focussed on being equal, but please I implore you, let’s not ever pretend we’re not all different, for a myriad of reasons, gender included. That’s one of the things that makes the world such an amazing place. What fun would it be going

people are getting the concepts of ‘different’

For example, I saw the fuss when Nike aired

on adventures and exploring new places if

and ‘equal’ a bit mixed up, and with some

an ad that featured a transgender athlete.

they were all the same? Exactly! Different is

really sad and dangerous outcomes. I say

There were some people outraged that they,

beautiful. Different is exciting. Different is

it’s time we embraced different. It’s time we

Nike, even mentioned Chris Mosier was

perfect. Celebrate different.

Sputnik is Chief Swashbuckler at the Swashbucklers Club, www.swashbucklersclub.com. A business focused on “celebrating, creating and inspiring the things that make life more awesome”.

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nour ish FISH TACOS WITH PINEAPPLE SALSA Fish tacos are such a simple and healthy way to enjoy fresh fish and combined with a refreshing pineapple salsa and creamy lime mayonnaise, these are hard to beat. METHOD

SERVES 4-6

INGREDIENTS 600g flathead fillets ½ tsp poudre de piment d’Espelette ½ tsp fine sea salt 250g cabbage, finely shredded 12 small flour tortillas pineapple salsa: 300g peeled and cored pineapple, roughly diced ½ red onion, finely diced ½ cup (80g) finely chopped coriander juice of 1 lime lime and paprika mayonnaise: 4 egg yolks 1tsp Dijon mustard pinch of sea salt pinch of ground white pepper 1 cup (250ml) extra virgin olive oil juice of 1 lime ½ tsp sweet paprika Note: When making the mayonnaise, if the mixture curdles, beat an egg yolk in a clean bowl until thickened. Whisk the curdled mixture gradually into the fresh egg yolk to bring it back to a smooth consistency. GF option: Use gluten-free bread for tortillas.

1. To make the salsa combine all ingredients in a large bowl and mix well. Set aside. 2. To make the mayonnaise: Place a large glass or ceramic bowl into a larger pot lined with a wet tea towel. This is to keep your bowl steady, as you will need both your hands free to whisk and pour. Whisk the egg yolks, mustard, salt and pepper in the bowl until pale, creamy and thickened slightly. Whisking constantly, add the oil just a few drops at a time at first, whisking until combined between each addition. Continue drizzling oil and whisking in until all the oil has been added. Add the lime juice and paprika, mix to combine. Check the seasoning and adjust to taste. Refrigerate. 3. Season the flathead fillets with poudre de piment d’Espelette and salt. Heat a large frying pan, chargrill pan or barbeque plate on a high heat. Place the fillets in the pan, the chargrill pan or barbecue plate, taking care to space them well apart to avoid overcrowding and stewing. Cook for 2 minutes on each side or until cooked through. Transfer the fillets to a plate to rest for 2-3 minutes. 4. To toast tortillas: If you have a gas stove you can go ahead and light the burner–or burners to medium heat (I use all four at once). Then place the tortillas right on the grate over the flame. Alternatively use a tortilla pan, heavy-bottomed chargrill or barbecue plate that’s heated to medium-high heat. You can also use a toasted sandwich maker. The tortillas will begin to puff slightly as they warm, turn them over after about 1 minute then toast on the other side. Once they are toasted place the tortillas in a damp tea towel to keep them soft. 5. Place tortillas, fish pieces, cabbage, salsa and mayonnaise in the centre of the table and let each person assemble their taco as desired.

SPECIAL THANKS ©Jane Grover – Recipe from Jane’s cookbook ‘OUR DELICIOUS ADVENTURES Recipes and Stories of Food and Travel’ w: www.janegrover.net

Win a signed copy of Jane's new Cookbook ‘OUR DELICIOUS ADVENTURES Recipes and Stories of Food and Travel’. Purchase our Travel Play Live Adventure Lovers Pack for your chance to get your hands on this beautifully delicious adventure of food and travel book. See Page 44 for details.

