STARTING OVER AT 55: THE CAMINO, SOLO TRAVEL AND FINDING LOVE

STARTING OVER AT 55: THE CAMINO, SOLO TRAVEL AND FINDING LOVE

At 55, Jennifer decided to start over by travelling solo and walking the Camino de Santiago, a decision that would eventually lead her to fall in love and build a completely new life in Spain.

How many of us daydream about what life might look like if we took a chance on ourselves?

With her children grown and life feeling settled from the outside, Jennifer felt a quiet nudge that something more was waiting for her. Instead of ignoring it, she packed up her life in Australia and set off to travel on her own.

What began as a journey to walk the Camino soon turned into something far bigger than she ever imagined.

In this episode:

•  The moment Jennifer realised something in her life needed to change
•  What gave her the courage to travel solo at 55
•  Why walking the Camino de Santiago became such a powerful turning point
•  What solo travel teaches you about confidence and trusting yourself
•  The unexpected moments that changed the direction of her life
•  How Jennifer ended up building a new life in Spain and guiding other women on the Camino
• 
  

One small step to try today:

If there’s something you keep daydreaming about, write it down. Then ask yourself: What would one small step towards that look like today?

Resources & Links:

Learn more about Jennifer’s Camino journeys through Crossroads Travel.

If this episode resonated with you, I’d love to hear from you. Your feedback helps shape future episodes. Reach out anytime at michelle@your2ndact.com.

If you enjoyed this chat, please consider leaving a 5 ⭐ rating or a short review. Your words might be exactly what another woman needs to hear today.

Stay connected:

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Until next time, take care of you… Michelle ❤️

