Jacki Hill-Murphy MA, FRGS, recreates historic journeys and has written three books including a biography. She has travelled to some of the most inhospitable places on earth to re-create these journeys of, mostly, women explorers, whose travels date from 1769 to 1900.

She has travelled across Ladakh, India (Bird, 1889); to the summit of Mount Cameroon (Kingsley, 1894); across Siberia, (Marsden, 1894); the length of the Amazon (Godin, 1769); Llanganates in the Andes of Ecuador (The Lost Inca Trail, 1533), walked through Uganda (Bakers (1871) and Lake Chala in Tanzania, (Sheldon, 1891).

Jacki is completing a doctorate on the achievements of the early female writer/explorers, has written Adventuresses, The Extraordinary Tale of Kate Marsden and The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird. She has written for magazines and journals, has spoken on cruise ships and other venues around the world for 10 years and is patron of a charity supporting Women's Mental Health.

Jacki sets out to inspire and entertain through her lectures.

Click here to visit Jacki's website >> www.adventuresses.com

1. One Hundred and Fifty Years of Women Adventuring around the World
From the Victorian times to modern day women have explored the world and overcome difficulties and danger to write books and document foreign cultures. Jacki will talk about of her recreations of some of these expeditions and show how they have contributed to our knowledge of the world.

2. (BAD) Advice to Women Travellers in the 1880s; tips would be condemned today!
Hilarious and ridiculous, Jacki will tell you about the expectations of women travellers in Victorian times. Listen to the terrible advice that was given to them for travelling on bicycles, trains and ships, what food to eat, what to do with their hair and maids and unwanted attentions.
 
3. The Search for the Lost Inca Trail in the Andes in Ecuador
Jacki does not believe in being told that something is impossible, so in the true spirit of adventure she led a team of women into one of the most hostile areas still left on earth: the Llanganates Mountains in Ecuador to try and uncover the truth about the Lost Inca Gold, the trail that was created to hide it and why Isabela Brooks died there in 1922.

4. Costumed re-enactment of Isabella Bird’s lecture of May 10 1897 on Western China using her magic lantern slides.
Jacki will re enact the lecture in costume using the actual slides that Isabella Bird used. Jacki has recently published The Life and Travels of Isabella Bird, who was one of the first female travel photographers and greatest explorers who documented the developing world in her many books.

5. Crinoline Dresses and Dug-Out Canoes. Two journeys the length of the Amazon, 240 years apart.
The unbelievable true story of the first woman down the Amazon in 1769 and of Hill-Murphy’s recreation of the journey that took her down piranha-infested waters in dugout canoes and hammock boats to replicate the 1769 expedition of Madame Isabel Godin, the only survivor of a 42- person,,4,300-mile expedition along the Amazon River.

6. Smashing Through the Darien Gap
This is probably the most deadliest strip of jungle in the world between Panama and Colombia and prevents the Trans-American Highway from ever being completed. Film footage will be shown of daring Land-Rover and motorbike expeditions that have attempted it
 
7. In the Footsteps of Sir Samuel and Lady Florence Baker
Recreating the Journey of the Expedition to Suppress the East African Slave Trade of 1871

8. Mary Kingsley's Mountain.
Mary Kingsley was a lonely and uneducated spinster when she decided to travel to W Africa in the 1890s, at the time this region was referred to as 'White Man's Death'. When passing the coast of Cameroon she spotted Mount Cameroon and asked the Captain to drop her off. Jacki recreated her trek up the mountain in the rain and her findings revealed what a singularly remarkable woman she was.

9. A Bird on a Yak in Ladakh.
Isabella Bird rode over the Digar Pass in Ladakh in the North Indian Himalayas on a yak in 1889 and Jacki walked the 150 miles. Jacki's experiences matched hers almost entirely and included finding the mud palace she stayed in and having an audience with the King of Ladakh.

10.The Grand Tour
What was the Grand Tour, why did people take it and what did they get up to?
Jacki will tell stories about some of the people that went and how this has led to the modern tourist industry today.

11. PERU - Lost Inca Gold and the Spanish conquest of the Inca Empire.
Jacki will talk about the Spanish decimation of a civilisation and her expedition to discover more about the King Atahualpa’s ransom treasure lost in the Llanganates Mountains in 1533.

12. PERU - Survivors of the Amazon.
From Orellana in 1490 to Ed Stafford’s walk along it in 2008, who has survived travelling down this mighty river? Jacki will talk about the first scientists, adventurers, women and conquerors who have survived and those who have died attempting it and talks about her own journey down the 4,300 mile river and the problems such a journey presents.

13. CHILE - The mythology of Robinson Crusoe’s Island and of Maria Graham who found it in 1824.
Was Robinson Crusoe by Danial Defoe fact or fiction? Although set in the Caribbean the story has been thought to be based on the life of Alexander Selkirk, a Scottish castaway who lived for four years on a Pacific island called "Más a Tierra” in Chile which was renamed Robinson Crusoe Island in 1966. Jacki will look at the background to the story and reveal the charms of this beautiful group of islands.

14. CHILE - Darwin’s footsteps to the End of the World.
Cape Horn, the meeting point of three oceans has come to be known as the End of the World, and was visited by Darwin on his second voyage of HMS Beagle where he narrowly escaped being shipwrecked in a gale force wind. Jacki will talk about where he went in Patagonia and what he discovered.

15. USHUAIA ARGENTINA - Smashing through the Darien Gap
The Pan-America Highway from Prudhoe Bay in Canada to Ushuaia in Argentina is the longest road in the world and runs through 14 countries, except it has a gap, The Darien Gap, between central and South America, which is so dangerous and inaccessible the road cannot be completed. Jacki will talk about the ten things that could kill a person and the expeditions that have attempted to cross it.

16. FALKLAND ISLANDS
The habitat restoration of South Georgia island.
How was the world’s largest rodent eradication achieved and what difference has it made now the rats are gone?

17. ANTARCTICA
Ice Queens: the female explorers of the Arctic.
Who were the first intrepid explorers of the Arctic and what preparation is needed to attempt an expedition there?

I have been guest speaker on over ten cruises and had very good feedback on all. I engage the audience, add humour and rarely use notes. My subject has proved interesting with many audiences around the world.