WIN

www.travelplaylive.com.au/adventure-lovers-pack

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SWEET CORN AND ZUCCHINI FRITTERS These fritters are a wholesome, high fibre, ‘all day breakfast’ dish, matched with a creamy, cleansing avocado and lime salsa, salty feta cheese and crunchy roasted almonds. Great as they are or, to add a hit of protein, dress them up with a soft poached egg and some crispy bacon. SERVES 10 FRITTERS NUTRITION V

METHOD

INGREDIENTS 300g grated zucchini (1 large or 2 smaller zucchini) 1 tsp sea salt 300g corn kernels (2-3 corn cobs ) 6 green shallots, finely chopped handful parsley, finely chopped handful dill, finely chopped 2 eggs, lightly beaten ¼ cup (60ml) sour cream

1. Place the zucchini into a colander and mix through the sea salt. This will draw

½ cup (75g) unbleached plain flour 1 tsp baking powder 1 tsp ground nutmeg sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste coconut oil for frying avocado salsa: 2 avocados juice of 1 lime 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil 100g feta 1/3 cup almonds, roasted and smashed

out the moisture. Set aside, and prepare other ingredients. 2. Drain the zucchini, squeezing any excess moisture out with your hands. 3. In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients and mix thoroughly. 4. Lightly grease a large frying pan with coconut oil, and heat over medium heat. Drop 1/3 cupfuls of batter into the pan, spreading out to 8cm diameter. Cook for 2 minutes, then turn over and cook for further 2 minutes, until golden brown. Keep warm on an oven tray in a very low oven, covered loosely with foil, while you cook the rest. 5. While fritters are cooking make the salsa. Cut avocados in half, remove seed and skin. Chop flesh into large dice and mix with lime juice and olive oil. 6. Serve fritters warm with avocado salsa, crumbled feta and smashed almonds. GF option: Substitute unbleached plain flour with brown rice flour. Use glutenfree baking powder.

Zucchini Known to the British as a courgette, is a summer fruit from the squash family. Dark or light green in colour, it can also be yellow in the case of the golden zucchini. They can be eaten raw as a crudité with dips, or in salads. When cooking, they can be steamed, grilled, baked and deliciously stuffed, or added to soups, pizza topping, bread, cakes and slices. The flowers of the zucchini can also be eaten, commonly packed with a filling, battered lightly and then deep-fried as a seasonal delicacy. The zucchini is low in calories and has valuable amounts of vitamin A, folate (vitamin B) and potassium.

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SPECIAL THANKS ©Jane Grover – Recipe from Jane’s cookbook ‘OUR DELICIOUS ADVENTURES Recipes and Stories of Food and Travel’ w: www.janegrover.net

minimise the impact of

MENOPAUSE { Changing your diet for the ‘change of ‘life’ } BY KERITH DUNCANSON PHD FROM GUT FEELINGS

Before we launch in to discuss how to best maintain health and vitality through and after menopause, let’s pause to celebrate the fact that this period of time, which strikes dread into many 40-something year old women, actually signifies the end of one of the most debilitating aspects of life for some women. 088

