Hailed as “Wild camping’s chief cheerleader” by The Telegraph, (UK) adventurer Phoebe Smith likes to sleep wild. From caves to mountain tops, disused farmsteads and under giant boulders – if it’s in a strange or extreme place, she’ll want to take her sleeping bag and experience a wild night out. Her love of wilderness takes her on solo adventures all around the world – from sleeping at Everest Base Camp, to portaledging in trees in the Bavarian Alps, spending the night on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and bedding down inside glaciers in Svalbard – the last stop before the North Pole.
She is an award-winning travel writer, photographer, presenter and broadcaster (specialising in adventure, walking, solo travel, gear and wildlife conservation). She regularly writes for The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Times (of London) and is a correspondent for BBC Radio 4’s From Our Own Correspondent.
She is host of the monthly Wander Woman Podcast, an audio magazine which tells the tales from behind the scenes on her adventures as a travel writer. Weaving together her passions for finding off-the-beaten track adventures, wild spaces in unlikely destinations, wildlife encounters and the unsung heroes behind conservation efforts, it includes celebrity interviews, gear reviews, travel tips and a featured Wander Woman of the month – a kick-ass travel pioneer from history.
She is also Sleep Storyteller-in-Residence at Calm where her stories have not only been narrated by Stephen Fry, Joanna Lumley, Jerome Flynn, Bindi Irwin and Danai Gurira, but have been listened to over 15 million times.
Phoebe is the author of 10 books to date including the newly released TRAVEL WRITER’S FIELD GUIDE and the WILDERNESS COOKBOOK. She also wrote EXTREME SLEEPS: ADVENTURES OF A WILD CAMPER (a Guardian Bestseller), WILDERNESS WEEKENDS: WILD ADVENTURES IN BRITAIN’S RUGGED CORNERS and the first guideBook to British bothies – BOOK OF THE BOTHY.
Passionate about inspiring young people and helping those who don’t get to choose to sleep wild for fun, she is an ambassador for Centrepoint (the young people’s homeless charity). To date she has raised over £42,000 for them in her Extreme Sleep Outs, sleeping on portaledges suspended from cliffs, skyscrapers and trees.
In 2019 she embarked on an expedition with her teammate Dwayne Fields to complete a world first in Antarctica walking from Penguins to Pole to raise money to take a group of underprivileged young people to the White Continent in 2020 through her #WeTwo Foundation.
She the first person to camp at all the extreme points of mainland Britain, solo, on consecutive nights, has slept the 3 Peaks and walked across Britain, sleeping rough while dressed as Wander Woman.
Since 2016 she has been an Ordnance Survey #GetOutside Champion for her work encouraging everyone into the great outdoors. She’s also ambassador for the annual Big Canopy Campout and supporter of the World Land Trust, Wild Night Out.
She is also proudly president of the Long Distance Walkers’ Association.