Fab and Fitch met a year ago at a Facebook group hike in Gold Coast, Australia that Fab almost talked herself out of attending. Three weeks later Fitch moved in. A few months later they bought a van. Then a caravan. Now a tent, because they are 1,500 kilometers into the HexaTrek, France's 3,000-kilometer Grand Traverse, doing it together on their first thru-hike, with Billie the Australian kelpie cross cattle dog, across one of the hottest French summers in recent memory. On Day 62, after an afternoon of making plans to quit, they slept on an overgrown factory pontoon, woke up the next morning, and asked each other a question: is this the summer we remember failing to hike the HexaTrek, or is this the summer we remember walking 1,500 kilometers? This episode covers the question, the answer, the logistics of designing your own thru-hike on the fly around a dog who can't enter national parks, and the origin story Fab carries into every mile: the park in Hamburg where she asked a passing stranger what all those people in hiking gear were doing, and discovered that walking was the thing that was going to give her life back after losing her husband at 32. The full interview with Fab, Fitch, and Billie drops Wednesday in two parts on the Hiker Trash Radio feed.

Show Notes

About the Guests

Fab (from Berlin, Germany) and Fitch (from the UK) met in Australia a year ago on a group hike at Pages Pinnacle, Gold Coast — a Facebook meetup they both almost didn't attend. They are currently thru-hiking the HexaTrek, France's Grand Traverse: roughly 3,000 kilometers across the entire country, from the Rhine to the Atlantic. They are doing it with Billie — Fab's eight-year-old Australian kelpie cross cattle dog — on their first thru-hike as a couple. They are in Stage 4, about 1,500 kilometers in, and in the process of buying a 200-year-old farmhouse in Brittany. They post on Instagram as @FabandFitch.

Episode Highlights

How They Met — Pages Pinnacle

Day 62 — The Factory Pontoon

The Hexadog — Designing a Thru-Hike Around a Dog

Billie — Joy and Cost

Fab's Origin Story — Walking After Loss

The Couple on the HexaTrek

What's Next — A 200-Year-Old Farmhouse in Brittany

Links & Resources

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