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The words ‘change of life’ or menopause can cause palpitations and hot sweats in women of all ages! My mum suffered through this stage of life when I was an oblivious self-absorbed teenager in the days before hormone replacement therapy. On reflection it seemed to be something that women accepted, suffered through and gained several pounds around the middle as a result of. But there were no decisions to make, no “will I take HRT or not”, and no real understanding of what health risk factors changed as a result of the metabolic consequences of the changing hormone levels. Women are now much more informed about the decline in oestrogen levels before and during menopause; with resulting hot flushes, night sweats, palpitations, headaches, insomnia, fatigue, bone mineral density loss and vaginal dryness. Fewer are informed about reduced progesterone; causing periods to become irregular, heavier, and longer during perimenopause. The fact that testosterone continues to be produced by the ovaries after menopause tends to result in the misinformation that this hormone increases during menopause. Rather levels decline to about half their peak level, so they are high relative to oestrogen, but not absolutely. So, what can be done from a dietary perspective to help minimise menopausal symptoms during perimenopause and offset any increases in health risk after menopause? I’m glad you asked! Let’s look at combating the symptoms first. I am not a medical doctor, so I will leave the “HRT or no HRT” debate to the specialists, suffice to say that it is worth having a discussion with your medical professional that includes discussion of your own personal family history and risk factors in order to weight up the pros and cons for you. DIET DURING PERIMENOPAUSE • Analysis of clinical trials suggests that phytoestrogen supplementation is associated with modest reductions in the frequency of hot flushes and vaginal dryness but no significant reduction in night sweats. The use of dietary soy foods and phytoestrogen supplements may therefore be helpful for some women during menopause, to help mimic oestrogen in the body so it does not realise the natural levels are dropping, giving your body time to adjust. Hint: Including whole soy bean milk, tofu, tempeh, soy burgers, soy grits and linseeds on a daily basis may ease menopausal symptoms. If you are not a lover of soy, then consider a good quality phytoestrogen supplement from a pharmacy or health food store.

• A recent review of all the available literature relating to lifestyle changes during ‘the change of life’ reported that exercise alone or combined exercise and caloric reduction can “disrupt the process and patterns of weight gain and change in body fat distribution during the menopause transition stage”. Good news for all you women out there prepared to work that body to combat the body’s natural propensity to get thicker around the middle in mid-life! An added bonus of weight bearing exercise is the maintenance of bone mineral density, particularly in the hip, a big advantage leading into latter years when risk of fractures increases. Hint: Less calories eaten than calories being expended (through exercise and daily activity), but the calories in have to be valuable – high in nutrients to give us maximum nutrition per mouthful. • Other dietary strategies to help alleviate perimenopausal symptoms include avoiding hot drinks and spicy foods at times of day when symptoms are worst, and avoiding caffeinated drinks after lunch time to avoid insomnia. While these strategies can help some women, they may not help all, but are certainly worth a try. DIET DURING MENOPAUSE Post menopause, our dietary considerations turn to maintaining health and minimising risk of chronic disease. The key considerations here are that changes in hormone balance after menopause make women more susceptible to heart disease than they were before menopause, and also more susceptible to decreasing bone mineral density. Healthy, active older women can minimise these risks through diet and lifestyle without too much cost or reliance on supplements. • From a heart health perspective, the usual recommendations still stand: eat at least 500 grams of fish per week (preferably deep sea fish), a handful of mixed unsalted nuts per day, at least 500 grams of vegetables per day (yes, that’s right!) and only choosing whole grain based bread and cereal products. Hint: For those with a family history of cardiovascular disease, it is worth also considering including soy products daily, plant sterol fortified foods or supplements, soluble fibre (especially high in psyllium, chia seeds and legumes). Ask your dietitian about the ‘portfolio approach’ to managing cholesterol if you are averse to taking medication. • Maintaining muscle mass and bone mineral density are critical to wellbeing during menopause, and hinge around activity and nutrition, in particular Vitamin D and calcium.

