Adventure Has No Age Limit: Slow Travel, House Sitting, Solo Hiking (feat. Belinda Coker)

Shannon (00:01.452)
Welcome back to Travel Time Stories with Shannon, where real journeys meet real stories and real help. I'm messing up already. And real healing happens one conversation at a time. I'm your host Shannon coming to you from the Lone Star State of Texas. Some weeks I open up and share pieces of my own life story from my travel adventures to the winding road of healing and personal growth.

And other weeks I'm joined by my best friend and co-host Ann from Missouri as we sit down with special guests who share their experiences, insights, and expertise to help all of us along our own journeys. Today, Ann is here with me. Hey, Ann.

Ann (00:46.116)
Hey everybody, welcome to the show today.

Shannon (00:50.444)
And today's guest truly embodies what it means to live a life of adventure, not just once, but over and over again across decades. Belinda Coker has been traveling the world for more than 40 years, starting in the 80s, long before we had smartphone, social media, or it was easy to catch a flight. From working on a solar power project in the mountains of Ladkah

Wait, did I say that right? Ladakh that's right, I practiced ahead of time too.

Belinda (01:21.836)
Ladakh Ladakh

Shannon (01:29.41)
To solo hiking across Australia's Red Centre and crossing Greenland's Arctic Circle alone, adventure has been a constant thread in her life.

Now in her 60s, Belinda travels full time, building her life around slow travel and multi-day hiking while helping others reconnect with their own sense of adventure through her blog, Soul Treader and the House Sitting Collective. Belinda, welcome to the show. We're so excited to have you here.

Belinda (02:03.394)
Thank you Shannon, thank you Ann it's lovely to be here.

Ann (02:07.936)
As we say on travel time stories, grab your favorite beverage and let's get into it ladies.

Belinda (02:08.708)
and

Ann (02:16.538)
So Belinda, you began traveling in a time that feels almost unimaginable now. No Google Maps, no social media, no instant booking. What first sparked that initial long journey in the 1980s?

Belinda (02:24.356)
Mm.

Belinda (02:33.444)
Okay, thank you, Ann well, what happened it was my first trip was in between high school and university. And I decided that I a lot of my friends, let me go back in New Zealand and Australia, I was born in New Zealand, and then I spent most of my adult life in Australia. And for a lot of New Zealanders, it's, it's called your big OE. So it's your overseas experience and

because I think because we're so isolated everybody either goes off for a year maybe straight after school or straight after university. We've got a lot of reciprocal working holiday visas with countries such as the UK, Canada. mean my children are doing, you know, they're ski.

you know, working in Whistler and Vernon in Canada. And if any Canadians are here and they do go up to Whistler, that's why it's just full of Australians, you know, because we do have these reciprocal work agreements. And so it was very normal for a young, you know, 18, 19, 20 year old, I worked for a couple of years to save up some money. And it was very normal for people to sort of spread their wings and take off and then come back and one, two.

one or two years later and settle down and either complete uni, go to university or get a job or whatever. So it was in a cultural sense, it's very, it's very, it's not a unique thing for New Zealanders to do and Australians. So that was why I started. Now, a lot of my friends decided to take off and go to Europe.

and I didn't, I had a flatmate who had been to Southeast Asia and I was looking through all of this photo saying, my gosh, this looks amazing. And I was so excited to do it. So I got a one way ticket to Bali and started at the southern end of Southeast Asia and just worked my way up and ended up in Ladakh, which is Northern India. And I only,

Shannon (04:43.916)
Wow.

Belinda (04:49.4)
really was, I meant to stay for a month in India and I ended up staying for, I got another six month visa and ended up staying seven, seven months there actually. Yes,

Shannon (05:02.061)
That's amazing. Wow. I wished America had programs like that for us, when we're young, before we get settled in and do that, that our kids and us can experience things like that. But we don't have anything like that.

Ann (05:04.696)
incredible.

Belinda (05:09.312)
I know. Yeah.

Ann (05:09.828)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (05:19.468)
Yeah, yeah, I know it's one of the few countries that doesn't and it is a shame because because usually these are reciprocal worker work visa work visas.

you know, a lot of people would actually like to go and work in America, work in a ski resort or, you know, and experience America, especially at that young age, because, you know, America is a great country. It's got so much to offer, and especially in terms of your wilderness and, you know, your skiing and all sorts of things. I mean, it's unlike Australia, which is about the same size, America's got a lot of things in between the two coasts, whereas Australia doesn't really have

Shannon (06:01.527)
Right.

Belinda (06:02.274)
much between the two coasts. There's a lot of desert and a great hike that I once did but yeah yeah yeah.

Shannon (06:06.401)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon (06:11.629)
So how was, you did Southeast Asia, you started in Bali. How was Bali and just the whole Southeast Asia experience? We haven't been yet, but that's one place that we're considering going. So I would love to hear some more about that.

Belinda (06:28.65)
I am so glad that I went 40 years ago. 40 years ago, I started in Kuta and Kuta was seriously a small village. And so you had Kuta right up to Seminyak and they were small little villages and now it's just one large strip.

and it's you know and there were no that there were a couple of large hotels I don't actually recall the large hotels but because you know that wasn't where I was staying but I can remember that there was a lot of very very small guest houses and it was safe and it was there was so much farmland in in Kuta itself you know Kuta was surrounded by farmland you know and used to

used to stay in these guest houses and wake up in the morning and open up your door and there'll be a pot of tea and two bananas sitting outside your door. And that was just like a complimentary breakfast. think meals, I think I probably spent about $5 a day. That is how cheap it was. now I think...

Ann (07:30.075)
Wow.

Shannon (07:30.381)
Wow.

Shannon (07:40.738)
Gosh.

Belinda (07:43.289)
Bali is very, very developed now and they are having a lot of problems with tourism or over tourism as well. And so, hmm, yeah, it wouldn't be one of my first places to go in Southeast Asia. Yeah, we can talk about that.

But yes, Bali was lovely and it was a great place to actually start off, start my travels. And then we sort of, worked my way up through Indonesia and back then the next islands Java and Sumatra, which are the islands north of Bali, the main islands, you know, they were very, very rural. you know, you would go to town and no one would speak English whatsoever.

and it was very, very, it was very raw. know, we could have even gone to some places and we might have, they might, may not have seen other foreigners for quite some time.

I then moved up to Thailand and did a circuit. Now, it's quite funny back then because there was no, actually, there were no cell phones, was no, there wasn't email, there wasn't any form of texting, WhatsApp, anything like that. So there was a lot of people sort of doing the same trip and we all had a book.

called Southeast Asia on a Shoestring, written by Maureen and Tony Wheeler, the founders of Lonely Planet. And I had the very first edition of Southeast Asia on a Shoestring, which was a yellow book. So was a yellow Lonely Planet book. It was the very first Lonely Planet book. It was a yellow cover and it just had a simple drawing on the front. And everybody had these books. You know, everyone had...

Shannon (09:49.975)
Wow.

Belinda (09:50.405)
the Yellow Travel Bible. And that was how we kind of knew where to go next, you know, and then because they had done so much research, but it was only probably about five years earlier that this book had come out. And so they had spent they had spent years, well, a couple of years sort of traveling around Southeast Asia. And everything was so well documented. But there was a real path that, you know,

backpackers and I'm going to use the term backpackers for people who were traveling in this fashion because we all had backpackers, would ever dream of having a suitcase. So backpackers, not the backpackers that America would say people who hike in the wilderness are called backpackers. So that is kind of like an Americanism.

And so the rest of the world, you have backpackers as in people who travel around with a backpack and for a year or so in a gap year. so there would be quite a few people and you'd meet others, other antipodeans or people from Canada or people from the UK, people from Europe. And it was really, it was so much fun. It really was. And...

Shannon (10:47.937)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (11:14.436)
And the way we communicated was through Poste restante So Poste restante was a service that the post office would put ahead. And so what you do is say I met you on an island, Shannon, and I said, well, I'm going to India next, and I'm probably going to Delhi. And you'd say, oh, really? Oh, Ann do you want to go to Delhi?

and say, oh yeah, okay, maybe. Well, let me think about that. I'll tell you what, let's have a think about that. Maybe, maybe, maybe, I don't know. Because there was no, it's almost like nobody really had a plan. You just did what you felt like at the time. It was great. And so I would get to, I would get to Delhi and I would write you a letter and I would say, hey, Shannon and Ann lovely to meet you in, know, know, Koh Phangan or whatever. And I'll, you know, I'm in Delhi, but I'm headed up to Ladakh.

