Lucy Barnard is an Australian adventurer walking the length of the Americas, a years long expedition from Argentina to Alaska she began in 2017. Along the way, she adopted a blue heeler named Wombat, and together they navigate deserts, mountains, jungles, and remote terrain on foot. By 2026, Lucy had reached northern British Columbia, steadily continuing north toward Alaska.
Lucy Barnard is an Australian adventurer walking the length of the Americas, a years long expedition from Argentina to Alaska she began in 2017. Along the way, she adopted a blue heeler named Wombat, and together they navigate deserts, mountains, jungles, and remote terrain on foot. By 2026, Lucy had reached northern British Columbia, steadily continuing north toward Alaska.
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Lucy Barnard:
The best advice was mom's. Be bold, be adventurous, and face the unknown. My name's Lucy Barnard and I'm making an attempt to be the first woman to walk the length of the earth.
Shelby Stanger:
In 2017, Lucy Barnard stood at the southernmost point of South America with a massive task ahead of her. She would walk north until she reached Alaska. Nine years later, Lucy is still walking. By May of 2026, she had made it to Prince George, Canada, roughly 500 miles north of Vancouver. So far, Lucy has crossed deserts, mountains, jungles, and plains. She spent time in local communities, camped in wild landscapes, ate a lot of empanadas, and even learned Spanish. In Chile, she adopted a blue heeler pup named Wombat who's walked alongside her ever since. Lucy hopes to reach Alaska in the summer of 2027. And when she does, she will make history as the first woman to walk the length of the Americas.
I'm Shelby Stanger and this is Wild Ideas Worth Living, an REI Co-op Studios production brought to you by Capital One and the REI Co-op Mastercard. Lucy Barnard welcomed to Wild Ideas Worth Living. You're walking across the earth. This is unheard of. No female has done it, which is so cool.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah, I do. I've got to tell you that there are other women who have done similar things, just not that they have done the hike consecutively without any missing steps. I spoke to some women at the very beginning who were a really good guide for me, but their goal and their rule was that they were going to walk the whole way except when they weren't having fun and then they'd skip forward. So that was really good for them. And then there was another set of girls who did predominantly walking but then switched to bikes and kayaked every so often as well. And I have to tell you, it's great to try and be the first, but it's a pretty lonely road. And also the rules itself is a form of prison because sometimes when I've been miserable and haven't wanted to be doing what I'm doing anymore, there's been no way to extract myself other than from just enduring it.
Shelby Stanger:
Okay. That was deep for the first sentence out of your mouth. Okay, let's backtrack. When did you decide I'm going to be the first woman to walk from Argentina to Alaska?
Lucy Barnard:
That was just purely a moment of impulsiveness. I was traveling through Argentina through an area that's just open land. Nothing is happening. It felt like the bus trip was really stretched out in time. And because of that, I started thinking about if I could walk faster than the bus, which of course you can't. And then it led to Googling about if people had walked through Argentina, if they'd walked the length of South America, can you walk through Central America? And in all of that, I discovered George Meegan, who was the first man to walk the length of the Americas. And he has a Guinness record for the longest known walk where he did what I'm doing exactly except that he then deviated from Mexico over to New York and then went along the Canadian trail and then up.
And I thought, oh, well, that happened pretty much the year after I was born. Where are the ladies at? And there were none. The frustration that we're growing up being told that girls can do the same as boys, but not seeing the evidence in real life, I wanted to contribute to making that lack of evidence as small as possible.
Shelby Stanger:
Lucy returned from that Argentina trip in 2015. At the time, she was in her early 30s working in PR at a job she wasn't thrilled about in Darwin, Australia. Life continued as normal, but Lucy couldn't get the image of George Meegan's walk out of the back of her mind. She craved an adventure that would challenge her and broaden her horizons. So when you told your family, "Hey, I'm going to go walk the length of Americas starting at Tierra del Fuego," and you told your friends this in Australia, what did they say?
Lucy Barnard:
Oh, it was like crickets. No one wanted to breathe. They were just like, "If we don't acknowledge this, maybe the idea will just go away." Because they know that anything discouraging will put me on the path and they were scared. This is something that just sounds... There's just so many unknowns and there is so much fear-mongering in modern media that it really just seemed like if I left, I wouldn't come back. So it was a real journey for them as much as for me. And even to this day, it's a real struggle to be so absent from family members in spite of all of the things that we have to enable us to stay connected.
