Curate Your Life: Adventures in Hiking & Global House Sitting

Welcome to another episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series! We're chatting with Belinda Coker—a seasoned hiker, writer, educator, and global house sitter who currently calls Scotland home. After taking early retirement and leaving the corporate world, Belinda embarked on a global journey to embrace adventure, build confidence, and inspire others through responsible travel. In this episode, Belinda shares how she curated a life of genuine freedom and stability, combining her love of hiking with an innovative approach to house-sitting. 

From the mountains of New Zealand to the trails of Greenland and Europe, Belinda’s story is an inspiring testament to reinvention, discovery, and finding joy in the simple things. Whether you’re dreaming of your own adventure or looking for practical tips to travel the world and house sit along the way, this episode is packed with insights and encouragement for anyone eager to live life beyond the ordinary.

DISCUSSION

00:00 Choosing a Northern hemisphere base

04:05 Taking a gap year in Asia

09:04 Challenges of Nomadic Living

11:53 Planning hiking trips year-round

15:20 House sitting experiences abroad

18:30 Finding the perfect travel accommodation

22:15 Discussing retirement plans and house sitting

23:30 Gaining trust through house sitting

28:17 Snakebite differences in Australia vs. the USA

33:07 Benefits of house sitting for pets

35:09 Reflecting on the outdoor website journey

39:36 Starting a YouTube journey

42:51 Spending quality time with kids

45:00 House sitting and travel resources

Connect with Belinda:

• https://soultreader.com 
• https://housesittingcollective.com
• Instagram & Facebook (Hiking): SoulTreader
• Instagram & Facebook (House Sitting): House Sitting 101

NEXT STEPS

Visit us at https://outdooradventureseries.com to like, comment, and share our episodes.

KEYWORDS

Belinda Coker, Soul Treader, House Sitting Collective, Outdoor Adventure Series, Podcast Interview, Podmatch

#SoulTreader #HouseSittingCollective #OutdoorAdventureSeries #PodcastInterview #Podmatch

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Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

Hello everyone, this is Howard Fox and welcome back for another episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series. Belinda Coker is our guest today. Coming to us from Scotland, Belinda is a hiker, writer, educator, and house sitter. She helps women and others, I would imagine, build confidence through practical adventure and responsible travel. And she teaches how to structure, trust, and responsibly create genuine freedom and stability in life. Belinda, it's a pleasure to finally get you on the podcast. Welcome.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

Thank you, Hal. It's lovely to be here.

SPEAKER_00 0:47

Fantastic. Now, you and I have been trying to have this podcast for quite a while. We met through our friends at PodMatch. And so here you are. And first off, when I mentioned Scotland, there was a little bit of uh, I don't know, uh comfort in my heart because I have such fond memories of Scotland. I have a couple of friends that are Scottish and they are up there. But for first off, why are you in Scotland right now?

SPEAKER_01 1:13

Okay, so I'm in Scotland because I decided to leave the corporate world and travel around the world hiking because I took an I took an early retirement. I I'm 60 years old, and I thought, well, uh I only have 20, maybe 25 active years left. That that's how that's how many I guessed I had left. So I thought, right, okay, I'm going to make the most of my life. The rest of my life, I am going to embrace it and do as much as I can. So my children had all left school and they they were in their final years of university, and everyone was in a safe and secure place. All my young adult children were in a safe and secure place. So I I left and started hiking around the world. And I when you're in Australia or New Zealand, because I'm obviously not Scottish, you can tell by my accent. I'm I'm actually. Yeah. So I'm dual nationality, Australia and New Zealand. So but when you're all the way down under, it's a long way to go back up to the top. So I made a decision with my with my partner that we would we would base ourselves up in the northern hemisphere for 10, 8, 10, 10 months of the year, and we base ourselves up here, and then we can move freely and go and and and go across to Europe, because it's we can do that quite cheaply, and across to Europe, do do a great hike, like for example, the Tour de Mont Blanc or the where are we going the next next next week we're heading to Greece for six weeks of hiking. And and so then we we decided, right, where would our where would our northern hemisphere base be? And we both have sort of Scottish ancestry. We both love Scotland. Scotland's great. For us, it's free medical, and there's prescriptions. Well, prescriptions are free. So you basic you basically turn up the doctor and you say, right, okay, I've got a little shopping list here, and your whole hiking medical kit gets included in it. It's it's quite funny. Yeah, no, but it's a great place to live. It really is. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 3:27

I love it. I lived in the UK for a little while, many years ago, and I recall, in fact, even here in the United States where I live, Australians, New Zealanders, you are the consummate travelers. I mean, you're always traveling somewhere. And so here you were growing up, living Australia, New Zealand. Had you always had the travel bug in you, or was it really just I'm done with work, I'm taking the early retirement, and we're just gonna go and explore?

