How to Stay Safe as a Solo Female Traveler

hi I'm Christine after starting life over in 2020 I'm using seasonal work to build Financial Security experience new places and most importantly keep living life as a big adventure come along as I live like a local and desired destinations spend time in nature hiking backpacking and living out of my car and craft the trips of my dreams on a backpacker's budget [Music] [Music] I've had a little bit of wine so I generally feel like I have quite a few profound things to say at the moment um but actually I want to share because I've been staying at some campgrounds recently over the past week I've been pretty much exclusively in campgrounds whether those are run by state parks or uh national forest for a service um and that is a bit of a different experience than a lot of what I've shared in the past and a lot of what I've experienced in the past talked in a recent video about my decision to go ahead and book in into campgrounds versus relying on dispersed camping and a big reason behind that is because I am making momentum towards Washington I need to start work on a certain date I needed to you know be on a timeline plus there was a ton of different areas that I wanted to visit and see so um instead of just beining it I kind of wanted to make like um stage progress and and for me especially as a Solo Traveler it's just exponentially easier for me to know I have a reliable place where I'm going to rest my head each night rather than stopping what I'm doing midday to make sure I'm securing a dispersed campsite if you're living on the road fulltime that's a very reasonable way to do things it's much more sustainable things with way to do things especially financially like it's unbelievable how expensive these campsites are I'm going to say I've spent on average between $35 and $40 a night plus there is a reservation fee usually associated between $7 and $8 per reservation for these kinds of places so financially it is not a sustainable thing to be doing but I'm doing it for the security and convenience of just knowing I have a reliable place to rest my head each night that being said there is also a bit of a sense of security with it being an established place a a government whether that's local or federal government um with their employees Staffing it and managing there's a camp host on site there are you know State Park employees or um maybe a a volunteer program but there's someone that's essentially accountable for what's occurring and I think that can lend itself to a sense of Safety and Security I certainly feel that um it's not why I've booked these places I tend to not be an incredibly fearful person anyway I've traveled solo a lot whether that's you know off Trail in the back country or in South America I mean I spent quite a few weeks in medine Colombia which used to be one of the most dangerous places in the world and I traveled solo I I don't give much thought to fear mongering but I will identify that a lot of people have an anxiety or fear surrounding travel surrounding the unknown surrounding especially solo travel or as a solo female traveler and I think being in an established area like this can definitely be either the initial step into traveling alone on the road or like if this is as far as you feel comfortable going like fantastic that's a lot further than a lot of people ever will or do it is an observation I've had um do I feel in as much peace as I would not necessarily um however the campsite that I came from earlier today which was on the California coast medino Coast definitely felt much more secluded and at peace although it was still a fully booked busy Campsite in a desirable location just the way it was designed felt a lot more private in fact where I am now feels very public I very much feel like I'm in a fishbowl um I have been confining myself prepared dinner and just kind of relaxing generally in the area surrounding my vehicle however my picnic table and my fire ring are like in the center of this area where a bunch of other campers are and first of all I don't really feel comfortable filming in that area um one because of like me being a little self-conscious about it and two because like I don't want anyone else to feel like their privacy is being invaded by my camera in anyway so that's kind of like a dual Edge yeah it so there are um wins and losses I guess with this kind of camping and this is not me complaining this is beautiful I went on a little hike at the nature trail I'm like right next to the visitor center um I bought some firewood so I'm going to go in the middle and have a fire and uh I think I would feel better if strangers actually joined me versus just like potentially watching me but that's also like nobody cares what I'm doing well I guess you guys are watching me I mean if anything you're the real creepers here you like how I'm drinking my nice wine out of a measuring cup my kitchen box needs a little bit of work still but I do think it's an interesting conversation to have because I think there are sort of two camps pun intended of people about where their comfort lies I tend to ride the the fence I guess a little bit I'm not necessarily looking for complete Solitude um I to in order to feel safe um although it is it can be quite an enjoyable experience nor am I looking to be surrounded by a bunch of other people in order to feel safety or security I for me it's a lot more individual than that it's a lot more of the energy that I'm feeling from any one specific person or groups of people there have