March brought Spring with it, but also International Women’s Day - a moment to celebrate women and reflect on the paths they’ve taken.
It also felt like a good time to ask a simple question: what challenges have we all faced as women, to find our place in the outdoors?
The responses, shared by some inspiring women in the FINDRA community, are honest, moving and occasionally surprising. From health challenges and loss of confidence to juggling family life or working in male-dominated spaces, the journeys into the outdoors are rarely identical.
But they do share one thing in common: each woman found her own way through.
Anke Van Der Plas
After years of losing muscle strength, energy, weight, and almost losing my life, I was diagnosed with Addison’s disease in 2009 (a chronic autoimmune disease in which the adrenal glands produce too little cortisol).
This means lifelong, necessary daily hormone therapy (cortisol, among other things).
After the diagnosis and a complete loss of self-confidence, it was difficult to rebuild some kind of athletic life from scratch. It will never truly be “normal” again. Fatigue and an Addisonian crisis are always looming.
Cycling suits me best. In 2017, we started long-distance cycling. It’s my favourite thing to do. After cycling up the 2,383-meter-high Fluela Pass in 2018, I realised I could only do this by taking a lot of extra cortisol.
The following year, I reluctantly bought a new Santos bike with a Pendix system. The advantage of this system is that you can fine-tune the support. With a little bit of support (and a bit more if needed), I can get absolutely anywhere and have more or less made peace with the adjustment. Still, it always feels a bit like failure, but that’s probably just my nature. Since 2017, we’ve been doing one or two longer bike rides every year in Scotland (Newcastle to Innerleithen to Jon O’Groats and Hadrian’s Wall), the coastal route in England, Denmark, Norway, France, and Spain.
The extra emergency injections in my bag, a bit of support on my bike, and an attentive husband mean I can fully enjoy my outdoor activities! On Wednesday, we’re going to Wales for 10 days of hiking! In May, we hope to cycle the Camino del Norte in Spain! The Findras always come along!
Kate MacRae
I think for a long time, I felt that I was pretty much alone in my obsession with wildlife and the filming aspect, as a woman. It is generally a male-dominated world, and what I do is pretty niche. However, I never felt worried by that or held back by it. I have been lucky to have had many friends (mostly men!) who have shared carpentry skills and cabling/camera techniques, so my capabilities have increased over the years.
I am quite a confident and outgoing personality, so I have never really felt daunted by tackling tasks that require physical strength or heights, but it does still make me smile when men I work with still offer to carry stuff or do the high-level ladder work involved in putting up the nest boxes I install. Maybe that makes me even more determined to show that I am just as capable as they are. Many still find it hard being the one at the bottom of the ladder, though! On the whole, I have had very few issues, and I feel privileged to have worked alongside many people who have shared their skills and enabled me to carry out all that I do, pretty much unaided now.
As time has passed and since I have moved to SW Wales, into a more rural community, I find myself more surrounded by women who work on their land and love it just like me. Social media has enabled me to connect more with like-minded people and I have found more and more women who work filming wildlife or have passions that align with mine and I really feel that I have found my 'tribe' here, which is truly wonderful. Maybe being older now and feeling more like I have proven what I am capable of, makes the fact that I am a woman is irrelevant... and so it should be!
Ginny Lunn
I was always confident in the outdoors. I grew up in Lincolnshire and was outdoors all the time as a child. Sport came naturally to me - I wasn’t academic, and the outdoors was where I found my confidence.
But that all changed when my partner was diagnosed with Stage 4 cancer and 2 years later died. For 2 years, life changed from the outdoors to life indoors. Hospital rooms and quiet time at home. Then suddenly alone, and what happens next? I didn’t want to go out.
But somehow I got inspired by reading books by people who had had similar experiences and found their way through ( sadly so many!) I slowly emerged and found strength in the outdoors - both outdoor swimming and hiking. I started alone and loved the solitude with time to think and feel. Before too long, I took a holiday with WalkingWomen ( advised by friends), my first ever group holiday - I was 52. Now at 62, I own the company and life has changed dramatically.
One small step can take you to places you never imagined. Now I walk side by side with so many women wanting to find their confidence to carry on after life-changing tragedies.
We do it together …
Jo Foston
Even though I'm outdoorsy, I dont consider myself to be particularly fit. I was never a sporty kid and only started going to the gym in the last couple of years. I still don't like walking up hills with people... I am always red in the face and out of breath, feeling like I can't keep up or take a go at my own pace.