Shannon (11:52.77)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (12:09.794)
So anyway, so Shannon and Ann you arrive in Delhi and you go to the post office and you stand in line for your poste restante and you get your letters from your mom and dad and you know, and aunt and uncle or whoever, and you get messages from people like me. but I've a message from Belinda. She's on her way up to Ladakh. yeah, her Ladakh's pretty good. Okay, well let's go there. And so that was kind of how we communicated. It was really funny and you kind of had this uncanny sense.

Ann (12:20.026)
you

Belinda (12:38.168)
that you would get somewhere and you would meet Shannon and Ann that you met in, you know, that you met in Koh Phangan or you would just meet other people. And I met so many great people. It really was fun. Yeah.

Shannon (12:51.661)
I was going to say, what an incredible way to have such diversity in meeting all these different people and enriching your life in this manner.

Belinda (13:00.45)
Hmm.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if we wanted to, if we wanted to make a phone call, you would have to go and you would have to go to maybe a post office where they would have, you know, the telephones and you would have to wait in line and it would be too expensive for us. A phone call would have been too expensive for us. You would have to do a collect call and your parents would pay for it and you know, get on the other end of the phone and say, thank God she's all right.

Ann (13:21.722)
Yeah.

Shannon (13:33.053)
Yep.

Belinda (13:33.156)
Hahaha!

Yeah. they were, it was more, it was much simpler. Sorry.

Ann (13:39.418)
Those were the days, weren't they? I love that you guys had the post office thing where you could get your messages. I I wondered how you did that, really.

Shannon (13:41.321)
Exactly.

Belinda (13:48.545)
Yeah.

Mm. Yeah. Yeah.

No, that was the way that we communicated and that was the that you communicate with your family back home as well. just before I left Australia the last time, I found a big box of letters from all my friends and my mother and my grandmother, or both of my grandmothers, just letters and they were sent to poste restante And so back then,

Ann (14:12.941)
you

Belinda (14:23.946)
Airmail would have taken quite a lot longer than it does now, you know, so a letter might have taken three weeks to get to us. So, sort of, mum kind of had to have an idea of where I would be and yeah, it worked. It just worked for some reason.

Shannon (14:29.922)
Yeah.

Ann (14:30.127)
Yes.

Ann (14:40.772)
Right. That's amazing.

Shannon (14:42.69)
Yeah.

Ann (14:47.162)
So I have to ask you, looking back, do you think you were brave or just curious enough not to know what to be afraid of yet at that age?

Belinda (14:57.028)
Well, I mean, okay, if it was my daughters doing this, I would be probably more concerned because they have, right now we've got the dark web, we've got all sorts of kind of horrible things happening. I think back then life was a lot more simple and I mean, I was...

Ann (15:03.832)
Yes.

Ann (15:13.742)
Yeah. Yep.

Belinda (15:21.314)
you know, pretty young 20 year old, you know, wandering around with a backpack. Yes, you know, something, you know, I could have run into trouble, but I kind of feel that the world is a far more dangerous place now. yeah, look, I think because so many other people were doing it and it was very rare that I was on my own. I left on my own, but I hardly ever traveled on my own. just met

other people and you know it was great and sometimes and it's almost very similar to what happens on the Camino now. So people go to to walk the Camino, the Camino de Santiago, you know whether they go the northern route or the you know the French way or the Portuguese way and they will often meet other people to walk with and it's very rare for people just not to sort of find a cohort of

people to walk with each day and it's not dissimilar to that.

Ann (16:26.522)
Wow!

Shannon (16:27.797)
Yeah, that's amazing. And so I want to hear about your hiking experiences. You've had so many and there are different types of hiking, backpacking. And so tell us a little bit about each of those.

Ann (16:30.051)
It is.

Belinda (16:50.275)
Okay, so do you want me to tell you how I got back into hiking first? Because it's actually quite an interesting story. Well...

When I was 55, I'm now 60, when I was 55, was a mom, I was working in the corporate world and I hadn't hiked for around about 35 years. So I used to hike a lot when I was in high school and back when I was in New Zealand. And I had done a lot of travel, I used to travel in the pointy part of the plain.

and you know stay in hotels and I did a lot of business travel like a lot and I kind of looked in the mirror one day and I thought you know I feel like I've lost myself I felt burnt out I you know I was I really felt a middle-aged you know I

almost like I had been wearing a corporate hat, a mom hat, know, a partner hat, a, you know,

a friend hat, but I hadn't worn a Belinda hat for a long time. And so that was the day that I started hiking. Well, I joined a meetup group and I started to go on a hike. I started off by going on a hike. I went and bought some boots and off I went. So I got into hiking fairly quickly, multi-day hiking. And it wasn't, it wasn't,

Belinda (18:33.703)
I did get into it gradually. I had done quite a bit of it when I was in New Zealand. So it wasn't something new to me, but at the same time, I probably hadn't moved my body like that for a long time. you know, what it's like when you get to that age, just, know, everything else takes precedence and doing something like going on multi-day hikes when you've got high school children and everything, just...

Shannon (18:48.044)
Yeah.

Ann (18:52.6)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (19:03.479)
It just doesn't happen.

And but my children were right at the very end of high school and they were starting to have their own lives. And that was at a time when I was able to look inward and say, where has where has the adventure gone? You know, it was as though I was sort of stuck and I thought, where's that where's that person who was always chasing adventure? Where has she gone? You know, and so I went out on a on a hike, a day hike, and I just

felt so good. the other, I was probably the youngest on this hike. It wasn't that long. It was probably about 17 kilometres, which I think is about 13 miles, but it was quite steep descent and ascent. And I remember just being feeling like the new kid in the school, you know, and everybody else was just racing down there and racing back up. And I was the youngest. Everybody else was in their 70s and 80s.

and I thought my god I want to be like that when I'm that age I do and so I and so that's when I started to to embrace getting back into hiking and nature and and movement because when you hike you you

Ann (20:06.489)
well.

Shannon (20:06.505)
my gosh.

Belinda (20:23.373)
you use almost every muscle in your body because the ground is uneven. You're walking over stones and rocks and roots and you really have to kind of, you have to be aware of your surroundings the whole time. Whereas if you're going for a walk around the, around the in suburbia, you're doing the same pace over and over again and you can completely zone out and suddenly go, am I back home already? You know, I might've said hello to Mr. Smith

Ann (20:26.65)
All

Ann (20:50.906)
Thank

Belinda (20:53.447)
you know, doing his lawn and, you know, to the flower lady down the shop or, you know, you want to, you would have, but it would have been something which was kind of repetitive and not, maybe it's, it's.

Yes, it's doing you doing you good because you're moving you're walking but it's not moving every muscle and so I felt when I got back I felt so good. So then I thought right. Okay, I will start multi-day hiking so I started by buying a tent and going out and Actually doing a seven-day walk with my tent and my backpack and my sleeping bag and that was my very first multi-day hike for 35 years

So that is one type of hiking that I do. And now back to your question. I know I've taken a long time to get back to your question. I do apologize. I'm getting there. So there are several.

Shannon (21:42.188)
Ha

Ann (21:42.615)
Hehehe.

Belinda (21:53.894)
ways of hiking, where it's multi-day hiking. one of the things I love about multi-day hiking is that you can, you go into a country or you go into a country like say Portugal or Scotland, it's called Scotland, a country. It does have its own currency. And, you know, or Germany or any of these, European

Ann (22:18.554)
Thank you.

Belinda (22:23.847)
countries or New Zealand. New Zealand is another one that does hut to hut hiking as well and you can actually stay in huts or you can stay in inns. So hut to hut is where you go usually more

it's kind of like in between inn to inn hiking and wilderness hiking because the huts are not, they're not in towns. They'll be on the trail in mountains and famous ones are things like the Tour de Mont Blanc, which is a trail that goes around Mont Blanc. And, you know, and so there's loads, there's loads in Europe and of course New Zealand has 900

huts and they're all government owned and some of them are actually free. So hut to hut is where you don't need to carry your tent, sometimes you do depending on where it is you'll need to carry your sleeping bag but sometimes you don't and some of them like the European ones breakfast and dinner is included that will be half board and so you then buy a pack of lunch or something like that and then you've got inn-to-inn hiking which is going from one

Shannon (23:13.398)
Wow.

Belinda (23:38.026)
one place to another, one town to another and staying in an inn. Now even though the Camino de Santiago, they're not inns, they're the...

Now, albergues are kind of like they've got big dormitories, but some of them do have private rooms. It's still the same thing. It's still an inn-to-inn hiking where you're going from one town to another. So you can you can either eat where you're staying or you can go out to a local restaurant or get breakfast or whatever. And inn-to-inn hiking normally has normally has luggage transfer as well. So normally you you don't have to use it.

but a lot of people do. So all you need to do is carry your day pack. So you've got wilderness camping where you carry everything. Backpacking is what it's called in America. So you're carrying your tent, your sleeping bag, your cooker, your food, your water, everything. And then you've got hut to hut where you really only need to carry your clothes. some places like New Zealand, you do need your sleeping bag.