Shelby Stanger:
How many brothers and sisters do you have?
Lucy Barnard:
I've got two older sisters.
Shelby Stanger:
I'm the youngest of three girls and I'm also an auntie, and there's something about these youngest children that are a little bit more adventurous.
Lucy Barnard:
We're uncompliant.
Shelby Stanger:
Yes. And I get the sense that if your parents had told you not to date someone when you were younger, that was the person you were going to go date.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah, except I hated boys, so they had no real worry about that.
Shelby Stanger:
Good. Okay. So I get where this personality comes from and it's starting to make a little bit more sense of why you would do this. So it's crickets from your family, it's crickets from your friends, you go do it anyway.
Lucy Barnard:
Except... Let me tell you something because there is always one champion that really will help you if you're starting a project that you're nervous about. So I had been on this trip to Argentina and I came back to work in this job that I had thought I'd leave, and her name's Margaret, and Margaret came to me to have a chat about it when I got back to work to ask me if I loved it and the things that I saw and I was just like, "Did you know that a man walked the length of the Americas 30 years ago and no woman has been able to do it since?" And I said to her, "I think I could do that." And she just looked at me with absolute assurity and said, "You have to. You have to do that."
Shelby Stanger:
Margaret became Lucy's biggest cheerleader, and with her support, Lucy started to believe this wild idea might actually be possible. Like so many big dreams, the biggest obstacle was money. So Lucy stripped her life down, cut her expenses as much as she could, and started saving for the trip. Then came the logistics, mapping the route, gathering equipment, and preparing herself for a solo journey that would stretch across two continents. This was a huge trip. What did you need to learn and what sort of gear did you need to get in the very beginning?
Lucy Barnard:
Okay. Well, the most obvious thing is that when I started, I didn't speak Spanish. So getting at least a grasp of the language was helpful right up until I really didn't spend any time in Spanish-speaking areas because I was always remote. And I don't know if you know this, but through Latin America, there are consistently indigenous populations for who Spanish is their second or third language. And so trying to communicate with two sets of broken Spanish, I have to say it was easier than talking to just native Spanish speakers because at least we understood our logic in trying to reach for the language, like we met in that broken format much better than if someone has an expectation on how to communicate. So that was good, but that was definitely the scariest hurdle because I can't mitigate risk if I don't have awareness of my environment.
Shelby Stanger:
So language, number one.
Lucy Barnard:
Language.
Shelby Stanger:
What about wilderness survival skills?
Lucy Barnard:
Oh yeah. Yep. But I had that already in my toolbox, I guess you could say. I think the-
Shelby Stanger:
What did that look like? Not everybody has that.
Lucy Barnard:
Okay. First of all, I have a self-rescue plan. So I have a beacon if I need to be removed from a remote area, that can happen swiftly. And there's a lot of comfort and confidence building in knowing that you have a lifeline. So that's probably the most helpful thing for fortitude. Then I meet with my doctor frequently and we update my first aid kit, which isn't like a typical hiker's first aid kit because remembering that I'm in remote areas where things like, well, just different illnesses are present and so I need to be prepared on how to recognize, mitigate, and prevent preferably but address as well if I become sick, and to know those symptoms so that I can advocate for my own health.
I also am quite realistic about if I was to break a leg, what that would look like. And I have the responsibility of a dog, so it means I've also got a first aid kit for him and knowledge on how to deal with almost everything that he could possibly have happen, and a vet on call as well who I can access through my beacon. And then I carry super strong pain medication and I'm very careful that if I ever need to use that to walk myself out of a problem that I only take enough so that I still have my wits about me, that I'm not making the injury worse, stuff like that.
Shelby Stanger:
By the time Lucy left for South America, she had saved 50,000 Australian dollars and landed a few gear sponsors. She'd done the research, built up her wilderness survival skills, and planned as much as a person can for something this big. The only thing left was to start walking. At first, Lucy made some rookie mistakes. Her pack was massive. It weighed nearly 70 pounds, but pretty quickly she learned to lighten her load. From when you started, that first week, what was that like? Do you remember?
