How To Take On Solo Adventures With Katie & Fudge

Outdoor micro-adventurers Katie Owens and Fudge the cockapoo – aka @cockapoofudgeandkatie – love to hike, camp and SUP. But even for this intrepid duo, getting out there ‘solo’ can sometimes seem daunting. That’s why we asked Katie to tell us how she gets motivated…

Firstly I think it’s important to say that I am no big epic adventurer, I’m just a regular girl who lives in North Wales, that works full time and I fit all of my adventures around work and weekends. I simply love being outside and am my happiest when I am out adventuring with my cockapoo Fudge.

There is nothing quite like a solo adventure – the freedom, the fear, the peacefulness and the overwhelming sense of achievement. Yes you read that right – there’s a touch of fear that comes with solo adventuring for me that firstly makes me have back up plans upon back up plans to ensure I’m safe but secondly it makes every adventure feel like a huge achievement and possibly one of my favourite parts of solo adventuring.

For a long time I found myself envying the adventures I saw other people sharing online. I saw people heading for wild camps in the hills and epic paddle adventures and I desperately wanted to go on these adventures myself but getting times where my boyfriend or friends were free at the same time as me seemed impossible. Then I started to see more people sharing solo adventures and the idea started to grow in the back of my mind. Could I do that?

The start of 2023 rolled around, I’d not long completed juggling completing a qualification alongside working full time and I was back to the usual 9-5. I felt like I was no longer achieving anything and I was desperate to find a new personal goal for myself. This was when I finally decided that I needed to seize the moment and go solo wild camping (with Fudge of course).

I was nervous, I told myself that I didn’t have to camp if I didn’t want to and I very nearly talk myself out of it all together. That was my through process for our first solo camp but to be honest I still think I go through that thought cycle on most solo adventures and that mental battle is usually the biggest hurdle that I have to overcome. But once I have set up camp and settled into my tent with Fudge, the evenings are pretty close to perfect. We watch the sunset, curl up in our sleeping bags, listen to nature around us and I genuinely feel so much more relaxed than I ever thought I could.

The mornings are the part I always look forward to most, setting my alarm for about an hour before sunrise and unzipping my tent to see what show Mother Nature is going to put on for us. There is absolutely nothing like it and there is never a better tasting coffee than the one I have from my tent after a solo night whilst watching the sun rise with Fudge. Not because it’s a particularly good tasting coffee mind (note to self : must upgrade coffee kit), but because I feel like I’m literally sipping on success from getting out there, overcoming the hurdles and surviving an epic overnight solo adventure.

So if you’re reading this, maybe at the same roadblock that I was at the start of last year – take it as your sign to get out there. There is an adventure waiting for everyone outdoors and the beauty of this is that it looks different for everyone too. Do your research, get your plans together and get out there – you won’t regret it.