S5E18: Can Princesses Wear Hiking Boots (the answer is YES!!) with Colleen Sims

What happens when a self-confessed princess, fresh out the other side of cancer treatment, decides to walk 800km across Spain with a backpack, a pair of hiking boots, and no idea what’s ahead?

Colleen Sims wasn’t exactly what you’d call “outdoorsy.” Afraid of dogs, cows, and basically anything remotely icky, she was the last person anyone expected to fall in love with long-distance walking. But one spontaneous trip to Spain, a beachside shell moment, and a full-body YES later… she did it anyway. And it changed everything.

In this tender, hilarious, and deeply inspiring episode, we chat about:

• how surviving cancer rewired her priorities—and cracked her wide open to purpose
• the unexpected magic of the Camino de Santiago (and how it brought her back to her childhood self)
• why walking is one of the most profound therapies we already have access to
• the rise of the “walking club revolution” and how her simple local meet-ups turned into global soul treks
• what it really means to live free—and why lipstick still makes the cut, even in a backpack life 💄
  

Also mentioned:

• The Camino de Santiago
• Via Francigena
• Cheryl Strayed's Wild
• Walking as soul medicine

This one’s for the dreamers, the seekers, the tired souls craving simplicity—and the ones secretly Googling “solo walking pilgrimage” on their lunch break.

Connect with Colleen: Then We Walked

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It is high time you STOPPED all the polishing, pretending, curating, farcical half-truth telling, systems of oppression proliferating, totally unsustainable clusterfckery that most marketing / coaching / social media 'experts' espouse

TRANSCRIPT - S5E18: Can Princesses Wear Hiking Boots (the answer is YES!!) with Colleen Sims  

Colleen Sims: [00:00:00] I'm a bit of a princess and I'm afraid of dogs and cows and anything that's slightly icky and no one in their right mind would've thought that I was the person to strap on a ruck sack and go hiking and so everybody just thought I was mad.

Welcome to the Wild and finally fucking free podcast show. This is a space where truth talking gets real. Behind the scenes grit of the future humans is laid bare, and we are celebrating and sharing the real raw stories of change. Agents, neuros, sparkly people, the witchy wild women, the deep feelers, the unapologetic senses, the status quo challenges, and the huge hearted healers and helpers.

And guiding you through this wild ride of entrepreneurship and full heart led contribution to the world is me, your host, Kylie Patchett, A-K-E-K-P. I am a [00:01:00] proudly neuros, sparkly, natural born, status quo, challenger, and I thrive on helping disruptors rebels and revolutionaries find their voices, amplify their message into the world, and harness their raw potential.

Alchemize it into unleashing your full potency. Not only will I be sharing the behind the scenes of some of the most amazing, most status quo challenging thought leaders, I'll also be lifting the veil behind my own business. In 2024 I 18 Xed my monthly income deal blows my mind to say that. And this year I'm leaning into how joyful and fun it would be to shift from six figures to seven figures in a quantum shifting year.

All through leading from my full unapologetic voice. My unleashed potency and with my big, wildly lit up heart leading the way [00:02:00] every single step of the way. So together with my guests, I am going to be sharing the mess and the magic.

Spilling the tea on the identity shifts behind stepping into thought leadership, breaking the ties that bind us on learning old patterns and reweaving brand new ways of living, loving learning, and leading. We are here to break boundaries, reimagine what's possible, all while collapsing timelines and leading with joy.

Love. And our fiercest wild woman selves. This is not just a podcast. It is a rebellion. It is a revolution. It is an invitation to join the Mad Hatters Collective Movement. And by Mad Hatters, I mean all the colorful, creative, gorgeous world changing out of the box humans out there. If you've ever longed to be wild and finally fucking free, this is your sign to lean in.

Let's get [00:03:00] started.

Kylie Patchett: Hello everybody. Welcome to the podcast. I have the beautiful Colleen Sims in the house today. Hello. How are you?

Colleen Sims: I'm good, thank you. From a very misty France to what looks like a very sunny Australia.

Kylie Patchett: I'm like in broad daylight. At what time is it for you? Is it seven 30?

Colleen Sims: It is seven 30, so it's, and the sun is up.

I think it's just 'cause it's really misty, so yes. An air definitely.

Kylie Patchett: Feels very different. Yes. And also it's quite, I don't know the whole time zone thing. I know that we know this, but it's so confusing that I've already had the day that you're just about to have. It's eh. Yes. Anyway, that being said, can you please introduce yourself to our beautiful listeners?

I cannot wait to get into your story because as I said to you before we started recording, I feel like it is going to be a personal fire under my bum. So what would you like to share?

Colleen Sims: Okay. I'm Colleen and I am recently [00:04:00] retired, I guess the last couple of years, but I'm an English woman that lives in France.

We moved to France nearly 20 years ago on a whim, but not a whim. It had been something we'd wanted to do for a long time and things navigated themselves to think this now or never. We've had a great life here. It's definitely home. But a couple of years after I arrived in France, I was diagnosed with cancer.

And once I'd come through the other side of that, like many people, I think you reassess what's important in your life. And one of those things happened to be, I have no idea why, that I would walk 800 kilometers across Spain. And doing that, the process of doing that literally changed my life and my outlook and had and that has rippled across friends and family and the way we live our lives today and shaped how we plan to continue living our life.

Oh, I just

Kylie Patchett: [00:05:00] knew I said to you before we started recording. I turn 50, I have this yearning to go to Europe and see where my dad was born, but also to walk or cycle through Italy. I can't even tell you why. I'm just, that's what I'm drawn to. And when I saw your story again today, 'cause I, I read everything when they come in, but I just never know who's turning up on the day that I podcast record.

