I’m Katie, the Host of Wander Well Podcast, and I’m teaming up with Bodhi Surf + Yoga to share some of the transformational stories of inspiring women who come and visit Bodhi. While interning for Bodhi earlier this year, I had the pleasure of meeting dozens of guests. One guest in particular, Christie Geiss, spent two consecutive weeks at Bodhi, and I found her story fascinating. I interviewed Christie because her story starts out with an immense fear of water.

Both of us are avid travellers, we have both spent a lot of time travelling and really immersing ourselves in different places and destinations. We feel very lucky to be blessed with an awareness that allows us to really see and enjoy everything from the small things to the big.

Eventually I reach the point where I have this overwhelming urge for adventure. It starts small, sometimes with an inability to stay focused, to stay seated, but the yearning is like a rising tide, and I know I’ll only feel better if I go.

Our Camp was built on a dream. When we first arrived at the site and scrambled up a tree to get a better look at the lay of the land, we were captivated by the incredible views, our immediate intimacy with nature, the unspoiled and raw beauty of what our senses were experiencing. It was intoxicating and overwhelming in its uniqueness: a Galapagos experience that defied description.

November 13, 2015 (coincidentally my twin daughter’s shared 33rd birthday) I saw opening credits for a film called The 33.  It was a film about 33 Chilean miners who were trapped underground for weeks and weeks before being rescued.  I remember the nightly drama unfolding on the evening news as rescuers…

As a 25 year old I had the good fortune of a 16 month walk about.  In hindsight, that event shaped the next four decades of my life more than any other.  It made me a citizen of the world and to value experiences more than any other form of currency.  

There is only chance in this world, chance and physics. Travelers have a choice to walk the paths of logic or be inspired to follow their heart. Inevitably, the traveler who listens to the still, small voice inside has a greater chance of completing a heroic journey, than one checking of the lists in the travel guide.

One day I get a message from my boss, which says “We’re going to the desert to meet an Aboriginal elder who will guide us to the world’s biggest terrestrial hot spring. It’s next week, can you make it?”