SPEAKER_01 4:05

No, uh, I actually I actually took a what what I thought was going to be a gap year straight after school, before university. I said, right, okay. Like all of my friends, everybody wanted the excitement of the northern hemisphere. Well, I actually wanted the excitement of Asia. So when I was when I was 20, I actually straight after school, I had I had to work a year before I to save the money. And so I ended up going to, I was going to go to Asia for six months and ended up going for two years. I worked in Ladakh in northern India on a vol in a voluntary capacity on a solar power project. And this is right back in the 1980s, like before I had never heard of solar power back then, and I and I and it I didn't actually hear about it again until probably about a decade later. So, and then I went back and did my university, but uh uh along with many, many other Australasians, everybody was sort of traveling a path that, you know, either straight after school or straight after university. And it was called we called it our the big OE, that the big overseas experience, because that's what you did, and you got it all out of your system, and then you came home and had a career and had babies and and and life went on.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Life went on. So I'm curious too, when you you went to to school and uh what did you study, say from the point you l you left school that after the gap year and you you're you and and now here we are, you're sitting in a in a home in Scotland.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Public relations.

SPEAKER_00 5:42

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:43

Yeah, so that's what I did. A college mean you mean you mean university, yeah, yeah. So that's what that was what I majored in is public relations.

SPEAKER_02 5:50

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Funnily enough, I never used it. I mean, well, I I probably did use it in my in my vocation, but I didn't I never did a public relations role. Maybe about six months and yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:03

Now okay. Now when you pursue the retirement, where had you had this idea of traveling around the world had it been kind of below the surface, below the radar, or had it been slowly bubbling up here and there? I'm kind of curious what that aha moment was for you, or like, okay, we're we're gonna pack everything up and we're just gonna live from country to country, town to town.

SPEAKER_01 6:33

Okay, so midlifers are going to love this one. So it was actually in the year 2000, and I was 55 years old and COVID had hit, and uh I we were we were in a quite a good place during COVID where I had my whole family around me and everything was pretty good. However, I looked in the mirror and I thought, what's become of you? You haven't, you've lost your sense of adventure. You I've for yet for deck for a couple of decades I've been wearing a corporate hat, a mum hat, a partner hat, an ex-wife hat, all sorts of different hats, but I hadn't actually worn a Belinda hat and I was overweight. I was probably drinking way too much wine than I than than than I should have been. And I I just wasn't in a good place. I really was having, I call it middle essence, the the hormonal transition identities, all that sort of thing. And so then I decided, right, okay, I need to get out. I need to go and do something for myself. And so I joined a hiking group, and I hadn't worn a pair of hiking boots for 35 years. Growing up in New Zealand, I had been hiking all through school, all through university. So hiking was what was in my blood. New Zealand's got some of the best hikes in the world, by the way. And so then I so I went on this hike and uh it was through a meetup group, and I was the youngest. Everybody else was 70 and 80 years old. And it wasn't a long hike, it was probably about 12 miles, 17 kilometers, but it was down a steep gully and up the other side, and I struggled. And all these fit 70 and 80-year-olds with they were just powering down and powering back up, and they were so they they had this glow about them. And I looked at them and I thought, I want that. I want that. I I don't want to be in this middle-age crash that I felt that I was in. And that was the start, start of it. It was that wasn't the start of me actually going off and traveling around the world, but it was the start of getting my hiking bug before I before I started multi-day hikes at the end.

SPEAKER_00 8:48

I love it. I love it. Now I am curious when you are off on your multi-day hikes and you are in the locations, and we're gonna talk a little bit about the the the house sitting in a second. Do you have a home base somewhere?

SPEAKER_01 9:04

I don't at the moment, and but this is it's this is basically what my partner and I are saying, right? Okay, we need to get something because we've been doing this now for two nearly three years, and it's just things like I was applying for a VAT number with the in in the UK the other day. And I couldn't because I sold my property and I couldn't, I couldn't, I couldn't verify my my address. And all of a sudden, it really, really hit hard. It's not that we've we're not we I'm technically homeless, but but you know, when you say that, I say that to my kids and mum, don't say that, because I'm not. I mean, I could I could go and live somewhere whenever I wanted, but it's actually quite it's quite an interesting concept, and I think that this is a problem that a lot of nomadic people are finding. And because nomadic living at the moment is is is very popular, not only for the rage, it's the rage. Who are suddenly saying, well, we can retire here and sit here and turn the TV channels over and over and sit by the fire and eat tea and scones, or we can go out and enjoy ourselves. So is it a problem? It does become a problem every now and then. And so we are in the process of looking for somewhere to buy that so that we can actually have somewhere where we call home, even if we're only there for two to three months a year.

