I walk for long periods and
I like to write about it.
▽
This wasn’t always the case. I grew up in a tiny, mundane village in the flattest country on earth, and dreamt of moving to a big city. When I was old enough, I worked in fashion, moved to London and became an interior designer.
I loved my life in London until 2016 – I decided I needed a change. A drastic one. I quit my job and went to East Asia to travel. Soon I was living the life that most people dream of. I chased white sand beaches and waterfalls. Until I realised that the constant travel from one tourist destination to the next wasn’t for me.
Stressed out from travelling I did my first overnight hike in South Korea (which you can read all about here). I didn’t have any of the equipment or backcountry knowledge but I realised I loved to hike. I was blown away by the views and intrigued by what it took to navigate the terrain. I travelled to Japan and did several more overnight hikes, where I slept on the floor of a mountain hut on top of a supermarket poncho and woke up to a mouse marching on top of me. I was hooked.
Then I met someone who introduced me to thru-hiking. Not just an overnight backpacking trip, but walking for weeks or months. Immediately I was intrigued and not long after, I set off. I walked a circular route around Tasmania and wrote all about this first foray into long distance hiking in a story for Glamour magazine, which you can read here! Despite the excruciating foot pain I suffered throughout my first trips, and my maddening fear of camping on my own, I soon embraced the freedom of walking and living in the wild. And that’s a good thing, because I realised I really like to hike solo and I love the adventure of choosing my own route, and really depending on myself. If I had to choose, I prefer not to depend on other hikers, apps or trail angels.
Nonetheless, change is good, and after another mad (and cold, and windy) adventure walking a 2500 km route covering most of Iceland, I opted for the 3000 km Te Araroa trail, which runs the length of New Zealand. For the first time, I enjoyed comradery on trail. After that I did another social trail, and hiked the Pacific Crest Trail in the US.
For 2020 I planned to walk the length of Norway (Norge På Langs) or hike the Continental Divide Trail, but the Coronavirus outbreak has kept me renting a room in London. Instead I started to make my own gear and I’m surreptitiously investigating and planning a myriad of future routes. I have quite a few spreadsheets for upcoming trips ready to go. What’s on my list? Besides the CDT and NPL, traversing the Canary Islands (GR131), Cape Soya to Cape Sata in Japan and I should probably get myself onto some trails in the European Alps… and there are quite a few more ideas floating around!
30 Responses
I read about your journey through IG and find your website.
I’m curious of your gears, may I ask you what gears do you usually bring on your hiking.
I’m actually a newbie on hiking. Last week I hiked for 3 hours for preparation for the real hiking in next month. I brought my Atmos 65 AG, a dslr and mini tripod as well as other usual hiking gears with total 17kg. It was killing me, it’s maybe too heavy for my age, I’m man, 42yo. Now I’m trying to reduce ally stuffs, some are replaced with lightweight stuffs and some are removed from list.
Can you share your experience?
Hi Don!
I definitely need to do a proper gear list post (or several, actually, for the different trips) but for now I can share my lighterpack gear list with you:
https://lighterpack.com/r/dtpe3y
This is my gear for Iceland, so you will see that my clothes include rather heavy options, and my tent is a heavier 4 season shelter to deal with the extreme weather conditions. Still, other than that it’s quite similar to my normal gear and I personally think it’s quite a realistic list: I have quite a few luxuries and while I maintain a very decent lightweight pack, it is by no means ultralightweight and out of reach for newbies. 😄
Perhaps have a look at it and see how it compares to your gear – let me know if you have any specific questions!!
Thanks for the list, it helps me a lot for giving a view of your gears as well as the weight. I don’t see the cooking system? Did I miss it?
Your gears is really good in both weight and specs. It gives me explanations why you can get 7.5 kg base weight. I’ll try to replace or modified my gears to achieve lighter weight. I have a few UL gears too but not so many, I use UL down jacket from Uniqlo as well as Marmot Precip for windbreaker/rain jacket, etc. But most of other of my gears is still quite heavy. Thanks for sharing!
I’m happy that helped! Selecting the right gear by weight and volume is key, but I understand it gets tricky when you already own gear that’s quite heavy, and buying new stuff gets expensive!
You didn’t miss the cooking system – I backpack stoveless so it’s just couscous and ziplock bags for me 😉 You can get very light stoves though, I just don’t want to have to worry about the gas canisters and dealing with the extra space it takes up!
