North America | United States | Adventure

The women of NASA are looking to the lunar horizon

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Growing up, Holly Ridings, Anne McClain and Nujoud Merancy dreamed of space. But they didn't let those dreams rest to become flights of childhood fancy. Now, all three women work at NASA. McClain is an astronaut who just returned from a six-month stint on the International Space Station. Merancy is the Exploration Mission Planning and Analysis lead for the Orion spacecraft that will be part of the Artemis mission in 2024. And Ridings is the first female chief flight director. And they're all working toward the goal of landing the first woman on the moon by 2024.
International | Adventure

10 of the most inspiring contemporary female adventurers

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Journalist Nellie Bly jumped off the page at me as I was researching Victorian female travellers. The more I got to know her, the more I was intrigued by this fearless character who wouldn’t take no for an answer. Her crusades in print brought reforms in women’s asylums, orphanages, sweatshops and prisons. The story that brought Bly the most acclaim was circling the globe in 72 days in 1890, beating the fictitious record in Jules Verne’s Around the World in 80 Days. One hundred and twenty five years later, I followed in her footsteps. We both travelled alone with one small bag. She
North America | United States | Adventure

Meet the Fierce, Over-50 Women’s Team Racing 750 Miles to Alaska in a Sailboat

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Picture this: It’s June 4, 2015. Thirty-five teams set sail on a 750-mile journey from Port Townsend, Washington to Ketchikan, Alaska, all the while battling 50-degree water temperatures, tidal currents of more than 20 miles per hour and their own physical limitations. It’s the Race to Alaska—billed as the “first of its kind and North America’s longest human- and wind-powered race”—a Herculean sailing journey with a $10,000 prize. The 2015 race was epic, but there was one thing missing from the lineup of ferocious competitors: an all-women team. The good news: All that
International | Adventure

Meet Dilys Price, the Oldest Female Skydiver In the World

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With over 1,000 dives under her belt, Dilys Price holds the Guinness World Record for the oldest female skydiver in the world. At 82 years old, she's still diving out of a plane and plummeting to the ground at impeccable speeds. Originally from Cardiff, Wales, Price started skydiving at 54 and remembers her first jump like it was yesterday. "As I fell I thought, what a mistake. This is death! And then the next second I thought, I'm flying!" she told A Great Big Story. "You are a bird for 50 seconds. And imagine...you can do a barrel roll, you can flip, you can move here, you can move there,
North America | United States | Adventure

Female surfers make waves despite barriers

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When Cathy Young was a teenager in the 1970s, she wanted to surf. But girls were not welcomed on the waves back then. "I had a teacher who said to me, 'You can't do that — that's what boys do,'" the 53-year-old Huntington Beach resident recalled. "And I was like, 'No, really I can!' I didn't realize at the time that she meant I couldn't do it culturally." Now the 36-year surf veteran catches waves four times a week in the summer. One thing she can't help but notice is that there are a lot more women in the water today. Although surfing has long been considered a male-dominated
International | Adventure

Top 10 inspiring female adventurers

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Many female travel adventurers have become lost in time so, to celebrate International Women’s Day, we pick 10 incredible women who defied convention to undertake awe-inspiring journeys. Jeanne Baret (1740-1807) Lady Hester Stanhope (1776-1839) Isabella Bird (1831-1904) Annie Smith Peck (1850-1935) Mary Kingsley (1862-1900) Gertrude Bell (1868-1926) Nellie Bly (1864-1922) Bessie Coleman (1892-1926) Freya Stark (1893-1993) Lady Grace Drummond Hay (1895-1946) Read their stories at the source.
Middle East | Iran | Adventure

Women’s rock climbing gains foothold in Iran

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In the mountains of northwestern Iran, Farnaz Esmaeilzadeh clings to a sheer rock face, ignoring the dizzying height and icy wind as she searches for the next handhold. The 27-year-old, who has been rock climbing since she was 13, has distinguished herself in international competitions despite the barriers she faces as a female athlete in conservative Iran. Gyms in the Islamic Republic, including the facility where she practices on an artificial climbing wall, have separate and limited hours for women. Rock climbers, like other female athletes, must adhere to the country’s conservative
South Asia | Pakistan | Adventure