Lucy Barnard:
Terrifying. It was terrifying. I can't even... I just can't. I was scared because the most fragile moment of a hike is anything that happens beforehand. If you can get yourself to the start, you are destined for success, but you do need support or luck on your side, or an inflated ego, and not a fragile ego, I guess. I landed in Ushuaia, and the first thing that happened is I got from the airport to couch surfing, and this guy became a real ally because he had to help me with a border crossing that I was not allowed to do the way that I had hoped, and he had to drive me into the middle of the wilderness. So basically he was abandoning me in the middle of a really dense, undeveloped national park to go across mountain crossings with fast-flowing streams and a bunch of untested brand new gear, just the whole nightmare.
And as we were driving into this gray-toned landscape where there's really rich green mossy ground and lots of trees and dense scrub with a lot of cloud cover and that gray glacial water, I could feel my heart and anxiety just wanting to kill me. It felt like I was dying on that descent into this area. And right at that moment of fearfulness, some music came on the radio, which was played at my dad's funeral.
Shelby Stanger:
Wow. You're going to make me cry, Lucy.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah. I think you can see coincidences in what happens or you can lean into the miraculousness of it to really give you that push to start something that's really hard. And for you, I feel like... Oh my God. I've talked about this so much and every time it happens-
Shelby Stanger:
No, it's okay. It's okay.
Lucy Barnard:
... this happens. Right. But every time something like this happens, I bank it and I remember that there was a lot of stuff that had to go right for me to get to where I am today. And so when I have a hard day now, I know that it is nothing in comparison to the exponential hardship that I've gone through to get to where I am today.
Shelby Stanger:
I love that story. I'm sorry your dad passed. Mine passed when I was 11. It sucks.
Lucy Barnard:
It does suck.
Shelby Stanger:
There's nothing like losing your dad.
Lucy Barnard:
There's really not.
Shelby Stanger:
Hearing that song felt like a good omen, and it gave Lucy a little burst of confidence that she had made the right decision to chase this wild idea, but that didn't mean the journey was easy. Those first couple of weeks, Lucy was completely alone, trying to navigate through the vast terrain of Patagonia. After her first border crossing, she was supposed to meet back up with a support team at a nearby bay, but things didn't go according to plan.
Lucy Barnard:
What's really humorous is that I'd lost a bag of food and I was rationing 450 calories a day to get myself to that point. And when I was nearly there, the team messaged me and said, "Hey, we're going to be there early and we're bringing lots of food for you so don't worry about the food." And I was like, "Perfect." So I start binge eating all of my food that I had left, and then later that day they're like, "Hey, we got a flat tire. We're going to be a day late." And I was like... I was so, so thin, so hungry, my lips were all cracked. And I got to this area where we were meant to meet and a bunch of people were there fly fishing and catching all this food, and they were like, "Hey, do you want something to eat?"
And I was so happy and it had been 10 days since I'd seen an actual human that all I could think of was, Lucy, don't lose your mind. You need to not scare these people away. And I was just like, "I'm so hungry. Yes, I would love some food." And so I talked about how hungry I was and then I ate half a sausage and my stomach couldn't fit anymore food, and it was like torture because in my head I just knew that I needed to eat.
Shelby Stanger:
In 2017, Lucy Barnard set out to walk from Argentina to Alaska. She thought the journey might take three years. Nearly a decade later, Lucy is still walking. There have been delays, red tape, rest days, and of course the COVID pandemic, but Lucy has never been in a rush to finish. Along the way, she's connected with fellow adventurers and spent time in small communities. What is a typical day like? Walking, eating, sleeping.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah, totally. My days are mainly driven by sticking to a routine, so I try and get up before daylight every day, mainly because my uncle always said that he really believed that if you saw the first light, that it would give you an extra boost in your day and that you would be a more happier person. And my uncle was a really happy person. So I have always tried to do the same thing. And my favorite time of the day is that period between when the sun's just come up and the temperature has dropped right off and then it starts picking up again. And that warmth that you feel when you're walking at that time gives me a lot of joy. And it might just be that I'm thinking of my uncle, but I also think that there must be some sort of a truth to it.
