Recently I had the honour of being asked to contribute a short article about my experience to be published in the Ripples magazine. Great! But how on earth to summarise three and a half months into c.500 words?! Here’s what I came up with…
Finding strength in the wild
When I sent a message to a close friend telling her I was “thinking of doing something bonkers” I’m not sure I really believed I’d go through with it. After all, those big, crazy, dream-following ideas are the stuff of fairy tales, right? Big adventures are for Other People. Not professional young women with a promising career and a mortgage to pay…
It was too late though…the spark had been ignited and I don’t think it even took my friend’s reassuring “for you…no, that’s not bonkers” response to convince me to follow through with one of the hardest, and most incredible, challenges of my life. My plan: to walk, solo, from Land’s End to John O’Groats. An epic, three and a half month journey that would see me covering 1,400 miles of our beautiful country, on foot, carrying my life on my back.
The experience was profound. Right from taking the freeing decision to leave my job, through to the detailed research and planning necessary to make such an undertaking feasible, to the actual walk itself, it was, as cliché as it might sound, life changing. The full story warrants a book (which is on the horizon!) but one of the most common questions I get asked about my journey is “weren’t you scared, walking all that way on your own?!”
Yes and no! I think my mum was probably more scared than I was, but to be honest, she probably had a bit more time to worry about it than I did! I walk a lot, so being out and about in the woods and hills, exploring, finding my path, really doesn’t worry me – I feel more nervous walking through town at night than I do walking alone in the countryside! Yes, there were nights wild camping that were a little nerve-testing… I recall the eerie bellows of red deer echoing around the hills as a wild wind howled through dense, dark forest on the edge of Loch Lochy; the desolate stillness of the lonely, misty Rannoch Moor and the torrential streams cascading down the mountain just metres from my tent after a night of heavy rain; the long, sleepless night of gales, fearing my tent and I would be blown straight off the cliffs above the Stacks of Duncansby without a trace…and more run-ins with curious cattle than I care to remember. There were days I was so tired I just wanted to lie down and sleep, and days where I ran out of water. Days I was reduced to tears by pain and days where I wasn’t sure I’d make it. But was I ever truly scared?
No, not really.
There’s a strength to be found out in the wild; an empowering experience of self-sufficiency, resilience and connection that modern day life tends to soften out of us. It’s why I encourage everyone to get out in nature as often as they can. It awakens something incredibly primordial in us, a deep connection to who we really are. There’s a lot of power in that.
Would I do it all again? Oh yes! (Sorry mum)
Jen Le Marinel is the founder of WildFire Walks, a business born out of a passion for helping others and a belief in the power of nature to heal and inspire. Jen combines a transformational coaching approach with elements of the outdoors to help tired, stressed out individuals reclaim their happiness. You can find out more at www.wildfirewalks.com or read more about her incredible journey through her blog at https://jlemarinel-lejog.com .