Hi! Welcome to Wandering Welsh Girl!
This website exists to bring you the best information about adventure travel in off the beaten path destinations.
Through the medium of story telling and photography I hope to inspire your next big adventure!
On this website I provide detailed travel itineraries, destination & hiking guides and product reviews, designed to help you get on your way.
Who am I?
My name’s Louise and I’m from the small country of Wales in the UK. I’m a tour leader for an overland adventure company and run holidays to off the beaten path destinations.
I’ve been living mostly a nomadic life since 2009 and when I’m not working I spend my time snowboarding, hiking and generally enjoying life in the outdoors.
For the last 5 years I’ve shared this lifestyle with my partner Nick and the closest thing we have to a house is a campervan called Jeff!
My Story
Ever since I can remember I wanted get out of my home town and see what else the world had to offer. I never quite bought into the societal norm of getting an education, then a career, then finding a husband and starting a family.
However, I started out along that path and by the time I was 21, I had my University degree, found a job and had a house to live in!
Things didn’t stay that way for too long though and in 2006 I found myself packing my bags and heading off on my first big adventure. I did what everyone else was doing at the time and booked a multi-stop plane ticket to Hong Kong, New Zealand, Australia and South East Asia. (All for £550!!!!)
When I returned home after 6 months I knew it was the start of something more and spent the next two years working and saving money. In 2009, with money in my pockets I moved to Canada and became a snowboard instructor.
I spent 3 years in Canada using my working holiday visa before moving to California. I spent the following 2 years living and working at Lake Tahoe, doing road trips to other parts of the States when I could.
Then in 2013 came an even bigger change. I got my bus driving license and became a tour leader/driver for an overland adventure company. In this role I have run tours all across Asia, Africa and the Americas.
During this time I’ve also squeezed in 2 winter seasons in Japan and 2 in Italy. With all this wandering, I’ve visited 70 countries and have no intentions of stopping just yet!
What Next?
In the Summer of 2019 I took a break from wandering the world and mostly spent time exploring the UK and Ireland. During that time I decided to start this website to share the useful information I’ve collected over the years.
As an overland adventure tour leader it’s my job to research destinations and arrange suitable itineraries for my customers. In this blog I hope to share all the useful information I’ve learned about travelling to off the beaten path destinations.
As an experienced hiker, I also want to share useable guides about the epic hikes I’ve done at these locations.
At the end of 2021 my boyfriend and I drove to Turkey in our converted campervan and spent the following 7 months exploring Georgia, Turkey, Greece, Macedonia, Montenegro, The Netherlands and Scotland.
This year we are based in Chepstow where I am working as an outdoor activity instructor for GoApe. We plan to save hard for a big overseas trip at the end of the year.
My Top Adventures to date
In time I hope to share more of my adventures on this blog, but until then here are some of the highlights. I share these things not to brag, but to demonstrate some of the awesome travelling adventures that are possible!
- Spending 3 weeks driving around Mongolia and getting stuck in a river
- Camping on the former sea bed of the Aral Sea in Uzbekistan
- Bum-sliding down the side of Villarrica volcano in Chile
- Driving from Alaska to Panama in a converted American School Bus called Betsy
- Shooting guns with the Turkish Police at a wild camping spot near the Georgian border
- Trekking with gorillas in Rwanda
- Driving from Istanbul to Beijing (3 times!)
- Rafting grade 5 rapids on the white nile in Uganda
- Spending 3 months driving an overland truck around the hectic roads of India (video) and Nepal
- Snowboarding (video) down a volcano in Japan
- Spending 25 days independently hiking around the Annapurnas in Nepal (watch the video)
- Ice climbing on glaciers in Patagonia and Alaska (video)
- Almost cycling into a bear in the Canadian Rockies
- Camping next to the Gateway to Hell in Turkmenistan (again 3 times!)
- Skydiving over Las Vegas
- Renting a car and driving solo around Cuba
- Sleeping on the side of an active volcano in Ethiopia
- Hiking the Grand Canyon from rim to rim
- Surviving the crazy jeep ride to Fairy Meadows in Pakistan
- Enjoying sunset on the Great Wall of China
- Spotting wild tigers in India
- Riding the Trans Siberian Express
- Watching snow monkeys bathe in hot springs in Japan
What’s On My Bucket List
- Return to Iceland to see the Northern Lights
- See Polar bears in Norway
- Explore the Faroe Islands
Drive my campervan to Turkey, exploring eastern Europe along the way- See the Pyramids in Egypt
- Visit Namibia, Botswana and South Africa
- Hike the John Muir Trail in California
- Tour Scandinavia in my campervan
- Hike to the Lost City in Columbia
- Scuba dive in the Galapagos
- Hike Mt Roraima and see Angel Falls
- Hike to K2 Basecamp
- And finally, buy a house in the Alps!
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