Currently...

A marketing internship for an e-learning company & Art History tutor.

Before I escaped...

I rode horses and walked 2000 miles from Ecuador to Bolivia for two charities. It took six months.

My moment of truth...

The idea of adventure, in any form, is what I’ve dreamt about since pretending to be Robin Hood as a child. At Edinburgh University I met a friend (Phil Sutton). We both discussed possible adventures for when we left in 2008.

When he suggested riding horses through South America it seemed so detached from reality, but a great plan nonetheless. We teamed up with equine expert, Nick Warner (also ex-Edinburgh) and began months of planning.

It wasn’t until we arrived at the farm in Ecuador and met the horses for the first time that I realised we were actually doing it for real.

Planning for it...

• A part-time job
  
• Riding lessons
  
• Spanish lessons
  
• Reading accounts from long riders/survival experts, as well as travel and culture literature
• The whole journey cost us 6,000 GBP each. We had part-time jobs between leaving university and the start of the adventure in January. I had some savings too.
  

The worst and best bits...

Best: The horses and the language. I’d never ridden and didn’t speak Spanish before the trip – Nick and Phil would probably say I’m still crap at both! Also, raising funds and awareness for two great charities (http://volunteertrujillo.com/" rel="nofollow">Bruce Organisation, who help educate the street kids of South America, and http://alzheimers.org.uk/" rel="nofollow">Alzheimer's Society). 

Worst: Having no idea what is around the next corner.

Best advice...

My grandfather told me a line from a speech by Sir Francis Drake to his crew: “There must be a beginning of any great matter, but the continuing unto the end until it be thoroughly finished yields the true glory.”

I’m not as good as my grandfather at these things, and all I can think of is the Nike slogan: Just do it.

Useful resources and information...

• http://www.amazon.co.uk/Tschiffelys-Ride-F-Tschiffely/dp/1873429703/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1307546487&sr=8-4" rel="nofollow">Tschiffley's Ride - A guy who rode two wild horses from Buenos Aires to Washington in the 1920s!