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Lack of Vitamin D is increasingly being linked to a range of chronic diseases, including some cancers, heart disease and diabetes, in addition to its’ known role in bone health. Although we get most of our vitamin D3 from the action of sunlight on the skin, women whose skin has limited exposure to sunlight (or routinely use sunscreen) are at particular risk of vitamin D deficiency, in particular, older women. Vitamin D3 supplementation has been shown to have a small positive impact on muscle strength, so is another worthwhile consideration for menopausal women. Food sources of Vitamin D contribute too, but it is the less potent vitamin D2, which needs to be converted to D3 to become active. Hint: Expose your hands, face and arms to the sun daily for 10 minutes (15 minutes if you have dark skin) in the early morning or late afternoon to avoid sun sun-related skin damage. • I am sure you are all well aware of the importance of calcium for post-menopausal women, who have greater calcium requirements than other people. If you are unable or unwilling to consume the equivalent of 3 cups of milk and yoghurt each day, you may need to consider supplementation, or eating lots of tinned salmon or sardines, including the bones! If you drink soy milk, check that it is calcium-fortified. Other nondairy sources of calcium (unless fortified) are not high enough to count as a serve – would you eat a half cup of sesame seeds in one sitting? Hint: You can avoid calcium losses by not consuming excess meat, alcohol, caffeine, soft drink or salt, all of which leach calcium from your body. You may also benefit from drinking tea at a different time of day to when you eat calcium rich foods and remember that phytates from bran can also bind calcium, which can be tricky but worth considering if you eat bran cereals with milk for breakfast. YOUR ACTION PLAN My advise from here is to read and digest this information in light of where you sit on the ‘Menopausal spectrum” and your own personal genetic and hereditary factors in relation to health risk. We all need to focus more on some aspects of our health than others because we have our own “Achilles heal” – those chronic diseases that impact on our families. Then prioritise a few of the hints and suggestions to discuss with your doctor or dietitian, or implement as preventative measures to make your journey through menopause as pleasant and as health-full as possible.

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fi lm

ADVENTURE TRAVEL

festival

{Short Film Competition}

Held in the picturesque Victorian township of Bright, in the heart of Australiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Alpine region, the Adventure Travel Film Festival is not just a celebration of the worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s greatest adventure travel films from the 1930s to the present day. Itâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s also a weekend of inspiring speakers and authors who will motivate and enthuse you. This festival proudly promotes the hardy world of human-powered adventure travel alongside the trans-global epics achieved by people on motorbikes, horses and cars. "An unmissable feast of adventure for anybody dreaming of their next trip. The festival attracts grizzled pros to first time travellers. Any sane person attending can't help but be inspired," says Festival Director Rupert Shaw. There will be plenty of opportunities to meet the

presenters and guests at the great restaurants and cafes around the town ship and at Festival HQ, right next door to the Bright Brewery. The festival takes place at various venues in Bright with the Starlight Cinema in the parkland behind the Brewery, in the heart of town, one of the best places to enjoy the films as night falls. There are films about everything from epic sailing journeys to family camping holidays and special guests who have done everything from covered the events in major conflict zones to driven two vintage cars from Bondi to the Baltic.

Bright, Victoria , February 10 to 12, 2017

Short Film Competition

The growth of smart phone ownership means filming an adventure has never been easier. The difficult part of film making is editing the footage into a coherent and entertaining film. The festival supported by Keen footwear want to put something back into the Adventure travel community by helping aspiring filmmakers produce a sub 10 minute film. Future adventure travel filmmakers will be asked to submit a simple one page synopsis of their story. A short list of entrants will then be asked to submit up to 10 hours of footage. A winner will be selected and the footage will be professionally edited and produced by Killafish Productions (www.killafish. com.au). The finished film will be shown at the 2017 festival. The short listed entrants will also receive a Smart phone film making kit. Competition entry details and rules will be on the website 9th September. Tickets go on sale in November and are great value at $125 for an adult weekend pass, $65 for an adult day pass or child weekend pass and $250 for a family (2 adults, 2 children U15) weekend pass. There are special discounts for seniors and film goers who have attended previous festivals. Full details can be found on the festival website: www.adventuretravelfilmfestival.com

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DISCOVER YOUR WILDER T H E WO M E N ’S O U T DO O R & A DVSIDE ENTURE EXPO SYDNEY 6 TH NOVEMBER 2016

AU ST RA LIA’ S FIR ST WOM EN ’ S A DV EN T U R E EX P O H OST ED BY

SHE WENT WILD EXPO Type: Women's Adventure Expo Location: Gasoline Motor Garage, in Sydney Date: 6th November2016 www.shewentwild.com

6TH OF NOVEMBER 2016 10 AM - 4PM GASOLINE 88 BOURKE RD, ALEXANDRIA SYDNEY

Australia's first Outdoor & Adventure Expo dedicated to Women.

