I’m Astrid, I’m about to quit my job and go on a really long walk for quite a long time, join me, virtually, won’t
you?
I hail from beautiful Suffolk (East England) I currently live in Beautiful Somerset (South West England). I’m keen on beautiful places.
To earn a crust, I take people up mountains, canoeing down rivers and clambering on rocks. It’s wildly fulfilling, to ride on the back of other people’s adventures and get paid for it.
I walked the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), a long distance (2660 mile) hiking trail from Mexico to Canada in 2013 and realised I did nothing to record the experience, except for drawing a picture of where I slept every day for six months, oh, and I took some photos.
The Pacific Creat trail 2019
While I am useless at the inner and outer workings of a computer, wildly impatient and woefully inept when it comes to spelling; I decided, before this next grand adventure, as well as drawing my bed each night once more, I would also create something to share some snaps and some thoughts with a wider circle.
As of May 2019 my brave compadre and I embarked on a 3,100 mile ‘Thru’ (through) Hike’ of the Continental Divide, the longer of the three longest distance hikes in America.
And since, we married, honeymooned on bikes in the West Country, had a go at the Tour Du Mont Blanc, got ourselves a poodle and are currently planning the next big adventure in Arizona. Glimpses of these adventurings can all be found on this blog.
SONDER: Coined in 2012 by John Koenig, whose project, The Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows, aims to come up with new words for emotions that currently lack words. It’s the profound feeling of realising that everyone, including strangers passed in the street, has a life as complex as one’s own, which they are constantly living despite one’s personal lack of awareness of it.
Now, although I like animals more than humans, it’s a concept I rather like, don’t you?
One that ties in nicely with the complete faith in humanity one regains when on a long distance hike. The total lack of judgement required, naturally develops, to build short, long, fleeting or meaningful relationships with the weird, wonderful strangers met in a remote and largely unvisited line between Mexico and Canada.
We’re going to hide from Brexit, and hope it never happens.
SONDER 