I am looking forward to reading about your adventures from the start of your blog as I have just found you! I am curious, who takes the photo’s of you if you mainly hike solo?
Hi! Hope you’re enjoying the stories 😊! I take all my own pictures… I have a little tripod and try to attach it to all sorts of things so I can take candid pictures along the trail…!
Hi Rosie !
Really impressed by your adventures. I am planning a trip to Tasmania (2,5 months walking alone) and I am really struggling to find information on trails, especially on long trails other than the few quite touristic and very organised trails such as overland track or south coast track. As I land in Hobart end September, I am not so confident in the weather and intend to start on the east and north-east coasts, which apparently are dryer. How did you find the information to plan your trip, in particular the trails, campsites and points where you can find food or water ?
Thank you for your advice,
Florent
That’s an amazing trip you’re planning!
Okay, let me see if I can help. I agree you’re best off starting east and then you can go west towards then end of the trip, that’s what I did as well. The weather is still crazy out there though, so be prepared for everything!
When I did my planning it was based on circling the island and staying close to the coast, so I mostly used the Maps.me app, which shows all the roads and hiking trails and then I’d just zoom in and see what I’d find. I’d google all the trails and find out more details on their conditions. You can also have a look at this page, which has quite a comprehensive list of lots of long hiking trails, and check out the ones in Tasmania : https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_long-distance_hiking_tracks_in_Australia
For camping there’s an amazing app called WikiCamps Australia and it costs a little but it shows all the campsites, free and not free, and all the amenities they have. That will be most useful to you. When it comes to water I actually don’t remember ever worrying about it – there are always streams somewhere or towns where you can find taps, as long as you have a filter you will be fine! Food wise you’ll just have to make sure you hit a town now and again. And if you find yourself doing the Port Davey / South Coast Track though, you can send yourself a food package to the Maleleuca airstrip. You’d have to organise that in Hobart though, and take it to the plane company.
I hope that helps a little? Let me know if you have more questions you think I can help with. Good luck planning! I’ll be curious to know how your trip goes ☺️
Hi, we are going to hike Hellismannnaleid at the end of June. Consider some wild camping if needed. Is some water on the route (there is a lot of dry lava fields?)? I understand there are some rivers, but are they frequent? Thank you in advance for advice!
Hi! I never had any worries about water in Iceland (apart from a dry stretch walking to Askja) as there are always enough small streams and rivers that you’ll pass. Hellismannaleid does go through a lot of lava fields but (although I can’t remember how frequent) there are enough rivers to top off on water. I use the Maps.me app which isn’t perfect for this purpose but it does at least show the bigger rivers you’ll pass. I never carried more than a few litres at a time, and there’s always water at the campsites – and the days hiking Hellismannaleid are quite short, so you won’t run into problems.
Btw – I would bring a filter – Iceland’s water is very clean but there are sheep everywhere and they can easily contaminate the water…!
Hello ! I’m a passioned hiker. I’m currently in Japan and about to go trough the country on foot. Thank for your blog about the Tokaido road, because there is not a lot of informations at the tourism office. This roads are like forgotten. I plan to do the second road linking Tokyo and Kyoto, Nakasendo, on the return. Thank to your advise, my trip should be safer now.
It’s a shame I wasn’t able to respond earlier – I hope you’ve had an amazing trip – following the Nakasendo on the way back is a great idea btw!!
Every time I look up different hikes and I click on the first or second result, it’s you!! Haha. You truly have led such an amazing life over the last 3 years. I am inspired to do more hiking when I move back to Korea.
Hahaha, I must be stuck in your browser history somewhere 😆! Thanks so much though. And Korea is gorgeous. I also want to go back there and do more hiking!!
How do you finance all these trips ? How do you life balance ?
Oh that’s a good questions… maybe I should do a blog post about it? The short answer would be that I’ve started to live a more minimal lifestyle and save up as much as I can doing contract jobs, and then use the money to go hiking. The long answer… okay perhaps I really have to do a blog about this…!
Oh yes that would be really interesting; especially given the general trend going more minimalist … would be a dream for me … ok now it’s a project 🙂
Dear Rosie, I admire what you have done and I have also planned to do this hike on the Tokaido road. It seems very difficult to find a very precise map of this ancient path. Could you tell me if you found a map before hiking and where I can find one.
Many thanks for your help.
Mayer
Hi Mayer, the only map I managed to find was technically on a cycling website – you can find it here: https://gpscycling.net/tokaido/tokaido
Good luck with your hike!
