No 509 – Jenny Tough – Pt1

This interview with Jenny Tough took place while she was Kathmandu waiting for her flight back home to Scotland just before Christmas.

She wanted a quick relaxing holiday break and chose to take her bike to Kathmandu and for kicks and giggles, go bike packing over the Thorong La Pass which has an elevation of 5,416m. While she was there they had a little snow as you can see in the pictures, so she spent a lot of the time carrying her bike between refuges and hostels. But hey, Jenny thought it was fun and enjoyed the break.

This may give you an idea of what type of woman she is. In the rest of the interview we talk about her Run The Mountains Of The World person project she has set herself. Jenny has always discovered commonalities with mountains – and mountain people. This major project is to run solo and unsupported across a mountain range on every continent where indigenous mountain people live isolated from the outside, urban world.

In Kyrgyzstan she met the Kyrgyz nomads, who live a traditional lifestyle in yurts and were overwhelmingly friendly towards me.

In the Atlas Mountains, the Berbers were an essential support network who welcomed me into their communities and helped me survive in the incredible hostile desert environment. 

However the fly in the ointment in the Atlas Mountains was the Gendarmarie. Once they established there was a lone single female running in the mountains which they viewed as a very dangerous place, they did everything they could to dissuade her and force her back into the villages or run on the road.

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As you’ll hear Jenny was having none of it and the links the videos below make give you some idea of the circumstances and the frustrations she felt.

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In part two we discuss the  the crossing in Central America and New Zealand both once again presented her with totally unexpected challenges.

Enjoy!