The event will showcase some of the worlds best adventure brands in an inspiring environment with hands on demonstrations and talks from E X HIBITO R S WO RK SH O P S SPE A K ER S CLIM BING WA L L pioneers and professional athletes alike. The event is partnering with the Discover this

Learn new skills in

Hear inspiring stories

Improve your

One Girl charity. A proportion ofour ticket sales will go to the inspiring team climbing skills free interactive from adventurous seasons new gear and on the andfunds trends to from that help to raise improveworkshops the education and women fundamentally, discover new She Went Wild stage leading brands. the lives of young girls in developing countries. outdoor groups Empowered hosted women by Find and book your and clubs Play Live next adventure empower women, and we're very proud to help this Travel inspiring charity.

for free with the team from Black Diamond

Make sure you're a part of this incredible event by booking your ticket at She Went Wild today! Proudly Supported By SHETravel WE N TWILPlay D.CO MLive. SHE WE N TWIL D _

SHE WEN T WILD

EVENT PA RTNER S P O NSO R ED BY S UP P O RTED BY Travel Play Live will be at this awesome event hosting the speakers area, so be sure to come and hear some of our top contributors speak.

MEET TICKETS ON SALE NOW • U SEMeet D ISCOU NT COD E T P L 10 % the team and go into the draw to WIN a place on our 2017 Great Ocean Road Tour and one US

of our brand new “Whisper of the Wild” pieces from our collaboration with Spindrift Collections – creating jewellery for the dreamers, adventurers and barefoot wanderers. See you there.

WILD WOMEN ON TOP COASTREK 2017 Type: Walk - 30km & 60km Location: Sydney, Melbourne & Sunshine Coast Date: Various Dates Registrations Open: September 1st 2016 www.coastrek.com.au Challenge yourself and your teammates with this great new adventure. Soak up some of Australia's most spectacular coastline at our various events. Explore its magic rugged coastline, spectacular bays, nature trails, and historic sites all the while completing an incredible personal challenge with your friends while restoring sight.

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PROU D LY SU PPORTS $5 fro m a ll t ic ket s a les w ill be do nated to

Travel Play Live Santaconda Type: Walk / Run /Scavenger Hunt / Novelty 'Race' Location: Main Beach, Forster NSW Date: 17th December 2016 www.traveplaylive.com.au This is the one Christmas party you won’t want to miss! After last years success and raising over $1000 for the UN Women 2016 Ride for Rights campaign, we have decided to make this an annual event. So put the date aside, in fact put the weekend aside and come join us in the beautiful Great Lakes for the Travel Play Live Santaconda, an event like you have never experienced. It’s a whole lot of fun! An event where the outfits are a must, team camaraderie is essential and of course the spirit of the season is given - with the entire $10 entry fee going towards supporting our chosen charity - Heart to Heart. An early morning start 6.30am at Forster Main Beach and we promise you'll feel like a kid at Christmas again. Open to women of all ages and fitness levels, no experience necessary, must have a good sense of humour. Children under 16 must be accompanied by an adult.

ACT-BELONG-COMMIT AUGUSTA ADVENTURE FEST Type: Adventure Racing Location: Augusta, South West, Western Australia Date: Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th November 2016 rapidascent.com.au/AugustaAdventureFest/ With 10 years of rich history the Act-Belong-Commit Augusta Adventure Fest is the world’s biggest adventure race, and it's back even bigger in 2016 with a refreshed event including a new course, a team focus and enhanced event atmosphere. We love this event because of it’s big push encouraging female participation. In an event type that has been in the past, predominantly male dominated, check the website for information designed to provide encouragement, inspiration and support for women to get into the sport of adventure racing and the range of off-road adventure sports it encompasses. The Augusta Mini is the perfect beginner race – whether as a female team or doing it solo!