SPEAKER_00 10:31

Okay. No, I love it. You could have a place two to three months a year and rent it out while you're gone.

SPEAKER_01 10:36

Exactly, exactly.

SPEAKER_00 10:38

Well, as you have been traveling. I imagine you do how do you how are you deciding where you want to go? I mean, I mean, and and I asked this question, knowing that you're going to Greece, because I love Greece. I have the friends that live there, and I've been there than twice. I would love I've even thought about packing everything up and moving to somewhere in northern Greece, right by the water, there was cost of living and was very low. And I thought I could get a little studio apartment. The beauty of podcasting and coaching is I can do it anywhere in the world. Yeah, doesn't matter, it's just a time zone and internet connection.

SPEAKER_02 11:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

But how are you deciding where you want to go? And how are you then preparing for that?

SPEAKER_01 11:27

Okay, so we have so first of all, I have a bucket list of hikes. And they and there can be, I'd like to say there's only 50 on there, but it probably stretches to about 200, you know, by the time I save all save all the hikes that I'd like to do on Instagram. And more and more are coming up all the time.

SPEAKER_02 11:46

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

So we house it, and we'll I know that we're going to get into house city, we house it four times a year for one month. So and that's during the during the quarters, because the people that we house it for, it's a regular house it, they go to Thailand and we look after their house for a month. So between that, we have two months where we can hike. Now, those two months are basically winter, spring, summer, and fall. Okay, so we've got winter, spring, summer, and fall. So all the hikes in the world, you could they're the the optimum time to hike these hikes in the world are uh literally either spring, summer, fall, or winter, northern hemisphere, winter. So northern hemisphere, winter, or the ones down under will come under that character category. So if you and then and also well, I thought the the traverse through the canaries would also come into that, but I ended up with hypothermia in in January, but that's another story.

SPEAKER_02 12:42

That's a whole other story.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

That's a whole other story. But so so when you take anywhere in the Mediterranean, like Spain, Portugal, Greece, Italy, all of all that Mediterranean band, that is best hiked either in spring or fall. And so that will come into the spring category. Then we've got summer. This summer we are hiking the GR10, which runs along the Pyrenees, from right from the west coast of the border between Spain and Portugal. I'm sorry, Spain and France. So the border between Spain and France runs along the Pyrenees, and this trail literally runs along the border in France from the west coast to the east coast, and it'll take eight weeks. And the optimum time to do that is summer, so we we schedule that for summer. And then we also have a backup as well. So we have we usually have one or two backup hikes so that we can kind of slot them in if something goes wrong. For example, I would have loved to have done the Jordan Trail this this spring, but Middle East is kind of out of bounds at the moment.

SPEAKER_00 13:52

Not the best place. No when you are house sitting, are the the homes that you are staying in, are these people that you know or how have and again I know we're gonna talk a little more detail, but how have you arranged to get to know these folks? They trust you, you trust them. There's gotta be both ways.

SPEAKER_01 14:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 14:18

How do you just it do these are these the same homes every year, or are these folks that you have through your website or through just other sites where you have the I don't know, uh uh professional house sitters for the sake of better words. How are you establishing that that one month a year in four different locations?

SPEAKER_01 14:40

Well, there's okay, so for starters, and prior to this year, we were just we were on there's several apps, and on my website I have a resource with all the with all the house sitting apps on there. So that's so there's lots of apps, and you can you can narrow it down to whichever to the located geographically where you want to be, whether you like dogs or cats or mice or rabbits or whatever, whatever the pet is. Usually it's dogs and cats, dogs or cats, or sometimes both. And and so you you you basic you apply to you apply to go on them and you also get rated. So I we're we're five-star house sitters, and on some somewhere like trusted house sitters, you can also rate the the homeowners as well. So you can see on a uh some homeowners want someone to look after their dog, and you can have a look at their profile and go, oh, I don't quite like your reviews. But that sort of thing. But I we tend to get some very good, we get very good house sits, and we get long ones as well. So prior to this, we were we were filling in each of these quarters with house sits all over, we were doing all over Spain, we've done America, and we've done the UK and Canada as well. Now, when we did, we've we looked after this one particular Labrador in Scotland for twice, and they love us so much, they said, We'd really like you to do this on a regular basis. They they have to go over to Thailand four times a year, and so we said yes. So two months before we were scheduled to do it in March, they turned around and said, Well, we're not we're not going anymore because of the because our flight goes through today and we're not sure about whether we're not gonna be able to get back and all sorts of things like that. So we said, right, okay, have days, we will find another house sit, and within two days, we had filled up that three-week or three to four week gap with other house sits. Here I am now. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:37

