Jen Benson: Adventure guidebook writing and camping around the UK for a year

What if you could go camping all over the UK for a year and write books off the back of your outdoors adventures? Jen Benson is my guest in this episode and she and her husband Sim are outdoor adventure guidebook authors, travel writers and long-distance runners. Their books include Wild Running, The Adventurer’s Guide to Britain, Short Runs in Beautiful Places and Amazing Family Adventures. They have two children and outside of this coronavirus period, they travel to places like the Cairngorms, the Lake District and the Isles of Scilly to research running and walking routes for their books. Jen and Sim have worked tirelessly to create this outdoors lifestyle for their family and they’ve had to make a lot of big decisions to get there. One of these was deciding to live in a tent and go camping for a year! I’d planned to meet up with Jen and go for a walk together, but because of coronavirus we chatted from our homes instead. I wanted to find out why Jen and her husband decided to pursue a more outdoors lifestyle, how they got into adventure guidebook writing and how it all works around family life. I hope you enjoy the podcast and Jen’s story. Listen out for her tips for getting into outdoor adventure writing and don’t forget that at the end of the episode, there are some sounds of nature, all recorded by you, the listeners! If would be fantastic if you could rate, review and subscribe to the podcast – it really helps other people discover it – and please feel free to spread the word to your family and friends! Thanks! Liv x * You’ll find Jen and Sim Benson on Instagram @jenandsim and for more information about their work and books, head to their website, Adventure Places. The Outdoors Fix is on Instagram and Facebook @theoutdoorsfix * The Outdoors Fix is a podcast produced and hosted by Liv Bolton @liv_outsideuk It is proudly supported by Ellis Brigham Mountain Sports – stores nationwide and online offering everything you need to equip you for the best outdoors experience.