When did you first realize something had shifted for you in midlife?

I think it was in the last decade of my, of the midlife, if we're going to put, put, you know, those bookends on it.

And the lead up to that, that, you know, that day when the, when I looked in the proverbial mirror is because I was, you know, I had divorce.

I had all sorts of other sort of personal issues.

There weren't some issues.

There were, I um happenings or events that sort of compounded um how i felt when i reached menopause and i think i took quite late late i had menopause a lot later than a lot of other women but um they say that midlife and um is very similar middle essence is very similar to um adolescence you're going through hormonal changes, physical changes.

You're having identity transitions, all sorts of things that you have when you're an adolescent, but it seems to be compounded when you're in midlife and for your middle essence, because, you know, there's all these other bits and pieces and baggage that you've taken along for the journey.

So for midlife in particular, Belinda, was there something about it that it forced you to stop ignoring something in particular? And what changed once you paid more attention to it?

Mm-hmm.

And I can remember, uh, there's a couple, they were Germans, couple, a, a German couple, and, you know, we were sitting there, you know, after dinner, you know, finishing, finishing off and all that sort of thing.

And, and, and they said, "Oh, do you have any children?" You know, to my partner and I.

And I said, "Yes, we've got six between us." And they, you know, see their eyes wide open, "Well, how old are they?" And I said, "Well, you know, the, the oldest one, the oldest one's 31, and the youngest is 23." And the look on their faces, they were like, "Oh, my gosh.

We're 30." You know? And it, it really is...

I mean, I have wrinkles.

I don't use Botox.

So what makes this such a practical and meaningful lifestyle, and what surprises people when they start house sitting?

Yeah.

But I'm not anymore.

I'm trail runners, use topos.

Topos also, also make great running shoes as well, but they've got a very wide toe box, which I need.

I've got quite wide feet and, um, And they've got a great grip.

The other thing is, is that they dry, they dry very, very fast.

So they can literally dry overnight.

Is there anything that, you know, you would like to tell them about the key benefits of hiking?

And so when did sort of hiking sort of enter into your life and when did you decide to sort of take it really seriously?

Well, I think during high school, I used to have a couple of family members and friends who would often go on hikes.

And then at university, I ended up joining a hiking group.

And that was probably before hiking became trendy.

Over the last, I would say, decade, hiking has definitely become trendy and popular.

where you buy pretty shiny things to accompany your sport, whether that be a super ultralight tent and all this sort of thing, was back then it was just, you know, whatever you had, you went with.

Yeah.

But it's also about the types, what makes it is the type of people you're meeting along the way.