FOR SOMEONE WHO’S spent much of the past seven years alone, Lucy Barnard is clearly a people person. It’s not just her easygoing charm that shines through the instant you start a conversation with her. It’s how she recounts the story of her incredible trek. Woven through her compelling narrative, she speaks with immense love and gratitude of the remote communities, strung out like pearls along lonely South American trails, and the families who took her in, fed and cared for her until she was fit to go on. It’s what’s helped keep Lucy on her arduous path year in, year out.
She’s not always so open when starting a chat with a stranger and has learnt to be guarded. Setting off in 2017, aiming to be the first woman to traverse the length of the Americas south to north on foot, she began in Ushuaia, Argentina, with her end goal being Utqiagvik, Alaska, the northernmost point of North America accessible by foot. It will ultimately be a trek that spans 30,000km across two continents and 13 countries and she’ll be the first woman to achieve this extraordinary feat.
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