Ann (24:26.842)
Thanks

Belinda (24:50.501)
and in European huts the food is supplied for you. And then you've got inn-to-inn hiking, which is for example the West Highland Way in Scotland, is one of the oldest, which is actually a very old, made up of very old routes and Roman roads. Or the rheinsteig which is a lovely trail that goes up the Rhine in Germany and you can stop off at all the wineries and...

you know, have a little tipple. So end to end hiking is great for those who don't or can't or don't want to carry all their gear and they just want to carry a day pack with the bare essentials and have their luggage transferred or they can carry all everything.

Shannon (25:21.333)
wow.

Ann (25:22.296)
That sounds heavenly. Yes.

Belinda (25:48.737)
but they don't need to carry a tent, don't need to carry a sleeping bag, they don't need to carry a sleeping pad, and they usually don't need to carry a cooker as well. So.

Shannon (25:59.084)
did not realize that there were that many different types of hiking. And I definitely didn't realize that they have like the inn to inn I knew about the hut to hut, but I didn't know anything about like the inn to inn that kind of thing. So that's very interesting to learn.

Ann (25:59.598)
Wow.

Belinda (26:08.324)
Hmm. Hmm.

Ann (26:09.231)
No.

Belinda (26:13.188)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah, it's very, very popular in Europe and almost every country has got some of their famous, a famous hike which does this, you know, there's one that my partner is looking for at the moment, the Pieterpad I think it's Pedepaard and it goes down from the top of the Netherlands all the way down the bottom past cute windmills and tulip fields and all that sort of thing. So that would be a really, and that would be flat. So Netherlands flat, flat, right?

Shannon (26:40.375)
wow.

Ann (26:41.21)
gorgeous. Yeah. Right.

Shannon (26:45.952)
Yeah.

Belinda (26:46.472)
walk a beef flat as a pancake. that'd be a great one for, you know, people to get stuck into as their first one. yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Shannon (26:55.465)
Yeah, that's a great starter hike. Uh-huh. Mm-hmm. Yeah, exactly. I may have to look into that one.

Ann (26:55.576)
I was gonna say, yep, good trainer hike.

Ann (27:05.77)
I kind of like the Ryan one in Germany, I'll be honest with you.

Belinda (27:08.926)
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I just need to mention also probably the most famous inn to inn hikes are the Camino de Santiago's which gained huge popularity in recent years and the Caminos are getting busier and busier every year but some of those are less strenuous than others and actually you can do Caminos. The Caminos actually start

Shannon (27:08.961)
Yeah

Belinda (27:38.752)
art from all over Europe and they sort of converge on the main Camino going through Spain. So you can actually do Camino in Sweden, I think that, know, as far away as Sweden, I think there's even one coming from Russia. So it kind of, it kind of branches out like, you know, veins and capillaries, you know, throughout Europe.

Shannon (28:04.567)
Wow. Yeah, yeah.

Belinda (28:05.701)
but you go the other way. Yeah. You got to end in Santiago. Yeah.

Ann (28:06.138)
I had no idea.

Ann (28:14.264)
I wish America had something like that set up where you could hike and have different places to stay. I don't know if we do or not, but we do.

Belinda (28:19.629)
Yeah, I think you do. You have one hike, yep, and it's called the Oregon Trail, the Oregon Coastal Trail. So that runs down the whole coast of Oregon, and I think you can just do parts of it, but that is an inn-to-inn Yeah, but that's the only one that I know of.

Ann (28:27.936)
yes, okay.

Ann (28:39.994)
okay.

Shannon (28:40.513)
I was going to say, I didn't even realize we even had that one. I know we have plenty of hiking trails, you know, all over the United States. Famous ones, famous ones even, you know, like the Appalachian Trail and different ones like that. But I was not familiar that we had an inn to inn on the Oregon Trail. So.

Ann (28:45.005)
Uh-uh.

Belinda (28:48.025)
Yeah, you got some of the most amazing, yeah.

Yeah.

Belinda (29:00.857)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, so yeah, yeah. And if any of your listeners are interested in, in finding a little bit more about what an inn-to-inn hike looks like, I've got a great series on the way.

Ann (29:02.97)
Let's get to that.

Shannon (29:04.117)
Yeah, organs are on our list to visit, so we may have to check into that.

Ann (29:09.049)
Right.

Belinda (29:23.077)
the West Highland Way, which is Scotland's famous trail. And that's a pure inn to inn trail. And you don't need to do the whole lot. You can just do three days or whatever. But that's a great one. And another good one that I have on my website as well is the Fishman's Trail in southern Portugal. So that goes from inn to inn as well. And that's pretty neat.

that goes from right down the south, most southern southwest tip of Portugal and goes all the way up to Lisbon and that's that or just just south of Lisbon along the coast and and that is it's a little bit more strenuous but for those who feel that they're you know capable walkers the fisherman's trail is really beautiful and Portugal's lovely I mean

the food, the wine, the people. I mean, what's not to love? I know.

Shannon (30:26.147)
yeah, I can imagine. Right? Well, I'm definitely gonna watch the one on Scotland because we plan to come back. And so when we come back to Scotland, I definitely would love to do that.

Ann (30:27.322)
Right. Exactly.

Ann (30:35.673)
Yeah, me too.

Belinda (30:37.582)
Mmm. Yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Ann (30:39.311)
Yeah.

That would be fun.

Belinda (30:43.736)
Yeah, yeah. And if any of your listeners are, you know, unsure about doing one of these on your own, there are a lot of tours now that that do that do cater for, you know, for these walking holidays, and they organise all the accommodation, and all you need to do is turn up with a list of items that they've given you to bring. So that's that's another way of doing it. And there are two types of tours that you can do for these

into in or these you know inn to inn hikes and and they do hut to hut as well so they book all the huts for you they book all the inns for you and you know and and they transfer your luggage you know there and there's two types there's guided and then there's self-guided as well and the self-guided ones are great because you don't have you know especially if you're traveling with somebody else or you know you might be neurodivergent and you don't really want to spend time with other people

you know, for any reason you want a self-guided, you're basically given all the maps and a contact so you can contact at any stage and just say, look, you know, I'm here and they check up on you all the time as well. So it's kind of like doing a hike on your own but with a safety net. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ann (31:59.094)
good.

Shannon (32:04.375)
Yeah, yeah, that's really good.

Ann (32:04.89)
I like that.

Belinda (32:06.918)
So that's, yeah. So I do have information on that on that on my site as well about what that what that looks like. Yeah, which, yeah, yeah.

Ann (32:09.978)
So.

perfect.

Shannon (32:13.558)
Okay.

Ann (32:15.854)
Okay.

Shannon (32:16.097)
Yeah. So is there a moment on those hikes when fear shows up? And if so, how do you work with it?

Ann (32:18.778)
awesome.

Ann (32:23.13)
I was just gonna ask that. Right.

Belinda (32:24.24)
Yes.

Okay so I've had a couple and both of them have been bad weather. So the first one was when I was doing the solo hike across Greenland and so I was doing the when I say across Greenland I was going from where the ice cap

finished, you know, at this at the edge of the ice cap over to the sea. So it's around about, I'd like to say, I can't remember exactly, but about 250 kilometres, about 170 miles. So I took 10 days to do the hike, because on the last on the second to last day, I got caught in one of the huts. So they've got little huts on on there on this trail as well. But the huts

rudimentary, they're one room, they've got a stove and the huts are actually there, were originally built for the hunters and so they're little hunting huts but they're very cute, they're red, know, real, you know, very, very, you know, almost like Norwegian, you know, they're very cute little wooden huts and this particular trail actually is an old Inuit hike

hunting, hunting route so you actually follow it along. And I had very, very hot polar sun, so it would have been, it probably, it felt like, it felt like...

Belinda (34:01.702)
It would have been 30 degrees, but it felt like 40 degrees. And I would like to say it felt like about 100 Fahrenheit. That it probably wasn't, but that's how it's because the sun was so strong and it's also 24 hours light. normally I sleep in my tent, but this time I was staying in the huts because I just couldn't sleep in the night because there was no night. But I did wake up one night and I got up to go to toilet. And right outside my tent was

Ann (34:09.722)
Wow.

Shannon (34:13.418)
Yeah.

Ann (34:13.582)
Yeah.

Belinda (34:31.656)
a reindeer just like grazing away you know.

Shannon (34:34.756)
my gosh.