And I was read, I was like, this is the lady that did the, so I was, sorry, I think I just said the wrong name then my head souffled. I just love how so many times, like a significant, health diagnosis then creates this like. Hang on a minute, what am I gonna do moving forward if I get through this?

Or when I get through this? What does that change about my outlook? You've got children as well, so I assume that they also did they, were they born in France or

Colleen Sims: No, they're they're older. They live all over. So two are now back in the UK and one lives in Spain. Oh, [00:06:00]

Kylie Patchett: cool. That's very cool. That's very cool.

Colleen Sims: I guess if you think of Europe compared to Australia, quite small really. Going to visit a friend for tea for you, isn't it? If we go across.

Kylie Patchett: I literally live like three hours from the ocean. Like it's to even just to get to the end of the edge of Australia where I live is, yeah, more than that.

My

Colleen Sims: American friends are the same. They're that think nothing of traveling for five hours and we're like, that's like the length of England. Why would we do that?

Kylie Patchett: Crazy. Hey, so when you were in the middle of first of all, when did this first occur to you? This idea of walking? Kilometers. Wow. Was it just some

Colleen Sims: random thought or, yeah, it was random.

I feel as though sometimes, it started many years before when two friends walked the Camino in early two thousands. Before smartphones and the rise of the mass internet or what have you. But they walked and I remember thinking, I like [00:07:00] a walk. I go for an afternoon stroll. But yeah.

Yeah. I remember thinking, oh, that would be nice. And when I looked it up I was like. They are seriously gonna walk 800 kilometers across the country at K that forget that is not me. Yeah. And I parked it and I never ever thought about it again. And, we were on a holiday in northern Spain and this was about 18 months post the cancer.

Yeah. And we were driving along quite a busy road on our way to Bergos, and I kept seeing people hiking beside the road, which, Spain is beautiful. Why would you. Hike along a road and my husband said, oh, they're pilgrims like my friend Jen had done. And I was like, oh, okay. And we carried on driving.

We spent a few days in Bergoff. We continued on to lay on. Not knowing that these cities meant anything other [00:08:00] than that they were meant to be nice places to visit. Yeah. Yeah. And I kept seeing more and more pilgrims and we would plan to go to Santiago naturally along the line. And I just said to him, gee, I don't think I wanna go to Santiago.

I really think I wanna walk there. And so we drove onto the coast. And at the coast, I sat on a beach, put my hand on top of a perfect shell and just thought, do you know what? I'm really gonna do this. But I was not that fit. I was. Considerably overweight after a couple of years on steroids and antibiotics and the treatments.

And I'm a bit of a princess and I'm afraid of dogs and cows and anything that's slightly icky and no one in their right mind would've thought that I was the person to strap on a ruck sack and go hiking and so everybody just thought I was mad. And yet. A year later I did [00:09:00] it and Oh, so good.

Kylie Patchett: I just love this. I love it when some idea falls into someone's lap and they say yes to it instead of convincing themselves of all the reasons why they can't do it, or it's not possible or it's, and I love, like when I read your little comments in our form and you said about being a princess, and I was like, I hard relate Colleen.

I have I have friends in New Zealand and they've got a beautiful walking trek that goes right from the tippy top of the Northland all the way down to the right at the bottom of the Southland. And I think it takes around about three months to do beginning to end. Wow. But you can do segments of it, like all those walks.

And my friend over there used to be like a huge walker and she like T tramper and everything, which is what they call hiking and. There's always been something in me that is I really wanna do this, but I dunno, like what is stopping me? I think, yeah, I don't know. I probably just the [00:10:00] actual practical considerations of, 'cause even my concept of going to Italy, not something that my husband would be even interested in, like literally not, and I don't even, I'm not even really sure that I wanna go with friends.

I feel like it has to be like this solo thing, but then I wouldn't do it by myself. So I'm like. Where do you even start with this? The planning of these things, and you now help guide people through these journeys, don't you?

Colleen Sims: Yeah, i, so after, after I'd finished and walked it definitely changed something in me.

And it's not a religious revelation. It wasn't a moment. I honestly think that as humans, we are hardwired to walk. We evolved to walk and, yeah. And those five weeks on the trail, like you say, will I wanna go to Italy. Something's telling me to do that. And yet I don't.

And I think it was the same for me in that, there's so much noise in our [00:11:00] lives. Family, work, bills, things need doing on the house. You have this huge to-do list. And I think one thing that cancer, I guess taught us was that list disappears when you get your diagnosis. Yeah. Because everything's focused on when's my next treatment?

When's the surgery? Yes. And so it was a reminder that we put obstacles in our way. Because we genuinely believe it has to be done. I really have to get that done before Thursday. I can't do that because I told so and so I was doing X, Y, Z and we genuinely believe that. Yeah, but when you are walking and all you have is three changes of clothes and you are looking for a bed somewhere along the line, all that noise stops and it is so liberating.

Sign me up.

Kylie Patchett: That is what my brain is saying. Sign me up. I'm also looking, whilst I'm listening to you, there's, I have, I, this is a [00:12:00] beautiful garden office that my gorgeous husband has built me, and right in front of me, my cat is lying in my wing back armchair with his belly to the sun. Yeah. And I just feel like I'm hearing your words and I'm seeing him.

I'm like, there is something. Yeah. And yeah it's so funny, isn't it, because I've heard that before. I've got one of my very close friends went through breast cancer a few years ago now. And we have had similar conversations about all the reasons why you tell yourself that you're not ready or this is not the right time, or it's to this or it's to that.

And she's it's all just bullshit. Like it all falls away when it

Colleen Sims: needs to. Yeah, exactly. But we forget that. And not because we think we're special or important, it is just how everybody lives their lives. And I feel as though. It. It was just really freeing to be able to let your thoughts wander off to [00:13:00] places where they just haven't been for decades.