been times where in dispersed camping I've definitely pulled up in the general proximity of somebody else and their actions whether by Design or accident has made me feel very uncomfortable so I have chosen to move um whether that was them not wanting me there or any sort of malicious intent or just my perception thereof versus just saying like oh because I'm around people I'm safe or because I'm around people I'm in danger and I do notice that some people will tend to feel one way or another I have generally found in my travels that most people are good and are willing to help you if you are in true need of help or at the very least leave you alone being said there it only takes one person with malicious intent to potentially change or end your life at the most extreme of things and I'm aware of that and that's where I go off of energy and by energy I think that just comes into me being in tune with my surroundings situ situational awareness for example the other day day I was in a Walmart parking lot I was resupplying with a few items and in doing that I had purchased what I needed and I moved to the far end of a very big not crowded parking lot for me anytime I observed anyone coming in my quite large bubble eyes were up Ear ears were listening it I was like making eye contact kind of like I'm watching you and okay everybody that came through was simply just passing through but I needed to know that I needed to confirm that and I needed to have this nonverbal communication about the fact that like I was demonstrating my awareness of my surroundings because I had intentionally set myself aside and had set this sort of invisible perimeter of space of Safety and Security for myself that when somebody stepped into it too much it was alarm Bells were going off for me and saying why are you here why have you come so close to me I've I'm in a vulnerable position with my things out and exposed I can't just necessarily jump into my car and lock the door because I have multiple doors open on other in different sides of the vehicle and so I was giving myself enough awareness that I had time to react appropriately to secure myself and my belongings in the event that somebody comes into my bubble and that is a lesson that I've learned the hard way um I have been traveling alone since I was in my early 20s since I was fresh out of college I was a flight attendant for an international well-known US Airline and I took public transport ation in strange cities at odd hours I um traveled internationally without the use of smartphone technology that we have now and I had to learn things the hard way as did many of my friends and particularly I remember a time where I was on um the L in Chicago which is where I was based out of and I had an apartment there in the Gold Coast with some of my girlfriends and I would I would have to get on the train at like 2: a.m. all the time cuz I was an on call flight attendant so they would literally call me at like midnight and be like you're going to Costa Rica you're going to Fort Lauderdale you're going to where any any random Place they'd call me and I'd had to had to head to the airport it was actually one time I was there on the train in the afternoon in my uniform with my bag and a stranger came by and moved my bag and sat down next to me a man strange man and there almost every other bench on this particular train car was open unrestricted no one sitting there there was one other person in the car at the time but my point is there was a ton of other available seating and of course this freaked me out but I was too sweet I was too naive and I didn't know what to do I didn't know how to be rude and how to stand up for myself and how to put off that energy like no this is not available for you go sit somewhere else which is exactly what I would do now because I've lived through the things I've lived through I would say this seat's not available pick another seat that's the energy you need to be able to dive into doesn't mean you can't ever be sweet or vulner able um I I think I'm tend to kind of be like that in general but I do have that side to me where I can stand up for myself and where I I know where my boundaries are because the only reason that person wanted to come sit next to me is because they wanted me to be a victim and I'm not going to go into details of anything that happened it wasn't as bad as it could have been not nearly I eventually stood up for myself to some degree but I let it get too far I should have set that boundary in place and said this is my perimeter and I don't see within reason why you should be coming within it so I'm going to say stop right there you need to go elsewhere and that's the same thing I think with setting up camp in a in a dispersed camping area or you know pulling off on the side of the road to handle a flat tire or just if you need to like Duck into somewhere to look something up on your phone and somebody starts coming into that space where you've kind of like created for yourself it's knowing those boundaries and setting those limits and holding like holding an awareness to it even if you are distracted by something else just keep that situational awareness and setting those boundaries is really I think what's protected me over the years doesn't mean that I'm Invincible um and I'm fully aware of that but I think it's the most reliable thing that anyone can do okay let's go start a fire so just a heads up like if you're going on the Paris Metro don't expect to have any degree of personal space whatsoever you will get to know