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Extending Your Comfort Zone. Antarctica With Karen Espley

The challenges of travel can help us expand our comfort zone enough to drive change in our lives. In this episode, Karen Espley talks about how a trip to Antarctica helped her change direction.

Karen Espley is an author, speaker, and businesswoman. Her latest book is The Impulsive Explorer: One Businesswoman’s Accidental Journey of Self-discovery on an Expedition to the Antarctic.

Show notes

What is it about corporate life that makes us want to escape?
The challenges of getting to Antarctica and difficulties living in close quarters
Finding perspective on life
The breathing space that travel affords one to consider life choices
Changing your mindset by changing the scenery
The importance of pushing our comfort zones back out since pandemic life has shrunken them so much
Recommended travel books

You can find Karen Espley at KarenEspley.com

London. A Personal History With Jo Frances Penn

Podcast, Travel Memoir

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“It is difficult to speak adequately or justly of London. It is not a pleasant place; it is not agreeable, or cheerful, or easy, or exempt from reproach. It is only magnificent.” Henry James

London can never be contained or defined in one way. Everyone has a different perspective and experience that changes over time, and my relationship with the city has certainly evolved over the years.

My Brooke and Daniel crime thrillers are set there, and my love for the city resonates within those pages through the eyes of Jamie Brooke, but it certainly wasn’t always that way.

In this episode, I’ll talk a bit about the history and highlights of the city and how it’s played a part in my life. I can’t possibly cover it all, but I can give you a glimpse.

1997-2000 Cool Britannia. London in my early twenties
2011-2015 Literary London. A new career in my mid-thirties
2015 onwards. City of inspiration in my forties
Visiting London — places to visit and tips on making the most of it
Recommended walks and books

JFPenn at the Royal College of Surgeons, London. The inspiration for Desecration.

Transience And Permanence. Jo Frances Penn On The Sacred Steps Podcast

Religious, Travel Memoir

In October 2020, I walked the Pilgrim’s Way from London to Canterbury on my own, just before the second UK lockdown. In this interview, I discuss the pilgrimage with Kevin Donahue from Sacred Steps Podcast.

You can watch the video below or here on YouTube, you can listen here or on your favorite podcast player, and there is a transcript below with lots of links. Go to SacredStepsPodcast.com for more episodes.

Kevin: Buen Camino, Pilgrims. And welcome back to the Sacred Steps Podcast. On this show, we’re walking virtually alongside pilgrims and authors, connecting a community of pilgrims from across the globe.

I’m Kevin Donahue, pilgrim, backpacker, and author of Sacred Steps of Pilgrimage Journal. On today’s episode, we’re walking virtually alongside English author, Jo Frances Penn, a fiction writer with more than 20 titles to her credit.

Jo set out alone from her home near London during a break in the COVID lockdown to complete Britain’s Pilgrim’s Way from London Southwark Cathedral to Canterbury Cathedral. An unlikely pilgrim, Jo had never before attempted a solo multi-day hike like this. Of course, Canterbury Cathedral is one of England’s most revered shrines and the pilgrim pathway to the church, called The Pilgrim’s Way, is one of my upcoming pilgrimages.

The History Of England Written In Stone. Literary Canterbury With Anna Sayburn Lane

Podcast

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Some places are so dense with history that stories emerge from every stone. Canterbury in Kent, England, is rich with literary and religious history and you can walk in the footsteps of pilgrims who have visited the city for almost a thousand years.

Anna Sayburn Lane is an award-winning short story writer, novelist, and journalist inspired by the history and contemporary life of London. Her latest book is The Crimson Thread, a mystery set in Canterbury, England.

Show notes

Literary history of Canterbury
How Canterbury Cathedral has the history of England written in its stone
Unusual and beautiful aspects of the cathedral
Other interesting places in Kent, particularly for book research
William Blake and his uncompromising artistic passions
Creating an amateur sleuth who is a walking tour guide and an academic
Recommended travel books

You can find Anna Sayburn Lane at AnnaSayburnLane.com

Walk The South Bank Of The Thames From Tower Bridge To Westminster. London, England

Places, Walking

South Bank is one of my favorite walks in London. You pass places of historical importance and architectural beauty, as well as iconic cultural locations, plus great places to eat and drink alongside the River Thames while people-watching in this fantastic city. I set my Brooke & Daniel crime thriller trilogy in this area and I do this walk whenever I’m in London.

If you walk the route from end to end without stopping, it will only take you about an hour or so to do the 5km along the Thames Path. But if you make the most of everything along the way, you could be busy for a week or more. It’s a great way to orientate yourself if you’re new to the city where so many get the Tube or a taxi when it’s easier and often quicker to walk.

London, South Bank Of The Thames on a bright day. Panoramic image taken from the Tower bridge. Photo licensed from BigStockPhoto — London, South Bank Of The Thames on a bright day. Panoramic image taken from the Tower bridge.

Start at London Bridge Station which is a major transport hub for overground and underground trains. There are many different exits but it’s easy enough to find the river!

The Shard is next to the station. You can pay to look out over the city at The View From The Shard, which is worth it on a glorious day.

The Old Operating Theatre is also near the station, Europe’s oldest operating theatre, pre-dating anaesthetic and antibiotics.

An Ocean-Gazing People. A Gentle Country. Portugal With Louise Ross

Podcast

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Sometimes we find home in a place where we don’t even speak the language. Louise Ross talks about discovering Portugal, a gentle country with ocean-gazing people, and recommends places to visit, as well as an attitude to self-reinvention.

Louise Ross is the author of Women Who Walk and The Winding Road to Portugal. She’s an Australian currently living in Portugal where she explores the immigrant and expatriate journey through her writing and her podcast, Women Who Walk.

Show notes

The similarities between Australia and Portugal as ‘ocean gazing’ cultures
Cultural differences between Portugal, Australia, and the US
Portuguese food and wine as an undiscovered gem
Historical, cultural, and religious places to visit in Portugal
Natural sites around Lisbon
Finding community as an expat
Making a space away from home feel like home
Movement and walking as a metaphor for reinvention
Recommended travel books about or set in Portugal

You can find Louise Ross at LouiseRoss.com

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