Belinda (34:37.102)
I heard the sound and I thought, is that water? Because I was right by a lake and there was this big reindeer just munching away right outside my tent. It was quite funny. But anyway, the last night I ended up being my second to last night, the weather changed and it got very cold. so I bunkered down in this hut and I thought, right, okay, if it's foul weather tomorrow, I'll just stay another night.

Ann (34:46.647)
how awesome to see that.

Belinda (35:07.016)
I had enough food and I only had one more day to make it to the coast to Sermermiut but I had to go over a pass. And this little wooden hut was held down by huge wire cables, metal steel cables to a rock.

foundation and so the storm came through and the hut was going like this bang bang bang bang like this and I was like wow okay well this is I thought to myself this hut has been here for you know 30 years nothing's going to happen to it you know something would have happened to it before before now because I'm pretty sure that in the winter they get some gnarly weather anyway so the next morning I woke up there was snow everywhere

Shannon (35:32.264)
my gosh.

Belinda (35:51.788)
my gosh. So I thought, right, okay, so I can wait here because it wasn't heavy snow and it didn't look like it was going to continue to snow. I knew I had enough food. I had enough food for another three days, so I was fine. And I knew that there were other hikers who were coming in behind me, but whether or not they would have stopped at the hut, the hut before, previous hut, I didn't know. Anyway, so later on that night, this was the second day, suddenly the

door burst open and snow came in and then more two Greenlandic ladies with a bottle of Jägermeister. And I was just like, my gosh, but they were hilarious. And the next morning, it's still snow, there was more snow. The next morning, you know, they're putting on all their clothes and you're getting ready to go and I said, are we going? And they're going, yeah, we're going. And so I

Ann (36:31.684)
Yay!

Belinda (36:49.403)
week for me and this little Australian running after these Greenlandic ladies who just for them this is just normal going over this pass. But yeah, yeah, so yeah, I've had some funny stories. Yeah, but it's been, yeah.

Shannon (36:57.227)
Yeah.

Ann (37:01.314)
Wow.

Ann (37:06.916)
That's so great. I love that one. I love the Jägermeister.

So Belinda, a lot of people struggle with the idea of solo travel, but they also struggle with the reality of it. What would you say to someone who feels drawn to it, but, hey, I'm a little afraid to do this?

Belinda (37:29.957)
Well, if you are afraid to go solo, would do something like go on a, maybe start off by yourself and go on a tour and meet other people. Maybe start off with that. Or there's another option which I think is great for solo women and that is maybe house sitting.

and I'll explain why house sitting is such a great, I know you want to talk about it after, it is just such a good thing for solo women to do because you don't have to sit at a restaurant by yourself.

Ann (38:03.62)
Yes.

Belinda (38:13.797)
You don't have to try and negotiate your way back to a hotel by yourself. You don't have to be in a strange hotel by yourself. You can be in somebody's house, you know, at nighttime stroking a cat, watching a, you know, watching a movie or something. And then during the day, you can go out and, you know, see the Eiffel Tower or, you know, visit a museum or something like that. So that's a good option. The other one I would say is, is go on a tour with a single, for single

Shannon (38:15.33)
Yeah.

Belinda (38:43.721)
However, tours cost money. sitting is free accommodation.

Travelling by yourself can be very scary when you first do it and because I've had years and years of experience with travelling by myself, especially when in the business and during my years of business travel as well. And so I got to spend a lot of meals sitting at a restaurant by myself and some people like it.

I personally don't anymore. I can, it doesn't particularly bother me. But I don't really, really enjoy it. I don't really enjoy that meal. For me, and that's just me. still today, I still need to sit down at a meal. I think I enjoy it more because I do it now as a way of life, as a

Shannon (39:30.988)
Yeah.

Belinda (39:48.762)
opposed to being on holiday because when you are on holiday, it can be quite, you know, when you see, and I know I'm supposed to say, you know, you go girl, you can do this, you've got this, but there are of realities, especially if you go to a touristy place and you... Sorry.

Ann (40:03.629)
Yes.

Shannon (40:11.213)
We have another guest joining us. Yeah.

Ann (40:13.162)
No worries. We are dog people, so we're good.

Belinda (40:17.775)
Yeah.

So especially if you're at a touristy place where, you know, everybody else is sitting at tables with other people, having a good time and enjoying yourself. So one of the first things I would say is to try and find somebody else that you can meet up with. And there are a lot of, there are a lot of Facebook groups for different destinations, you know, for traveling here or traveling there, can always find, you can always find a Facebook group.

or a meetup group and just probably a Facebook group and say hey you do have to be careful though but you know to say you know I don't know whether I should be advising this but try and find if there's you know if there's if there are other female solo travelers you know who are in the city where you are and see if you can meet up for a drink or something like that or maybe see if there are any other solo travelers who are in the hotel lobby.

you know, start a conversation. And if you are, you know, a little bit neurodivergent, a diversion or you're, you know, or you're, you know, you're, you're very shy or, you know, you're not, you know, what's it when you're, you know,

people who are outgoing and people who are not outgoing. you're an introvert, something like that might be quite scary, but then on the flip side, if you're an introvert, you might actually like not talking to anybody. So I think you just have to choose somewhere where...

Ann (41:43.866)
Right,

Shannon (41:43.881)
introverted.

Belinda (42:01.232)
where you will feel comfortable, I think so. And sometimes the busiest cities, you will feel more comfortable.

Ann (42:10.948)
You're more invisible. Seriously, you know?

Belinda (42:11.089)
Sorry, was, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yeah.

Shannon (42:13.879)
Yeah, yeah, exactly. Now that you're traveling full time in your 60s, how has your relationship with adventure changed?

Ann (42:18.266)
So.

Belinda (42:18.811)
Yeah.

Belinda (42:27.48)
it's become normal. So for example, the next hike that I have planned is a hike through three back-to-back hikes in Greece. And instead of going, my gosh, this is so exciting, we're going to Greece.

I kind of like, you know, I booked the tickets and I and I look at it very methodically, almost like, almost like, sometimes I've kind of feel that the excitement has gone out of it because I look at it now. I look at these hikes now as a job, you know, for my for my for my for my business. Yes, it is exciting going to a new country. I'm excited about going to Athens. But

Shannon (43:13.921)
Yeah.

Belinda (43:21.497)
I think it's become very, very normal to go to Athens and do three back-to-back hikes. And, you know, is that a good thing? I don't know. You think so?

Ann (43:37.134)
Why not? I think so.

You're there, you might as well do them all and see some things. So don't waste that precious time when you're traveling. Do something all the time. So what assumptions about aging do you think need to be challenged, especially when it comes to travel and physical exploration?

Belinda (43:44.199)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

Shannon (43:44.636)
Hahaha!

Belinda (44:05.137)
So my beliefs were challenged that day that I went on the hike and the other ladies or the other, there were men and women, were in their 70s and 80s. So that to me was a huge wake up call. And I feel that travel,

travel and exercise, I think it really does give you longevity because you know, definitely exercise, we all know that exercise is very good for you. But travel gives you something to look forward to, it opens your eyes, especially if you do something which is immersive travel, like slow travel, it can just be wonderful just, you know, walking down to a village, you know, going to the market, you know,

trying to speak a little bit of broken Spanish and then...

getting out Google Translate and just all those sorts of things and coming back and having to go at making a Spanish dish and anything like that will go, maybe in Portugal, in some cute village and you've got all the old men there playing the dominoes, drinking their, whatever their, I think they were drinking brandy at breakfast time.

Shannon (45:01.301)
Yeah.

Ann (45:29.24)
Wow.

Belinda (45:29.289)
Well, I don't know, was a small shot or something. But you know what I mean? to see, see, experience that and just to be able to sit there. I think as we get older, we're far more open to just sitting down and just watching a street scene and just people watching and just soaking in the atmosphere. I know when I was very young,

Ann (45:33.273)
online.

Belinda (45:58.435)
I would just be racing here and racing there and you know doing all these exciting things but I think as we get older it's just about having an experience and you know you know soaking it all in and that's that's just for me that's just a wonderful and it's invigorating as well it is invigorating it's because it's relaxing it's relaxing but invigorating at the same time is that that is possible right?

Shannon (46:10.05)
Yes.

Ann (46:19.404)
yes.

Ann (46:26.616)
Yeah, I always feel like I'm taking a moment to literally immerse myself, the culture, the food, the people, when we're doing a slower type travel, you know?

Shannon (46:26.647)
Yes, yes.

Belinda (46:38.726)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Shannon (46:41.805)
Yeah, I personally at this age enjoy the slow travel way more than having this packed itinerary from sunup to sundown and you're just go, go, go, go, go. And then you're stressing if you don't make it to the next item on the itinerary. And at this age, I don't want any part of that.

