How do we know what's Good?: Adventures with Wild Women

How wild is your life? Mine wasn’t wild enough. Wild Women on Top founded by Di Westaway helps women set and achieve adventure fitness goals they never thought possible. Let the adventure begin.

I love adventures. You know you are alive when you are standing in a city in your backpack, you can’t speak the language, no one can speak English and you have to find your way to your hotel. Having arrived home in Australia in 2008, lack of adventure had grown to a large grey hole in my life late last year. Any of you who have been overseas having adventures, know how hard it can be to come home. Australia is great, but it is a long way from anywhere. Somehow once you are here, the rest of the world slowly disappears into a misty fog of memory.

Rather then disappear completely into the grey mist of Pleasantville, I started to nose around on the internet, and came across Wild Women on Top. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of it at first, but went along for a taster.

Wild Women on Top began with Di Westaway. After climbing Mt Aconcagua, 6992m, in the year 2000, Di was inspired to set up an all female group empowering women to get fit for adventure.

Why all female? “I learned on that trip in 2000 that women in teams in the wilderness work well together,” says Di. “Women in mixed groups in the wilderness tend to defer to men by instinct.”

I have to admit I wasn’t sure about the all female thing at first. I was worried that everyone would be wearing pink and that there would be lots of high pitched squealing. But after training with Wild Women for a couple of terms now, I can really see how the different dynamic works (and there is no high pitched squealing to be heard – although there is quite a bit of giggling at times). My experience of hiking with men had left me thinking that hiking was an experience that was only enjoyable retrospectively – that is, while you were doing it, it is painful, but when you look back on it, it feels good. I know now, this is because I never had the chance to train with people who were at my own fitness level, and build my fitness up at my own pace.

Training with Wild Women is a totally different experience. Wild Women’s adventure fitness training program is a specialised training programme to prepare you for trekking in the wilderness. Training sessions are two or three hours, and incorporate endurance, interval training, core conditioning and an education component. Each training session is at a different location around Sydney. Training with Wild Women I have discovered Sydney is an exciting maze of bush tracks and walking paths with stunning views.

Barrenjoey

This is all training for the real thing. I recently saw beautiful photos taken by a group who returned from an off the beaten track trip to Tibet. Wild Women’s aim is to help you set and achieve adventure fitness goals you never thought possible. Wild Women organises adventure trips to places like Mt Kilimanjaro, Mount Blanc and Peru, as well as trips closer to home in Central Australia and New Zealand. To help train for these big trips, there are day walks scattered throughout the year, which are mini-adventures in themselves.

Rinjani

“We believe that by changing your attitude, you can change your circumstances. By changing your thoughts you can change your life, and that a positive attitude brings happiness and helps empower others,” says Di. These are big words. But after meeting women well into their fifties and sixties, who have just completed a ten day hike carrying 20 kilos each day, it’s hard not to be inspired.

On top of Rinjani

Di is a passionate leader, who is inspired by women who push boundaries in any walk of life, “Freda Du Faur, Marie Byles, Lynne Hill, Quinten Bryce, Gabi Hollows ... all of these women inspire me because they do things other women thought impossible. They don’t believe in the glass ceiling and they empower and inspire other women.”

When I started training, all I carried was a bottle of water in my pack. I can now carry 16kg for 10 (undulating…) kms. I never thought I would be able to do that. And I certainly never believed that I could enjoy doing it. It’s amazing.

When did you last have an adventure? Come. Rub your hands in the dirt and know that you are alive.