There you go. I I want to while I want to go back to the hiking for uh in a minute, I do want to ask about the house sitting again, is what would be and uh I know you have a website that we will introduce and provide in our show notes, the house house sitting uh collective.com. Yeah. In addition to now you've been you and your partner being experienced house sitters, what's your if there's like two or three five pieces of advice for somebody to become a trusted house sitter, how would they go about doing that?

SPEAKER_01 17:19

Okay, so one of the first things is that you really need to have a you need to have a profile which will act which will which will sell you. Now you need to also have an element of trust. So you need to be trustworthy. You need to understand that when you are going into somebody's home, they're going away for an extended period, and it might be three weeks, it might be two weeks, it might be one week, whatever. And you're there to look after their most prized possessions or assets, which is their house and their dog and cat. And lot lots of people like pet is pets in our family for people. When when I grew up, we used to throw the dog bone out the kitchen window, but now it's a little bit more, it's a little bit more. But so you need to understand that that's that that's really important. At the on the flip side, it is one of the most amazing ways to travel and not pay any rent. And also you have the use of a full kitchen, so your restaurant bills are next to nothing, and you don't know you have a full kitchen. So I think that knowing that you have to go that you're going into a house sit and that your number one priority is that element of trust, and that was so so important. And I go into that a lot in my in my blogs and my education and that sort of thing. It it is one of the it is one of the most it is one of the best ways to be able to travel. It really is, in my opinion. And I started it because I was working over here for a while in the corporate space, and I needed to find an Airbnb. And I was looking at these damp one-bedroom uh apartments, and I was just like, this is this is ridiculous. What am I doing? This is this isn't going to be comfortable. And or or I would be in a hotel, which was just like a s a small square box with a bed and maybe a chair in the corner and a desk which faced the TV. And but to be able to walk uh to be in a house where you have the full movement from I'm sitting in an office right now, or moving into a lounge room, kitchen, bathroom. And it having that having that flow is so important for you. And so that's why it's such a good way to travel for retirees, people who are on who are digital nomads, or even solo travelers, especially solo women travelers, it's very safe to be able to be in a house. Maybe you've got an alarm system, and if you've got a dog, you've certainly going to have something that'll make a bit of noise if somebody knocks on the door. I mean, having the mailman come every day is usually the most exciting thing that happens every day. Okay. So yeah.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

So I so a question then I I'm a little self-serving, uh opportunistic, I would I would even say m my work as a uh I am uh an executive coach, uh coach literally every day, four or five hours. My podcasting is my not so much a side hustle anymore. But the key is I can do it anywhere. Yeah. Is that a is this a possibility for someone like me who's single, unattached? I just need to be able to have I just need to be able to do the work while also, I guess, taking care of the dog, preferably. I'm more of a dog person than a cat person.

SPEAKER_01 20:42

Yeah, absolutely. So I I did it probably for about before I started this full-time hiking sort of lifestyle. I was doing it probably for about for about six months, at six months at a time, and I was able to sort of save on the amount of money that I would have spent on hotels and Airbnbs, and I was working all the time. And then of course you'd want to take the dog out for a walk, maybe at mid-morning, maybe at three. And it's a lovely way to take a break. It really is. Most of the houses, most of the people that you're going to be looking after, the houses have everything that you would need, including a fast internet. And that's one of my specul stipulations is that I do have the fast internet. As far as being a single male, it's not a problem. All they want is someone who's trustworthy. If you're and often, and and I say this, but at the same time, there's a lot of young people doing it. But older people really are really kind of more appreciated in this space because you've looked after your own home. You've you've got that air of responsibility, you've had you've had responsible positions in life. So and and uh a lot of the homeowners That I've met, we've actually become good friends with.

SPEAKER_02 22:03

Nice.

