Adventurer Lucy Barnard is on a mission to walk the length of the Earth

Brisbane-based adventurer and field scientist Lucy Barnard shares what drives her passion for extreme walking.

Lucy Barnard is 10,000km away from becoming the first woman to walk the length of the earth.

“The route across the Americas runs 30,000km from the southernmost point of South America to the highest point of Alaska. To date, I’ve covered 20,000km, from Ushuaia, Argentina, to the southern gates of Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming,” she says.

Named Australian Geographic Society’s Adventurer of the Year 2024, Lucy says her passion for extreme walking was born out of a desire for both challenge and connection.

“I wanted to see how far I could go, to attempt something only achieved by a handful of people,” she says.

Lucy Barnard and her dog Wombat in the Nevado de Toluca crater in Mexico.

“Walking allows me to experience a place at a humanising pace. Every day I am engaging with local communities, relying on their knowledge and sometimes their kindness.”

Lucy’s now seven-year-old blue heeler rescue, Wombat, started walking with her when he was three months old and accompanied her on all her treks except the Darién Gap.

Here, Lucy shares her most memorable experiences along the way: 

Lucy Barnard with her dog Wombat.

Atacama Desert

The Atacama Desert in Chile challenged and surprised me in ways I never expected. The landscape is otherworldly – vast salt flats and rust-coloured mountains stretching endlessly to the horizon. The real challenge was the complete isolation, the soundlessness, and the constant need to carefully manage water supplies. In total, this section is 2000km and took me over three months to cross.

Lucy Barnard spent three months in the Atacama Desert in Chile.

Darién Gap

The Darién Gap is a geopolitically complicated region between Panama and Colombia. Its national park is considered one of the most biodiverse in the world – and for this reason suffers significantly from poaching and is a hive of criminal activity for cartels. Many people die along these trails. The hike isn’t too technical, but the lower area of the national park is not a place I’d encourage anyone to visit without seeking advice from a professional security agency.

Migrants walking through the Darien Gap jungle to enter Panama. Picture: Luis Acosta/AFP

Volcán de Fuego

Climbing Volcán de Fuego in Guatemala marked my halfway point, and it felt fitting that it would be such a dramatic ascent. The volcano, aptly named “Volcano of Fire”, erupts every 15 minutes. The terrain shifts from lush forest to volcanic, making each step a careful calculation. I celebrated my halfway milestone by climbing the volcano with my good friend and well-known adventurer, Mike Atkinson.

Star trails above the erupting Volcan de Fuego near Antigua, Guatemala.

Tierra del Fuego

Patagonia tested me with its notorious winds and rapidly changing weather. I faced temperatures as low as -17C in snowstorms, traversing landscapes that alternated between towering peaks and vast steppes. The isolation is complete, but the raw beauty of the landscape, especially around the less-travelled areas of Tierra del Fuego, made it one of my most memorable sections.

The Patagonian landscape near Tierra del Fuego.

LUCY BARNARD’S TRAVEL HIGHS AND LOWS

Bank woes

I was stranded without access to funds when my bank kept sending renewal cards to my old address in Australia. I had to carry a month’s worth of cash. The anxiety of carrying that much cash and trying to sort out the situation made for some of my most stressful days on the trail.

Farm feels

One of my most cherished memories is from an estancia (farm) in Argentina, where I was invited to stay with local gauchos to escape an incoming snowstorm. They taught me their tradition of making fresh bread. It wasn’t just about the food but the warmth of their welcome.

Originally published as Adventurer Lucy Barnard is on a mission to walk the length of the Earth