So whether it is or not, I try and do that. That's my main rule. When I stop to eat, it's usually based on when I cover a certain amount of kilometers. But when I started, I couldn't replace the stove fuel that I had. So I was eating what I didn't know existed at the time was the equivalent of cold soaked polenta that doesn't cook cold soaked. And awful, horrible food. I cannot look at polenta or mashed potatoes to this day, honestly. There was no variety, it was pretty miserable, and I love food. So the stretches too were really far between towns and so I would have to walk such a long way. I was weighing about 60 kilos. My pack weighed about 30, which is way too much, and it was just because I wasn't experienced in ultralight hiking. Back home we always just carried way too much and dealt with it.
So that first period for a long time was messy, and I didn't really find my feet until I went into the Atacama Desert and that was a whole nother dirty beast.
Shelby Stanger:
You poor thing. Okay. So every day you hike, you run, sometimes you have to kayak, but you don't just walk, you do some other things, yeah?
Lucy Barnard:
Oh, totally. I mean, the thing that I love the most is that I'm in towns and sometimes I run into a community that needs help with something. And this is what I would really like to explore after I finish my journey where I might be able to walk into a really remote community and bring them something that they need. I think that would be wonderful, especially if it's... I've met communities that haven't been able to access their neighbors for 10 years because a bridge fell and no one's going to replace that bridge or just water security and being able to walk in some Sawyer filters would change the lives of so many and extend the longevity of their life as well.
Shelby Stanger:
Cool. Where are you sleeping? Where are you sleeping all through South America?
Lucy Barnard:
In a tent.
Shelby Stanger:
In a tent.
Lucy Barnard:
Always in a tent.
Shelby Stanger:
Sleep in that tent.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah. Often, especially in small communities, people would see me and insist that I come in and spend the night with them rather than continuing on. And where I felt safe, I would always do that because it's a lot for me. It's really nice to be able to share that time with people, but also it's a lot for them as well to be a part of this girl's journey to walk something that to them seems unfathomable.
Shelby Stanger:
Depending on the terrain, Lucy often walks between 15 and 30 miles a day. She also builds in plenty of rest days, using that time to resupply food, connect with people in the communities she passes through, or to take Wombat to the vet. Her dog, Wombat, is not just along for the ride. He's Lucy's trusted companion and an important part of her team. Technically, he's supposed to be her guard dog, but he's also a sweet, lovable pup. I see Wombat waking up, so we should probably introduce who Wombat is.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah. So Wombat is my blue heeler. He joined me in Chile after I'd completed the first year of the journey and I needed a friend and just a different focus to the pursuit, but it was also strategic, hoping that he would help improve my security and safety.
Shelby Stanger:
Let's talk about this because everybody asks you, I'm sure, like, "Oh, but you're a woman. It must be dangerous." And I mean, the last guy I interviewed who did Alaska to Argentina, he's like, "Oh yeah, I've only been robbed eight times." I'm like, "No biggie. That's a big deal." But he was really nonchalant about it. I was like, "That's not small. For me, I wouldn't want to be robbed at all."
Lucy Barnard:
And to me, I don't know the situation that he was in, but I also think to myself, how big was your profile to risk at the time that you were mugged? In that I do so much to lower my profile. And yes, we have a higher profile to risk, but my approach to this at least is to be methodical and to be asking those questions and to not put myself in areas where there is visibility. I have learned from experts in negotiation and in avoiding incursions to know that if you're concerned and you're in an area and you can't get out, the best thing that you can do is hike somewhere where it's difficult to access. Try and set your tent up in scrub. Don't set your tent up if you're really worried and just wrap yourself up in it and make sure that wherever you're positioned, it's above the eye-line because when people are searching for other people, it's rare that they look up rather than straight or down.
I don't use a torch at night. I don't turn my light on at night. I have a dog with me. I carried pepper spray for most of the journey up until I got to the States when I got bear spray. And I don't enter a town in the evening or on the weekend when people might be drunk. I always go in at 4:00 AM when the markets are opening and I go and find women to sit with so that I establish a known connection in the area so that people don't feel like they can interfere with me because their auntie or someone they know knows me.
Shelby Stanger:
I want to hear some stories. Tell me some of the most beautiful things you've seen walking.