Her motorcycle diaries: A Pakistani girl’s boundary-breaking bike journey

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Zenith Irfan's father used to dream of leaving his home in Pakistan to travel around the world on a motorbike. His early death meant he never fulfilled his wish. As his eldest child, Irfan decided to take up the challenge -- and along the way smash stereotypes in Pakistan as a female biker. The 21-year-old student from Lahore, northeast Pakistan has become a fearless rider in the past two years, traveling through regions of the conservative country where it's taboo for women to venture out unaccompanied, let alone on two wheels. But the transformation didn't come easy to her.
International | Adventure

Meet the Four Ladies Who are Helping Other Women Explore the World

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The Solo Female Traveler trend shines a bright spotlight on one simple fact: women who love traveling aren't going to forestall their adventures to wait for a companion anymore. The leap of faith and the courage that it takes to travel the world solo are commendable, but, for a variety of reasons, not every woman wants to travel completely alone. Sometimes, we just want to travel with someone else who understands the highs and lows of traveling the world as a woman. As a result, entrepreneurial women have started operating tours themselves—tours that emphasize female community. Reco
International | Adventure

All-female crew row for 9 months, 8,500 miles from California to Australia

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After a gruelling battle with the elements, the Coxless Crew made history as the first all-female rowing crew to cross the South Pacific Ocean. The six-person British crew left San Francisco, California in April 2015 and arrived in Cairns, Australia on Jan. 24th after travelling more than 8,500 miles (13,679 kilometres) and spending 257 days at sea, according to the team'sFacebook page. Led by Laura Penhurst, the permanent crew consisted of Emma Mitchell and Natalia Cohen, with Isabel Burnham, Lizanne van Vuuren and Meg Dyos taking one leg each. On a boat named Doris, the women travelled
International | Adventure

Female pilot completes epic solo flight

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Aviator Tracey Curtis-Taylor has arrived in Australia after a three-month trip in a biplane more than 70 years old. The flight was in part an homage to legendary female adventurer Amy Johnson. British adventurer Tracey Curtis-Taylor finished her grand journey from Britain to Australia in a 1942 biplane on Saturday. "I need a drink," she declared as her three-month journey came to its conclusion with a flyover of Sydney Harbour. Curtis-Taylor, 53, began her journey in Farnborough in the southeast of England on October 1 with the goal of retracing the flight path of her legendary predecessor
Latin America | Bolivia | Adventure

Indigenous Bolivian Women Scale Mountains Outside La Paz

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At first glance, the indigenous Bolivian women don't look much like mountain climbers, with their colorful, multilayered skirts and fringed shawls. But their helmets, polarized goggles and crampons attached to their shoes give them away as mountaineers who accompany their husbands, often as cooks and porters, as they guide tourists scaling the local peaks. Eleven of these Aymara women, ranging in age from 20 to 50 years old, earlier this month made the two-day climb up the 19,974-foot (6,099-meter) high Huayna Potosi, located near La Paz, with Lake Titicaca to the back and surrounded by
Europe | Cyprus | Adventure

Cypriot woman makes history in world’s longest ocean race

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Thirty-two year old Memnia Theodorou is the first Cypriot to ever take part in the Clipper Round the World Yacht Race and she is about to become the first woman from Cyprus to have sailed from the UK to Australia when the fleet arrives into Albany later this month. Theodorou  was only due to compete in the opening leg of the world’s longest ocean race when the fleet set sail from London to Rio de Janiero, Brazil, in August. However, once she got to Rio she signed up for Race 2, the Stormhoek Race to the Cape of Storms to South Africa in which her team GREAT Britain crossed the finish li
North America | United States | Adventure

Babes Ride Out: Women’s Motorcycle Group Explodes With the Help of Social Media

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Three years ago, Anya Violet and Ashmore Ellis had an idea: to gather up a few motorcycle girls and go camping. They posted a meet-up point on social media, and 50 girls showed -- far more than expected. Babes Ride Out was born and has grown exponentially every year since, with this year's event hitting a whopping 1,200 registrants, the largest gathering of women motorcyclists in history. The reach extended--not only across the country--but around the world. Women began flying in from Australia, London, and Japan, renting motorcycles, and riding to Joshua Tree, California, all to be a part o