When Katie-Jane met experienced adventurer Tarka L'Herpiniere, she knew her days as a successful model were numbered. She wasn't afraid of a challenge, having already proved her ability in sport – competing successfully on horseback at Eventing – but Tarka's suggestion they do a major expedition was something else. As romance bloomed, Katie-Jane's career as a leading British adventurer and endurance athlete began when she and Tarka embarked on a six-month trek of the Great Wall of China; the most complete journey ever undertaken. She had to commit herself to endurance training, putting on three stone and prepare herself mentally for the challenge.
An award-winning film about the expedition called The Great Walk of China, reveals how Katie-Jane faced blizzards, temperatures of -35C, frostbite, starvation, exhaustion and dehydration. During the trek, Katie went to the hospital - twice - and she lost an inch in height from the weight of her backpack. Staying motivated and focused on her goals was vital. However, despite the seemingly insurmountable odds, Katie-Jane and Tarka completed this greatest of journeys from the West to the East, taking them through the Gobi Desert and the sub-zero temperatures of the mountains. They completed 3,000 miles in 167 days, the equivalent of 102 marathons and a world-first.
Since then Katie-Jane has cycled through Ethiopia, worked on an environmental project at the North Pole and completed the first major crossing by a woman of the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap, facing extreme storms and surviving five days in a makeshift shelter when their tent failed in a storm. She has completed a solo traverse of Iceland, was one of only a third of all competitors to complete The Silk Road Mountain Race (1,700km) across the mountains of Kyrgyzstan, and cycled from Land’s End to John o ‘Groats (1400km), unsupported in less than 7 days, with her Dad.
Katie-Jane, now married to Tarka, is a fantastic motivational speaker and she engages audiences wherever she talks. She encourages us to overcome our limited view of our potential, claiming ‘we just need to be bold enough to begin’ and she explains how people can embrace change, leave their comfort zones behind, survive tough times and achieve what seems impossible. She delivers the highs and lows of her story with humour and honesty, allowing audiences to relate to her inexperience and the changes she made in leaving the glamorous world of modelling behind to become an endurance athlete.