Transcript

0:52

Hi Gorgeous Welcome Back To Another Inspiring Episode The Other Day I Went To Visit My Parents Down Where I Was Raised In Wollongong Down The South Coast Of Sydney And I Was Sitting In A Restaurant And I Bumped Into An Old School Friend And We Got Chatting And I Hadn'T Seen Her In Years And She Said Oh By The Way I Went To Visit Ponti Health You Did A Great Episode With The Lady Who Started It And It Just Spurred Me On To Wanting To Know More About My Menopause Journey And I Went Along So Thank You So Much For Doing That Episode That Just Lit Me Up Inside That These Episodes Are Making A Difference In Women'S Lives Now I Don'T Always Get To Hear It So If You Can Write A Review I Would So Love That Because Then I Know That What I'M Doing Is Making A Difference In Your Life So Thank You To Marina It'S A Shout Out To Her That If She Hadn'T Have Told Me That I Would Have Hoped That That Episode Would Have Made A Change For Somebody But The Fact That It Made One For Her I Feel So Grateful For So That'S What Keeps Me Going With This Podcast Now Today'S Episode Is A Little Different We'Re Moving Away From Say Women'S Health But Into A Story That Is Super Motivating And A Really Interesting And Exciting One How Many Of Us Daydream About Life How It Could Have Been Different Maybe We Think Back To Our 20S And Wonder What Might Have Happened If We Taken The Chance Booked That Trip Followed That Little Nudge But We Didn'T Life Got Busy Kids Work Responsibility And All Of It Took Over And Those Daydreams Kind Of You Know Got Pushed To The Side But Who Says That You Can'T Do That In Midlife My Guest Today Did Exactly That At 55 She Thought It'S Now Or Never She Packed Her Bags Stepped Right Into The Unknown And Decided To Travel Solo And It All Started With Walking The Famous Camino That One Decision Ended Up Changing Everything She Fell In Love Moved To Spain And Built A Whole New Life On The Other Side Of The World And Along The Way She Also Created A Beautiful Business That Now Helps Other Women Experience The Camino In A Really Soulful Supported Way As Well It'S One Of Those Stories That Makes You Just Stop And Think Maybe That Life You Daydream About Isn'T As Far Away As You Think But As I Said Before Before We Get Into This Episode If You Could Just Take The Time To Rate And Review This Episode It Really Does Help My Podcast Get Out There And Into More Ears And As I Said Just To Help Motivate Someone Else And If One Episode Can Help Change Someone Else'S Life And I Really Feel Honored That I'Ve Been Able To Do That So Now Let'S Just Get Straight Into My Conversation With Jennifer Throughout The Life Of This Podcast I Have Listened To Incredible Stories Of Women Changing Their Lives And It Sounds Amazing On The Other Side But The Part I'M Really Fascinated By Is The Moment Before It All Happens When It'S Still Scary And It'S Really Uncertain I Wanna Know Jennifer What Was Going On In Your Life When You First Felt That Pull To Leave Everything Behind And Just Have The Courage To Actually Just Have A Go Well That Was Quite Some Time Ago I Was I'Ll I'Ll Frame This Frame My Story Leading Up To My Final Trip That Has Me Now Here Living In Spain Yeah So When I Was I Was Married And Had The Two Kids The Cars The House The You Know Everything The From The Outer World Is Where We Should Be And How It Should Be And I Was Happy I Was Happy With All That But Then My Kids Grew Up They Moved On And All Of A Sudden I Was Looking At My Life And Thinking Well What Now You Know And I Think A Lot Of Women Particularly Get To This Point Because We'Ve Been So Busy Raising Family And Putting All Our Passion And Energy And Everything Into This You Know Thing That We Love And Then It'S Not There Anymore And I At That Time Had Said To My Husband Let'S Travel You Know Let Let Let'S Rent The House Out For A Few Years And Go On An Adventure I Was Married When I Was 20 So You Know I'M Now 40 Odd At That Point And He Basically Didn'T Want To So I Made The Decision That I Would Probably Have To Go And Do It On My Own So A Funny Little Story Just Starting That Out With My Adventures Was You Know I'D Read Somewhere We'Ll Start Small And Then You Know Build Up The Courage To Go And Do Something So I Decided To Go On My Own Which I Hadn'T Ever Done Before On A Trip And I Went To Queensland You Know Long Way From Home Off To Gold Coast Yeah But It Was Hilarious I Arrived And Hired A Car I Ran Off I Went I Was On The Gold Coast Drove Into The Gold Coast To No Plans That Was My Thing Just Just Let'S See What Unfold You Hadn'T Booked Anything You Just Nothing You Just Do It Your First Solo Trip Yep Yeah Yeah Courageous Because That'S What Yeah That'S What I Imagined I Wanted To Do You Know So I Get To Queensland And There'S Thousands Of People Everywhere And I'M Like Kids Everywhere And I'M Like What Is Going On Here It Was Schoolies Oh My Gosh The Worst Time To Go Exactly So I Drove Around Drove Around Looked Everywhere No Accommodation I Thought Ok I'Ll Drive Out And And Go Up The Highway And See Where I End Up So Long Story Short About Midnight I Get To Lennox Head And I'M Looking Around Nothing Nothing Available And I I Thought Okay I'Ve Got A Car So I Pulled Into A Caravan Park Right Next To A Caravan Where It Felt A Little Bit Safe And Slept In The Car And Then Of Course The Sun I Know First Trip Right Sun'S Coming In The Window And I'M Like Okay I Gotta Get Out Of Here Before Someone Finds Me And I Go To A Coffee Shop And He Says To Me Wow You'Re Up Early Because He'S Just Setting Up I Told Him The Story And He Said To Me Oh Wow You Are In A Bit Of Trouble Here Because I Don'T Think There'S Anything Available But He Said I'Ll Tell You What If You Need My Mum'S Got A Spare Room And I Was Like Wow You Know So That Was This In The End I Went To