Where to begin...  During the 56 years being in this beautiful world, I have moved over 20 times, lived in 5 different countries and have traveled extensively across the world. When living abroad following my then partner for his work, I started hiking to different peaks in the world like Everest Basecamp (Nepal), Kilimanjaro (Tanzania, Ben Nevis (UK), Pico Bolivar (Venezuela). Next to playing tennis, squash and golf competitively, I also started doing triathlons (run-bike-swim) around the world, at first the shorter distances but at the end also 70.3 Iron Man and even one full distance Iron Man. In a pub I learned about a footrace in Chile of 250kms through the Atacama desert and I was immediately intrigued. Would my body be capable of such a huge challenge? I started training and learned that a body is capable of much more than you can imagine! It is all in the mind! In the following years I not only finished the Atacama Crossing in Chile (check out 4deserts.com), I even completed 5 similar races in India, Vietnam, US, Costa Rica and Portugal.  

Nowadays I prefer to take more time to really enjoy nature so instead of running through it, I have started hiking again. I met my boyfriend Michel, who has been leading worldwide expeditions and TV productions for e.g. National Geographic, the BBC, Dutch biologist Freek Vonk and Talpa. He also runs his own kayak adventure company in Suriname. Together we have made some incredibly helicopter droppings far into the wild and totally inhabited rainforest of Suriname, kayaking our way through fast streaming rivers, surrounded by centuries-old trees where jaguars, puma's, tapirs, capybaras, wild pigs roam the river sides and many kingfishers and ara's and beautiful morpho butterflies fly high in the sky.  Truly unspoiled paradise!

We still have a whole list of adventures to look forward to. Now my two kids are living on their own, I choose to take on only temporary jobs so I am more flexible in taking long holidays. We are architects of our own life and I prefer experiences above status and money. How about you?