But I love to be outside. I often go alone, except for a dog. I go slow and I stop often, to admire tiny flowers or take photos, or just sit and appreciate being in nature. I don't seek to hike big hills or conquer munroes, I just know that Im a much happier person for spending time outdoors. I recently had foot surgery, and have found it really hard being less mobile and independent, but even to sit next to a river for an hour or so, is still so precious.
One of my dogs is a highly reactive romanian rescue, which can bring it's own challenges, but having her has made me be more creative in finding quieter spots where we're less likely to encounter other people or dogs. I love exploring random forestry tracks or going for a wander from a layby, and every so often I find a little gem that I can return to.
Jo Moseley
Having loved being outdoors in my 20s, like many women juggling work and family life in my 30s and 40s, my own needs and personal time for adventures fell off the priority list. The barrier was partly time, particularly after becoming a single Mum to my two sons, but also I didn’t really believe I could take moments for myself. I’m not sure I even understood the concept of self-care back then, and even small adventures felt too selfish.
When my perimenopause began, I was already struggling. Both my parents were going through chemotherapy, and I was feeling the stress of trying to support them and look after my boys. I was the woman you’d see crying in supermarkets, overwhelmed and anxious.
In 2013, I began exercising - firstly indoors on a rowing machine and then back outside, swimming in the sea and hiking in the hills - simply to help me sleep. It worked, and I started to feel the benefits. Gradually, I realised that spending time outdoors was helping me physically, mentally, socially and emotionally and that I was a better Mum as a result.
I realised that self-care was not selfish but vital for my health and for my family, especially after my Mum died. But if I’m honest, it took being absolutely broken to realise this. In 2016, I booked my first paddleboarding lesson, and from the minute I stood up, I loved it. I always say I felt like a warrior, not a worrier, for the first time in months.
A few weeks later, I set myself a goal to paddle 128 miles from Liverpool to Goole. However, when I shared the idea with people, I was told that it sounded logistically complex, quite boring and too difficult for a woman my age. I was 51 at the time. I would love to say I ignored their comments, but I didn’t. I knew outdoor adventures were good for me by now, but I didn’t believe in myself. I allowed other people’s opinions and lack of imagination to crush my dream. Another barrier to overcome.
It took me three years to build up the confidence to take on the challenge. I also realised during those years that life is very short and precious, and if we have even the tiniest spark of a dream, we should try and make it happen. It was this understanding, after going to the funerals of too many friends in their 40s and 50s, that helped me decide to simply go for it - wherever anyone else said!
In 2019, I achieved my goal to become the first woman, then 54, to paddleboard 162 miles coast to coast from Liverpool to Leeds, picking up litter and fundraising. A film called Brave Enough - A Journey Home to Joy was made about the trip, which I am proud to say was selected for a number of prestigious film festivals.
Over the last 4 years, I have pivoted my career, achieving a writing dream to become an award-winning, best-selling author of 3 paddleboarding books - SUP Great Britain, SUP The Lake District and Adventures on the Water - The Power of Paddleboarding to Change Lives with Vertebrate Publishing.
It’s been a long journey since those days of crying in the supermarket! So for me, the barriers were time, responsibilities, not believing I deserved adventures for myself and then other people’s negative comments.
I overcame them with a mixture of hope, building self-confidence, seeing other inspiring women adventurers, experiencing the benefits of being outdoors and finally realising that my dreams and wellbeing mattered too - plus a big leap of faith!
My goal now is to keep reminding women - especially those in their 50s and 60s - that the outdoors and adventures - big or small - are really good for their physical, mental, emotional and social wellbeing.
Most importantly, they deserve time for themselves to enjoy them.
And if they’ve not started yet, that they are not too old and it’s not too late to begin!
Conclusion
If these stories show us anything, it’s that there is no single path. For some women, it begins in childhood. For others, it comes later; after illness, loss, or the realisation that time outside might be exactly what’s needed.
The barriers may look different, but the outcome is often the same: confidence, connection and a renewed sense of possibility.
And perhaps that’s the most important thing to remember is: you don’t have to be extraordinary to begin. You just have to step outside.
Sunday Inspiration
Favourite Podcast
A podcast that explores everything that can go wrong and what we can learn from it. Through honest, often vulnerable conversations with a wide range of guests, Elizabeth Day reframes failure as something not to fear, but to understand.
Favourite Quote
Favourite Song
"Mondays aren't always bright, Some days, you lose the fight, But life can be beautiful if you let it be"
1 comment
I’ve walked for the past 50 years I lived in Scotland for 30 .I’m alone most of the time but it never stopped me going for a walk.