The Beach I Was Talking To Some People And They Said To Me Well Our Kids Were Supposed To Come Up And They Haven'T And We'Ve Got A Flat In Our House And If You'D Like You Can Come And Stay In That And It Was Absolutely Amazing Cross The Road From The Beach Stunning I Had The Most Beautiful Holiday So I Tell That Story Because For Some People You Know The Whole Deal Of Getting Somewhere And Having Nothing It'S That'S The Whole Freak Out Already They Pack Up And Go Home Absolutely Yep You Know I Would Have I Would Have Cried Yes Driven Back Yeah So Anyway Turned Out An Amazing Trip And It Actually Was Really Literally The Start Of My Courage To Continue To Go Ahead I I In The End Decided To Leave My Partner Got My Own Place Went Into Panic Mode Got The First Full Time Job I Had You Know In Years For About Six Years I Was Working Happy Everything Was Fine Everything Was Good And I Had A Conversation With My Daughter Was And She Said To Me I Said Something About I'M Turning 48 This Year And She Said Mum You'Re 49 And I I Was Like It Was Like This Like Turning Point For Me I Was Like Oh My God I'M Nearly 50 I'M Working My Butt Off I'M All I'M Doing Is Paying A More Mortgage On A Rat Wheel I'M On My Own You Know I'Ve Got A Dog I'M Looking After Like Nothing Really After Wanting To Change My Life Changed Because Fear Had Set Back In Again You Know When I Was Doing This I Have To Work Really Hard Pay A Mortgage And That I Was Like You Know What I'M Selling So I And I'M I'M Gonna Go Travelling So I'M At This Stage About 48 Oh I Was 48 Yeah I Was I Was Turning 49 So Sold My House Literally The Guy Wanted A Two Week Settlement Took Two Weeks To Sell And He Wanted A Two Week Settlement And He Paid Me To Have A Two Week Wow That Was Quick It Was So Unbelievably Quick It Was Crazy And I Literally Gave Away 85 90% Of My Things I Packed A Bag And I Booked A Like A Round The World Trip And Off I Went Now All Sorts Of Things Happened But We Haven'T Got Time For All Of That But I Could Tell Story After Story On That Trip That Was Crazy I Was Away For Nine Months I Came Home For The Birth Of My Grandson My Daughter Called Me Totally Unexpected Like Freaked Me Out A Little Bit But She Called Me And Said Mum You Know I'M Pregnant So I Was Like Well I'M Not Missing That So I Come Home Set Myself Up Again In A Rental Property And Studied She Had Baby 1 She Fell Pregnant Again Very Quickly Had Baby Two So I Was Home For Quite A Few Years Happy You Know Studied Transpersonal Art Therapy And A Few Other Things A Few Shamanic Courses And Things And Decided That I Would Do One On One Therapy Sessions And Run Women'S Groups I'Ve Always Had A Real Passion For Working With Women And That Was All Going Great You Know Doors Were Opening Things Were Moving Things Were Happening But And And My Grandsons Oh My God Like Loves Of My Life It Was Amazing You Know But This Deep Inner Stir You Know That I Just It It Just Didn'T Feel Right I'M Now 55 And You Know I'M A Nana And I'M A Mum And And All These Things And I Was Like Ok I In Desperation Or I Was Working With My Intuition A Lot At This Point But I I Said Ok Universe Please Help Me Because You Know Fear Setting In I'M Thinking About I Wanna Travel But I'M Not Sure Am I Just Running Away Or You Know What'S Going On Here Like I'M Happy Everything'S Working But There'S Just This Thing So I Asked I Said I Wanna Dream I Wanna Dream Tonight I Wanna Know Am I Travelling Or Am I Continuing To Pursue My You Know Art Therapy Work Here In Australia And I Woke Up That Morning And I'D Had A Dream That I Book Was Booking A Ticket To Thailand So Wow What A Sign I Know So That Was The Beginning Of The Next Phase Of My Life Or The Next Adventure Again I Went Next Morning I Booked A Retreat In Thailand Went And Bought A Whole Heap Of Boxes And I'M I Guess I'M When I Make A Decision And Especially When I Ask For A Sign And I Get One I Follow Through So Jennifer What I'M Hearing Is That You'Re Quite You'Re Quite A Spiritual Person Ah Yeah Yeah Yeah I I I Think From The Time Of Lee Will Always Have Been But I Had A Lot Of Time Living On My Own Being Single And You Know I Had A Lot Of Time To Think About Well Who Am I Now You Know After This Divorce And Being A Mother And And And And Having Been So Young Too When I Became A Mother Am I Who Am I In This World You Know So That Developed More And More Yeah And Then Studying The Transpersonal Art Therapy Really Opened Me Up More To That So What Happened Next Was I Packed Up Again And Started Packing I'Ve Got My Thailand Trip Booked It Was Like Four Weeks Away Or Something I Was I Could Get Out Of My Lease Agreement Really Quickly That Wasn'T A Problem Got My Boxes And I Got A Phone Call From A Girlfriend And She Said To Me Oh I Don'T Know Why But I Have To Drop A Book Off To You This Morning And I'M On My Way Now And I Was Like Yeah Whatever You Know Ha Ha She Actually Channels And Is A Very Spiritual Person She Lives The Wildest Life You'Ve Got No Idea This Woman But Anyway She Came Around And She Had The Book Of Shirley Maclaine Camino I Think It'S Called Camino But It Was By Shirley Maclaine Right I Was Like Oh Okay And She Said I Don'T Know Darling And She Knew Nothing About My Decision I Told Her That Morning When She Dropped The Book Off That This Is What I Was Doing She Said Oh Maybe That'S Why You Had To Have The Book But I Didn'T Really You Know Think A Lot About It I Was Off To Thailand And And To Be Honest I Was Thinking Thailand Of All Places What Am I Going There For You Know I'Ve Been There Several Times And Love It But For A Bit Of A Holiday Not Extended Time Anyway Then About The Middle Of That Week I Was In A Bookstore Looking For A Gift And A Lady Walked In And I Was At The Counter She Was Wrapping My What I Bought And This Woman Walked In And Said Oh Have You Got