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Kia’s solo trip to China fulfilled a long-held dream but also had a deeper significance
In the week before Christmas, I hosted a family gathering at my house. At some point in the afternoon, my 31-year-old nephew arrived with his baby daughter. To everyone’s shock, he had brought her alone without the supervision of his wife.
“People think they can push me around – sometimes literally,” says Kia as she reflects on the trials of travelling solo
I am not one of those women who move through the world looking sleek, elegant, aloof and inscrutable. You know the ones. They’re usually wearing clothes that are ‘dry clean only’ and their wrists drip with expensive accessories. Men find them attractive but also a little frightening – as if they might turn you to stone if they deigned to look at you.
In her new book, Rachel Hewitt honours the women written out of outdoor history. Here, she explains why it was important to tell their stories
Rachel Hewitt is a critic, broadcaster and the bestselling author of several books including Map of a Nation: A Biography of the Ordnance Survey and A Revolution of Feeling: The Decade that Forged the Modern Mind. She has written for the Guardian, Telegraph, Financial Times, New Statesman and Times Literary Supplement and is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. Beyond writing, she has appeared in the BBC’s Coast and Timeshift programmes and regularly participates in BBC Radio Three’s Free Thinking.
After 70 countries and seven continents, Kia shares her tried-and-tested beauty tips for travellers
When I quit my desk job nearly a decade ago and set off on a trip around the world, I was rightly excited but also naive. I thought that life on the road would free me of the so-called ‘beauty tax’ – the price that women pay merely for being women.
In a world dominated by men, a select group of women have shattered the ice ceiling. Here we review some daring first ascents by female mountaineers
I’ll be honest: it rankles to write the words ‘the first female’ to do such and such. It feels patronising, as if to say you weren’t good enough to play with the big boys but I’ll pat you on the head anyway.
We ask six expert climbers, thru-hikers and trail runners to share their solo hiking tips for women who want to walk alone
I’ve hiked all over the world, from challenging countries like Ethiopia and Lesotho to Pacific idylls like Rarotonga and Easter Island. I’ve done multi-day treks above 4,000 metres, day hikes under a scorching sun and gentle jaunts more like walks in the park. Throughout it all, there has been one constant factor: Peter.
For all the rhetoric about fearless female travel, there are certain problems that still endure. We tackle some below
It’s been almost five years since Peter and I packed up and left the UK for a year-long trip around the world. Many things have changed since then – some for the better and some for the worse, both at home and abroad.
We list some excellent books about obsessive searches – perfect reading for your own journeys of discovery
All travel, to some extent, is about searching. It may be a deep and yearning search for fulfilment, a soul-wrenching quest for absolution, or something far more base (Thailand, anyone?).
For some, travel is a way to silence an echoing need, be it for knowledge, enlightenment, glory or revenge. These obsessive searches take travellers on great journeys across the wild, usually giving rise to incredible tales of incredible lands. At times, these tales are humbling; at others, they are exasperating, but never are they boring.
After a year on the road and in each other’s pockets, Atlas and Boots share their top tips for travelling as a couple
I don’t tend to write about my relationship with Peter. We’ve been charting our year-long trip together but I’ve rarely talked about our relationship itself. As I explained in 7 things I struggled with in my first month on the road, this is partly because I haven’t always been 100% comfortable with publicly sharing our private moments.
More importantly, I haven’t felt the need to talk about our relationship. You don’t really when it’s right.
I sat on the stairs of our Airbnb studio and laced up my trainers for my first run since leaving London four months ago. As I tied the bow I absentmindedly thought “I hope I don’t get harassed.”
And then it occurred to me: I hadn’t been harassed for four months and the only reason the thought had crossed my mind was because I automatically associated running with street harassment.
