Emma Timmis Interview
By Emily Pitts
New route: Elliptigoz
Route Name: ElliptigOz Adventure
Length: 7,951.9km
Days: 74
Route Description: Starting at Denham, Western Australia, keep the ocean to the right, until you reach Perth, where you will find marginally easier access wine and merriment. From this position move forward, with sparse resources across the barren landscape to the treeless plains of the Nullabor (hard, dangerous and run-out for the weak). The exposed position on the Great Bight is the crux move, which can be sustained over the full route dependent on wind conditions. From here, the esoteric route meanders up the undulating Great Ocean Road for a considerable distance, allowing you take in key features at leisure. As you approach the east coast, a series of impressive man-made structures appear, with Sydney Opera House being one of the final stops along the route. Continue following the coast religiously until you arrive at the most easterly point of the island, Cape Byron, and your finish.
First Ascent: 2017, Emma Timmis
Route Topo: see pictures
Interview with Emma Timmis: World Record Holder
Congratulations on achieving your world record. What’s the exact title?
World record for the longest journey by elliptical cycle in a single country. 74 days to travel nearly 8000km.
Wow. That sounds like a mission. How on earth did you think up such an unusual adventure?
An adventurer friend randomly let me have a go on her Elliptigo a couple of years ago. Prior to that I had done some other adventures – I ran across South Africa (2400km) in 2011 and then ran across Africa (3974km) in three months in 2014. In 2015 I cycled to the Dolomites and back to go climbing. After these adventures I decided on a self-sustained challenge and the Elliptigo seemed like the perfect vehicle to maintain my running fitness with low impact. I realised that all my other adventures had been land-locked, and I wanted to explore a beautiful coastline. The reason I chose Australia was their well-established road system, which I thought I would need to keep the Elliptigo going!
Were you aiming for the world record at this point?
Not at all. I didn’t even know there was one!
When did you think about applying for the world record?
I tried to find grants and realised that going for a world record would be a good thing to help publicise what I was doing and to give me more chance when apply for grants.
Did the world record attempt help with your grant applications? How did you fund your challenge?
Unfortunately not. I didn’t receive any grants. I paid for everything myself. It was a low-cost adventure – I camped most of the time, other than nights when people invited me to stay in their homes. Eating basic food and spending no money on frivolous things meant that I kept my costs relatively low.
The idea for the world record attempt was already underway when I realised that it hadn’t helped with grants, but it opened doors to me that I never expected. I can become introverted on these long journeys. Having to get a witness statement every day, as evidence for the world record authorities, forced me to speak to somebody when I wouldn’t have done had it not been for the record attempt. So many doors opened.
The videos I did each day, sharing my journey, created a following. When I missed a video, members of the public would message me and make sure I was ok. It was nice to have people checking in that I was safe.
Crossing the Nullabor Plain was hard. Making myself speak to random people in caravans along the way, in the deserted landscape, meant that I met people who I wouldn’t have got to know otherwise. The result of those conversations was that during the last two weeks of my journey I only had to camp once, because I met so many people at the start of my journey who offered me places to stay on the east coast. These connections helped me to keep going and to achieve my fundraising target.
Fundraising? Tell us about this aspect of your journey.
Based on previous journeys through Africa and seeing the lack of opportunity, particularly for women on the African continent, I wanted to fundraise for girls in Africa and I found a charity called One Girl, that does exactly that. The money raised goes to pay for school fees for girls and to teach business skills to young women, so that they are empowered and able to pass on skills to the community.
How did you publicise the fundraising and the journey as a whole?
One girl has a campaign called Do it in a Dress, where anyone fundraising anywhere in the world can take on a challenge wearing a school dress. I decided to do this for my journey. For most of the elliptigo challenge, I wore my One Girl school dress. Along the way I did some talks to children in schools about my trip and the thinking behind it. The publicity both in the UK and Australia helped me to exceed my fundraising goal and raise $13,000 for One Girl.
Where can curious minds find out more?
My website is www.emmatimmis.com and my Facebook Page has lots of my videos from the journey.
The big question, what’s next?
My plan for August 2018 was to break the women’s world record for running the length of the UK, but for over a year I’ve struggled with an undiagnosed and complicated leg injury, which means that I can’t really run. It’s pretty devastating for me to be in this position, having been so active and still having no diagnosis. My adventures have been cut short for now. The John O’Groats to Land’s End record is still something that I want to go for and believe that I can achieve.
Watch this space for more Timmis exploits.
Congratulations to Emma on her achievement from KMC Committee on behalf of members.