Any Books On Camino De Santiago And The Lady In The Counter Said Well Yeah Of Course We Have And This Woman Turned Around She Looked Me Square In The Face And She Said Well I'M About To Walk Camino To Santiago And I Was Like Hey That'S Twice This Week That'S Been Put In Front Of Me So Okay I'Ve Seen The Movie I Knew A Little Bit About It But I'M Not A Hiker Or Walker Yeah The Furthest I Would Walk Would Be The Corner Shop I Mean You Know I'M The Jump In The Car Jump In The Car And Go There Person Yeah So I Thought Okay That'S A Bit Weird And Then On The Friday Of The Same Week I Had A Funeral To Go To And It Was A Friend Of Mine'S Mother Had Passed And It Was Like Two Weeks After She Died That The Funeral Was So When I Was At The Funeral I I Said To My Girlfriend So What What Happened Like Why You Know Such A Delay With The Funeral And She Said Well Can You Believe It I Had Literally Just Landed In Spain Oh My God My Partner Was Walking Camino To Santiago Yeah And Why Yeah I I'Ve Got Goosebumps Telling You Because Seriously I I Stood In Front Of Her And Just Cried And She Said What'S Wrong And I Said Oh Nothing Don'T Worry About It So I Was Like Looks Like I'M Going To Camino De Santiago That Was The Start Of All These Doors Opening All These People Coming To Me With Stuff I Needed And Telling Me About It And Helping Me Prepare You Know So Yeah I Went Off Did My Retreat In Thailand Met Some Really Wonderful People There And In Fact One Of My First Customers On Camino Was A Lady I Met At That Retreat But Anyway So Off I Went I Did My Retreat Felt Fit And Ready Within Myself Emotionally And Everything And I Turned Up It In Spain I'D Never Been To Spain I'D Never Walked Anywhere I Had No Idea What I Was Doing And There I Was Yeah So It Sounds Like You Had Obviously This This Calling To Go There Which Is The Story In Itself Is Quite Amazing It'S And Clearly That You Were Meant To Go Which Is Is Insane Itself But You Know I Want To Ask Because We All Get These Ideas Right That We We Wanna Do Things We Wanna Change But It'S That Bloody Fear That Keeps Us Stuck And I Think Personally I Have Never Travelled On My Own I'M 55 Years Of Age I'Ve Never Ever Done It And I I'M Always Interested To Know From Others How Do You Get The Courage To Do It And I Love Your Story Of Just You Started Small By Going To The Gold Coast And Then I Guess The Fear Lessons Would You Say And It'S Like Well I Can Do This Therefore Why Can'T I Go Overseas And Do It On My Own I Think A Lot Of Us Feel The Desire To Want To Do That But We Hold Ourselves Back Because We Think I'M Might As Well Just Do It With A Friend If I'M Single I'Ll Go With The Friend What'S The Advantage Of Doing It By Yourself Oh That My First That First Holiday For Me In Queensland I'D Always Travelled You Know With My Husband My Kids With Friends I Hadn'T Even Really Had Many Girlfriend Holidays Only Maybe Weekends You Know Hmm That First Trip For Me Was Like Heaven On Earth Honestly I Ate When I Wanted I Walked Out The Door When I Wanted I Got Up When I Wanted I'D Never Experienced That And You Know I Had There Were No Disruptions To My Day There Were No Disruptions To Anything I Wanted To Do Yeah And It Was So Free It Felt So Good And You Know And Yes You'Re Right The Fear Is There When I When I Then Made The Decision To Go On My Big Trip And Now I'M Going Over To Europe And South America And I I Did A Like A Round World Ticket I Was Petrified On The Outside But Inside There Was A Real Calm And I Think I Guess What I'M Saying To You Is You Have To Know That You Want It And You'Re Going To Have The Fear But You'Ve Just Got To Take The First Step And Then The Second Step And You Just Do It Anyway You Know I Mean Our Monkey Mind I Call It Mine Was On Fire You Know What Are You Doing Where Are You Going My Mum Was Sick At The Time What If I Never See Her Again What If What If What If What If I Mean Seriously What If I Stayed Home And Tripped Over A Cord In The Lounge Room And Broke My Neck And Became A Cripple I Mean You Know Yes Do I Want The What Ifs On An Aeroplane Or In A Foreign Country Or Whatever Or Do I Want The What If So I Wanna Fall Over At Home Because I'M Too Scared To Go Anywhere Yeah You Know So Yes I Had Crippling Fear Definitely And It'S Interesting You Say It To Me Because A Lot Of My Girlfriends Actually Have Said To Me Oh Yeah But You'Re Courageous I'M Not Well No I'M Exactly The Same As Everybody Else But It'S Like Anything You Know When You Go For A New Job And You And You'Re Terrified You Know You'Re Doing Something New You'Re Terrified You You Don'T Know How It'S Gonna Turn Out You Don'T Know The Next Step You Don'T Know Will You Like It Why You Like It What It What'S Gonna Happen When I Do That You You Just Don'T Know Yeah And You Just Gotta From What I'M Hearing From You You Just Gotta Step Into It And Just Say Well If It If I Fail If It Fails Then At Least I Tried And What I Love About Your Story Is Off You Go To Spain And My Gosh Everything Changed For You Yeah Yeah So The Camino Was The Start Wasn'T It Because Before We Hopped On I Could Hear The Church Bells In The Background You'Re Living In Spain You'Re Living A Completely Different Life Now And That Is So Exciting So From The Camino What Happened I Hear That You Fell In Love Yes That'S Right Ha Ha Ha Yeah Ha Ha Ha And That'S A That'S A Real Timing It It Almost Felt Like A A Destined Thing When It Happened Right So I Was I Don'T I Can'T Even Remember How Many Weeks Into My Camino And I Was I Was In This Village Called Santo Domingo De La Calzada And On Camino There'S These On The Ground There'S Shells Markers And I'Ve Got The Photo And Why I Ever Stopped At This One Because It'S Ugly It'S Uneven And Whatever But I Was Stopped With My Feet On Either Side Taking A Photo And There'S Like A Landmark That