SPEAKER_01 22:04

And yeah, and we actually went away on holiday with a couple that we looked after their house in York, and we ended up going down to Spain together. So you do. You make we you we make great friends with it. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

I I'm like, Melinda, you and I are gonna be best friends. I hope your your your partner uh is okay with that because I'm gonna be like, I need to I want to do this so badly. I I was literally on a coaching call this week with a client who's taking an early retirement, and we talked about what he would like to do next. And this idea of just traveling and taking people on hikes was just at the top of the list as opposed to having another J-O B for the next five years. One quick question, and then I want to go back. I do want to visit your website, so perhaps we can do that in a second because I have some more questions regarding the hiking. But as for house sitting, for somebody who's never done it before, would you recommend that they perhaps try to house sit in their home country or maybe in a country they're very familiar with first before? Now I don't see myself going to the Philippines or Thailand to house sit. I mean, it's it's one thing not to be able to speak the language, but everything, the culture, the environment, the the gaps in the in the communication. What would be your recommendation?

SPEAKER_01 23:29

Well, I actually I that I do quite a bit of this in my in my course as well, in two of my courses. So it's basically how to get trust and trust credentials without ever having done it before. And so a lot of the time, a lot of your skills are transferable, but you can also do what's known as a weekend sit hack. And this is to get a reference. So in a lot of the towns of the big cities, and this can be in your own city, wherever you live. A lot of people are going away for the weekend for two days, and they need someone to look after Rover or Ginger the Cat or whatever. And so what you can go and so those two-day house sits, they're not that popular with the long-term experience sitters. They want the three-week, the one-month house sits. And so you go and get one or two of those, which are quite easy to pick up, and then and that's a that's a great way to sort of try start to get references. But also house sitters will take, I mean, prospective homeowners will take you can give professional references, you can get character give character references, whether or not it's the past from your church or your employer or your landlord or anyone like that, just to show that you're a responsible human being. And that's literally all you need, because that's all they want. They just want someone who's gonna love their pet and look after their house.

SPEAKER_00 24:54

I love it. I love it. And I it's funny as we're you're sharing this. I next week I was actually asked to do some house sitting for my roommate's best friend, one of her best friends, and I said yes, and then I realized, oh, that's the weekend. I'm gonna go visit going with some friends to visit a national park. Sorry, I can't do it, but because I I had house sat for this individual and their dog previously. So it was it definitely what was available there. So listen, I am gonna go ahead and and share my screen. I want to take a look at your website and uh perhaps if we can kind of navigate around a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 25:33

Okay, so this is the high this is the hiking website. Yes, yep. So just just I just want to clarify with the listeners that we also have a house sitting collective website. This is the this is the hiking website.

SPEAKER_00 25:45

We'll do a quick visit over to the house sitting as well.

SPEAKER_01 25:48

Yeah, no, that's fine. So where are we going to go on this one?

SPEAKER_00 25:53

So take us on a short tour.

SPEAKER_01 25:55

Okay, so here I have the home page. This is me crossing a river in in New Zealand down on the South Island, some of the most beautiful hiking in the world. And then if we scroll a little bit down, I have the quick link. So here we have hiking guides. So this is all the places I've hiked. Well, actually, it's not all the places I've hiked. I'm probably I've probably got about 10 hikes that I that are backed up that I still need to write about. So if we go into hiking trail guides, we'll go in going there afterwards. But hiking trail guides is where you can find all the guides under particular countries, and I can I can add another six countries to that at least. And then you open those up and all the hikes come in at that. And now my hiking guides, I try to give everything, all the information like the route, the the best time to hike it, and everything that I can think of that to include in that you would need to know in this hiking guide. And I never do hiking guides for hikes that I haven't hiked. I don't believe in that. It has to be one that I have actually hiked. And and do I use AI? Look, sometimes, but not to write the not to write the guide. But sometimes you just kind of need a little like, can you just help me with this sentence? But honestly, if I if I if I took AI hiking, AI might might have might be able to write it. I might trust it with writing my guides, but no, not not a not a show at the moment. AI AI is just so not not good enough. Okay, so back to the home page. If we just go back to the home page.

SPEAKER_00 27:35

By the way, I was gonna I was tempted to click on Greenland because since it is a property of Denmark for our listeners, wanted to emphasize that, but I elected not to go there. But we're back at the homepage.

SPEAKER_01 27:48

Okay, no, we can go in there in a minute. Okay, so then we've got, oh, and then further down here, with the this is the same. Oh sorry, just go back up a little bit. Sorry, up no, in between. Yeah, so we've got the essential stuff. So the essential stuff is all sorts of things like how to go to the toilet when you're hiking, first aid for hiking, what the difference is between Australian and American snakes, and there is a huge difference. Many so Australian, Australian snakes, the most venomous snakes in the world, are also actually quite timid, or most of them are quite timid, and they bite into the lymphatic system. So our snakes bite into the lymphatic system. Therefore, our treatment of the snake bite is totally different to say a pet viper, which is the most common snake in America, which bites into the into the blood, into the blood vessels. Now, the the other, the only snake which does in America, which does bite into the lymphatic system, is your coral snake, which I think you can find in the southern suburb uh in the southern states. So so the the problem is that many Australians we all carry our snake bite kit with them, which is a very tight bandage, and we bite and we and it we we that's how we manage a snake bite. If you did that with a pit viper, you'd probably lose the limb. And if you treated an Australian snake bite the same way you treated an American snake bite, you would die.

