A First-Time Camino Woman Shares What It's Really Like Travelling With Us!

Hello! Ricki-Jane here…

February this year saw an exciting ‘first’ for us here at Camino Women, with the opening of our brand new Northern Laos Soun Som Trail. 

Five adventurous women (and a film crew!) joined us to ‘cut-the-ribbon’ and trek the trail and in the months since, curiosity about our trips has exploded!

Getting the download from our Booking Manager’s is one thing, but lots of our community members ask if we can put them in touch with previous guests who’ve recently had ‘boots-on-the-ground’ on our treks.

It’s a tricky one, given Australia and New Zealand’s strict privacy laws…

We’re in the business of blazing new trails to give our community what they want though (without a hefty fine!), so we’re pioneering an all-new kind of online adventure, starting TODAY – with the first in a series of ‘‘Off-The-Trail’ guest interviews!

From first-timers, repeat guests and ‘legacy’ Camino Women (those are the total pros – some of whom are up to their 10th trip with us!), we’ll be unpacking their personal insights about the destinations you’re keen to explore, what it’s like travelling with us as well as share their ‘Been-there-done-that!’ advice to help you on your own journey to becoming a Camino Woman too!

To ‘cut the ribbon’ on the trailhead of our new series, we’re thrilled to introduce you to one of the five adventurous women we mentioned earlier… first-time Camino Woman, Stephanie Woodruff.

If you think Stephanie looks like she could be the welcoming host of a cooking show, you’re not too far from the truth! 

She’s no stranger to donning an apron. Every Tuesday in fact, as a volunteer cooking teacher (assistant) at Collingwood College in Melbourne – the origin school for the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Program.

The not-for-profit organisation runs garden and food education programs for primary school students in over 1400 schools across the country, combating childhood obesity and helping children develop healthy, lifelong associations with food.

“For many years, we were the training school for all the teachers Australia wide that wanted to run the program, so we have an amazing set of kitchens”. She explains from her Melbourne loungeroom during our Google Meet. 

“Each class has one teacher (adult) for every four or five children, so you need quite a lot of volunteers. I retired from my role in literacy support at the college in April last year and because the school is so busy, I said, “Hey, I’m happy to come back and volunteer!”

Stephanie’s own early childhood years, travelling overseas on sabbatical with her father, a microbiologist with a New Zealand university, was the garden bed in which her curiosity for exploring the world grew. 

“When I finished university, I left New Zealand and spent three years working and hitchhiking around Europe.”, she tells me with a cheekiness in her eyes.

“I ended up married to an Australian who worked in IT and we spent a year living in Paris and then Holland. We had our first two children in Europe before returning to Melbourne and having our third”.

Fast forward to now, and how was it that she came to find herself making river weed snacks with local hill tribes in the remote villages of Laos? 

Her answer is a familiar one shared with us by many women in our community.

“My husband passed away seven years ago now and my children have flown the nest, so it got me thinking, ‘What did I used to do when I was young?’. I started a list of all the things I enjoy like; woodworking, lino cuts, learning a language and travelling. It brought me full circle.”

She confesses it was our sister brand, Patch Adventures’, Silk Road & The 5 Stans trip that caught her eye originally.

“I thought, ‘Ooh, I’d really, really like to do that!’. My husband worked in China for a year, so the kids and I got to visit him a couple of times whilst he was there. But then, my search sent me sideways, and I found Camino Women. I thought that maybe I should do these kinds of trips while I can still walk and I’m fit. I hadn’t done much tramping since I’d left New Zealand, but it was one of the things I had put on my list, to get back into. 

I chose Laos as I didn’t know anything about it!

I didn’t know anyone who’d ever been and with Southeast Asia being close, I thought it would be a good one to try first, without committing a lot to it financially, to see if I enjoyed it. As a Level 2 trek, I figured I could see how I go and work my way up from there.”

Having never travelled anywhere in Southeast Asia before, Stephanie didn’t just lace up her favourite pair of trail runners to trek remote northern Laos, but double-knotted the bows on two destinations by chaining it with Camino Women’s 12-Day Vietnam Rural Villages trek afterwards. No mean feat for someone who readily admits she was worried about how she’d cope with the humidity and was nervous about arriving as a solo female traveller on her first group adventure, to a place she knew zero about. 

For those unfamiliar with Laos too, you’ll find Southeast Asia’s only landlocked country wedged between the borders of China, Thailand, Myanmar, Cambodia and Vietnam. 