many people very intimately you have been warned you have been warned take a bike take a [Laughter] scooter fear is lame holds you in night till you lose all Faith you could wait for gold on a silver plate or roll the D trying to find your [Music] way are you can't do it afraid do it afraid do it afraid are you can do it afraid D afraid D afraid lost in grave feeling like a bird in a rusted cage if you waste it all trying to play it safe dreams will never see the light of day life is for Liv Life Is For Living step into the gold Sunshine now is the time to be living No Limit I find the sensation of being amongst these behemoths of old growth trees to be one of the most difficult things to capture on camera they have a particular way of making me feel small but unlike Landscapes of mountains that can also dwarf my sense of size these living things are vulnerable despite their magnitude you can get inside tons of tons of space in here humble Redwood state park is the third largest park in the California state system and contains more than 100 redwoods that are over 350 ft tall these trees are able to stand safely today due to the preemptive actions of the non-profit organization save the Redwoods league first established in 1921 the largest surviving stands of ancient Coast redwoods are found in Humble Redwood State Park Redwood forest stretch along a thin belt on the Pacific coast no more than 50 Mi Inland of Northern California and Southern Oregon they occupy the southern end of a temperate rainforest zone of the Pacific Northwest all right I am in real need of a shower here I can smell all these other fresh people coming down the trail and they probably think Sasquatch just headed their way but it's just stinky old me there is a shower facility at my Campground so I'm going to hit that up but first I have to go into the town of Miranda which is the closest town nearby and and I need to take care of a few pressing needs let's go as it turns out the road I was on took me right past my little old Campground and I thought I need a shower so I feel look and smell so much better and now I'm headed into town and this is great because if I find something else that I want to do along the way at least I feel better and I can do it so let's go take care of these errands it's quite a bit later I'm back at camp and I just wanted to talk about the errands that I needed to run earlier so the big one was that I needed to top off my gas tank for safety and security purposes I don't like to go below um a quarter of a tank remaining which will get me a little over 100 miles generally but I like to make that my hard cut off point of like making sure that I put gas in my tank just I don't want to be in a situation where I run out of gas fortunately that's never happened and I don't ever want that to happen but for the most part I do just like to drive on the top half of my tank because especially going around through remote towns I just don't know the town I get to might not have gas maybe their payment system is down which I do like to carry some cash with me in the event that something like that were to happen so that's a rule I have and the other one was that I needed to get some more water so I'm just going to fill up my water tank right now and within the next couple of days I'm going to be traveling through an area that's much more populated and I should be able to get a much better deal on the water while I'm on the topic a couple of the other things that I have and don't often use are bear spray which can be used for Bears or humans a Garmin inre mini which can be used to just simply communicate as two-way communication with family and friends if something happens or it does have the feature for rescue if I need to use that and I do pay for the annual insurance for that and then this is probably what's used the most and it's just a knife nice and handy it's actually a little bit dirty right now I'm going to put it in my wash bucket um I don't generally use this for food but it could also be used for personal safety if need be so I've seen on social media recently specifically Tik Tok this trend that's going around like man versus bear as a solo female traveler or would you prefer your daughter to be alone in the woods with either a man or a bear it's really going to depend on the individual situation I think you have to just be aware listen to your gut instincts read the energy pick up on on the cues be proactive about your situation be aware guard your space and that's really all anyone can do but if somebody does either animal or man or human has malicious intent against you that's the one thing that's going to give you a head start and a heads up on reacting to the situation my thing in general is be aware but don't be afraid if you look at statistics more mundane things are much more likely to cause harm um and so it's just not worth being too consumed about not worth passing up all the opportunity to go out there live a great adventure and make your dreams come true so if this is what you want to be doing get out here and do it whether it's with somebody else or solo just be smart about it be prepared and have a good time I'll catch you guys on the next one thanks for watching take care bye-bye

Channel: Nomad Unknown

Views: 761

Keywords: roadlife, camping, car camping, solo female travel, Subaru Forester no build, car conversion, travel vlog, solo travel safety tips, humboldt county, giant redwood trees, roadlife adventure

Id: O6Vum9LGisA

Length: 25min 17sec (1517 seconds)

Published: Sun Jun 09 2024