Ann (46:50.926)
Yes.

Belinda (46:53.842)
Yeah.

Belinda (46:58.055)
Yeah.

Ann (47:01.784)
Yep.

Belinda (47:02.492)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Yeah, yes.

Ann (47:08.41)
Well, the problem with that is, is you need a vacation from your vacation when you get home, because you're not taking any time to slow down and just get a little bit of relaxation in, you know.

Shannon (47:12.371)
Yes. Yes.

Belinda (47:12.698)
Yeah, yeah, exactly.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. And especially those people who are taking like, you know, the two weeks off from their job, you know, those two weeks, you really need to relax in those two weeks and, know, and otherwise you just get burnout on, on, on all, you know, from all sides of the story. So, yeah.

Ann (47:25.423)
Right.

Shannon (47:29.869)
Yes.

Ann (47:38.051)
yeah, especially here in America, we don't get enough time off. So I think Europe is so much more generous and caring about their people.

Shannon (47:38.123)
Exactly.

Shannon (47:41.885)
No, we're-

Exactly, we're lucky here if you get two weeks vacation. And that's just, no, it's ridiculous to me that, and then some places don't even wanna give you two weeks vacation. I mean, out of a year, that's...

Belinda (47:46.083)
Yeah.

Belinda (47:51.14)
Yeah, it's not enough.

Ann (47:51.182)
Yeah. Yeah. No, it's not.

Belinda (48:00.828)
Yeah.

Belinda (48:04.303)
Yeah.

Ann (48:04.314)
And then they wonder why mental health is so terrible in so many people right now. There's no break.

Belinda (48:10.915)
Yeah, yeah. Yeah.

Shannon (48:14.015)
and why there's such high job burnout because I mean, people don't get time off to rest and recover and you know, so yeah, they get tired of the job and just off they go somewhere else.

Ann (48:17.921)
yeah.

Belinda (48:29.221)
Yeah, yeah.

Ann (48:30.116)
Well, you feel like you're your job more than you are at home or with your family, you know. So who wants that? No, it's not.

Belinda (48:33.989)
Yeah, yeah, it's not good.

Shannon (48:34.539)
Yeah, exactly.

Belinda (48:37.755)
Yeah, no, slow travel, really is. It's one of the best ways to travel. It is. And that's one of the reasons why I like hiking so much is because, well, usually I'm in the wilderness, but a lot of times in Europe, I am going from town to town. But, you know, I'm taking my time to get from one place to another. you know, I always used to say, right, you know, this is a seven day hike, so it's going to take seven days. I don't do that anymore.

I go as far as I can or want to. And then, you know, if I see a nice campsite, say, well, it might be lunchtime. It doesn't matter. You know, let's, you know, when I'm by myself, I might not do that because otherwise I'm twiddling my thumbs, you know, waiting for, you know, for the afternoon. But, you know, when I'm with my partner and it's a lovely place to settle down, it doesn't matter. You know, it really doesn't matter. And that's one of the beauties about when you are traveling.

Ann (49:12.463)
Yeah.

Ann (49:25.08)
Right.

Shannon (49:34.498)
Yeah.

Belinda (49:37.593)
when you are older is that you do seem to have more time to make those decisions. For example, say you were going to a country and you were going to maybe five places in the country. You can. I always try to build in flexibility. So if I get to place number three and I say, my gosh.

I don't want to go any further. I want to stay here for the remainder of the vacation for the rest of the week that I've got. I don't want to go to the other places. I want to stay here and find a little guest house if you can't extend your hotel and not go to these other places. And so I always book my internal travel separately from my long haul from international tickets.

But if I do need to make any changes, I can do so quite easily.

That does have its drawbacks because if you miss a flight or something, you know, for some reason, then the airline has to do everything else. But for me, I've always prioritized my flexibility and to be able to stay in a place longer. Or I get to a place and I go, why are we, why am I staying three nights here? I don't like this place. I want to go to the next place or I want to go elsewhere or, know, so I like that. I like to have flexibility. Yeah.

Ann (50:44.623)
Yeah.

Shannon (50:59.789)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (51:00.974)
Yep.

Shannon (51:03.852)
Yeah.

Ann (51:08.716)
I think it's very important when you travel to be flexible and know that, you know, things are going to happen. Things are going to change beyond your control and you just have to kind of go with it and plan around it.

Belinda (51:10.715)
Yeah.

Shannon (51:11.02)
Yes.

Belinda (51:19.782)
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

Shannon (51:20.875)
Yeah, exactly. Yeah. And like you say, when you slow down and you're doing slow travel, you connect way more with the places that you're at than you do any other time. And you also connect with yourself during that slow travel.

Ann (51:31.278)
Yes.

Belinda (51:31.846)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Yeah.

Ann (51:41.774)
Definitely. Yeah. So I love that. I love that there's a name for it, slow travel. You know, because here in the lab.

Belinda (51:50.901)
Yeah, yeah, it's a bit like, it's a bit like slow cooking, you know, very comforting, you know.

Shannon (51:51.145)
Mm-hmm, yeah. I didn't realize there was a name for it.

Ann (51:56.09)
No, because it'll

Shannon (51:59.95)
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

Ann (52:02.402)
Yeah, you just put it in the oven and let it go. we have been this last couple of trips. We have actually built in some, some extra time to allow for those things, you know, to give us time to have a day just to sit and do nothing if we want to, or, you know, like you said, stay in extra place in a day or there were some places we went where we were like, you know what? There's nothing more here to do. Let's just move on, you know,

Shannon (52:04.94)
Yeah.

Belinda (52:13.992)
Hmm, yeah.

Belinda (52:20.614)
Yeah. Yeah.

Belinda (52:30.278)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Shannon (52:31.99)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (52:32.814)
So yeah, I love that.

Shannon (52:35.073)
Yep. So one thing I love about your work is that it's not just inspirational, it's practical. So tell us more about the House Sitting Collective and how it makes long-term travel sustainable.

Ann (52:41.935)
Yes.

Belinda (52:49.722)
Okay, so it's not just long-term travel, it can be short travel as well. So it's an interesting way of traveling and the way that I got into it is when I was traveling for work and I would travel from hotel to hotel and be stuck in a little room, it might have a desk, it'll have a corner chair and I would have to go down to the bar downstairs and eat.

Shannon (52:55.158)
Okay.

Ann (53:14.115)
Yeah.

Belinda (53:19.746)
And you know, yes, it was fine, but it wasn't, you know, and I know more often than not.

couldn't open up the window. you know, as I've got older, I get very, very hot at night and I need the window open. So, and so I started to look at Airbnb's and you know, Airbnb has changed a lot from when it first started. It's, you know, it's, it's now it's kind of just, you know, renting out apartments or whatever. And

Shannon (53:32.683)
Mm-hmm, yep.

Ann (53:33.7)
Yep, same.

Shannon (53:45.175)
Mm-hmm. Yes.

Ann (53:46.382)
Yes, very much.

Ann (53:52.419)
Right.

Shannon (53:53.196)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (53:54.217)
And often, you know, the kitchen is literally just, you know, you'll be lucky if you get a saucepan and a frying pan and a knife that cuts anything. So and I wanted to stay in a few places for an extended period of time. So a friend of mine said, you know, I saying, look, you know, I'm trying to find somewhere to stay. you know, she said, you know, you could do house sitting. What? And then, you know how

You know how Facebook just brings up all this cool stuff when you're, you don't even have to say it now. You can just think it and it...

Ann (54:28.986)
When you mention it, yeah. Exactly. Yeah.

Shannon (54:30.113)
Yeah, if you just think it, yeah, yeah. We say here in America, that's big brother listening and they just start sending you stuff.

Ann (54:35.18)
It's there.

Belinda (54:38.8)
I'm fine. Yeah.

Ann (54:39.865)
Yes.

Belinda (54:44.09)
So I got into it and I got a two week house in a place that I wanted to be and it was in a doctor's mansion looking after a Siamese cat and I had a lounge room, a dining room, a kitchen, great kitchen, everything I air fryer, a slow cooker, everything that you would want in a kitchen, everything that you have in your own kitchen to make a meal.

Shannon (54:55.735)
Goodness.

Belinda (55:14.436)
You know what, you know, and, you know, and there was a TV with, you know, Netflix, any, you know, all that sort of stuff. So it felt like a home. I got so much work done that week, for those two weeks. It was just incredible. Not only that, it didn't cost me a cent. And all I had to do was look after this cat and...

and also look out the house but in a way of just make sure that nobody was coming in to burgle it or if they had a you know if a pipe broke then the place got flooded I could help deal with that if you know if that ever did happen or whatever you know and so I started to do it on a regular basis and I realized that it is one of the best ways to travel. It's safe

it's cheap, you see some places, you can go to some places and some places that you've never been and really immerse yourself in the culture. went to Spain and we did Barcelona, Neuja and Andalusia and so we stayed in house sits for about three weeks in each of those places and we were, it was a full...