Hi Rosie
I am a 18yr old planning a trip, walking from Reykjavik Iceland to Helsinki Finland. I will be walking across Iceland and through Norway, Sweden and Finland. I’ve taken a lot of inspiration from this blog I would love to have a chat with you about your trip and see if you had any advice for me.
I would also like to know what app you used to plan your trip?
thank you for the inspiration.
Hi Rocco, so sorry I never got to reply to you, I spent most of the summer migrating the site over to a new provider and didn’t respond to any comments. Are you still planning the trip or did you already do it? Would love to hear more about it! If you haven’t gone yet – I tend to use the Maps.me app for my planning, and then I do an online search for national parks and hiking areas I want to pass for more detailed hiking routes and maps that people may have posted online somewhere. To be honest it’s a sad and cheap replacement for buying actually hiking maps – which you should probably do. Although Norway and Sweden both have interactive hiking maps online, which are great resources. Would be happy to answer any questions if you had any still. Good luck!
Hey!
I’m really enjoying your blogs about the pacific crest trail. I’m also from the UK and I’m planning on hiking the full length solo next year! I’m just wondering how you navigated the trail, How you dealt with the phone/data situation, and also how you handled money on the trail in terms of being able to use a bank card etc. Some people have recommended joining a mobile service provider over there but was wondering if I would be able to do that with a UK bank account
Thank you !!
Hi I’m from the UK and I’m planning on doing the pacific crest trail solo next year. I was just wondering how you dealt with navigation, phone/data situation, and also money? Some people have suggested joining a mobile phone network provider over there but was wondering if i would even be able to manage that with a UK bank account?
Also what was your resupply strategy for the Sierra section? I’m assuming there’s still towns to go into when you’re hiking there, and also what was your Longest stretch between towns?
My last question is just what you did for luggage when flying to the states?
Sorry for all the questions!
Thank you!
Hi Katie!
I hope you got your permit! That’s really exciting 🙂
Your questions are making me realise I should probably do a few more practical posts on the PCT, but I’ll try and answer them for you here as well!
When it comes to using your phone, I would recommend getting a Straight Talk 6 month phone plan from Walmart. It’s $255 which you’ll have to pay up front, but you’ll be sorted for the time you’re there – and having a mobile phone is REALLY useful on trail. I know it sounds expensive but it’s pretty much the cheapest thing you can get out there anyways. It comes with several SIMs so select either the AT&T or the Verizon ( Verizon only if you are absolutely certain the CDMI part of your phone has been unlocked!) Some of these providers also have prepaid sim cards available at their own stores but it’s not as normal as here in Europe. Either way, you don’t need a bank account because you pay for it upfront!
Along the trail there’s actually pretty good service. A lot more than I’d expected! Sometimes in Washington there was no signal for days, but that makes sense because it’s such a remote area. But get the Guthook app on your phone (you’ll have to pay for the PCT maps) and you’ll have all the information you need. Supermarkets, water sources, phone signal, campsites, shuttles, all of it. Quite frankly, it almost provides too much information! I also downloaded the relevant maps on my Maps.me app, in case I needed to consider detours or routes into unexpected town when I was out of service. Either way, the PCT is well marked and getting lost would be impressive.
For the Sierras, my longest resupply was 6 days so that was very manageable. There are several places where you can’t get around hiking long side trails just to hitch into a town, which does add a lot of mileage to your days. But you can’t really get around that, so don’t worry about it. The stretches are definitely not as long as I thought they might be.
Luggage – I only took hand luggage on the plane. I ordered lots of gear which I picked up in the US so only brought a small backpack which I then donated, and on the way back I just took my pack as hand luggage. The one thing I did worry about were my trekking poles (apparently you may have issues bringing those as carry-on, and I ended up posting those to my parents before my flight back). I got a cheap Air Norwegian flight so not paying for check in luggage and food made a huge difference!
Hm, bank cards – I got both a Revolut and a Monzo card which saves money when using them in stores, so I recommend getting one of those. I always made sure to have a little bit of cash on me as well, like $50 or 100, as sometimes you’d have to pay for a shuttle or resupply somewhere that might not accept cards (which isn’t often). So just take out a bit of cash whenever you see an ATM!
I think that covers it all? Good luck planning!!
Thank you so much for getting back to me and that’s such a massive help!!! I’ve been getting myself a bit stressed about certain things haha.
