Hiking and House-Sitting - Reimagining Life After 50 with Belinda Coker

Belinda Coker (SoulTreader.com), a New Zealand-born Australian currently based in the UK, redefined her life through hiking and travel. Her mission is to get women over 50 outdoors and into the wilderness.  Belinda recounts early solo overland travel through Southeast Asia and India, volunteering on a solar power project in Ladakh, later working in Japan, and eventually entering corporate life and raising three children.  During the 2020 pandemic she realized she’d lost her adventurous self, bought hiking boots, joined a Meetup hike with very fit older hikers, and committed to maintaining health and adventure while advocating for trail safety, proper gear, and group hiking.  She describes a recent near-hypothermia incident on the Canary Islands GR131 when unexpected cold rain and cloud cover forced an emergency exit. She also discusses Europe’s hut-to-hut culture versus wild camping, New Zealand’s extensive trails and huts, and her post-corporate house-sitting work via The House Sitting Collective, including a listener discount code HSTRAVEL.   00:00 Moving Along - ep. 36 - Belinda Coker 00:21 Introduction to Belinda Coker 03:08 The Big OE - Overseas Experience - from Tauranga, New Zealand 06:07 India and Volunteering on the Solar Power Project in Ladakh 06:50 From India Home to Australia 08:04 Look in the Mirror 09:37 One Hike Was All It Took 11:25 Hiking: Where to Start  13:24 Buying Your First Pair of Hiking Boots 14:46 Near-Death Experience in the Canary Islands 21:10 Free Resource about Safety for Hikers 22:05 Hut-to-Hut, Inn-to-Inn Hiking 23:43 Hut Culture 25:06 Getting into the Wilderness for Women 27:13  House-Sitting 31:56 Benefits of House-Sitting 34:36 The House Sitting Collective - Special Promo Code for Listeners   Contact Belinda Coker: Soul Treader – Belinda’s website https://soultreader.com/ https://soultreader.com/hike-it-right/ (Hike It Right. - Free Resource  - 78 Pages of Health, Safety & Hygiene on the Trail)   The House Sitting Collective https://housesittingcollective.com/ Discount Code for 10% off all House Sitting Courses  - HSTRAVEL   CREDITSHost and creator: Christi CassidyContact: [email protected] by Phyllis BusellMusic by Eve’s Blue. Post-production help from Auphonic.com.Show notes written with assistance from Descript and Claude.ai. LINKS:More information and to listen to past episodes: https://movingalongpodcast.comPast episodes are here too: https://moving-along.simplecast.com/Tag and like Moving Along episodes on Facebook and Instagram