And I feel one of the things I said is at the time was that I feel as though I found the girl that had dreams. When you're a child and all the things that you feel like you want to do. And then life you forget and you become somebody's wife or somebody's mother or equally somebody's father or husband and yeah.

And you, somebody's boss or a million other titles rather than that child that had aspirations and dreams and I really think somewhere along the trail I remembered that. And along with the cancer, it makes you put life into perspective. And even on a really basic level, I just really enjoyed it and wanted to go back and do it again.

Kylie Patchett: So 800 kilometers, is that the whole, I don't actually know too much about the Camino, so please excuse my probably questions, but anyway, I'm gonna ask on behalf of about audiences. About, cool. So 800 kilometers is the entire [00:14:00] Camino trail, or is that like in addition to the, because I thought Camino was smaller than that, but maybe I'm just hearing people that do a section.

Colleen Sims: De Santiago is many roots. And across Europe there are many parts. Oh. No. And so most people think of the Camino Francis, which runs from a little village in the Pyrenees. Yes. Over the Pyrenees, and that route is 800 kilometers, but actually the little town that people go to is the end of the route that comes all the way down through France.

It's more of a modern invention. Oh, wow. The longest one I've done was over a thousand, which came from the south of Spain but they go all over Europe. So the English way is only a hundred kilometers because they took the boat and landed closer. Closer. So that's

Kylie Patchett: the beginner trail.

So 800 kilometers took you five weeks. Yeah. So how much training did you have to do beforehand? Or how much, 'cause like [00:15:00] you said, your condition was not necessarily what you would think of as someone who's gonna walk 800 kilometers maybe. So what, how did you apply yourself?

Colleen Sims: I, oddly enough, live on the Camino, which I didn't know.

I live on one of the French roots. That's cool. Yeah. So I decided that I would walk. Part of that route as my training. Yeah. But the only problem is it's not a circuit route. And so my husband would drop me off and then I'd phone him up and after a few days when I was maybe two hours away from home, he is this really isn't working for me.

Yeah. I need to find a circular route, but. Up until I arrived on the Camino, I had never walked more than 20 kilometers in my life and I never planned to, I thought I was gonna do it really slowly. Yeah, but when you are there, because when you are training, you still think, okay, I'll go this morning, but this afternoon I have to do X, Y, Z.

But when you are there, you get up at seven o'clock in the morning and you have [00:16:00] nothing else to do but walk. And so you can walk 25, 30 kilometers because there's nothing else to do. You've got all day to do that. Do you know the simplicity

Kylie Patchett: of that really speaks to me, like really speaks to me. I feel like I live in the country.

I have a quite a simple life by a lot of standards, and then just cutting away even the pieces that I've kept and just being like, I have me a backpack. Literally what I have with me, and I'm just walking until I decide I'm stopping. So how what, how does the accommodation side of things work? So is there places that you can stay, do your book in ahead of time?

Like what's the logistics of this?

Colleen Sims: Yes and it is changing because more people are walking and there was a big sea change after Covid Yes. In how people wanted to find accommodation. So when I. First walked, I stayed in municipal Burgess, which are just hostiles. [00:17:00] Yeah. Just a big room full of bunk beds basically.

And you might end up sharing a room with 20 or 40 other people. You turn up, get your beds, you carry your sleeping bag, have a shower, and everything that you need is in your bag. These days I would have my sleeping bag, wash bag, and three three changes of clothes, including the one that I'm wearing.

So it's wear one, wash one and have a spare one. Yeah. And there is a simplicity and a joy to that, but it's not for everyone for many reasons. And certainly after co well. Along came also private Al ADEs, which are a little step up. The beds are a little bit more comfortable.

Lots of them have a little curtain. I really love a curtain. Yes. It makes you feel like you have your own room.

Kylie Patchett: I have to say, I have to be honest and go. You had me at. Solo trekking. You lost me at 40 people in a room because holy [00:18:00] moly, my nervous system would not cope. No.

Colleen Sims: And many people feel the same. So private Alberta often will have a room for maybe six or eight people.

They are much better equipped. Some of them don't have bunks, but the bunks are generally much nicer. Like I say, curtains, more showers per person and then there are private rooms and there are plenty, and I. Like my husband has got into walking in a big way, but his criteria is that he's too old to share a bathroom with anybody else.

And so unless we have a private room, then he's not going.

Kylie Patchett: Ah, so cool. So how long after you started walking did he. Did he finally give in and come with you? Yeah.

Colleen Sims: Was a case of that. He he didn't for the first couple, he did join me on the second one just for a day. Really, he was just picking me up and he was there for the tap pass on [00:19:00] the white, I think.

And then I plan to walk, the Via DLA platter its called, which is over a thousand. So I was going to be away from home for a long time and he was gonna walk the last week. So he came for that and enjoyed it. And then, when I first did it, lots of friends. No, some friends would take the Mickey out of it a little bit oh my God, you love this.

Yeah, you've got sleep in bunk beds and it must be awful. And yeah. Yeah. And it was a joke, but. It was also, it is something that was, I was passionate about and I found the jokes wearing after a while. Yeah. Very respectful. And and Jerry would join in, and so we ended up having a big route about it and I said, I don't want you laugh at something that means so much to me.

Much to you. Yeah. Yeah. And I was like, okay, you're not coming with me ever again. That's it. Yeah. You can stay at home. And he was like, but I really enjoy it. I wanna come with you. Then stop taking the mickey,

Kylie Patchett: my friend. Yeah,

Colleen Sims: I know. [00:20:00] So anyway he then realized that this was something that was not gonna go away in my life.

And if he wanted to see me, that he'd have to come, but they. That also if I wanted him to come, that I have to understand that he didn't want to sleep on the top bunk of a municipal alberga anymore.

