00:00The Alaskan Highway. 1,387 miles of road weaving through the frozen mountains of Canada.
00:07A bit different from the pantiles at Tunbridge Wells. It's an iconic northern road trip
00:12and for one woman who lives in the West Kent town, it's marked the latest step in her
00:16journey to find amazing sights and to find herself.
00:19Well, when I went to Alaska I didn't know that it was going to be a life-changing trip.
00:24It was incredible to go to one of the most remote places in the world. They call it the
00:29final frontier and they don't call it that for nothing. That silence and that wilderness
00:34and everything made me really able to reflect on life and who I am and what I want and it's
00:41just empowered me. So I've come back just feeling so invigorated, so positive about what life
00:46is and what we should be doing and how we should be aging.
00:50Siobhan lives a nomadic lifestyle, travelling around the UK and other countries in her motorhome.
00:54This is Dora the Explorer, Siobhan's trusted motorhome who didn't make it for the Alaskan adventure
01:00and as you can probably see, I am extremely hot here under the UK sun. But it was a different
01:06story in Alaska. She was facing temperatures of minus 15 and the roads were damaged by previous
01:11temperatures anywhere from minus 50 to minus 60. It was dangerous, treacherous journeys that
01:17she had to face. Let's take a look at the exact route that she charted out.
01:20She started in Vancouver, then moved on to towns like Whistler and Prince George where
01:25she had to winterise her motorhome, then Dawson Creek, the official start to the route. Then
01:31followed tough winter roads and mountain passages, 6,500 kilometres over a whole month.
01:37She's written a book about her travels called Retirement Rebel, the second in her series,
01:42and she says she wants to inspire older women to do things they think they can't.
01:46I think often society writes older women off in particular and thinks they haven't got it in them
01:52to do adventures. And for a lot of women, that then is a self-fulfilling prophecy. They think,
01:58oh, I can't do it. I'm too old to do it. Oh, I shouldn't be doing it. I'll look ridiculous.
02:02But more and more now, there's a tribe of women out there who are looking to life and saying,
02:09what do I really want from life? And they want adventure and their children want them to have
02:13adventure and they're supporting them to do it. And I'm trying to show them that it's possible.
02:19She's got more adventures on the cards and wants any woman who might feel lost to try charting a course
02:24across the wilderness, changing the direction of their travels and their lives.
02:28Finn McDermid for KMTV in Tunbridge Wells.
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