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In conjunction with Deb Hann from Hann’s on Coaching, I’m going to be taking a small group of ladies on an unimaginable adventure in the jungles of Borneo next October. We’re collaborating with Alison from Borneo Ethical Adventures who has designed this tour specifically for us and our group and who will be our very experienced guide on this adventure. We’ll be a small group, numbers are limited to 10 ladies so you’ll need to get in quick. You just need to hit the Booking Button at the end of the itinerary on The Borneo Ethical Adventures website and join us as the If you’re after any more information get in touch with myself or Alison at Borneo Ethical Adventures and we’ll have a chat, we’d love to have you along next October.

Edinburgh was the starting point of my trip earlier this year that saw me do all sorts of adventurous (walking Hadrian’s Wall and climbing Scafell Pike) and not so adventurous ( weekend retreat , sipping cocktails in Paris) types of things. Edinburgh was one of the non-adventurous destinations, acclimatising after the long-haul flight, sampling the Scottish coffee (not raving over it), and the beer (cheaper than Australia and not bad to boot) and checking out the ghosts and ghoulies (a blog post for another time). We were staying in an apartment only a few minutes from the Royal Mile and, through no forward planning, it just happened to look out onto the slopes of Arthur’s Seat, so I had no excuse really. Gail and I had connected when I was planning my first trek to Everest Base Camp , she and her husband were trekking the same route in the Himalayas a few months before me and, although she lived in Scotland and I was in Australia, we struck up a connection and have been chatting online ever since.

Lots of years ago (2002 to be precise) I took part in an excavation of part of the Fishbourne Roman Palace in Sussex as part of my studies in Romano British history. This journey back in history seems to have reignited my love of all things Roman, particularly the archaeological remains that can tell such a story and brought back to mind my time spent on the Fishbourne Roman Palace site. All I managed to find were some bits of broken pottery, some oyster shells and a few animal bones, but they were 2000 year old bits of pottery and they were left there by some wealthy Romans. I was in Sussex, at the Fishbourne Roman Palace, taking part in an archaeological dig to try and discover more about this palace site.

Earlier this year I made it to the top of Bluff Knoll, the highest point in the south of Western Australia and although Scafell Pike, at 978 metres, was a few metres shorter than Bluff Knoll it was a totally different and equally difficult climb. As we drove through the fells towards Scafell Pike we were looking into the distance trying to pick out the highest point- at least I was, Jenny had her eyes firmly on the narrow, twisty road that she was trying to drive along – and when we pulled into the car park at the start of the walk it seemed a terribly long way to the top. As we got higher we looked back and the view down to Wastwater was spectacular and then we’d turn back round and look up to where we were going and wonder #1 how amazing the view would be from the summit and #2 how on earth The terrain was all rocks; rocky steps, rocky pathways, rocky rubble and just plain rocky and uneven ground, but for most of the way it was just a gradual incline.