You'Ve Achieved Yeah You'Ve Gotten To That Certain Point Okay Or They Land No They'Re Actually Shells Like Made Of Steel Or Brass That It Right Set Into The Concrete Yeah And That'S The Path Of The Camino So I Was Just In This Street I Saw One And I Was Taking A Photo And I Had A Voice Come Up From Behind Me Say Can I Help You And I Was Like I Mean If Hey Ladies If You Wanna Meet A Man Go To Camino There'S So Many Of Them Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Oh Really Oh Yeah Yeah Yeah And I'Ve Had A Few You Know Guys Sort Of You Know Naturally They It'S Just You You Meet So Many People You Talking To People So And Lots Of Men Who Had You Know Approached Me Talked To Me Wanted To Have Dinner Or Whatever But Anyway This Voice Comes Up And I'M Like Ah Another One You Know And Then I Said No I Just Went No No I'M Fine I Didn'T Even Look Up And I Just Continue To Do What I Was Doing And He Goes Are You Very Certain And I Was Like What The Hell You Know So I Turned Around The Sun Was Actually Beaming In My Face I Couldn'T Really See Him All I Could See Were These Eyes That Just Looked So Warm And Friendly And I Was Like No I'M Fine Thank You You Know And He Goes Oh Ok And He Walked Off And Then About 10 Minutes Later I Bumped Into Him Again And Then This Was Just A Continual Thing Over The Next Three Four Days He Was Just There Everywhere I Went I'D Go To Dinner He Was In The Restaurant Too You Know I'D I'D Be Walking Out On The Path And There He'D Be Until One Day He Was Actually Sitting At A Coffee Shop Waiting For Me Because He Had Walked Camino At The Beginning Of That Year I Was Walking In The End That Year And He Was Walking It To Decide If He Actually Wanted To Continue In His Marriage Or Not And When I Met Him He Was In Spain Picking Up His Divorce Papers And He Just Thought He'D Add In A Add In A Week So That Was Destiny Wasn'T It Working Its Magic It It Felt A Bit That Way Yeah Yeah Yeah So Before You Go On About This Amazing Story Which I Love Just For The Listeners Who May Not Know About What Camino Is Can You Just Give Me A Brief Yeah Take On On What Does It What Is Camino And Why Does So Many People Go On It Cause I'Ve Heard So Many Great Things About It Yeah Well It'S A Pilgrimage So In This Day And Age It'S Being Let'S Say Managed And Looked After By The Catholic Church So A Pilgrimage In Itself Means You'Re Going Somewhere Or Walking To A Destination With The Intention Of Arriving Somewhere That Means Something To You So It Can Be From A Spiritual Perspective A Religious Perspective You Could Have Health Issues Or Like My Now Husband He Wanted To You Know Decide If He Was Going To Continue In His Marriage Or Not And So He Took The Time Out Of Life Our Day To Day Life To Walk The Camino And I Guess What The Camino Really Is About And Walking A Pilgrimage Is About For Most People Is Getting Up Each Day And Just Putting One Foot In Front Of The Other And It'S Like I'M Saying To You About Having Courage It'S It'S Just Getting Up Having The Courage And Taking That First Step So When You'Re On Camino You Have Got Nothing Else You Have To Do Nothing Else You Have To Think About There'S No Real Organizing Or Planning Or Anything You Just Walk And The Beauty Of The Camino Is From My Perspective And From A Spiritual Perspective Is Whenever I'M On Camino I Set An Intention Of What I Wanna Get From That Camino What I Wanna Find Out About Myself Or What I Want To Open Up For Myself In Life The Decisions I Have To Make Let Go Of Grief People Do It For So Many Reasons And You Just Get Up Every Day One Foot In Front Of The Other But There Are People From All Over The World Like Different Cultures People That You Normally Probably In Our Day To Day Life Would Just Walk Past You Wouldn'T Think To Say Hello To That Twenty Year Old Guy You Know Let'S Say For As A Woman Yeah Yet On The Camino You Do And People Talk And It'S Almost Like All The Crap About All The No Let'S Not Say Crap All The Surface Level Stuff Of Life Seems To Just Drop And You'Re Just This Person On This Path Looking For Something Doing Something Trying To Work Something Out And So Is Everybody Else So You Have These Incredible Deep Conversations With Strangers That Just Don'T Happen No In General Sounds Amazing Oh My God Yeah So What Was Your Intention When You Started This This Walk Camino Which I Mean I Know A Bit Of Spanish Meaning The Walk Isn'T That Right That'S What It Means Yeah Yeah So Like Yeah What Was What Were You Hoping To Get Out Of The Camino Walk Well As I Said I Was Literally Like I Started It With No Anything I Just Did It Because I I Had Asked And I Was Put All That In Front Of Me So I Went Yeah But I Had Read The Book By Shirley Maclaine And Looked At A Few Other Things And Realized That Pilgrimage Is Also About You Know As I Said Setting An Intention So My Intention Was Shake The Shackles On My First Camino That Was My Intention Shake The Shackles Like Stop Living My Life Based On Society I Grew Up In A Very Religious Family The Dogma Of Religion The Societal Norms The You Know Your Parental Needs Of You As Their Child All Of Those Things I And Particularly My Daughter Had Said To Me That I Was Becoming A Bit Of A Bitch To Men Hahaha And I'Ve Been Single For A Long Time So I Thought Maybe There Was Something In It Yeah So I Wanted To Let Go Of Of My Anger Because I Think This Could Go Into A Deeper Story Which I Won'T But I Think Coming From A Religious Family And Being Let'S Say Judged And Watched By God And The Men And Your Father And Everybody In Life That Had Control Of You You Know I Just Wanted To Let That All Go For Sure And What Was Funny Was Immediately As I Said I Was Meeting A Lot Of Men And But I Had A Lot Of Really Beautiful Gorgeous Young Men That Would Be Talking To Me On The Path And Honestly I'D Say 80% Of Them