Anna Hingley (born 1982) is the first woman to ride on horseback across the

Australian Outback The Outback is a remote, vast, sparsely populated area of Australia. The Outback is more remote than the bush. While often envisaged as being arid, the Outback regions extend from the northern to southern Australian coastlines and encompass a n ...

, which she completed on 5 August 2006. The journey was undertaken to raise for

Angel Flight Angel Flight is the name used by a number of groups whose members provide free air transportation for passengers in need of medical treatment far from home and perform other missions of community service. Such a non-profit organization may be lo ...

, an Australian charity that co-ordinates non-emergency flights for financially and medically needy people. Hingley and Ostwald met in 2004 while Hingley was travelling from

Sydney Sydney ( ) is the capital city of the state of New South Wales, and the most populous city in both Australia and Oceania. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Sydney Harbour and extends about towards the Blue Mountain ...

to Darwin by bus as part of a year-long backpacking tour. Ostwald was driving the bus and their conversation turned to their mutual passion for horses. They decided to perform the trek while visiting Hingley's parents in December 2005.

Angel Trek

Hingley, a

veterinary Veterinary medicine is the branch of medicine that deals with the prevention, management, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, disorder, and injury in animals. Along with this, it deals with animal rearing, husbandry, breeding, research on nutri ...

nurse from

Stourbridge Stourbridge is a market town in the Metropolitan Borough of Dudley in the West Midlands, England, situated on the River Stour. Historically in Worcestershire, it was the centre of British glass making during the Industrial Revolution. The 20 ...

in the

West Midlands West or Occident is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from east and is the direction in which the Sun sets on the Earth. Etymology The word "west" is a Germanic word passed into some ...

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, began the journey from Broome in

Western Australia Western Australia (commonly abbreviated as WA) is a state of Australia occupying the western percent of the land area of Australia excluding external territories. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to th ...

on 17 March 2006. She and her boyfriend, John Ostwald, used six

Brumby A brumby is a free-roaming feral horse in Australia. Although found in many areas around the country, the best-known brumbies are found in the Australian Alps region. Today, most of them are found in the Northern Territory, with the second l ...

horses that they had caught and tamed through a process of

horse whispering Natural horsemanship is a collective term for a variety of horse training techniques which have seen rapid growth in popularity since the 1980s. The techniques vary in their precise tenets but generally share principles of "a kinder and gentler ...

before the trek. The pair were assisted in their record-breaking effort with a support truck carrying the spare horses, gear and water tanks. The couple covered an average of per day. Travelling with them was the English filmmaker Thomas Guerrier. His documentary, ''Rode Trip, The Australian Horse Journey'', was released in 2009. The first section of the route followed Outback highways and traversed the top of the

Great Sandy Desert The Great Sandy Desert is an interim Australian bioregion,IBRA Version 6.1
data

before turning into bush roads, tracks and fording rivers. Notable points of interest on the journey were

Fitzroy Crossing Fitzroy or FitzRoy may refer to: People As a given name *Several members of the Somerset family (Dukes of Beaufort) have this as a middle-name: **FitzRoy Somerset, 1st Baron Raglan (1788–1855) ** Henry Charles FitzRoy Somerset, 8th Duke of Beau ...

Halls Creek Halls is a plural of the word hall. Halls may also refer to: People * Walter Halls (1871–1953), British trade unionist and politician * Ethel May Halls (1882–1967), American actress * Julian Halls (born 1967), British field hockey player * ...

Daguragu __NOTOC__ Daguragu, previously also known as Wattie Creek by the Gurindji people, is a locality in the Northern Territory of Australia located about south of the territory capital of Darwin and located about south-west of the municipal seat i ...

, Top Springs, Daly Waters,

Borroloola Borroloola ( local Aboriginal languages: ''Burrulula'') is a town in the Northern Territory of Australia. It is located on the McArthur River, about 50 km upstream from the Gulf of Carpentaria. Location Borroloola lies on the traditional c ...

Doomadgee Doomadgee is a town and a locality in the Aboriginal Shire of Doomadgee, Queensland, Australia. It is a mostly Indigenous community, situated about from the Northern Territory border, and west of Burketown. The settlement began with the esta ...

Burketown Burketown is an isolated outback town and coastal locality in the Shire of Burke, Queensland, Australia. In the , the locality of Burketown had a population of 238 people. It is located west of Cairns and west of Normanton on the Albert Riv ...

, Normanton,

Croydon Croydon is a large town in south London, England, south of Charing Cross. Part of the London Borough of Croydon, a local government district of Greater London. It is one of the largest commercial districts in Greater London, with an extensi ...

, Georgetown, Atherton and finally

Cairns Cairns (, ) is a city in Queensland, Australia, on the tropical north east coast of Far North Queensland. The population in June 2019 was 153,952, having grown on average 1.02% annually over the preceding five years. The city is the 5th-most-p ...

, Queensland, on 5 August 2006.

Sources

"Epic ride across outback near end"
''BBC News'', 13 July 2006

''The Times'', 10 July 2006
"Anna's Outback Challenge"
''Bromsgrove Advertiser'', 19 July 2006]
Angel Ride website

External links

www.crocjohn.com, John Ostwald's trek blog
1982 births People from Stourbridge Living people Long distance horse riding {{England-bio-stub