Kylie Patchett: Yeah. Yeah. So

Colleen Sims: we found a happy medium.

Kylie Patchett: Ah, that's so cool. So when you think back to, so how many years ago was the first walk that you had?

12. Wow. Okay. So when you like, think back to that first walk, do you remember do you mostly, are you walking by yourself mostly, or are you, it's like people are, there, there might be a couple of you, there might be one, there might be

Colleen Sims: all of that. I think you can find moments when you just walk alone because otherwise you're just talking the whole day and that's exhausting.

Yes. And you run out of things to say, and sometimes you just want to stop the noise. Yeah. It is the Camino France says is a busy [00:21:00] route, but you can definitely find. Places to find some quiet. So I started alone and probably for the first half of it, generally walked alone. But there's a certain magic in walking into a village in the middle of nowhere in Spain, and somebody calls you name because you had dinner with them the night before, or you slept next to them five weeks ago or something.

You do see the same people. There's this little ribbon that wanders through and the people that started the same day as you tend to be the people that you keep seeing. So news is the gossip and news travels in this linear way.

Kylie Patchett: That's a reminding me of years ago because my husband and I spent a little bit of time living in Portland, Oregon, and I've always been drawn by the Pacific Northwest Trail and, is it Wild Cheryl RA's book about? Yes. Yeah. So Wild. I'm, that's the name of it isn't, it's yes. Behind me somewhere. Yes, it is wild. So [00:22:00] that's what she talks about as well, that there's it is such a solo experience and there's also those threads of the shared experience of the people that are on the trail at similar times or Yeah.

And the little notes that they. Not left and things like, I was like, oh, that's really cool. Yeah. Like comradery type of

Colleen Sims: thing. It has certainly changed with the advent of WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger. Yeah. Not necessarily in a bad way, but people communicate more maybe because it's so accessible.

Yes.

Kylie Patchett: Yeah. See, I don't know, the part that really appeals to me is being disconnected. Yeah. From all the noise, including the internet. Particularly as an online business. I know

Colleen Sims: flight mode is your friend during the day. Certainly. And I, I do take groups and I have to leave my phone on in case somebody is messaging.

But I don't have the volume on.

Kylie Patchett: Yeah.

Colleen Sims: Yeah. There's no emergency batch words. That is so great that [00:23:00] we can't wait until we stop for lunch or something. Yeah.

Kylie Patchett: Agreed. Agreed. And that yeah. Not as, not acting like everything is an emergency that must be responded to straight away is actually a really big gif for your nervous system anyway.

Colleen Sims: Yeah. And in fact, I started my blog mainly because I didn't want to have to talk to people constantly about it. But if I, it was an old blogger blog. Yeah. I love that though. Yeah. Cool. So clunky, but just so that I could. Every couple of days because I had a data package for texting because it was so expensive in those days.

Yeah. Yeah. That's so funny. It's crazy. It wasn't that long ago how far we've come with communication. Yeah. But it was just to, so that people could read that and know where I was without me having to contact people. And the only person I spoke to actually was my husband once a day. Yeah. So yeah, that was the origins of.

Why I started writing about the walking, [00:24:00] but it was literally just to avoid communication.

Kylie Patchett: Do you remember like the first time that you walked that 800 Ks, particularly on the other side of a cancer diagnosis, do you remember when the noise settled down? What became like loud in your, in, not loud necessarily, but what became.

Much easier to spot in your internal experience of whatever was going on for you. So I imagine

Colleen Sims: I, there was a day in particular where so there's a town called Castle Res, which is just go outside of Bergos, not quite halfway. So I guess about the two week, two and a half week mark and. I didn't walk for any religious reason or spiritual reason.

It was just, oh, that looks quite good. It was nothing more than that. And maybe an element of challenging myself to [00:25:00] think, yeah, I'm alive and yes, let's go and do something. But I didn't think about it. It wasn't, it just felt like a nice thing to do, and and I remember having a conversation with my little.

Group of friends that I've made the night before, people were talking about the reasons why they were walking, and I was like if there was a bubble over my head as I was walking, it would be like, oh, that's quite nice. So that might make a nice photograph, but nothing at all serious or it was just totally random.

I wasn't walking for any great experience. That's just not me. I'm quite pragmatic and yeah. Yeah. So I'd had this conversation the night before and then walking along the trail the next day. I don't know, maybe because somewhere that had triggered a thought, I don't know. But I did have this huge epiphany of, I was alone, thank goodness about almost like suddenly remembering things that had long since.

Been forgotten that were no longer part of my [00:26:00] life. And and say al, almost remembering the child. And, I came from a bit of a brutal family and my mom died when I was young. And there were all kinds of stuff that you never deal with. And suddenly I sat on the side of the trail just sobbing, thinking, oh my God, where did that come from?

And then I oh, okay. Just carry on. But I dunno whether it is the space that you have in your head that allows little memories to creep in once you get rid of all of the noise. But I definitely felt as though I left a few things in the dirt that day and I. And it really shocked me. 'cause that is not me at all.

Yeah. But it is quite liberating as well to just think, oh, okay. Like dust it off, like it's irrelevant and Yeah. And move on. I've never had anything quite like that since, but I definitely feel after a couple of weeks. I [00:27:00] actually, I was saying now after a day, I see a yellow arrow and think, oh yeah, okay.

And it's it's like having therapy for a few weeks. You are in nature. You can feel the elements, whether it's rain or sun or mist, or you can hear the birds and you can see the snails, and. There is a therapy in that just, I think it's what we're meant to do as humans. We are meant to just walk slowly.

Yeah. Yeah.

