Paula
Constant
Speaker Profile
Paula Constant's best-selling book, Slow Journey South recounts her epic and inspirational journey, walking from London to Morocco.
Originally from Mansfield, Victoria and Broome, WA, Paula had no expedition or adventure experience before beginning her walk in 2004. She was working as a primary school teacher in London, where she lived with her husband Gary for several years. The walk took over three years to plan and save for.
In 2004 Paula Constant began walking from Trafalgar Square and has since then walked over 12000km through eight countries. In her first year, she walked with her husband through England, France, Spain, Portugal, down to the Southern Moroccan town of M'Hamid el Ghizlaine.
In September 2005 she returned to the desert and began walking with a local guide and four camels, heading down toward the war torn region of the Western Sahara. After five weeks she separated from her husband, and Paula continued on the walk alone.
Over the next seven months Paula carried on to walk over 3000km through the dangerous and challenging environment of the Moroccan and Western Sahara, learning Arabic as she went and living amongst Saharawi nomads as the nomads themselves do.
After her mother was diagnosed with Breast Cancer Paula returned to Australia. In mid 2006, after her mother was in recovery, Paula gained sponsorship from Dove Australia and Birkenstock Australia to continue her Saharan walk, her goal now to be to make the first female solo crossing on foot west to East across the Sahara. She decided to dedicate the West to East crossing to raising money for the National Breast Cancer Foundation of Australia.
Paula returned to the desert in September 2006, to Mauritania. She set off with three new camels and a local guide and proceeded to walk through to Tomboctou in Mali, then across Mali and into Niger. After six months and a further 4,500km, Paula was forced to a halt by warfare in Niger.
Paula's second book, Sahara: A Journey of Love, Loss and Survival, which describes her most recent adventure, was published in 2009 to critical acclaim.
Paula Constant was recently featured on ABC TV's Talking Heads with Peter Thompson. You can download the Windows Media video (110MB),the Quicktime video (91MB), or read the transcript.
Travels from Victoria
Client Comments
Client Comments
- Engaging speaker who captivated the audience with her amazing story
Kwong Lee Dow First Year Program - Graeme Joy and Paula Constant held us captive with their riveting stories and they both received brilliant accolades from all who attended the event.
Mirboo North Primary School - Our seminar tonight was amazing! Paula's presentation was not only entertaining, but it was so in line with what we stand for as a company. It couldn't have been more fitting for us. She sold her book after the presentation and we had students rushing out to ATMs to get cash to purchase the copies. It was awesome.
University of Dreams - Paula's presentation at our NBCF Pink Ribbon Breakfast was incredibly inspiring and moving
Hallmark Australia - Paula's talk was absolutely spot on for the occasion. The entire audience was hanging on every word of her amazing story. Paula not only delivered a talk that was both inspirational and enthralling but did so in an extremely clear and well spoken voice. Her selection of power-point slides complimented her talk perfectly. Paula was also extremely friendly and accommodating to the audience after her talk, as many people were keen to meet her and have a conversation. As the organiser of the event I found it extremely easy to work with Paula in the lead-up preparation. The fact that she always answered her mobile was a real bonus in the days before the event. Congratulations to Paula on helping to make the whole event such a success.
Scotch College - We engaged Paula to speak to a cross functional team of our employees on the final day of a 3 day team building event. Her brief was to draw parallels between her learnings from her various experiences in the desert and the challenges faced in our everyday business and personal lives.
Paula's story is very compelling coupled with her very natural stage presence, stunning visuals from the desert and a warm sense of humour she very cleverly takes the audience on a journey of discovery. She is an amazing lady to do what she does
Unilever Australasia - Paula addressed our end of year dinner for Year Twelve prefects. Her incredible story drew direct parallels between the challenges facing young people as they move into the world of university and employment, and her own amazing journey. She gave our students practical and effective tools to manage the issues they face, and her direct and entertaining style kept her audience spellbound for the duration
Methodist Ladies' College - Paula Constant was the keynote speaker at Methodist Ladies' College inaugural
Methodist Ladies' College - Students and parents alike were captivated by the incredible tale of adventure from Paula. Both boys and girls enjoyed listening to the story of crossing the Sahara and viewing the pictures of the landscape.
St Francis Xavier College - Very positive feedback - very professional, value for money, best speaker. I would have no hesitation in recommending Paula as a speaker at any event.
Zonta Club of Melton - Paula Constant was the perfect guest speaker for GOTAFE's four 2011 Graduation events. She totally engaged our audiences of up to 800 people from a variety of ages, professions and cultures with her entertaining presentation describing her trek across the Sahara, the challenges she encountered and the hurdles she overcame. Paula told her story with passion, honesty, enthusiasm and, where appropriate, a sense of humour. She emphasised the importance of setting goals and following dreams despite the challenges, and was truly inspirational.
GOTAFE - Paula presented to the entire 220 students at Timbertop and provided an inspiring story which was perfect for our context. As well as sharing a truly fascinating story, Paula has an innate ability to condense her amazing journey into key messages that struck at the heart of many similar concepts and challenges our students will face throughout their Timbertop year. The humble air in which Paula presented was refreshing considering her astonishing accomplishments and her down to earth nature made it easy for the students to relate to her. There is no doubt Paula's story had a significant impact on the student body and her presentation provided a highly meaningful and valuable addition to our program.
Timbertop Outdoor Education Department
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