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We’ve done all the research for you! (03) 5956 7726 l info@50days.com.au l Follow us on Facebook and Instagram 50dayslightweight and Twitter 50dayslight

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Refuel & Revive with our great competitons

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FROM MISS LILLY APPAREL & HONEBELL WATERWEAR Grey lotus Kimocape - a dynamic fashion item that can be worn in a multitude of ways made from a soft Rayon, the muted tones of the fabric are on trend and easy to wear. From Miss Lilly IG @misslillyapparel

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Congratulations to Gay McDonell winner of our Winter Issue Blitz Active Pack.

All you need to do to be in the running is subscribe to the magazine by the 1st of December 2016. Winners announced in our Summer issue due out in January 2017. Be sure to check out Miss Lilly & Honeybell Waterwear on Instagram.

And Nic Keen winner of our Carhood Road trip. Remember you’ve got to be in it to win it.

Wise Women come Walking with us

find yourself

ADVENTUROUS WOMEN

Free Call: 1300 388 419 info@adventurouswomen.com.au www.adventurouswomen.com.au

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SOCIALSCENE CHICKS IN THE STICKS The Chicks in the Sticks is Australia’s largest Women's Only Mountain Bike race in Australia. This is the committee that makes the happen in conjunction with their awesome club the RATS Cycling Club. Kylie Jenner (1) Trish McLeod (2) Mary Mitchelhill (3) Amanda Harrison (4) Cathy Peel (5) Barbara Bugeja (6)

MOJO | Rogue | Six12 Part adventure race, part rogaine, the MOJO | Rogue | SIX12 is a race run each year by MOJO Adventure. Held Saturday 20th August, it’s touted as one of the best value adventure races you’ll ever get your hands on, and the SIX a perfect introduction for beginners into the sport of Adventure Racing. This shot of one of AR’s leading ladies Jan Leverton and Gina Dunsdon captured in the cycle leg by Photoevents photographer James Pitman.

SHE WENT WILD’S WOMEN’S OUTDOOR SURVIVAL AND NAVIGATION WORKSHOPS hosted in the Blue Mountains with were both a hit with the girls who attended.

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Surf Coast Century. Rapid Ascent’s Surf Coast Century, held along Victoria’s Surf Coast on Sept 4th saw the ladies turning out in force. It was Kellie Emmerson continuing her winning streak to make it three consecutive victories, coming over the line in 9:03:24 that was a highlight for spectators and support crew alike.

TEAM POND GO HANNY!

Puddle of Mud Designs

Tasmanian skyrunner and TPL’s regular

Sticks wearing the Brisbane based

coaching contributor Hanny Allston has

brands awesome cycle kit.

Ambassadors at Chicks in the

been crowned female champion of 2016 Run Larapinta. Go Hanny! This was the second edition of the fourday, four-stage trail running race along the most spectacular sections of the Larapinta Trail in Central Australia and proving another bucket list events for trail running fraternity.

Camping at Blue Lake

Women Want Adventure’s Monique Farmer and adventure buddy Gemma Hostman sent this photo in after a camping at Blue Lake in the Snowy Mountains in April after a night of snow.

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Don't Miss Out on Issue 6 - Summer 2017 Head to our website to subscribe NOW www.travelplaylive.com.au/subscribe

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“COURAGE, SACRIFICE, DETERMINATION, COMMITMENT, TOUGHNESS, HEART, TALENT, GUTS. THAT'S WHAT LITTLE GIRLS ARE MADE OF.” - BETHANY HAMILTON

Image from: Spindrift Collections. www.spindriftcollections.com