Kylie Patchett: They, there's so much my science brain is that makes sense because it's bilateral movement and there is nervous system regulation that happens and blah, blah, blah. But really you don't have to make sense of it. It is just the truth that when we walk and when we move, and also when we are connected to our.

Natural environment, which reminds us that there is a natural cycle to things and all of those things like that is how we are meant to be [00:28:00] living no matter whether we currently live with fluorescent lights and 24 7 and blue light and our eyes and blah, blah, blah. And so now, like how has this unfolded to you actually leading other people through these experiences?

Like when did that kind of come across your maybe I should share this.

Colleen Sims: I I was talking to a lady on an online forum. Yeah. And she mentioned that she lived in France and I was like, I live in France too. And we realized that we lived an hour apart. So we're on this worldwide forum and we've been talking to each other for a few years and not known that we were almost neighbors.

My

Kylie Patchett: goodness.

Colleen Sims: And so it got me thinking maybe there are other people around here who would like to just go walking. Just locally. Yeah. And so I created a little walking club called Walking Buddies just to meet up people so that I didn't have to go for a walk alone. Yeah. And and that started that people would say, oh, we'd really love to do the Camino.

Will you arrange something? Yeah. And I had a walking buddy [00:29:00] who lived nearby who had been the first friend I'd made when we moved to France. Our kids were the same age, and we became. Firm friends and walked a few caminos together. Yeah. And one day I arrived one Thursday morning for our walk and she wasn't well.

And oh, 10 weeks later she was dead. Oh. And that, if anything. Gave us another huge wake up call to how brief and fast cancer as that was, can be. And how we, me and Jackie had talked so many times about taking people on the Camino because we'd done a few together and arranging walking trips and things, and I just thought, okay, I am just gonna do it.

And I think it was a knee jerk reaction and so we, and it was only a week. I took people for a week and I really loved the experience [00:30:00] and I was worried that maybe people wouldn't get it in a week. You know that. The experience is a little bit too. Briefs, that it wasn't real, but it actually, they really did.

And the people that I took still talk about how amazing that was for them, they would never have had that week. And in those days they made them stay bunk beds and traditional alberg. Yeah. A whole package. And that was great and I loved it. And then Covid happened.

Kylie Patchett: Yes. I wondered how the big C word played out and all of this.

Yeah.

Colleen Sims: And we were lucky in France. I, we didn't have such a terrible lockdown really. We came back from Spain in March, 2020 'cause they were closing the border. And they kept the border closed, although we drove back to the UK to get our son from university. Yeah. But they opened the border again on the 1st of July.

And we went and walked to Camino [00:31:00] on the 2nd of July. Oh

Kylie Patchett: wow. It's let me in there. Yeah.

Colleen Sims: And we did it differently. We had an apartment, took everything in our car, and we did what we called our there and back again. So we split a day in half and we walked there and walked back to our car and do it that way.

But it was so amazing after not knowing where the world was going to be back on the trail and. Spanish people were really happy to see us. And yeah, that was, it was, that was hugely emotional. I think the, maybe the stress of those three months. Yeah. And then I took a couple of groups in 2020 and 2021, but.

Bunk beds were a no-no. Yeah, of course people need just to stay only in their groups. They didn't wanna share rooms. And many Al Ess introduced private rooms and have kept them. Gotcha. Yeah, it has changed. I think just also because a lot of people really [00:32:00] liked the private room. Yeah. Idea. And I guess it's easier for, if you've got a small berga and it is a private, it's a much easier to have a couple of twin beds than it is six bunk beds and Oh yeah.

Everybody using the bathroom and, yeah. Yeah. So it just evolved and then I was contacted by an American company who asked if I would run a group on the Portuguese Camino, but they wanted hotels and so I did a walk just in hotels. Yeah. I worried whether that would lessen the experience.

Yes. Yeah. It was a different experience, but I don't think it, I don't think it diminished anything from the people who were walking. The meaning for them was still the same. They were, they still had some tough days. They still got blisters. They still had their camaraderie. Yeah. And so these days I mean I'm not a tour company.

I only do one or two a year 'cause it's still my walking club. Yes. And I ensure that everybody stays in at least one hour burger. [00:33:00] I think you have to have that experience. Yeah. Yeah. I also think it should be a very hands off. Fair in that I don't want people to walk together as a group if they don't wanna walk.

If they wanna walk alone, that's absolutely fine. If they wanna have dinner alone, if they want a lion or it's, we're all adults, I'm just facilitating it and then everybody else has to walk their walk. Yeah,

Kylie Patchett: I was actually gonna ask that because it feels. Like a very different energy to be on your own walk versus arranging other people to walk.

And then I know I would at least feel this weight of making sure that it's a certain way or whatever, like whatever the kind of, yeah. That sounds really cool though, because one of the things that like, that's what's actually stopped me. It's like I don't want to be like. Dictated to, when to get up and who to walk with and blah, blah, blah, because it's the solitude of this kind of thing that attracts me.

But by, [00:34:00] like I said before, I wouldn't also want to try and just go by myself completely if I wasn't traveling with someone.

Colleen Sims: Yeah. Definitely to es and minuses for both and for sure. Putting a pack on your back and having that freedom is. Absolutely. An incredible experience. Yeah. Yeah.

But for some people, they would never take that leap. I. They, they would never do that. But most people that have walked with me, in fact, maybe every person that has ever walked with me has gone on to do something else. Yeah. After as result, I was gonna ask how many people have been bitten by the bug to the the level that you got bit and stayed bitten.

Kylie Patchett: That's

Colleen Sims: so cool. Most people come back and walk with me again or tell me that they've. Planned their own solo walk or doing something else, which is amazing.

