Facebook: @accidentalultrarunner
Instagram: @carolinbotterill
Website : www.alicemorrison.co.uk
Twitter: @aliceoutthere1
Instagram: @aliceoutthere1
Facebook: @AliceHunterMorrisonAdventures
Alyssa is the youngest Australian to Summit Mt Everest which she did at 19 years old on the 21st May 2016. Alyssa is also the youngest woman to Summit Mt Everest from both the North and South sides after successfully reaching the summit of Mt Everest from the North Side (Tibet) on the 19th May 2018 at just 21 years old.
Alyssa began trekking in 2005 with her first challenge, crossing the Kokoda Track in Papua New Guinea. Alyssa then trekked in Nepal, completed treks such as Everest Base Camp and Kokoda numerous times, Mt Kosciuszko in Australia, the Aussie 10 (the 10 highest peaks in Australia), Mt Kilimanjaro.
After completing Mt Kilimanjaro in 2011, Alyssa began climbing by doing a mountaineering course in NZ. Since then she has climbed in South America, Russia and Nepal on various expeditions to different peaks including: Ama Dablam, Aconcagua, Manaslu, Elbrus and four Everest Expeditions.
Alyssa was on Everest both in 2014 and 2015 when the Avalanche and the Nepal Earthquake occurred and closed the mountain. She returned in 2016 to make her first successful summit of Mt Everest.
After taking one year off Everest Season in 2017 she decided to go back in 2018 and make her successful north side attempt via Tibet.
Show notes
Social Media
Website - https://www.alyssaazar.com.au
Instagram - @alyssaazar
Facebook - @AlyssaAzarAdventurer
Social Media
Website - http://www.betweensunsets.com
Twitter - @BetweenSunsets
Instagram - @betweensunsets
Sarah decided to tackle the Murray River in her home country of Australia, less than eight months after completing the Nile expedition.
While there weren’t any hippos and crocs to deal, it wasn’t without its risks. There were snakes (and of course being Australian they were deadly), extreme weather conditions, sections with little water thanks to the drought and plenty more challenges to deal with.
In 60 days Sarah covered 2,500km.
The first four days were trekking to the source with a small team and then sticking within a stone’s throw until it was time to get in her kayak.
For the next 56 days Sarah was solo.
On 13th February 2020 Sarah reached the Southern Ocean and the end of the Murray River. It was another expedition that tested her mentally as much as physically.
Listen to Sarah as she shares more about this challenge on the Tough Girl Podcast EXTRA!
Show notes
Social Media
Website - https://www.sarahdavis.co
Twitter - @Sarah_paddles
Youtube @SarahDavis - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCrrvIkh9I_7BIDgNzGh83zQ
For more info on Paddling the Nile - https://www.paddlethenile.com
Kate has cycled a distance greater than twice around the world at the Equator. On August 16th 2010 she became the first person to cycle an unbroken line from Africa’s most westerly to its most easterly points; from Pointe des Almadies, Senegal to Cape Hafun, Puntland, Somalia.
Cycling 22,040 km over ten months, Kate’s Breaking the Cycle in Africa Expedition was not only a physical quest but an odyssey to highlight the development needs and activities of war-torn and poverty-stricken nations.
Cycling through twenty countries, Kate aimed to find out what is being done to give a ‘leg up’ rather than a ‘hand out’ – to shine a positive light on the issues, cultures and geography of Africa.
Kate has two earlier world firsts under her belt – the Trans-Siberian Cycle Expedition (1993) when she became the first woman to cycle across the new Russia unsupported (aiding the children of Chernobyl), and the 25,000km Great Australian Cycle Expedition (2004/05) which included the first bicycle crossing of the Canning Stock Route by a woman.
In June 2019, Kate completed another original expedition when she became the first person to cycle the entire Namibian coastline, a 1621km sand cycling expedition from the mouth of the Kunene River on the Angolan border to the Orange River mouth on the South African border.