Known as the ‘Land of a Million Elephants’ (and caves!), it’s one of the world’s last five remaining communist countries, the predominantly Buddhist residents relying on the fast-flowing currents of the Mekong River’s mineral-rich waters for agriculture, transportation and life.

It also holds the unenviable title of being the most heavily bombed nation on earth.

Of all time. 

Two million tonnes of ordnance were dropped from the skies above Laos during the CIA’s ‘Secret War’ against Vietnam in the years from 1963 to 1978 – wreaking devastation on the landscapes and people. As much as a third of the country remains affected by UXO (unexploded ordnance) to this day.

Despite the unfathomable events of their past, the gentle-natured people of Laos are deeply spiritual, exuding a calmness that peeks out from behind their, at first, shy smiles.

Landing in the capital, Vientiane, on her own, unable to speak the language and without any local currency (the ‘kip’ is a closed currency, so travellers are unable to obtain it before arriving), it wasn’t long before Stephanie’s nerves evaporated. 

“Having the driver meet me at the airport and spending a few days before the trek started, walking around on my own really helped me feel comfortable.

Lao people aren’t pushy at all. They’re very friendly when you approach them to ask questions, they don’t harass you. I was a bit stressed at having to walk past a group of young men on bikes hanging out along the riverfront on my own but in passing them, they would just greet me politely with ‘Sabaidi!’ and would laugh in a friendly way when I greeted them back the same way. Walking around exploring the temples, there’s just a calm, peaceful atmosphere. I actually felt really, really safe.”

Her expression lights up with a huge smile when she describes meeting the fellow trekkers that joined her for her Laos adventure.

“None of us knew each other, there were no connections between us and being so different and all just willing to go with the flow, we got on really well. We had a glorious day floating up the Mekong at the start of our trip, bonding. It was eight hours of cruising along, getting to know each other and our amazing guide, Mr Lee. We all had the same mindset, in that we were here to do the trek and I kept thinking ‘Wow, this is such an adventure!’.

The landscapes surprised me – I was expecting tropical jungle. It’s a lot more open and drier, like a cross between the Australian and New Zealand bush, so that was completely different to what I thought it would be.”

Acclimatising to the humidity wasn’t a problem, she shares, though Stephanie confesses something else had played on her mind before the trek began.

I was more concerned about what it would be like going into the villages.”

Until our inaugural trek, tourism didn’t exist in these villages. Stephanie and her fellow trekkers were the very first people outside of the Lowland community to be welcomed by one of the families.

“Laos is shockingly poor, so I was concerned that going into the villages would be uncomfortable and it would feel a bit like we were going to a zoo. But it wasn’t like that at all because the locals were so intrigued with us.

Especially the children, they were so curious. And cheeky! Like children are. The adults were really happy and chatty, wanting to talk to us and show us what they were doing.

They’re still very attached to the way they’ve always done things. Some of the weaving looms had been used by three generations of women.

It must have been an eye opener for them, having these wealthy women wandering in and being so impressed by something that to them is just ordinary, everyday life.

The villages were primitive, but you could see that nothing was superfluous or wasted and it was interesting how each village specialised in a different craft.”

Textile production like silk-making and cotton dyeing hold pride of place in Laos culture, with cotton weaving being a standout specialty of the Lowlands tribeswomen. 

Whilst visitors might expect to find traditional handicraft skills like woodcarving, basketmaking and silversmithing practised in the villages, river weed snack production by the Midlands tribe and rice wine distilling in the Highlands can come as a bit of a surprise!

Tasty proof of the symbiotic relationships each tribe holds with their unique, geographical locations.

Maintaining their livelihoods and heritage isn’t without its challenges though… 

Modernisation, foreign investment and political pressure to relocate are constant threats to these tribes’ survival. As is the pull of greater employment opportunities for the younger generations in the larger cities.

“It was obvious that education is really valued, with a lot of the young boys attending monasteries where they learn to speak English, to help prepare them for life outside their communities.

We visited a school in one of the villages, which was really just two bare rooms with tables and no equipment. But even so, the villagers recognise that education is really important.

Mr Lee has two very cute daughters who we got to meet on the last day, along with his whole family which was lovely. His eldest is only about four years old and he was already teaching both girls English. He was determined that they would have a good education too.” 

So, what does a volunteer cooking teacher, far removed from the classroom kitchens she usually instructs students from, think of the local cuisine?