Were There Like My Husband My Now Husband Working Out The The Loves In Their Life You Know Were They Gonna Continue With This Romance Because The Women That Were With Them Were Pressuring For Let'S Say To Get Married Or To Have Babies Or Whatever And They Were Mindfully Walking A Camino To Really Honour Both Themselves And And The Woman To Work Out What They Wanted To Do So It Was You Know From The Shake The Shackles Perspective It Was Just A Huge Eye Opener To Be Around All Of These Beautiful Men I Met Some Crazy Ones Too But All These I Won'T Tell You Those Stories They Sound Interesting Oh Yeah They Were But But You'Ve Met Your Yeah You I Was Gonna Say But You Ended Up Meeting The Man That You Were Destined To Meet How Amazing Is That And He Was Walking It Thinking Am I Going To Continue On With My Marriage And Your Paths Crossed Yeah Yeah That'S So Incredible That'S So Amazing And You Had That In The Knowing When You Met Him That It Was More Than Just An Attraction Or A Bit Of A Fling On The Camino No Well I Was Determined Not To Fling On The Camino Because It Was Too Many Men And Too Much Of That Does Actually Go On But I Was Determined For That Not To Happen Yeah So He Actually We We He Left After About A Week Or So We Walked Together We Talked I Don'T Think I Have Had Such Deep Long Conversations With One Man In My Whole Life Like I Had With Him While We Were But You Know We Were You Can Imagine You You'Re On The Fit You'Re On The Path Early In The Morning And You'Re Walking Sometimes Eight Hours Yeah You Know And We Were Just Walking And Talking The Whole Time And I Think I Talked To Him More In That Week That We Were Together Oh Then I Did To My Husband My First Husband My Whole Life Yeah Our Whole 29 Years Together Or Whatever It Was So It Was It'S It'S It'S Really Interesting But Yeah Scary It Was Scary For Me Because I Knew Straight Away When I Met Him But I Was Also Looking At Him And Thinking What The Hell He'S This Great Big Guy With A Beard And Like Someone I Could Never For Five Minutes Imagine You Know But He Was Just So Beautiful And I Just Straight Away I Straight Away I Was Like Oh My God This Guy Is So Special And Then You Know The Stories Come In Oh My God But What Am I Doing He'S From Spain I'M From Here In Australia It'S Literally The Antipode The Opposite Yes Of This Where I Am Now You Know And I Was Like Oh What Am I Doing Should I Do This And We We Exchanged Details Because He Was Leaving And I Still Had Five Or Six Weeks To Go Of My Camino And You Know We Were Chatting And What Have You And Then He Said To Me Oh I'M Gonna Come And Meet You And I Said No No No This Is Like My Camino It'S Not Happening And So I Said He Lived In Barcelona So I Said Alright Well When I'M Finished I'Ll Come And Let'S See You Know Where We'Re At So That'S What I Did When I Finished My Camino I Had To Go Buy Some Civilian Clothing Because I Only Had A Backpack And Yeah Came To Barcelona Now When You Wanna Talk About Fear That'S That'S When Everything Like Really Started To Set In I Mean I Had This Last Bubble Couple Of Months With Him And Then I Needed To Go Home They Just Said To Me Mum You Know Like It'S Your Life You You If If We Had An Opportunity To Go Off Somewhere We'D Go So If You Wanna Do This Do It And I Was Sick Sick With You Know Everything Came Crashing In On Me Yeah I Was Just About To Yeah Everything Crashed In On Me Yeah You Know I'M A Mother I'M A Grandmother I'M A Sister My Father'S In His Like Years Yeah I Mean What Am I Doing You Know I'M Responsible You Know All Those Things That We'Re Conditioned To Think I Can'T Just You Know Throw It All Away And Then Go And Live On The Other Side Of The World Cause I'Ve Fallen In Love With This Man I Know People Must Have Thought Actually What Did Your Friends Say Did They Think That You Were Crazy Or Were They All Like Do It They Were In A Bit Of Disbelief I Think One Of My Girlfriends Said To Me She'S Not A Longer Any Girlfriend But She Said To Me I'Ll Go Off And Have Your Fun It Probably Won'T Last Long You Know Oh Well She'S Eating Her Other Girlfriends Sorry She'S Eating Her Words Now Isn'T She Well Yeah I'M Still Here Nine Years Nearly 10 Years Later Wow Most Of My Girlfriends Were Really Really Loving Caring Really Happy For Me Couldn'T Believe It Couldn'T Believe That I Would Even Think About It It'S Most Women That I Don'T Know Personally Or Don'T Know Me That Would Say To Me Oh My God How Could You I Could Never Do That Like How Could You Do That And Let Me Tell You That The First Year The Guilt And The Shame Of Doing It Nearly Killed Me I Cried A Whole Year My Why Kim Is My Partner'S Name Why He Wanted To Stay With Me Was Just Beyond Me You Know Because I Literally Spent The First Year Like Torturing Myself Fighting With Myself But Deep Down I Just Knew It Was Right Like My Intuition Deep Down Kept Me Here Yeah You Know Jennifer I Think The Fact It'S So Easy For Us To Not Do Things I Think It'S Easy For Us To Give Into Our Guilt The Noise In Our Head And What I Think Is Wonderful About You Is That You Push Through All Of That And You Are Now Living The Life That You Have Always Wanted To Live And I'M Sure Your Children They Miss You I'M Sure Incredibly But How Amazing Is It To Know That You Are There You'Re Happy And You'Re Fulfilled And Yeah How Can Anyone Begrudge Someone Else That So I I'M In Awe Of What You Have Done Because It'S Not Easy To Do It And That'S What I Meant At The Beginning When I Started The Episode It'S So Good To Hear These Wonderful Stories And Oh Now Look At Her But It'S It'S The Journey Of How You Got There And To Let Others Know That These Things Are Possible You Have To Have That Self Belief And Unfortunately There Are People That Just Don'T Feel It Or Don'T Want To Because Of Fear Because Of Worthiness That'S Another