Kate’s latest challenge, Breaking the Cycle South Pole, will result in the first bicycle crossing of the Antarctic continent via the South Pole (2020).
The Breaking the Cycle education programme aims to help prepare our future leaders to make informed decisions to create a better world. Students across the globe can follow her preparatory activities and Antarctic expedition and partake in the Breaking the Cycle Education learning modules and lessons with the end goals of creating their own projects.
Show notes
Social Media
Visit - www.BreakingtheCycle.education and sign up to the newsletter!
Twitter: @Leeming_Kate
In 2016 Sophie Rooney set off with the bold intention of becoming the first woman to run the length of Scandinavia. From Nordkapp (the northernmost point of mainland Europe) to the German border with Denmark (3000 km south) carrying everything she needed on her back.
Initially accompanied by a fellow trail runner, Sophie finds herself thrown into a solo adventure running through some of the most rugged scenery Europe has to offer.
Heading out to Norway, bears are top of Sophie’s worries. However, she is soon to find that these big grizzly creatures would be the least of her concerns.
In the first month alone having to battle extreme fatigue, dehydration, relentless bog, hunger and eventually illness, the odds are quickly stacked against her.
However, not willing to give in Sophie pushes on, often against the advice she has received from people back home. In doing so she finds herself on a journey of self-discovery which creates memories that will last a lifetime.
Listen to Sophie on the Tough Girl Podcast as she shares more about this incredible journey.
Show notes
Social Media
Blog - DaringMightyThings.Blog
Facebook @thesophierooney
Instagram @rooneysophi
Twitter @thesophierooney
Book: Rundinavia: Running 3000km through Scandinavia
Jacki Hill-Murphy MA, FRGS is an explorer, teacher, film maker and speaker and has spent the past few years exploring and filming some of the most inhospitable and remote places on earth. There are many reasons why she loves being an explorer including gathering memorable experiences that last forever recorded on film and in writing, pushing herself to the limit and being loosed from her cultural moorings.
Recreating the Journeys of the Early Women Explorers Project
Jacki has recreated the journeys of:
Isabella Godin, the first women down the Amazon in 1769. This was done by travelling down the River Bobonaza in Ecuador and onto the River Pastaza in Peru in a dugout canoe and investigating the real truth behind her story at each landmark.
Mary Kingsley, who climbed Mount Cameroon in Africa in 1894 by a new route and nearly perished from the shear enormity of the the undertaking.
Isabela Brookes, who died in the Llanganates in Ecuador in 1912. This was part of the ‘Search for Gold’ expedition that she organised with Ken Hames of BBC Beyond Boundaries as survival leader.
Isabella Bird, who crossed the Digar-La Pass in Ladakh on a yak in 1889. Jacki relived every aspect of Isabella’s book during her 150 mile trek which included finding the house she stayed in and having tea with the King of Ladakh.
Kate Marsden who undertook a gruelling journey by horse, sledge and cart thousands of miles across Siberia to take relief to the lepers in 1892. Jacki replicated her journey as closely as possible on buses, trains and boats.
Show notes
Social Media
Website - www.jackihill-murphy.co.uk
Twitter: @jackihillmurphy
Director of Under The Sky CIC www.undertheskyevents.org
Sonya is a 42 year old Canadian who is currently hiking across Canada on the longest multi-use recreational trail in the world with her partner Sean.
The 24,000 km long Great Trail stretches from Cape Spear, Newfoundland to Victoria, British Columbia, and from Edmonton, Alberta to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.
They began their journey in Cape Spear, Newfoundland on 1 June 2019 and hiked just over 3,000 km to Riviere-du-Loup, Quebec before the winter arrived. They will head back to the trail in spring, and estimate they will complete their journey in fall of 2022.
Sonya's love of hiking, camping, and the outdoors began as child during multiple school trips into the wilderness. She built on these experiences in university, where she studied Conservation Biology and Forestry, and spent as much time as possible outside, doing field research on forest songbirds.