Kylie Patchett: That's so [00:35:00] cool. If you like, I know this is a hypothetical question, but do you ever feel into had I not said yes to that first drop in idea, because you said, it literally has changed our lives. Like obviously health wise it's changed your life, but like what other things are you aware of that you're like, I'm not actually sure I would end up here had I not taken that fork in the road? Pardon the pun.

Colleen Sims: Yeah, absolutely. The way we are embracing our retirement.

For example, in September we leave and we are gonna go away for three years. That. Tell us with, we've done two and we are back after two years, but we've been traveling. We decided we wanted to travel, we wanted to go do other walks. We wanted to go walking in other places. So we've walked like the Jordan Trail, we've walked Japan, we've walked in Borneo, Africa.

We have been walking around the world. Yeah. And not [00:36:00] necessarily in the same way as 800 kilometers. But wherever we go, if there is a trail that we can do part of then we will. And we just decided we wanted to travel and then we thought how do we want to travel? We want to do it independently.

Yes. And we wanna do it. We've just a rucksack. And yeah, we've just. Spent a couple of years doing that, we've come home. 'cause our house was feeling a little bit neglected. Yeah. The reality of being a homeowner, I know we would sell it, but we have a cat and so we have somebody who lives in our house and looks after our cat.

The most comfort cat in the world.

Kylie Patchett: Oh, I don't know.

Colleen Sims: Mine's sitting in the sun on a queen chair

Kylie Patchett: at the moment

Colleen Sims: and then we thought every time we go away, so we might go plan five months of travel. A little bit. Like being in a group though, if you have an end date, you have to plan backwards. And so you are curating that experience. Yes. And we were talking to a friend and [00:37:00] said that's the hardest part, that you can't be free to just wonder Yeah.

Vagabonding or yeah. Yeah. And he said you've got a house sitter, or not a house sitter, but a friend who stays in our home. Yeah. He said, we all know them now. They've become friends with our friends. Yes. That have done so often. He said, why don't you ask them if they'll come for a few years?

Yeah. I we're like, okay, so we don't wanna rent our house. We don't wanna go down that route. We didn't want to, just somebody come live in our house for a, and maintain it and look after it. And and so they said yes. And so we were like, okay. So we had already planned to go to South America in October.

Yeah. Yeah. And we are just gonna continue and follow the weather basically. And, ah, so our noses

Kylie Patchett: now, the jukebox in my head is playing Follow the Sun, which is weird because as I drove to Pilates this morning, the sun was like fully [00:38:00] in my eyeballs and that's how I started my day. So there you go.

It's appropriate. Oh, the whole concept of being. Free. Completely free. Ugh. And also like I'm such a Cancerian person, like my home is my sanctuary, but I have a huge desire for freedom. And the concept of not having anywhere to be except where my desires lead me just feels. Delicious. Exactly. So good.

It's incredibly

Colleen Sims: freeing. And you spent, we've, we said we, you spend your life building a home and making it beautiful and buying stuff. And the last. Five years. We never buy anything and all we want is a small house that we can lock up and walk away from and have freedom. I feel as though our homes, as much as we spend our lives working for them, become a ball and chain.

We are tied to them when [00:39:00] all we really want to do is be free. I love The Alchemist, the book, the Alchemist. Yeah. And how he said that he could smell Africa on the wind. And I was like, I, that, I cried when I read that book because that's, that is me and inside. Yeah. And this person, it didn't exist before.

It did exist, but it's found this. Freedom over the last 12 years of realizing you don't have to live your life in this box, and you don't need to be a millionaire either. You can do it really cheaply. Yeah.

Kylie Patchett: The all of this is just, I knew this was gonna be an episode where I will walk away going, yes.

Why am I not doing that yet? Because I don't know, every single piece of me feels viscerally. Like I've actually, as your. Talking, it's reminding me of I when we came to, went to live in Portland, part of the reason for that was that I moved to New York City for a three month [00:40:00] internship and so I was by myself, my kids and my husband were over in Portland and it was just after my dad died, so I was.

Very much in full on grief and also had six years of having two babies and looking after my dad for six years in quite intensive. So it is the first time that I had been solo and I need so much time by myself and I just remember the feeling of. Putting shoes on and stepping out the door and literally just saying left or right and just continuing to be led by whatever took my interests or my desires and stopping when I want and doing whatever.

And I still have these such clear memories. I I had randomly, it's back when Facebook was just new. Like it was, just new. And I had, was in a group of australians and I happened to be connected to the lady who was the first voice of Siri, and I saw that she'd moved to New York and I was like, oh, I should randomly reach out to this person who has no idea who I am.

And anyway, this day [00:41:00] she had invited me to a yoga class. And so I headed out. I had my yoga mat with me and I had a backpack, and I just had whatever I thought that I might need for a day, and I had no fixed plans after the yoga class. And I went to yoga and then. I ended up going back to her place and I met her son and then stayed there for lunch and then I was like, oh, I might go and check out what's on Broadway, like the, the last minute ticket thing.

I went and watched a show and then after the show it was still like, I don't know, there's still like sparkle in me. I wanna just keep on just sampling this delicious place. And also, grief is a funny thing. Like you, yeah. For me, that was a lot of catharsis and just being able to be where I was and have whatever emotional state I was in.

And I just remember that night I got on one of the double decker buses and I was on the top of this bus going through I can't even remember where it would've been, but near this like a pizza shop that, it just looked like exactly what New York looked like on tv. There was like just this whole like, and it started to rain and I'm on top of [00:42:00] the bus with, open Lited bus.

So here I am with my yoga mat over my head and I'm just like, I can just remember going this is like the best day ever. Yes. Be because of that freedom. Just to be able to just keep on. Snacking on what felt good and just being led. And yeah, just as you're talking, I'm like, oh, I desire that. Oh my

Colleen Sims: goodness.