Shannon (56:36.503)
Gosh.

Belinda (56:38.249)
immersion. You know, we, you know, we would take a dog for a walk and you know, we'd go down to down to the local, you know, market or we would, you know, to the local sort of cafe and you know, have our, you know, cafe solo in the morning and it was just amazing. It was just amazing.

you get to live like a local and that's pretty special. And Barcelona was great. I mean, we were probably about 20 minutes from central Barcelona. You know, we went into Barcelona, you know, about three times a week and just enjoyed Barcelona. Now, if I was to go, we probably went into Barcelona about 10 times. If I was to spend 10 days in Barcelona, I would spend a lot of money, right? Yeah, yeah.

Ann (57:04.558)
Yes.

Shannon (57:09.047)
Wow.

Shannon (57:24.808)
Exactly, yes.

Ann (57:26.338)
Yes.

Belinda (57:26.953)
And so it's a great way to travel. And as I saying, it's a great way for solo female travelers to travel. You don't need to try and eat at a restaurant by yourself. You can just eat, eat, eat, and then just take your glass of wine and sit in front of the fire or the television or whatever. So there are several safety things.

issues that you don't have to be concerned with when you're solo traveling. It's also good for people who are on special diets as well. You know, might, know, restrictive diets because we all know that if you're trying to find a vegan restaurant in a big city, it's going to cost you an arm and a leg. mean, you know, and you can make that same vegan meal at home for like three dollars. Well, you know.

Shannon (58:11.521)
Yep.

Shannon (58:16.887)
Yeah.

Belinda (58:18.377)
I might be exaggerating, I was, I did have a go at being vegan, but yeah. But what I'm saying is, if you are on a restrictive diet, it can be very difficult when you're traveling to try and find restaurants which will cater for your needs. And sometimes that can be cost prohibitive as well. And then the other one is, of course, seniors or early retirees and...

Ann (58:19.268)
Right. probably not.

Shannon (58:36.268)
Yes.

Belinda (58:45.555)
who just want to go somewhere and spend some time and just a month somewhere in the sun or somewhere different, somewhere different from where they are. And that can be a great way of traveling as well because when you are retirees, sometimes your finances are very strapped and...

Shannon (58:50.285)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (59:09.401)
Yes.

Shannon (59:09.442)
Yep.

Belinda (59:09.897)
And it is a win-win situation for both the homeowner and you. You get to have free accommodation and they get someone to look after their two most precious, their dog, their pet and their home.

Ann (59:24.718)
Exactly. Their pet and their home. Yeah.

Shannon (59:31.041)
Yeah, you, yeah, I know. And you do this now with your partner, right? So it is couples can, or two people that are traveling together can do the house sitting. Okay.

Ann (59:33.496)
Boy, my wheels are turning.

Belinda (59:35.465)
Thank

Belinda (59:39.814)
Yeah, yeah.

Belinda (59:44.874)
Absolutely, absolutely. So I did quite a few by myself as a solo female and then with my partner as well. Some people will prefer a partner sometimes especially at their country sits but I've also done a lot of country sits where I've been by myself and I had a hilarious one. Can I tell you about this one? So...

Shannon (59:52.386)
Mm-hmm.

Ann (01:00:08.867)
please.

Shannon (01:00:09.088)
yes!

Belinda (01:00:11.593)
So it was in Canada and the couple were in Fernie and they had a Belgian Mellanoi, you know, absolutely gorgeous dog. And they wanted me to meet them at Calgary Airport. So I went to Calgary Airport and they met me with dog and car. I got into the...

Ann (01:00:22.746)
beautiful.

Belinda (01:00:35.601)
into the car with the dog, said goodbye to them and drove seven hours to their house in Fernie. And on the way I was just like, I stopped to get a burger on the way and because that was all I could find, the only place to eat that I could find that I could drive through and I was just feeding, and it was snowing by the way, feeding the dog to say.

Shannon (01:00:43.627)
my gosh.

Belinda (01:00:58.747)
it's okay, we're gonna we're gonna go straight into your house and I'm strange and it's fine. We're gonna be fine with this, aren't we? But I yeah, so we I ended up being there for three weeks and it was just one of the most beautiful. It was a gorgeous house and it was just the most amazing house that I could have asked for and then when it was finished,

Ann (01:01:02.778)
you

Ann (01:01:10.222)
I'm sure after he had his own burger he was fine.

Shannon (01:01:13.153)
Right?

Belinda (01:01:28.005)
I drove up to Calgary airport and dropped the car and the dog off and said goodbye to them. And I was just, but yeah, I mean, I've stayed in some absolutely brilliant places, but what I love so much about it is you do have, you have a kitchen, you have a dining room, you have a lounge room, and you don't just have a small boxy hotel room because,

Ann (01:01:36.879)
Wow.

Belinda (01:01:57.298)
you know and and in the same bed every night which I like you know I'm getting yeah so yeah so that's why I started the How Sitting Collective which you know is where I run courses on how to house sit and yeah and one of them is so I've got

Shannon (01:02:03.286)
Yes.

Ann (01:02:03.492)
thing.

Ann (01:02:15.481)
love this.

Shannon (01:02:16.834)
Yeah.

Belinda (01:02:20.425)
I've got three main courses is more coming, but an easy one just like how to use power words in your application. So power words, know, all the good words that make people feel comfortable with you and want to take you on. And I've had reviews with that one with people saying, my God, you know, I use these, I use this for my resume. You know, because so many people don't understand how to use power

Shannon (01:02:45.569)
my goodness.

Ann (01:02:45.657)
Right.

Belinda (01:02:49.897)
power words and you know, especially with AI now, sometimes it's just so easy to get AI to write something and it can be absolute dross. But you know, I sort of teach you, right, okay, these are the power words and this is how to structure it in a sentence. And I think that's kind of really quite a good thing to do because so many of us, so many of us, you know, we have, you know, Google Maps or any other AI thing and it's so easy to become complacent.

Shannon (01:02:51.127)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon (01:02:56.63)
Mm-hmm.

Shannon (01:03:00.109)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (01:03:19.299)
Right and then and then I've got another course you know which is kind of a middle course and then I've got the big one which is how to do house sitting and I go through absolutely everything in it and it's it's great instruction it's it is it's a great lifestyle so yes my partner and I we do it probably about four to between four to four to five months a year and the rest of the time we're hiking yeah yeah

Shannon (01:03:44.089)
Wow. Yes, I'm excited for this. I love this. I'm ready to take the course now.

Ann (01:03:44.282)
Nice, I love that.

Belinda (01:03:49.145)
Yeah.

Ann (01:03:49.41)
Me too.

Belinda (01:03:54.249)
Thank

Ann (01:03:54.958)
Yeah, we work remotely, so I'm thinking, hmm, where do I want to work from?

Belinda (01:03:58.539)
Yeah, yeah, but it is nice to be able to, you know, especially if you've got winter where you are and you just want to, you know, you just want some heat or you or down in Texas, you just want to escape somewhere in summer and just go, my gosh, you know, Canada here I come.

Shannon (01:03:59.976)
Exactly.

Ann (01:04:09.239)
yeah.

Shannon (01:04:11.146)
Mm-hmm.

Exactly. Yes, exactly.

Ann (01:04:18.134)
Yeah, for sure.

Shannon (01:04:26.241)
Yeah, and I can say when we were in Scotland, one of the places that I booked for us now, obviously we weren't house sitting, know, but I booked an apartment for us on one of the castle estates. And so it wasn't like a regular apartment, you know, it was very large, like almost the size of my home here in America.

Ann (01:04:35.204)
Right.

Ann (01:04:49.998)
Yes. Right. This is gorgeous.

Belinda (01:04:51.326)
Hahaha

Shannon (01:04:55.689)
It was so gorgeous and we were there for three days and we went to the local market, got food, cooked for ourselves and truly comfort. had big living room, nice kitchen, two bedrooms, large bathroom. Yeah, I mean, it was amazing and it was on the castle property. So we would go out hiking all over the grounds and everything.

Belinda (01:05:12.072)
Yeah. Wow.

Ann (01:05:22.361)
Yeah.

Belinda (01:05:24.634)
That sounds amazing!

Shannon (01:05:24.705)
during the day and whatnot.

Ann (01:05:27.288)
Yeah, we pack lunch and just take off and find a really gorgeous spot and have a picnic and then keep on going. So it was really great. We loved it.