Her love of long-distance hiking began with Ontario's 900 km long Bruce Trail, and grew when she hiked the 800 km Camino Frances in Spain with Sean in 2016.
Together Sonya and Sean hiked across France on the Via Podiensis (GR 65) in 2017, and along Newfoundland's East Coast Trail in 2018. After that they decided to make hiking a more central part of their lives, and after selling the house, donating most of their possessions, and leaving behind Sonya's desk job, they did a warm-up hike along the Camino Portuguese in early 2019 and then began their adventure on the Great Trail.
As they hike, their goal is to share positive images and stories of their travels across Canada to showcase the amazing and diverse people, places, history, and landscapes that make up this country.
By sharing their passion for birds, hiking, and nature in person, on their blog, and through social media they hope to inspire people of all ages and backgrounds, but especially youth, to get outside, explore, and connect to nature through birding and Citizen Science.
Show notes
Social Media
Website: www.comewalkwithus.online. (has links to blogs for our hikes across Canada, the Camino Frances, Via Podiensis, and East Coast Trail)
Facebook: @WalkWithUsAcrossCanada
Twitter: @TransCanadaWalk
Instagram:@comewalkwithusonthegreattrail
Sunshine People was set up to highlight the changes in our society and the need to stay connected through kindness. It has never been as important in our education and leadership with the shift towards technology to keep human connection at the forefront of our conversations.
Set up after her partner died on a charity cycle challenge the founder, Nahla Summers completes a challenge each year and asks people to show their support not by donating money to a charity but by doing an act of kindness for a stranger instead.
She had started by doing smaller challenges just asking her friends and family to do the acts of kindness. What started to emerge was a wave of kindness stories that was changing hearts and minds. Ultimately, changing the way people saw the world and it inspired her to keep going and make her challenges even bigger.
In 2018 Nahla cycled 3,000 miles across America after purchasing her bike just six weeks prior. She is a woman who understand the power of the mind and a ‘can do’ attitude.
2019 she walked from Swanage, Dorset to Gretna Green 500 miles visiting schools along the way promoting kindness through speaking, workshops and more sunshine people events. She promotes the ties that kindness and a higher emotional intelligence and wellbeing has on society and wants to promote this from the bottom up.
2020 will see Nahla take on 20 challenges in 20 countries. With a dedicated social media team and cinematographer on board. A film will be produced and you will be able to follow the progress and antics of the challenges through social media.
All the challenges will be based on the principal of kindness. Feed 100 people with £10, a day of free listening, give 100 hugs, build a well and so on. The idea is start the biggest global movement towards kindness.
Show notes
Social Media
Website - www.acultureofkindness.co.uk
Website - www.sunshinepeople.org.uk
Kickstarter Campaign - Find out more HERE!
For any organisations to join up withe the 1 million acts of kindness they simply need to fill out this form.
Instagram - @sponsorkindness
Twitter - @sponsorkindness
Facebook - @sponsorkindness
YouTube @SunshinePeople
We first spoke with Mimi in December 2015, where she shared more about her early life, how she got into endurance running.
During the first episode we go into more depth about some of the bigger challenges she has done, for example breaking the world record for fastest women running JOGLE (John O’Groats to Lands End - 840 miles) in the UK in 2008.
(This record has since been broken in 2019 by Sharon Gayter - You can listen to Sharon share more about this on the Tough Girl Podcast.)
“The only way of finding the limits of
the possible is by going beyond them
into the impossible”
During this episode we catch up with Mimi and find out what’s she’s been up to since. We talk in detail about her dream of running across America, we talk about fears and failure and having to let go of running and try new sports.
Mimi talks really openly and honestly during this episode, I had a tear in my eye when I was recording it and a tear in my eye when I edited it.
You have been warned it does get emotional!
Show notes
- Quick update from Mimi
Social Media
Website - http://www.marvellousmimi.com
Instagram @marvellousmimi
Facebook @MarvellousMimi
Twitter @MarvellousMimi