SPEAKER_00 29:15

So it's good to be culturally aware of where you're going and what the what the what the opportunities are, the experiences are, but are perhaps what the dangers are. There was a book by Bill Bryson years ago. He wrote Oh God, about the Appalachian uh Appalachian Trail Walk in the Woods on the Appalachian Trail. And then he wrote a book in a sunburned land, which was about Australia, and he he was he made sure to emphasize that like 10 of the 12 top most dangerous you know, snakes, spiders, and and something else are in Australia. And I thought, well, that's great, thank you. I remember I was up in Canes in the Aboriginal Park, right? And I was about ready to take the the tram down, and I looked behind me, and there's this massive spider in the spider web. I thought, oh dear god, I'm out of here. Okay, I digress. So it looks like you've got a lot of resources out here. I love the guides, the trails, the camping. Yeah, I mean, I would love I love when I moved from Chicago to Las Vegas, I wanted to get out to the desert. This time of the year we have scorpions, so we've got to be careful. But yeah, just getting out there seeing the stars. I imagine this the the sights and the sounds, the smells has had to have been amazing for you and your partner on these hikes. Absolutely. Is there one hike that really you know it just it it has a special place in your heart?

SPEAKER_01 30:46

Uh I think Greenland would be one of them. Green the one in Greenland would be one of them, but the other one is the Lara Pinta Trail in that went through the Red Desert in Australia. So the Lara Pinta Trail is definitely one, but also Greenland. You can click on Greenland if you like.

SPEAKER_00 31:03

Okay, we'll click on Greenland. I was gonna go to Australia, but we'll click with for our for my listening audience here in the United States. This is Greenland, it's a uh part of Europe and Denmark, so just wanted to for everybody to be aware of that.

SPEAKER_01 31:18

So it's called the Arctic Circle Trail. So it goes from the edge of the ice cap all the way over to the to the sea. And I think look, it's around about 200 220 or 230 kilometers. So I think it's about 170 miles. Okay and and it's it's actually follows an Inuit hunting route. So you get these that little red hut that you can see that in the main picture. You have those, there's about there's about 10 of those along, and you can actually stay in those. They're all free. The rudimentary, they may have they've got a fire in them, and that's about it. So and that, but it is absolutely it is one of the most beautiful hikes. And I actually did sleep in the huts. I don't usually sleep in huts. I normally sleep in my tent because I prefer my tent, but because it was 24 hours daylight, I there's no way I couldn't sleep, so I had to go into the hut whereas at least I need to draw the curtains.

unknown 32:17

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 32:19

But that is why don't we um uh go to your uh the house sitting? What should we go to?

SPEAKER_01 32:28

House sitting collected.

SPEAKER_00 32:34

Hopefully it'll come up. Right. I love technology. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 32:43

So you've got two courses. Excellent. Actually, maybe if we just go onto the home page. Sorry. Oh, that okay. Yeah, if you hit the if you hit the yes, there you go. That looks a bit better, doesn't it? Okay So basically I've got a big thing about blurb about here, why house sitting? Because house sitting is becoming more and more important as sorry, more and more popular. In fact, it's growing by 12% per annum. So more and more homeowners are saying, right, okay, so so leaving Rover, the dog, in it in its own home with caring trusted people is so much more important and so much nicer than putting them in a place where where it's almost like jail, like in a kennel, because you know, they they don't have the same sort of love and all that sort of thing. And that is basically why I I started this, because so many people, well, how do I do it? What do I do? And lots of people are really struggling with their with their profiles, with their applications. And then I've got the house seating fundamentals, which basically shows you what to do right from right from the get-go, like how how to how to actually house it, what you need to do. And there's checklists in there and all sorts all sorts of great stuff. So I love it. I love it.

SPEAKER_00 34:02

It's funny, and as I'm looking at the three courses, I mean, for less than$300, you have literally everything you need to prepare to get up to speed of what you need to do. And each one of these courses has resources associated with it.

SPEAKER_01 34:17

Yeah. Well, they're all it's a bit like an onion skin. So if you start off with the young one, the the smaller one, you'll get the discount if you take the next one. If you take get the the big one, you get discount if you've already taken the courses.

