Two Journeys to Follow

I do like following a blog of someone who is on a long journey, and two of my favourite bloggers are currently obliging me by setting off on new adventures. If you’re partial to following a journey yourself (which I assume you are, if you’re reading this blog!), then I would recommend that you take a look at what they’re up to.

First off there’s Erin (who goes by the trail name ‘Wired’), who in her quest to do the Triple Crown, has just set out on the Continental Divide Trail. It was entirely thanks to the inspiration of Erin’s blog that we came to walk 500 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail last year. She thru-hiked the trail in 2011 and wrote such a compelling blog that even though I didn’t come across it until she was approaching half way through, I went back and read right from the beginning. By the time she finished, she had me completely sold on going and taking a first hand look at part of what she’d just walked. Aside from writing well and including lots of detail about what she’s experiencing, she includes plenty of photos and, every few weeks she uploads video snippets she has taken too. I can’t think of another blog which gives such a good impression about what the trail, and what thru-hiking, is really like.

Then there’s Sarah Outen, who is in the middle of her ‘London to London: Via the World’ expedition. In 2009 she became the first woman (and the youngest, at 24) to row the Indian Ocean and her blog was a treat to read. Then, in 2011 she set out to circumnavigate the world under her own power. She kayaked across the channel, cycled from France to the east coast of Russia and then kayaked across to Japan. After a break over winter, she set out from Japan last spring to become the first woman to row the North Pacific but came a cropper in a tropical storm that saw her rescued by the Coast Guard. Her boat was lost. She’s obviously not a quitter though (and, equally clearly, must be slightly mad!), and with a new boat she’s been patiently awaiting a suitable weather window to resume her round-the-world adventure. The weather window opened on Saturday and it took her just two attempts to get away from land. Fingers crossed that the weather is kinder to her this time, but it’s certain to be far from a walk in a park (I mean, really, can you imagine rowing across any ocean, never mind the North Pacific?).

 

Go on, click on their names and take a look!