Rebecca Coles is an expedition and adventure travel specialist who has have led expeditions, travelled and climbed on all 7 continents and in over 70 countries, giving her a unique breadth of experience and knowledge
After graduating with a Geography degree and PhD in glaciers, she leant into her passion to help people plan their own expeditions as well as travel adventurously and independently and became a full-time expedition leader, being a qualified International Mountain Leader and Mountaineering Instructor (MIC).
Sheās led over 40 expeditions in places such as Chile, Madagascar, Nepal, Borneo, Zambia, Botswana, India, Tanzania and the Wakhan Corridor, Afghanistan, as well as a personal trip where she returned from Katmandu overland, taking 6 months and only using publicly-available transport.
Her ethos is to travel with minimal impact, while keeping expectations realistic. We discussed the impact humans are having on the world, and that even a global lockdown managed to reduce carbon emissions by 7-20%. Massive change is required, yet this doesnāt have to leave us feeling overwhelmed. Becky shares how we can still go out exploring, and just make sure we do our best with the resources available to us.
Timestamp for talk:
- 3:03 – Getting the goal as quickly as possible, forget the journey can be richer/is important (KS)
- 7:33 – One thing you realize travelling over land, how small & connected the world is Weāve got the world quite literally at our doorstep that we forget about.
- 14:42 – People are cautious about travel tip: 99.9% of people in the world are good & will help you
- 20:56 – I think we need the skill to take the first step, even though we might not know quite where it leads us. People are very scared about taking the first step and overthink it way too much. Be brave, and take the first step!
- 22:34 – Woman in mountaineering. Society pressure
- 24:27 – Itās our minds that create limitations about whatever we heard growing up to fit a certain model that men typically donāt have
- 26:15 – Very subtle things are ā¦ clothing and equipment to fit women properly āPink it & shrink itā can make it a bit harder to be seen as authority. We arenāt little men!
- 32:25 – Climate change: The biggest thing is to vote. Lockdown and reduction of carbon emissions
- 34:28 – Our lives are contradictions.
Any links discussed:
Rebecca Coles website |Ā Resource for train travel | Change petition website
Book Invisible Women by Caroline Criado-Perez|Ā Gran Paradiso mountain, Italy