SPEAKER_00 34:30

So I recognize that model. You've it's that very much that entrepreneurial uh model, just the the lead magnet, and then this and then this. Yeah, very much.

SPEAKER_02 34:39

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 34:40

Yeah. Very nice, very nice. Well, we're gonna definitely provide the backlinks to the website. Now, I think you mentioned as we're I was preparing for the episode, you have an offer for our listeners.

SPEAKER_01 34:54

Yes, certainly. So it is HS travel for 10% off. So that's H for house, S for sitting, travel as in travel, and that is just all our case, and that will give you 10% off all of our courses.

SPEAKER_00 35:09

I love it. So we will definitely have that in the show notes. Excellent. Excellent. So I am going to stop sharing and thank you for taking us on that tour of the websites. I was definitely spending a lot of time more on the uh the the hiking website because I just the idea of I you I need to be able to put the word uh get the outdoor in the outdoor adventure series, yeah, because you can't do all the outdoor adventure from the safety of a of a 12 by 12 room like I am in right now. As you look back on your journey, perhaps the people you meet, maybe the reactions from family, is there is there an aha moment for you when you perhaps you and your partner have said, wow, we get to do this.

SPEAKER_01 36:01

I think all the time, especially uh and you really get it when you when you post things on your Facebook, on your personal Facebook, because I post things on my firm personal Facebook, so so people don't think that I've fallen off the the edge of the planet. And and everybody's like, Oh my gosh, you're living the best life. I and and we st we kind of say, Well, actually we are. Oh, and I say to my kids, well, well, next week, next week, uh, I'm leaving for Greece, so I'm going to be intermittent for six weeks. But and but I do have my garment with me, and every night I'll send, I'll ping you so you know where I am. So we do we do have that as well, especially when I'm out in the in the wilderness. And and even my kids are like, wow. And it it it's sometimes it re you really have to sit back and go, Yeah, we do have an awesome life. It's and sometimes I do take this for granted. I do I do take this for granted. And people say people might say to me, Oh my gosh, you must have so much money. Well, actually I spend probably about a quarter of what I did when I lived in a ho in a home. Okay, so for example, when I'm when I'm in a in a when I'm not hiking, we're house city. So we have a we have a a grocery bill that we need to buy, like certain sort of bits and pieces that we need to feed ourselves. We need hiking food. We might need new hiking gear every now and then, but we budget that in for our year. We also budget in our travel to the various destinations and we try to go as cheaply as possible. Because we're not in a hurry, we can take the train or the bus, which is also good. And also when you're on the trail, it doesn't cost a lot of money. We we tend to try and and and camp. In America, it's called backcountry camping. In the UK, it's called wild camping or dispersed camping, it's also called. And in Europe it might be called bivacky. So we tend to sleep in our tent a lot more than that when when we do need a shower or whatever, we will go and spend a night in a hotel. But also, when I was corporate traveling, I would stay in nice hotels. Okay, I don't I don't need nice hotels anymore. Like a friendly guest house, which might cost 50 euros or 50 50 dollars or something. That is fine by me. That really is fine by me.

SPEAKER_00 38:35

I agree with that. I agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 38:37

We we live frugally, like I cannot believe how how how my lifestyle has changed because for for the first time in my life, I find joy now in the simple things. Yeah, I really do.

SPEAKER_00 38:52

Yeah, I love it. One quick question, uh, I was thinking about this because you you have the website, you are writing, creating content, whether it's about the experience or about the the house sitting. How are you creating your content when you are off on these hikes? I mean, you've got the Garmin, I get that. Yeah. Uh but when it comes to the capturing the experience, is it a notebook? Is it a uh a recorder, a digital recorder with some rechargeable batteries? How are you doing that?

SPEAKER_01 39:31

Okay, this is where you find out that I'm really quite crap at this.

SPEAKER_00 39:35

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 39:36

I'm probably about 10, about 10 guides behind, but I have made notes. I make I make notes in my in my note, I'll do a lot of voice things and voice just sort of voice notifications to myself, photos with time stamps, and if and I'll put photos in various folders that to remind myself to actually talk about a particular event or whatever. We have just started filming ourselves and we're a one soon we will do our our YouTube. It just seems like there's not a lot of other sort of a couple of old people running around the world hiking everywhere. So hopefully somebody watches our YouTube. And yeah, so it's that's basically that's basically how I do it. But uh I don't I don't work when I'm on the trail. I do work, but we take we take film and we take lots of photos and and notes and all that sort of thing. But for a couple of times I have tried to take my laptop and it just it just doesn't work. I'm always scared that it's gonna get ruined or or something like that. And so yeah, so I I I literally have to work 24-7 when when during my downtime.