Thing Do I Deserve To Feel This Because I'Ve Been Told No Or You Know Come On You'Re In Your 50S You'Re In Your 60S Really Like That'S What Young People Do It'S That Bullshit Narrative Right Yeah But Hey Women Like You Say No I Matter I Still Have So Many More Years Of My Life To Live Why Can'T I Live It Doing What I Want And I Think That Is Fantastic Oh Absolute Look And Can I Tell You That You Know In Australia It'S Probably A Little More Closed To Seeing This Type Of Thing Happening But Here I Cannot Tell You How Many Really Amazing Women I Have Met Who Are Doing What I'M Doing Honestly Really So Many Yeah So Many From From All Different Parts Of The World Who Are Actually Living Their Lives I'Ve Met Quite A Few Australian Women I'Ve Met A Few One Lady In Particular Her Husband Passed Away And Her Kids You Know Were Like Mine Having Families And Everything Else And She Was Like What Am I Doing Here I Love Spain So She Just Shift Life Over Here And She'S Here You Know Her And Her Husband Had Sort Of Talked About Doing That Maybe One Day And She Was Like I'M Doing It And And She Said The Same She Was Terrified Terrified For Sure You Know But And And Look Some People Do These Things It Doesn'T Turn Out And What'S My Future Someone Asked Me This The Other Day I I Talked To A Lady Who'S Actually Writing A Book About The Same Topic You Know Coming To This Point In Your Life Where You You'Re Still Young You You'Re In Your Fifties And Your Kids Have Moved Out Or Even If You Haven'T Had Family In Your 50S You'Ve Reached The Peak Of Your Career Let'S Say And Then You Go Well I Might Live For 30 More Years That'S Right But What Actually Am I Doing You Know You You Just Have To Do Something You Just Yes Gotta Move Otherwise I'Ve Got Other Friends Who Just You Know Go Home And Nothing'S Nothing'S Nothing'S Changed Nothing They They They'Re Just In Their Fear Of Of Of Even I Don'T Know Meeting New People You Know It'S Just That'S Right Fear Can Become So Crippling It Is Absolutely But What'S So Great About Your Story Is The Fact That You Know You Not Only Did You Fall In Love With Your Partner But Now You'Ve Got Your Own Business Yes And You'Re In You Know You'Re Encouraging Other Women To Come Along And Do This Camino Walk Tell Me More About That How Did That All Come About Oh That Was Yeah Amazing So When I Had First Moved Here And As I Said We Were In A Love Bubble For Quite A Few Months And And We Actually Went Off And Walked Together The Portuguese Camino It Was A Way Of Like Just Sealing The Deal You Know That That We Did Want To Be Together Yeah So We Were Here And I'M Thinking Now Ok How Does This Work Alright I'M I'M Now In Love With A Man On The Other Side Of The World How Do I Navigate This You Know I'M Australian Ha How Do I Stay In Spain He Has Had Past Health Issues He'S Good Now But He'S Had Past Health Issues That Would Make It Almost Impossible For Him To Get A Visa To Come To Australia So Anyway Long Story Short I Ended Up Getting An Italian Passport Because I Was Married Before To An Italian Which I Had No Idea I Could Have So Brilliant I'Ve Now Decided I'M Here Okay I'M I'Ve Made This Move I'M Staying Here I'Ve Got A Passport Everything'S Fine And Then The Fear Set Back In It'S Like What The Hell Am I Gonna Do Now You Know Now I'M In A Foreign Country I'M In A New Relationship I'Ve Got A Language I Don'T Understand Two Languages In Fact Because I'M In Barcelona Which Is Catalan Yeah And Camino Is Spanish It'S In The Centre Of Spain So It'S Two Languages And Whatever And I'M Like What Am I Going To Do And My Partner Said To Me You Told Me When We Were On Camino That You Had A Dream Of Running Women'S Groups On Camino And I'D Actually That It Like You Know That Was Sort Of All Gone Into The Background I'M I'M Dealing With All This Other Stuff Now And All My Emotions And Everything And I Said You'Re Right Yeah That Is I Did I Had A Literal Dream And Then I Thought About It A Lot When I Was Walking And That Was Gonna Be My Plan When I Got Back To Australia But Everything Else Happened You Know And He Said To Me Well Come On Let'S Do It And I Was Like Really And He'S Retired And Poor Thing He'S Not Anymore And He Said To Me Yeah Like Come On I'Ll Help You Get It All Started So We Went Off For I Think It Was Nearly Three Months On A Big Field Trip From The Beginning To The End Of The French Way Which Is The The Most Popular And Most People Know About We Went To The Beginning And The End Of It And Did A Big Research Field Trip I Had My First Women'S Group In 2018 And Then Another Group In The End Of That Year As Well Two Big Groups And I Was Like You Know This Could Work And He Said To Me But You You Know You'Re Actually Denying Half Of Humanity By Only Having Women'S Groups Ha Ha Ha Ha And I Was Like Yeah Well I I Know But You Know That'S Was What My Dream Was And He Said Well You Can Still Do That But Let'S You Know Make It A Full Business You Know So Then We Yeah Built The Website Did The Whole Thing Built The Whole Platform The Whole Went And Researched Other Parts Of The Camino Built It All Up And Yeah Off We Went And You Still Going Haven'T Really Wow So You Said 10 Years Later Is That Right Nearly 10 Years I'Ve Been Here Yeah Wow Yeah What An Amazing Story And Yeah You Know I Think What I'M Getting Out Of This Is Really Listen To Your Intuition Don'T Ignore It Because We Don'T Want To Get To The Age Of 80 And Wish We Had Done It And You Approve That You Push Through And Even With All Those Amazing Signs And I'M All About That I Think Signs Are You Can Miss Them But When You Really Open Yourself Up To Seeing Them They They'Re There They'Re There Sometimes To Really Slap You In The Face And I Think It'S It'S Incredible You Know You'Ve Really Got Me Thinking As Well And I Mean Gosh I Really Wanna Do A Camino So Would