Adventure Bulletin June 2021
Hi everyone,
No, it’s not Wednesday already! This will be a bumper week for newsletters. You’ll be getting today’s email - which should have gone out last Wednesday - and the normal Wednesday article on Wednesday. Hopefully that’s not too many Wednesdays to make sense of on a Monday morning!
Either way, sorry this bulletin is a little late. I’m sitting on the floor surrounded by moving boxes. Fingers crossed for a table and chairs by this time next month.
SUP Month!
This month’s theme is Stand Up Paddleboarding. Watch out for articles on all things SUP in the coming weeks. In the meantime, here are some people and places to get excited about:
Fiona Quinn stand up paddleboarded the length of Great Britain. Scroll down for an extract from her book! fionalquinn.com
Lizzie Carr has a host of SUP adventures under her belt and is also an environmental activist. lizzieoutside.co.uk
Cal Major has done SUP everywhere from Cornwall to the Arctic. She’s currently paddleboarding around Scotland. Also check out here film Vitamin Sea. calmajor.com
Jo Moseley SUP-ed the Coast to Coast (her film Brave Enough has made the line up at ShAFF) and hosts a SUP podcast, The Joy of SUP.
New to SUP? Want to know where you can go? British Canoeing has the answers.
Adventure News
Laura Kennington has complete her Park2Park cycle ride, on a route across the UK that takes in all its National Parks. With savage weather, it didn’t go quite to plan. You can follow the story on her Instagram.
Sal Montgomery, who wrote about kayaking in Ecuador recently, is preparing for a cycling adventure this month. She’s part of the Pedal4Parks team, connecting Orkney with Shetland via the length of the UK (they’re water-biking the crossings!), while raising money for National Parks.
Laura and Stevie of SteLa Tandem are attempting to break the record for circumnavigating the globe on a tandem. They also host a long distance cycling podcast, Stoked to Be Here.
Mildred Wilson completed her second Tough Mudder obstace course at 81 years old. Read about it here.
Book of the Month
This month’s book is Ignore the Fear by Fiona Quinn. It is her first hand account of stand up paddleboarding Land’s End to John O’Groats, despite being afraid of the sea.
“I nearly drowned as a child, so the idea of being out there, falling off my board and
being in the water – that terrifies me! But despite that I wanted to see if I could do it.
This is a story about believing in yourself. ”
No one had ever attempted it before. Yet as a complete beginner, and a terrified one at
that, in April 2018 Fiona set out to see if she could stand up paddleboard up the west
coast of Britain, 800 miles from Land’s End to John O’Groats (LEJOG). Having walked and cycled LEJOG the year before, something inexplicably compelled her to see if she could turn her previous adventures into a length of Britain triathlon and set three new world records. Along the way Fiona was joined by dolphins, paddled 40 miles across the Irish Sea and battled past whirlpools. This inspiring and gripping account shows that no matter what the odds, if you dare to start before you’re ready and keep believing in yourself, anything is possible.
About the Author
Fiona Quinn is a keynote speaker, endurance adventurer and entrepreneur. Sharing
stories with everyone from school children to business executives, she enthusiastically
invites you to change your view of what’s possible.
With 10 years experience in business and 3 world records under her belt, Fiona gives keynote talks about embracing risk, finding opportunity and building resilience. She also runs Adventure Book Club and coaches entrepreneurs via her 3-month programme, the Action Collective.
Her next adventure is to run the 260 mile Pennine Way, non-stop, having only just started training in January this year. She'll hopefully be setting off in July 🤞
You can hear more from Fiona on Facebook, Instagram or Twitter as @FionaLQuinn or on fionalquinn.com
Read the Book
Here is your link to read the first 146 pages of the book! You’ll need to sign in or become a member to view it. Here’s you button:
You can buy a buy signed copy of the book from Fiona’s website fionalquinn.com/shop or unsigned paperbacks, audible and Kindle via Amazon.
To Watch
Trailblazers is a film about female cyclists hosted by Jenny Graham, that “celebrates some of the world’s cycling greats and unsung historical heroines”. It looks really good but you need a Global Cycling Network account to watch it.
Here is a fun video on YouTube about a first bikepacking adventure in Yorkshire. “the weather was truly awful and we encountered flooded rivers and serious mud!”
Angela White aka The Running Granny is taking on 62 Lake District peaks at 62 years old. Watch the trailer for her adventure here.
I am always looking out for new adventure YouTube channels to follow and somehow found this channel by MARiA with lots of solo mountaineering in the mountains of Japan.
To Read
Sanna Duthie recently broke the FKT for the Pembrokeshire Coast Path. Here’s an insightful Q&A about the run.
Kitiara Pascoe recently cycled the Dartmoor Way in two days and has blogged about it here.
I am both fascinated and horrified in equal measures, following Doc Gone Wild along the Great Himalayan Trek. Beset by guiding disasters in an incredible part of the world.
Spotlight
And last but my no means least, Ursula Martin has completed her journey from Ukraine to Wales on foot. She has walked 5500 miles over several years, navigating Covid restrictions at the end to be able to finish. I cannot even comprehend what an adventure on that scale must be like.
She has been blogging throughout the journey at onewomanwalks.com which gives a small window into what life is like on foot every day.
That’s all from me for this month’s bulletin. Sorry again about the lateness, but hopefully it was worth the wait :) I am sure to have missed things, so feel free to add others (or your own) adventure into the comments below the online version of this post.
Have a lovely month,
Emily
So excited about this month's theme. I just got a SUP and am taking it on a trip to the Trossachs this week!!