SPEAKER_00 40:52

Gotcha. Excellent. Very good. Yeah. Well, I really appreciate you sharing a huge slice of your life uh with our listeners today. But Linda, I'm so glad we met via pod match, and finally we get to have this wonderful conversation and learn more about the hiking and the and the house sitting and the way you have combined these two. And it's it's it's it's inspiring, especially for somebody like me who age-wise is is there, and you know, I don't want to spend the rest of my life in a room doing what I do. I'd love just to be out there exploring. And even if it's house sitting and on the weekends, come on.

SPEAKER_01 41:36

Come over. Come over.

SPEAKER_00 41:37

I love it. I love it, I love it. Listen, we're gonna provide backlinks to the websites. So I was just looking at that. Soultreader. Okay, I'm gonna do that one more time. Three, two, one. Now we're gonna provide backlinks to your website, Melinda, soultreader.com, as well as to the house sitting collective, which we have just shown to our listeners, and it'll be up on YouTube as well. But our what social sites would you like us to uh link to in our show notes?

SPEAKER_01 42:10

Well, Instagram and Instagram and sorry, I'll say that again. Instagram and Facebook for both, but the House Sitting Collective. The Instagram and Facebook is the partner site, House Sitting 101.

SPEAKER_00 42:23

So excellent.

SPEAKER_01 42:24

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:25

And we will also provide a backlink uh to the to the gift for our listeners. And I I know I I'm gonna take advantage of it. And it's just because I just want to get out. I love travel. I just want to get out and do more of it. And yeah, it's inspiring to hear some of your stories and how you've accomplished it. And in some ways too, I imagine your kids are a little bit envious, like, mom, can we come meet you somewhere? And I imagine they've done that.

SPEAKER_01 42:51

They have, they have. And that was, and if anybody is wondering, well, how did I how do I do that with kids that are that are still not that they're young adults, is before I left, I said to them, right, okay, I'm going to fly you over to wherever I I am twice a year. And by doing that, we spend two weeks or one week quality time together. Like, and and that is it's real quality time. If I went home and spent, say, a month at home, they've got university, they've got part-time jobs, they've got their friends, and they're in and out of the house. I probably wouldn't see them that much. I yeah, of course I'd see them, but this is what we call our quality time together and family time. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:37

Excellent. This is fantastic. Well, Belinda, again, thank you so much for spending time and go have a well, I think right now it's probably late afternoon in Scotland. And if the sun hasn't set, go enjoy the sunset. Go have some good food. And uh I I've got to get back to Scotland. But and then and again, have fun in Greece. It's one of my favorite places in the whole world. And just brings back so many fond memories. So thank you again for spending time with us.

SPEAKER_01 44:05

Wonderful. Thank you, Hav. It was a pleasure.

SPEAKER_00 44:07

All right. Listen, stay in the line. We're going to do a quick close and you and I can then have a final chat. Okay. All right, folks. We have just been chatting with Melinda Coker. She's a hiker, a writer, educator, house sitter. Uh, what a wonderful journey going from corporate America. Did I just say corporate America? I just said going from corporate life. What a wonderful journey going from corporate life to really combining this love of the exploring, being outdoors, being healthy through hiking, and also house sitting and the way she and her partner have incorporated this lifestyle together. It allows them to go around the globe for that matter, not only to be on some great hikes, but also provide a service to others who need somebody to come into their home to house sit for the dog, the cat, preferably the dog for me. But just what a great story and how that has been accomplished. And we're going to provide backlinks to both websites, uh SoulTreader com so you can learn more about the trap, the travel side, as well as to the house sitting collective, so that you can also learn about what it takes to become a house sitter. And you can, again, as Belinda said, you can do that anywhere in the world. Literally, uh, it's about relationships and trust and building those gradually. So eventually you too can house sit for weeks or months at a time. Now we're going to also provide backlinks to both sites and bit operations social sites on Facebook and Instagram. And of course, you can find our episode with the in the show notes and all the backlinks on our website, outdooradventureseries.com. We're also on Facebook and LinkedIn. The YouTube of this episode will be uh up on our outdoor adventure series page. And of course, you can listen to this episode wherever you get your podcast from. Okay, folks, wherever you are, whatever you're doing, go out there. Have a fantastic day, and we look forward to having you join us on a future episode of the Outdoor Adventure Series podcast. Take care.