You Recommend To Do The Camino By Yourself Or Obviously It'S Part Of A Tour Or With Friends Cause That That Would Be Interesting What What What Do You Think You'D Get More Out Of On Your Own Or With Others Look It'S It'S Such A Personal Decision Hmm If You Can Muster Up The Courage To Do It On Your Own Yeah I Think It'S The Most Incredible Thing You Can Do Because You Tend To Connect More With The People Around You Yeah You Tend To Be More Open Whereas With When You'Re With A Friend You Know You Can Get In Your Little Thing And Be Having Your Great Old Time And Sort Of Miss A Lot Of What'S Out There Around You That'S I Think Honestly That Would Be The It'S The Ultimate But A Lot Of People Just Can'T And For So Many Reasons People Can'T It'S Like That'S Okay Yeah Yeah You Know So That'S Why Groups I Think What My Clients Love Is Because I'M Here In Spain If Something Does Feel Uncomfortable Or They'Re Not You Know Aware Of And They Need Help They Just Ring Me And I'M There You Know I'M In The Same Time Frame Same Time Zone So I Can Support Them So That Helps I'Ve Talked To A Lot Of Women Who Were Very Afraid To Go Who Really Wanted To Go And They'D Ring Me And You Know We Talk It Through And So It'S Funny I'M Still Doing My Thing With Women'S That Women That I'Ve Always Wanted To Do But I'M Doing A Lot More Of It One To One Yeah You Know Women Who Were Really Wanna Do This Thing But It'S The First Step Yes It'S Exactly The Step And So I Work With Them To Get To The Point Of Being Able To Take The Step Yeah Love That Jennifer I Love That What You'Re Doing For Other Women And I Think The Best Thing Is You'Ve Walked In Their Shoes You Know Exactly How It Feels And That For Me Means Everything Because You See A Lot Of These Tours Or People Speaking About You Know You Should Do This You Should Do That But When You Can Actually Speak To Someone Who'S Relatable And You Can Ask Them The Questions And Basic Questions Cause There'D Be So Many Of Them Like What Happens If I Feel Lonely You Know It Can Be Anything Like That It'S It'S Great That You You Know You Have That Resource That People Can Reach Out To You So I Think That'S That'S Amazing I'M Definitely Gonna Leave All Your Information In The Show Notes If People Want To Look Into It But Thank You So Much For Sharing Thank You Your Story I I Love A Story Like This And It'S All Possible And Yours You Know Ended With Romance And Moving To Spain And Listening To The Beautiful Church Bells In The Background Yeah Did You Just Hear Them Again I I Did I Did I Did Jennifer I Love To End Them Oh Oh I Bet I I Remember You Know Travelling And Then You Just Hear Them You Think It'S You You Probably Don'T You Might Take That For Granted Cause You'Re Kind Of Listening To Them But When You'Re Travelling And It'S Such A Beautiful Sound Isn'T It Yeah Yeah Oh No I I It'S Another Thing I Do Now From All Of My Travels I Often I Remember When I First Went To Rome And I Was Walking Around There And You Know The Romans Are Just Doing Their Work And I Thought How Can They Just Walk Around Here And See And Not See All This You Know I Know But You Do You Know But Now What'S Beautiful When I Come Home Is You Know The Kookaburras The Kookaburras The Birds I Mean I'M So Much More Aware Of Them They Were Just I'Ve Always Loved All The Bars But They Were Just There You Know And Now When I Go Home Oh My God They Just Give Me So Much Joy When I Hear It'S Like The Church Bells You Know Yeah I Come Back Home Here I'Ve Got Two Homes So I Come Back Home Here And The Church Bells Are Ringing And That And The Seagulls Cause I Live By The Sea And You Know That'S My Home But You Become More Aware Of Your Surroundings And What'S Around You And Absolutely It'S Beautiful Oh Sounds Amazing Well I You Know I'D Love To Keep Going But Obviously We Gotta Wrap It Up Yeah I Always Like To End My Episodes With An Inspirational Quote Would You Like To Share One With Us That'S Really Touches You And And Means Something To You Yeah One Of My Favorites Because As I'Ve Said Trusting Your Intuition Living By Your Intuition Feel The Fear Because Your Intuition Doesn'T Mean That You'Re Gonna Go To Something Fabulous And Wonderful But It Will Lead You Where You Need To Be Going So Follow It Follow It Follow It And The Quote That I Love Is It'S But What If I Fall And Then The Response In The Quote Is Oh But Darling What If You Fly You Know And Absolutely For Me You Know I I Remind Myself Of That When I When I'M Going To Do Something New It'S Like Okay But Yes We'Re So Conditioned To Think Of All The What If What If What Ifs But What If You Know So Oh My God Step Out Your Door Break Your Cycles And Just Open Up Even If It'S Even If It'S Just A Stupid Little Thing Like Get On A Train In Sydney And And Go Inland I Don'T Know Even Which Way The Trains Go You Know Go Somewhere You'Ve Never Been Before And Spend The Night In In Your Own Hometown You Know Yeah Wherever You Live Whatever Just What If Who Knows What'S Gonna Be Around That Corner Just Do It That'S My Love It Great Advice Yes Great Advice And Look At You Living Proof You'Re A Living Proof Yourself Here Doing A Podcast And You Know Thank You Yeah Helping Other Women To To Hear These Stories I Mean It'S Amazing Good On You Thank You As Well And Thank You So Much For The Opportunity I'Ve Loved It Absolutely Thank You For Sharing Your Story Jennifer And You Never Know Might Bump Into You On The Camino One Of These Days Well I'M Hoping We Bump Into Each Other In Australia When I Do Come Home As Well So Hundred Percent Absolutely I'Ll See You Camino And At Home Thanks Jennifer Take Care Thanks For Tuning Into Another Episode Of Your Second Act If You Enjoyed This Episode I'D Love It If You Could Rate And Leave A Review On Your Favourite Podcast Platform Your Feedback Means The World To Me