“It was great! A bit like Thai food but stronger in every way. It wasn’t adapted for us, so it was really authentic and really simple, like – cabbage and garlic soup with braised bamboo and ginger.

My favourite dish was sticky rice. It’s amazing! I’d never had it before, and it came with almost every meal. It was served together with an omelette in the homestay in one of the villages – and honestly, it was the best omelette I’ve ever had in my life!”

The words ‘sticky rice’ would soon take on a whole new meaning as her travels took her from the dusty calm of the Soun Som Trail and across the border to Hanoi, Vietnam – a mega metropolis of around 8.4 million people. Not including Stephanie and her eleven new travel buddies!

“Arriving there was a visceral shock – the contrast of the noise and all the movement of the big city was so different to where I’d just been. I’d heard it was busy, but it was a big shock! The ‘everywhere-ness’ of it took me a bit to get used to.

Life there is very fast-paced and chaotic, but became less so with our guide Cong, who inducted us on how to cross huge intersections… 

‘Sticky rice, ladies!’ he’d say. ‘Sticky rice. Don’t scatter!’ she laughs.

The antidote to her sensory-overloaded arrival, Stephanie shares, was a cooking class in an oasis of calm after a visit to the markets on the second day, before waving farewell to Hanoi’s frenetic energy and hello to the rural tribespeople of Vietnam’s ethnic minority groups.

“Even the way we travelled by bus took some getting used to from the boat and tuk-tuk travel we did in Laos. I think the thing that surprised me most about Vietnam was that everything was big! Even a village was big, whereas in Laos it was just a handful of houses, and a city there is really just a big town.

Once we escaped Vietnam’s large modern cities to walk through the traditional rural villages though, the contrast was almost incredible.

There were beautiful sweeps of countryside, farmland and rice paddies! But always a sense that life required hard work. 

We saw a group of mostly women demolishing a house, moving it and rebuilding it somewhere else. The women were doing all the carrying and all the hard work while the men were sitting around on the framework smoking. It was really interesting to walk through that, as they were just going about their lives.” 

With seven weeks away in total (including a five-day side-trip to visit Angkor Wat in Cambodia), I’d warn Stephanie off a career playing poker. There’s no hiding that Laos’ calm spirituality has truly captured her heart. Her ‘tell’, is the glow of her smile whenever our conversation returns to the Soun Som Trail.

“It was perfect. Sometimes things went astray but there wasn’t anything about that trip that could have been better, that there was any control over. It was just you know, ‘Wow!’ It really felt like an adventure and that whole two weeks is just a nice warm feeling that will stay with me. I’d definitely go back and see more of the South.”

Off the trail and with the clarity of time that a few months can provide, I’m curious about Stephanie’s outlook on life, now that she’s a Camino Woman. What did she learn and what advice does she have to share with others who want to follow in her footsteps?

A few moments of silent reflection pass before she thoughtfully answers. 

“I’ve had a pretty good life, but there have been a few really terrible things that have happened and I think that when you take that on, if you do, you move forward.

I’m curious, optimistic and confident in myself that I know enough, I can do enough and I’m flexible enough to cope with most things. I guess it’s made me more confident about doing it again.

I think it was a really safe way to get back into travel because everything is all organised. I didn’t have to do all the logistics myself and I like the idea that I can get to those countries, those places where I’d otherwise be going, ‘What am I thinking?’.

By doing these adventures, I really came to see the value of having a guide. It makes such a difference having that local knowledge because you see and learn so much that you wouldn’t on your own. Even from just watching how the local people do things. 

I also like that now that I’ve been to these places, I can help others that might be curious and have questions, so I can share what worked best for me. 

My advice for anyone thinking about joining a trip is…

Don’t overthink it. Just trust that it will be okay. Everything is looked after for you and it will work. It’ll be good!”

Sweet advice from a true Camino Woman!

We hope you’ve enjoyed getting to know Stephanie as much as we love having her in our community!

Is the Camino Women spirit stirring in you too? Get in touch here for a chat with Sophie. And if you’d love more ‘behind the scenes’ on the Soun Som Trail, check out Stephanie and our other fab Laos Camino Women in action here in this video! You can also read about what it was like to design the trail and what happened when we soft-launched the trail. Spoiler alert! Things didn’t go to plan…

P.S. Stephanie joined us for a Campfire Chat where she shared her story about Northern Laos and Vietnam. Scroll down and dive in!