Unicycling the 14 Car Parks of North Korea

I almost didn’t make it through 2015. It was the most challenging year of my life. In celebration of being alive, I decided I needed to do something epic. That something epic was unicycling the world.

Except I couldn’t actually ride a unicycle.

So I left my safe, public-service accounting job, to start that adventure. It took me a year just to learn to ride 300 metres. Then in 2018, I unicycled the length of Taiwan (in actual Taiwan), with my gear.

In 2019, I unicycled the length of South Korea. And decided I would try and ride in North Korea, well, just because it’s North Korea.

Four days before flying into North Korea, they emailed me, telling me I could no longer bring my unicycle into the country. After some negotiation, they finally agreed I could bring my unicycle in, but I was only permitted to ride it in the car parks. (I kid you not, that’s what they said). So that’s how I came to unicycle the 14 car parks of North Korea. I also became the first person in the world (outside of that country) to unicycle in North Korea.

In trying to find my adventure identity, I went through some massive personal change. I stopped smoking. I got really fit. I lost a lot of weight, and I became adventurous. I joined a local women’s community outdoors group and started volunteering.

That was four years ago. Since then, I’ve run and organised over 430 activities, that around 4,200 local women have participated in. I was nominated for a prestigious national award. I joined the local Bush Search and Rescue team.

And I started a small business teaching outdoors and survival skills.

Now my goal in life is to experiment with life as much as possible. I want to help other women find their adventurous selves, too.

We all have that adventurous self inside of us. We have to coax her out and listen, and encourage her. And gently remind her that we all only have one life. And that our second life starts once we realise that we only have one life to live.