Belinda (01:05:30.676)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Shannon (01:05:36.47)
Yeah, our favorite thing there during that time was Ann packed us a lunch and we went out hiking on the property and found some standing stones circle and we sat down and had lunch in the standing stone circle and it was so amazing. I felt like I was part of Outlander, you know? I was waiting for Jamie to come over the bridge.

Belinda (01:05:47.816)
Really?

Ann (01:05:54.618)
It was so fun. Yeah.

Belinda (01:05:55.347)
Yeah.

I know.

Belinda (01:06:03.688)
Yeah. Yeah. Scotland is just Scotland is so romantic, isn't it? Isn't it just so my gosh. Yeah.

Ann (01:06:04.058)
She was praying, let me tell you, she was praying for that. She wasn't just waiting.

It's beautiful. Yeah, it's really pretty.

Shannon (01:06:13.434)
yes, it's, yeah. Every place we went, so absolutely beautiful, yeah.

Ann (01:06:21.07)
Yeah, it was. It was just beautiful. And the food was the best, literally.

Belinda (01:06:23.85)
Yeah.

Yeah. Did you have, did you have hackers? Yeah. All right. Okay. Did.

Shannon (01:06:26.676)
yeah, the-

Yes, yes, I tried haggis and I actually liked it. It was not, it was not bad at all.

Ann (01:06:30.373)
Shannon did. I did it.

Belinda (01:06:37.348)
Scottish people don't like me because I tell them that I do haggis burgers and then and then and I also I also fry up haggis with some freshly chopped tomato and lots of garlic and have it on spaghetti and parsley yeah and how can you do that how no you have it with mash

Shannon (01:06:54.007)
That would be really good. Yeah.

Ann (01:06:59.455)
Not always.

Belinda (01:07:04.798)
Badge? No, no, no.

Shannon (01:07:05.549)
Well, I'm the adventurous one with food in our travel partnership. So wherever we go, if it's something that most people are like, I don't know if I'd want to try that. I have to try it. Exactly. I ate bugs in New Orleans. So I mean.

Belinda (01:07:11.508)
Yeah.

Ann (01:07:11.842)
Yes.

Belinda (01:07:14.45)
Ha ha ha!

Belinda (01:07:21.258)
Give it to Shannon to try.

Ann (01:07:22.241)
and an old toyot.

Ann (01:07:26.862)
She will. She'll eat anything.

Belinda (01:07:29.514)
Ann (01:07:33.624)
Yeah, she did. They were fried up nice and crunchy.

Belinda (01:07:33.896)
Did you?

Shannon (01:07:35.051)
Yes!

Belinda (01:07:39.922)
No, great. What cuisine was that?

Shannon (01:07:40.041)
Yeah.

Shannon (01:07:48.334)
It was, we were at, New Orleans, we went to the insectorium and they have a cafe within the insectorium and they cook up all these different insects that you can try. So I was like, okay, yeah, I have to try it. Meanwhile, Anne was over there going,

Belinda (01:07:55.571)
Right.

Belinda (01:08:04.392)
Right.

Ann (01:08:12.858)
Hey, I have eaten dead ants and grasshoppers before, know, Crisp Fried So I have eaten bugs before. So I let her have the experience. I was good.

Belinda (01:08:16.424)
Yeah, yeah.

Shannon (01:08:19.713)
Hahaha!

Belinda (01:08:23.144)
Yeah, yeah, apparently there's a lot of protein in those so yeah. Yeah, I think I'll stick to yogurt.

Shannon (01:08:23.617)
Hahaha!

Yeah, exactly.

Ann (01:08:28.413)
very much so. So yeah, if you ever get stuck in the woods, you can eat bugs. Yeah, there you go.

Shannon (01:08:40.525)
So you have a blog called SoulThreader. What does the name mean to you?

Belinda (01:08:49.766)
soul and then treader as in walking yeah yeah yeah that's yeah and and is it a good name probably not nobody can ever spell it and i have and i have to keep repeating it so but i know who cares

Shannon (01:08:54.593)
Walking,

Ann (01:08:56.014)
Awesome.

Shannon (01:09:04.16)
You

you

Ann (01:09:07.374)
love it actually.

Ann (01:09:11.546)
No, I love I love Treader with soul. I mean that just It's really intentional. So what have the trails taught you about yourself that everyday life couldn't?

Belinda (01:09:16.102)
Mm. Mm. Mm. Yeah.

Belinda (01:09:25.002)
That I am way more capable than I knew, than I thought I was, or than I imagined. Not that I imagined myself being capable and doing wilderness hikes. I just, got into it kind of slowly. didn't, you know, get right, start off with a, you know, a trek across Greenland straight away. But it really did, it taught me to persevere.

and it taught me that I can persevere, it showed me that I could persevere, it showed me that I can, that I can, through trial and error, I will make something work. For example, I was on a hike the other day in the Grand Canaries and a piece of my tent broke. Now I can fix a broken pole and I can fix a ripped piece of fabric on my tent, but this one particular piece I could not fix and I got

everything that I had in my in my pack out and I bound it and and I managed to make a makeshift you know a makeshift shelter for the night but it really was part of well I have to do this because I have to have shelter tonight and I need to you know so you really you really need to push yourself to find solutions for everything and it also taught me that

a lot of a lot about my gut instinct. You know, I kind of feel no, I don't think I'm going the right way. Something tells me I'm not going the right way or you know, those clouds over there, they don't look safe. They look like thunderstorm clouds or anything like that. It can be anything. And you also you've got instinct. Am I thirsty? I, you know, and if I'm thirsty, am I dehydrated?

Or am I stumbling? Am I just low on electrolytes? Am I tired? All sorts of things can come into play where you have to sort of watch your body. it's me to really to know my body and also just really hone in on my instinct because as I saying before, we've got AI this and AI that.

Shannon (01:11:49.389)
Mm-hmm.

Belinda (01:11:49.799)
No, we don't have to think for ourselves anymore. yeah, that's one thing.

Shannon (01:11:57.751)
Yeah.

Ann (01:11:57.851)
So do pack packers carry duct tape? I mean, I just wonder because, you know, it fixes everything.

Shannon (01:12:00.408)
Hahaha!

Belinda (01:12:01.556)
Yeah, yeah, it does. It does. And if you wind it around your poles, you've got a reel of it around your poles. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Ann (01:12:08.666)
great idea. Okay, okay, good idea. That's awesome. I wondered about that.

Belinda (01:12:17.705)
Yeah, and there's, did have tenacious tape the last time I hiked and I've just decided tenacious tape is the fancy tape that most people take and I've just decided that duct tape's just better. It's way better. I personally like duct tape better. Yeah. It does, right?

Shannon (01:12:18.379)
You

Shannon (01:12:34.539)
Yeah.

Ann (01:12:35.135)
I like duct tape, I can fix anything with it.

Shannon (01:12:39.063)
Yeah, it does. It actually does. And you can make clothes out of it. So yeah, it's a twofer. Not only can it fix something, but if you need some clothes, you can make some clothes out of it. Yeah.

Ann (01:12:44.886)
Yeah, that's true.

Ann (01:12:54.01)
If you're desperate enough, yeah.

Belinda (01:12:54.219)
You would need a whole roll though, right? Yeah. They do have different sizes.

Shannon (01:12:58.429)
Yeah, at least, yeah. Someone my size would probably need several rolls, so, you know.

Ann (01:13:04.026)
There's a lot on that roll, girl.

Shannon (01:13:07.373)
It depends on what size roll you buy. Because they have different sizes.

Ann (01:13:12.602)
Well, I always get the biggie.

Belinda (01:13:18.987)
Mm.

Shannon (01:13:19.949)
but it comes in all these different colors and stuff down too. you know.

Ann (01:13:22.906)
That's true. That's true. That's true. It's crazy.

Belinda (01:13:23.561)
Right, okay, yeah, that's nice.

Shannon (01:13:27.799)
Yeah. So if someone listening feels like adventure belongs to only the younger, the braver, the freer, what would you gently tell them?

Belinda (01:13:39.308)
Well, I hope I can be an inspiration and tell them that no, it's never too late to get out and...

and do something and I kind of, there's something that I say and that I say, confidence shows up after you do. So yes, you might feel very uncomfortable doing something, but you just take a baby step and just do, maybe if you say hypothetically, if you just wanted to, you know, if you wanted to start hiking, you know, you don't go on a major big hike by yourself straight away. You just do a little,

little a short hike and time it may be 15 minutes in and 15 minutes back out in a local trail and then next time you might be able to go a little bit more a little further you know as your confidence allows because the more you do something the more confidence you will get and that goes with solo travel as well so

Yes and solo travel I think is you know is an adventure in itself it really is and you know and as I said you know a great way to do solo travel if you're not if you're if you've got honest one one if you're on a tight budget but and two if because often when you solo travel you need to pay extra to have the single rooms or the single you know the single beds

Shannon (01:15:03.147)
Yep.