I think we all do. And I think that life is just getting faster and I worry about our kids and yes, although I feel as though. Our youngest, certainly that generation who were sort of 17, 18 when Covid happened, they're much more serious and maybe turning their back on some of the. Facebook, Instagram kind of stuff.

And they're looking for something a little bit different, but I just think it's tough in life. Makes it really hard. We've all got to be [00:43:00] something rather than be, just be Yeah, actually. But it's all

Kylie Patchett: external stuff. And like you said about the house I, like we moved to the country consciously because a wanted to.

Bring our kids up in the country. But also because it was simpler, we needed less money to buy a house. We needed le we had less pressure to make. I spent a long time in corporate churning my way to burnout. Yeah. And just was like, I'm just not available for that anymore. And when I look at the life that we lead, it is so simple.

And sometimes I do have moments where I'm like, I wonder what our life would be like if we stayed in the city. And I'm just like, it's just. The things that we've been taught are important, are not important to me, not as much as this sense of freedom and sovereignty, which is really, that's really what we're talking about.

It's yeah. And

Colleen Sims: who's telling us what we should be? Our son has recently changed career path. And we were [00:44:00] talking to him and he said, my inspiration is you. Yeah. And he said, I love that you. Stepped away from a successful business, which we did, we sold and come to France.

And you had time. And he's changing path or career path because he wants time. He used to think he wanted money, but now he doesn't. And there's that realization that he, the only thing that we cannot buy is time. And I would much rather have an experience, good or bad than a new pair of shoes.

Yeah. God. Yeah. Ugh. And I think so many people feel the same. And maybe that's why, last year over half a million people walked the Camino and maybe people are searching for some freedom, but just to have even just a week of freedom. I think, yeah, I think there is a lot in that, and once you have that little taste, you just [00:45:00] think, why am I buying different color napkins for a table decoration?

And also be buying a pair of hiking shoes,

Kylie Patchett: but also what am I trying to hide from by buying the freaking napkins in the first place? Is this actually the life that feels good for me or not? And if it is, no shade on that. I'm not saying that everybody's got to

Colleen Sims: No but the pressure that you feel under to make everything look wonderful, I feel as though, women in particular, women of a certain age are like, we were handed this mantle, like you are the generation, you have the pill, you have the freedom to make choices, burn your bra and equal rights. And so you've gotta make the most of that. You have to be something. Yeah. And then you have to have an amazing home. And your kids have got to all do well.

Yeah. Have it all, be it all. Bloody much. And I, women and men too, but I can obviously only speak from a female voice, [00:46:00] but yeah. You just think it's all Pollocks. We don't need to do any of that. Some of the women that I most admire now are the ones that have such freedom that really don't care about what norms there are.

And we are under pressure and the simple act of putting. A backpack on and knowing you've only got two outfits because otherwise you've gotta carry it. Yes, I made my lipstick. I actually know how much my lipstick weighs 'cause I have always worn red lipstick, and so I will sacrifice those 68 grams in my pack for lipstick.

And that was my choice.

Kylie Patchett: Gold. Oh my God. I love that. I love that so much. Oh my goodness. What an inspiration. What would you like to leave? First of all, where can people find you so that they can connect if this is vibrating in their soul like it is in mine?

Colleen Sims: My website is called Then we [00:47:00] walked because that's what we do.

We go somewhere and then we walk. Yeah. And it started off as a Camino blog, and I am trying to write about each route, and it's, and it is morphed into independent travel now, because when we were looking for information,

Kylie Patchett: yeah,

Colleen Sims: everything was in a younger person's voice.

Kylie Patchett: Yeah.

Colleen Sims: And so it didn't, they're great if you are, 20 or 30 something, but that wasn't the experience that we were looking for.

And so I thought, you know what? I, I'm gonna, I'm going to write about our journeys, and I'm, and it's in its infancy. I'm so far behind in its yeah. But. But it people, lots of our friends say to us, oh, we couldn't travel like you, you do. And it was like, but it's really easy to do and a lot of people assume that we must have lots of money and we really don't because we stay in home stays and, yeah.

Yeah. We went through Japan, but the only way we could do it was in [00:48:00] bunk beds. In hosts. Yeah. And we use buses and take local trains and do lots of walking and eat locally. And me, lots of people, me, that's,

Kylie Patchett: sorry. To me that's. The real experience of, that's why I would much prefer to stay, if I had to choose between Airbnb where you get to meet the host who is a local versus a hotel.

I will choose the Airbnb all the time because to me there's one level of experience that you get as a tourist and there's a completely different level of experience you get when you are amongst. Absolutely. The people who actually live there, not the Polish. The, and that wasn't

Colleen Sims: a, it wasn't a, we didn't make this conscious choice.

It was just, if we want to do this, we can only spend 12 euros. Yeah. Yeah. We can't spend 80. And when we stumbled into it, we were like, actually we've, we have stayed in some awful places. Yes. No denying that, but that's [00:49:00] also taught us with that, okay, we can live with this for two days and.

I turned up at some places. There was a place in India. We were there for three months and we arrived and it was pretty awful and the bed was like sleeping on a marble countertop. And I just, what are we doing here? But there were five rooms and a huge balcony, and we met three other couples there who were much younger.

Our kids' age actually, and we still called them the kids. And we had the best three days in the company of these wonderful people we would never have had if we'd have said, oh, I'm not gonna stay. And actually we still slept and. It was clean and it was fine. And it, traveling like that has taught us how much we could actually tolerate and that we don't need.

And and whilst we could probably, now that we're both getting our state pension, yes, [00:50:00] maybe we could spend a little bit more, but we don't want to. Yeah, because the real joy is the people that you meet and yeah. And we have no other way than to do it independently because tours are so expensive.