Just a few quick questions more if you don’t mind?
First of all what time did you join the queue when it came to applying for the permit? I know people the other day when applying for a permit for this year had close to 15,000 people in the queue and I’m just wondering what time I should think about joining when they open up for 2022.
Secondly if it’s not too much hardship would you be able to say what towns you resupplied at along the way? choosing my resupply towns is tricky in the sense that there’s many available and I’m not sure which would be best to send resupply boxes to and which would be okay to just pop into.
And the last thing is just where you got your items posted to in the US and what things you picked up there and what you brought with you?
Thank you for all your help and apologies for all the questions!
Also I forgot to mention but I was reading on one of your blogs that you had some issues connecting your phone when you first started, so I was just wondering if the plan from Walmart is accessible instantly and if it’ll work on any phone even if it’s unlocked? And also what did you do with your old sim haha?
Lol. Okay. DON’T STRESS. You are absolutely overthinking everything. The PCT is literally one of those trails that you could start without doing ANY research. I only did research beforehand to get the B2 Visa. Get the Guthook app and read all the comments from other hikers. It will tell you everything you will ever need to know. All you need is to get to the trail with some gear and once you start walking, everything will be different anyways. If you hate your gear, there are so many gear shops to replace things and you can send your old stuff home. You won’t resupply in the places you though you would resupply at because you meet people and make plans with them and you might hike faster or slower than you thought. You absolutely do not need to think about these things. If you’re from the UK, you’ll figure out on trail that there’s a stretch coming up with bad resupply options (because you’ll reed all the comments in Guthook) and then you can choose to send yourself a box ahead. Or not. I didn’t send myself any boxes and I survived. Get Guthook now, look at all the stops, the side trails, click on all the shops and read the comments. People will have commented if they did or did not manage to resupply in certain places. My Sierra section is thoroughly detailed in days 143 to 165 (going southbound) which mentions all the stops I made. But it means nothing because you’ll hike different and meet different people and the weather will be different too. So don’t stress.
I discuss my gear in Day 0 and there’s a designated PCT gear post too, so read those. I had some gear sent to Scout and Frodo’s in San Diego but I don’t think they will host hikers in 2022. You can have things send to a post office or probably there will be other trail angels happy to help. Or just get it send to your home and pay import fees (if you REALLY want specialist gear from the US).
Sim card – yes it works immediately but like I said, your phone has to be unlocked. If you have a GSM phone (like everyone in Europe), just go with AT&T. I talk about everything that happened with my phone in day 23. It was a huge unnecessary hoo-ha. Also a SIM doesn’t weigh anything so just carry it. Or bin it. It’s not something to worry about. I binned the ones I didn’t use and lost my UK sim.
This what happens with the permit though: They start applications at a certain time, and when you join, you will be placed in a queue. However, if you enter the queue BEFORE the start time, you will get placed in a virtual waiting room and when the lines open, you will be given a RANDOM number alongside everyone else who was in the virtual waiting room. Everyone who joins the queue after the lines open, will be given their place in the queue behind you. Which means that you should join the virtual waiting room any time before the lines open (it doesn’t matter how long before) and when the lines it’s up to luck whether you get a good place or not. Thousands of people will be waiting in the virtual waiting room with you, so if you wait until after the lines officially open, you have no chance!
Wow Cosmo! I have just watched you video about making your own pack. As a perfectionist and a lover of planning, and a sewer, I totally understood your feeling of need to unpick and redo things unit they were loser to perfect. The planning you did to make this pack was phenomenal. Your attention to detail is amazing. I don’t think I have ever been so intrigued by a video!!! I felt as though I was sitting beside you as you patiently sewed that pack. You did an AMAZING job with a non industrial sewing machine during a pandemic when you couldn’t t just pop out to get more supplies or needles!!! I am just stunned that a home sewing machine could handle the fabrics as well as it did, and that is was able to work with the thicknesses that it needed to sew through. Kudos to you for your creativity, your patience and your attention to detail. I am totally intrigued and was wearing a huge smile when you first put that pack on.!!! Congrats on creating a work of art!!!
This is the nicest comment ever!! I completely imagined that video to be insanely boring, so I’m very happy to hear it actually caught your attention! My poor sewing machine survived just barely but patience indeed seemed the key to making this happen. Thank you so much for your comment!!
Hi Rosie, love your blogs but I have a question and it’s really bugging me, you look so familiar, were you in your previous life a model?