Ann (01:15:04.26)
Yes.

Belinda (01:15:04.815)
And so that and that's another reason why I feel that house sitting is so good because it takes away so many of the negatives of solo travel. And yes, yes, adventure, adventure can be around the corner for anybody. And I think especially, especially for especially middle aged women, sometimes, you know, you've given everything for everybody else.

you know, husband, children, job, neighbors, aging parent, all that sort of thing. You know, you really have worn a lot of different hats and sometimes people haven't done something for themselves. And that can be a great way to, you know, and it's never too late to just go somewhere for the weekend, have an adventure. Don't worry, your husband can cook his own meal, you know. Yeah.

Ann (01:15:34.543)
Yep.

Shannon (01:16:02.888)
yes, for sure.

Belinda (01:16:04.338)
Your kids can make themselves a sandwich if they're really really hungry and you know they can probably cook themselves a dinner as well. Well they should be able to anyway.

Ann (01:16:04.857)
Yeah.

Ann (01:16:14.945)
Exactly.

Right?

Shannon (01:16:18.861)
And on that same note as well, because that ties into self-care too. And self-care is so important. And I say over and over, women, especially middle-aged women, do not practice self-care enough. We somehow feel like that that's being selfish if we practice self-care. And it is not. It is imperative that we practice self-care so we can continue to

Belinda (01:16:26.784)
Mm. Yeah.

Ann (01:16:34.927)
No.

Belinda (01:16:35.242)
All right.

Belinda (01:16:41.098)
Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah.

Shannon (01:16:47.521)
do the things that we need to do or want to do for other people. And even if you have somebody at home who has some disabilities or issues that maybe you're taking care of, they can survive or sustain for a couple of days for you to take a couple of days for yourself to go somewhere, refresh, rejuvenate. I know firsthand because...

Belinda (01:16:52.533)
Yeah.

Belinda (01:17:09.206)
Yeah.

Shannon (01:17:15.989)
I have a husband who's disabled, he's on dialysis and he does perfectly fine if I'm gone for a few days and he makes it on his own, he knows how to do it and we have friends that check in on him while I'm gone so he's not totally alone.

Belinda (01:17:19.2)
Right, right, yeah.

Belinda (01:17:24.747)
Yeah.

Belinda (01:17:33.684)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely.

Ann (01:17:36.366)
yeah so if you guys are if you guys are up for it I want to do a little rapid fire session so mountains or coast

Belinda (01:17:47.84)
Mountains.

Ann (01:17:49.604)
Same. Yeah, solo hiker shared journey. That's a hard one, I think.

Shannon (01:17:50.519)
Yep, mountains.

Belinda (01:17:56.406)
Sorry, what was that?

Ann (01:17:57.975)
A solo hike or a shared journey?

Ann (01:18:05.476)
I think sometimes we need me time.

Belinda (01:18:05.846)
So like, yeah.

Shannon (01:18:10.061)
never been on a solo hike, I don't know how that feels to say if I'd like it more than the shared journey. So, yeah.

Ann (01:18:11.812)
I haven't either.

Belinda (01:18:13.054)
Mm.

Ann (01:18:15.588)
how that feels. Right.

Belinda (01:18:18.027)
Yeah.

Belinda (01:18:21.652)
Yeah, I hike now with my partner all the time and that we have agreed that I will go on one solo hike a year because I do like them. I do like the solitude. Yeah.

Ann (01:18:32.408)
nice you need it yeah some people just do it just so early morning trail or golden hour walk which is better

Shannon (01:18:36.045)
Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Belinda (01:18:45.484)
I'm a lark, so I'm early morning, way early morning.

Ann (01:18:49.71)
You're early, I-

Shannon (01:18:49.805)
Hehehehehe

Ann (01:18:52.89)
I figured you probably were. So what was your most difficult hike? You've been on some pretty big ones.

Belinda (01:18:55.948)
You

Belinda (01:19:01.644)
I think my most difficult hike was probably the larapinta trail which is right in the middle of Australia, Australia's Red Centre.

on the Macdonald ranges. So if anyone wants to know what the red centre is, it's the middle of Australia, it's called the red centre not because it's you know fiery hot red but it does get very hot but it's got red earth and probably one of the most iconic photos of the red centre is Illaroo or as rock it was formerly known. So that's an iconic photo of the big rock in the middle of Australia. the larapinta trail is about

300 kilometres, about 200 miles north of Illaru, which is in the sides of Australia. It's just a hop, skip and a jump really. yes, and that really was a difficult hike. was a lot of...

Shannon (01:19:58.572)
Yeah.

Belinda (01:20:07.06)
of ascent and descent and yeah and it was it was cold at night and hot hot during the day but it was just beautiful it really was it was amazing yeah hmm hmm

Ann (01:20:13.368)
Wow.

Ann (01:20:19.396)
I bet it was gorgeous. That was fun. Thanks, Belinda. So where can our listeners find out more about you?

Shannon (01:20:21.127)
huh.

Belinda (01:20:28.492)
Okay, Soul Treader, my website. if anybody is interested in getting, doing a hike or any of the hikes that I mentioned in Tuen.

I do have some great resources on my website which explains what an Intuin hike is and what sort of what items you need to take for that and also what needs to be in your basic first aid kit and I've got other resources such as how to go to the toilet on the trail like I have a whole blog post on that because it is actually it's quite important.

Ann (01:20:58.732)
Yeah.

Ann (01:21:06.266)
It is very important.

Shannon (01:21:08.797)
Yeah, it is. It's very important. Yeah.

Belinda (01:21:11.31)
you know and what to wear and all sorts of things like that so it's not just trail guides I try and there are some great educational guides in there as well and if anybody is interested in house sitting the house sitting collective is also is also where you can find out all about house sitting and yes and that as I said before it's a it's a great way to travel.

Ann (01:21:37.978)
Well, I will be checking that out and taking your course. as will Shannon, because I am super interested in that, really. I would love that.

Belinda (01:21:41.105)
Right?

Shannon (01:21:44.285)
Exactly.

Belinda (01:21:48.684)
Yeah, yeah.

Shannon (01:21:51.746)
Yeah, and I definitely have to be the one to take the course because in our travel partnership, just packs her bag and shows up. I do everything else.

Ann (01:22:00.463)
Here we go.

Belinda (01:22:01.742)
Good on you Ann

Ann (01:22:05.41)
Hey, to be honest, she will not let me plan because, I cannot read a map. I will get us lost. It will happen. So, yeah, it's so bad.

Belinda (01:22:17.037)
All right. Yeah.

Shannon (01:22:17.313)
That is true, she cannot read a map, but as far as helping plan other things, yeah, I'm open for that.

Belinda (01:22:23.873)
Yeah.

Yeah.

Ann (01:22:27.35)
Okay, I get the hint. Alright, alright.

Shannon (01:22:28.909)
I do let her pick all the places that we eat and things though, because she's amazing at finding these great places that are off the beaten path that you wouldn't think of.

Belinda (01:22:34.666)
Okay.

Belinda (01:22:39.149)
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Now it sounds like you really complement each other as travel partners. Yeah, yeah.

Ann (01:22:44.046)
We've had some really yummy local food, so.

Shannon (01:22:46.582)
Yes.

Ann (01:22:49.668)
We really do, we really do.

Shannon (01:22:50.731)
We do. Well, Belinda, thank you so much for reminding us that adventure doesn't fade, it evolves, and that curiosity, courage, and connection are always available no matter where we are in our lives. And it's been wonderful having you here with us on the show today.

Ann (01:23:15.406)
It has been.

Belinda (01:23:15.543)
thing thick.

Shannon (01:23:18.999)
Go ahead.

Belinda (01:23:19.723)
I was going to say thank you. I just totally interrupted you. Thank you so much. It really was.

Shannon (01:23:26.561)
You

Ann (01:23:27.492)
You guys, I have to tell you, before we even started this show, started recording this morning, I bet we started talking and it just didn't stop. We just kept on and we were like, wait a minute, this is such good information. We need to be recording. So yeah, this has been so much fun. Thank you. I have really enjoyed this.

Belinda (01:23:37.541)
Yeah. Yeah. Wonderful. Thank you.

Shannon (01:23:48.958)
Exactly. And to all of our listeners, whether your next adventure is across the world or right outside your front door, we hope this conversation encourages you to listen to that quiet pull towards something more. And until next time, keep traveling and keep making memories for life.