Kylie Patchett: I'm looking at them just, we are just about to celebrate our 25th wedding anniversary and we are like, okay, we're gonna just head to Asia and just keep it super simple. But I did look at tours and I was like. Ridiculous. And then we started looking up. We've got a few friends that have stayed in more the Airbnb style of thing and I'm like, oh my God, we are doing this for about a quarter of the price we will have.

An experience that means more to us as people. Yeah. We'll still get the relaxation. And what I love about travel is the beginner's mind of it's, I've never seen this before. I've never experienced it before. And so I will still get my hit of that. Yeah. But yeah, it just, I'm like and also the whole.

Concept of being on a guided tour where you have to be in, it just [00:51:00] doesn't speak to me. I like the interaction with people, but I don't like being told what to do. That's why I'm not an employee, I'm not good at that.

Colleen Sims: It's true. True. And we all, and it. We all end up in this procession and you don't get to go and explore the little corners.

Yes. And no, for sure. And it's, and it is we spent a couple of months traveling through Vietnam and it was so easy Yeah. To do because their buses are amazing. You can get that's what think about going.

Kylie Patchett: That's

Colleen Sims: yeah. So the blog evolved. Half of it is about the Camino and half of it is growing into Yeah, you can just as you can walk a camino, you can also travel the world. Even if you only do it for two weeks, your money will go way further if you just take that leap of faith and trust that you can actually do this and you are not going to die.

And Yes. And really that

Kylie Patchett: yeah, is not, I'm sure there is [00:52:00] things that you need to be con, think about, but I've, I feel like, I don't know. I'm a big believer in universal insurance too, right?

Colleen Sims: Absolutely. And the bubble in trust, the most sick I have ever been in our travels is through eating salad in Peru, Uhhuh.

Kylie Patchett: Yep. Yep. My, I was just thinking about my mom and stepdad were big trekker and the worst thing that ever happened to them was my mom was in India. On her 60th birthday she had, I. I don't know, cued for hours and hours to meet the Dalai Lama who happened to be there. And the next day she went on just a they'd been they used to do really hard treks like, over really crazy high peaks and whatnot.

And this one day she went on this extra little. Like just a wee walk. Like it wasn't anything serious, but she was so fascinated by the mountain in front of her. She walked off the mountain, she was on and broke her wrist really badly. That was in [00:53:00] McLeod GaN. I don't know. I feel like I should know and now I've forgotten.

It's been, it's a long time ago, but we went to a

Colleen Sims: place called McLeod GaN in India where the Dal Lama lives. Yeah, it might have been. There's a mountain trek there called the Tree Trek, which is. Stunning place

Kylie Patchett: wherever it was. She was taken to a hospital on the back of an animal. Obviously very painful when you've got a broken wrist and then the wrist was set, but too tight and then, oh, it was actually quite a big drama.

But over all the places they've ever been in some crazy places, well before the internet. That's the only. Thing that's ever gone, seriously wrong and she's fine now.

Colleen Sims: And that could happen here, at home as well sometimes. Where exactly fear gets the better of you. I dunno why we have become so fearful.

I, I'm still fearful and, it is easy to talk yourself into being fearful. Yeah. I don't know why we do that, because it's a [00:54:00] safety thing. I

Kylie Patchett: think we get so comfortable in our little boxes with our way of doing things

Colleen Sims: and maybe the 24 hour news thing, trying to convince us that we are better and the rest of the world is scary.

And, that's why I don't watch any of

Kylie Patchett: it. I just, I'm not exposing myself to that version of the world because I don't think, yes. Yeah. Oh, so good. Now I just wanna check with you as well when you've mentioned that, so you are just about to head off, so no. Camino traveling groups for a little while.

I know. I'm gonna walk the Camino next week. Oh, exciting. That's a bit too

Colleen Sims: late notice for me, Colleen. I was gonna say to you, do you know that there is a pilgrimage route through Italy called the Via France, Gina, and there are different variations to it and it takes you to Rome. I did not know that. So

Kylie Patchett: you, I'm totally like for someone who says that she wants to do it, I've done nothing about it.

It's just a desire that I haven't leaned into, but you have inspired me. No. End. [00:55:00] It's been so cool getting to know you. Thank you so much for sharing your story and just, yeah, I just wanna, echo what your son said to you. I'm always so inspired by people that have said no to the done way of doing life when it doesn't fit them go for it if it's, if it fits you, but I just find listening to people's stories that have gone, no, that's actually I've done a fair share of that in my life, but I feel like there's more that I haven't leaned into. So thank you for sharing that with me. 'cause it's been Yeah, I know. Know our listeners are gonna absolutely love this. So I'm already thinking now, what will I call this?

68 grams worth of lipstick or princess straps on a backpack.

Colleen Sims: There is. There is a book called Can Princesses Wear Hiking Boots. There. There you go. Book, there you go. I love it. And and yeah, they can. Yes, absolutely.

Kylie Patchett: Oh, so good. So good. Oh love. Thank you so much. Been such a joy. It's a pleasure.

And you do have some [00:56:00] light in your background now, so I'm glad. Oh yeah. The, my is clearing so, so good. Thank you. I know it's early for you, but. So much love. Excellent.

There you go. Beautiful. One another delicious, juicy truth talking episode with a disruptor, rebel, or revolutionary sharing the identity shifts and the mess and the magic of leading right on the edge of your expansion and going first as a visionary leader, as a woman, creating a business and inviting people to completely new ways of learning, living, loving, and leading.

It is not lost on me that you have invested your time and your energy in listening to the show. I'm so grateful for your beautiful heart, for the work that you do in the world, and I know that if you are here, you are more than likely one of what I call the mad hatters, so the quirky, colorful, creative out of the box.[00:57:00]

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