Lucy Barnard:
Well, right now in terms of community, I'm just remembering that in Peru, I walked into this remote area, again, where they don't speak Spanish, and I met these two elder people who just wanted to usher me in and give me some parental love, which is something I really miss when I'm so far from home. And they were so proud of their daughter who had become a seamstress. And so she was sewing these traditional shirts that women wear. They're like a blouse and then they're completely covered in these beautiful sequins. And sewing is a masculine trait in Peru. So she would do the sewing and the overlocking and then her dad would put his glasses, these old-fashioned glasses right at the end of his nose in the dark light at night after he's been working in the field all day and then sit there and hand stitch on the sequences.
And then they would tell me so proudly that they could sell those for 50 US dollars down at the markets, and that they get exported to the States. And I was just so proud of all of them because not only are they in a remote area, but they're also a marginalized group within their culture, and this girl has been able to buy herself two sewing machines and two overlockers. And the logistics of getting those into this town is mammoth. It's a real achievement.
Shelby Stanger:
It sounds like it's been less about the landscape and for you more about the people. So much has been about connecting with locals along the way.
Lucy Barnard:
So much.
Shelby Stanger:
What have been some of the funniest things that have happened on this walk?
Lucy Barnard:
I think the funniest things that have happened is I've had two separate police groups, one in Mexico and one in Argentina, dance with me. So the group in Argentina, the police in Argentina invited me to do Zumba with them and they were in a remote area in a shack of a police station. And then they had this big TV and every Tuesday they'd eat pizza, and then put a dance video on on the TV and we all got together and danced Zumba, which is ridiculous. I hate dancing really, truly. I'm a bit too embarrassed by my own self at dancing, but when you're there, you just got to throw yourself in and that was great. And then in Mexico they were totally happy to dance with me to an Australian tradition of a Tina Turner song called the Nutbush and I taught them all the steps.
Shelby Stanger:
Sorry. It's a funny name. The Nutbush.
Lucy Barnard:
It is. You've got to see it on Instagram, but they were really-
Shelby Stanger:
Yeah, we don't call it that in the United States, but I'll have to look it up and trust you.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah. And I wonder if... Oh yeah, it's like City Limits, right? But we call it doing the Nutbush because we learned bush dances at school, and the police were super cool about learning the steps and then being in front of a camera, even though they know potentially a lot of people are going to see it. And that, to me, is ridiculous and amazing and well-spirited. I love that.
Shelby Stanger:
On Lucy's Instagram and YouTube, she shares videos about the people she met along the way, from indigenous communities high in the Andes mountains to thru-hikers on the continental divide. Lucy has seen a lot over the last nine years and she's had to learn to embrace the unexpected. So much has changed since when you started till now.
Lucy Barnard:
Yeah, the world has changed, absolutely. And you know what's really-
Shelby Stanger:
But you've changed.
Lucy Barnard:
Of course. I mean, we all change as we get older for sure, but I don't think I've changed in any way that would have been different if I had sticked to a typical course because life happens and we grow at only the rate that we can with the experiences that we have. So yeah, I feel like what is different is this has become a lifestyle for me. I see it more as a job than absconding from life. I never saw it as running away from anything. Some people have suggested that that's what's going on. Truly, I was driven by contributing towards the female pursuit, and when the years extended, that was a surprise. I really thought I'd be doing it in three years, but I did learn that I value human contact. I want to share people's stories. I want them to be celebrated the way that they should be. And really, truly the people who are watching this journey with a lot more loyalty than I can ever have imagined people would, it's because they want to see these stories of kindness.
Shelby Stanger:
To keep in touch with Lucy and watch her finish out the end of her journey, you can follow along her Instagram, @tanglesandtail. That's T-A-N-G-L-E-S-A-N-D-T-A-I-L-S. We'll provide a link to her socials and her website in the show notes. Big shout out to past guests, Liam Garner, who's currently biking around the world. He introduced us to Lucy, who he met on one of his previous expeditions. You can find Liam's episode and the podcast feed and we'll also link it up in the description to this episode.
Wild Ideas Worth Living is part of the REI Podcast Network. It's hosted by me, Shelby Stanger, produced by Annie Fassler, Sylvia Thomas, and Sam Peers Nitzberg of Puddle Creative. Our senior producer is Jenny Barber. Our executive producers are Paolo Mottola and Joe Crosby. Thanks again to our partner, Capital One, and the REI Co-op Mastercard. As always, we love when you follow the show, take time to rate it, and write a review wherever you listen. And remember, some of the best adventures happen when you follow your wildest ideas.