“Work Life Balance” by Karol-llyn Reichmann, Outdoors Enthusiast from '2 Mums and a Dirt Track' Blog

Work life balance, how does a woman juggle it all? Husband, kids, career, sometimes it feels like that’s all we are, someone’s something. But we were not just put on this earth to pay bills and die! If we would simply look up from our tasks, we would see that this world is still beautiful and worthy of our time to explore the outdoors!

Interestingly, more and more people I speak to are starting to feel the same way. Maybe it was covid that made us stop and take stock of what’s important, or maybe it was a tragedy or some kind of wake-up call.

Either way, things are different.

We aren’t just wanting to survive, but really live!

The great news… the lockdowns and forced outdoor activity (just to stay sane) has given people an opportunity to start enjoying being outside again.

We love this, it is our passion to see people, especially women in our age bracket who would generally have been at home, looking after the family and working to make ends meet discover nature again!

Seeing the outdoors is not new to us, Nae and I have been exploring Australia for almost 7 years now after a wake-up call of our own. We were in our early and mid 30’s, married, working mothers, raising responsible kids and realized we hadn’t put any time aside for us as individuals.

Somewhere along the line, we had only become someone’s something. We became stuck in a pattern of work, clean, parent, wife, work, clean, parent, wife and lost who we were outside of those roles!

So, with the support of our families, we started making time to do what we really loved. Hiking.

Throughout our ventures, we’ve come across many women who said they would love to do it, but either didn’t feel free to because they were busy mums, or they were too afraid to try it because they didn’t know what they were doing.

This inspired us. We wanted to encourage busy women, help them to see they can enjoy the outdoors and we could help them overcome their fears.

We began recording our hiking trips in as much detail as possible.

And in February 2022, 2 Mums and a Dirt Track was born, for the sole purpose of encouraging women to bravely venture outdoors.

We strongly believe that heading out into the Aussie bush does not need to be scary if you are equipped with the right information!

And once you get a taste for it, you will never be the same!

But we do have some suggestions when you are first starting out.

Start out small.

If you only have a couple of hours, look for short walks in your area. Begin with easy trails that are easily marked with great signage. If you begin with huge walks, you may turn yourself off heading outdoors altogether!

Sure, you may want to achieve amazing feats right away, but you need to build up to that, otherwise, you can do some serious damage to your unprepared body!

Our suggestion to any person starting out is to start small.

Next, find someone you can go with. Hiking is always more fun in pairs. Plus, there is safety in numbers. That way if you are injured or come across unexpected obstacles, your friend is a good person to call for help and pep-talk you if you need it.

Lastly, make sure you have the right gear. There is nothing worse than being out on a track with the wrong shoes, wishing you had sunscreen, a snack or an extra layer of warmth.

We have a great list of what to take on any hike here.

If you stick to these 3 simple rules, your hiking experience is sure to be fun and create in you an outdoor enthusiast for life.

Our hope is that if you haven’t already, that you find something outside of being a parent, wife, or worker to enjoy for you. Please don’t get me wrong, there is nothing wrong with being a mum, wife, or worker, these are incredible, rewarding roles we fill.

As long as you remember that you are important too. I learnt long ago that if I burn out doing everything for everybody else, I will be no good to anyone.

So, please look after you, discover who you are and enjoy this gorgeous, scary, amazing country!

Your family will thank you for it.

Meet Our Contributing Author — Karol-llyn Reichmann

Credit: Karol-llyn (L) and Nae (R)

“We are Karol-llyn and Nae. Busy mums, avid hikers and crazy adventurers who love exploring our beautiful NSW state. We have been friends for 17 years, through all the ups and downs of life, parenting, marriage and figuring out work-life balance. About 6 years ago we decided to do our first crazy road trip sleeping in the back of our minivan for 3 days. We had no idea that trip would become the catalyst to awaken a passion for exploring everything NSW had to offer. It’s our goal to hike every track we can and document our experience to help fellow adventurers choose the best tracks for them, and to show you don't have to be super fit or super experienced to get out there and enjoy the outdoors.” - Karol-llyn. Learn about their adventures here.