2016 WINGS Flag Carrier Sophie Hollingsworth is a former ballerina turned internationally acclaimed modern explorer, environmental scientist and adventure chef (imagine a culinary style where “Indiana Jones and Martha Stewart threw a dinner party”).Her expeditions have taken her to the streets of Managua, the uncharted rivers of Madagascar, the desert transect treks in Namibia, and everywhere in between. WINGS supported her ethnographic research expedition to the Republic of Vanuatu to help document a tribe of female chiefs (ngwotari), who were seeking to gain official status from the Vanuatu National Council of Chiefs. Read her Flag Report here. Like WINGS, Sophie “is passionate about storytelling and encouraging people to achieve the extraordinary.” We caught up with her recently, as she was sailing across the bottom of Australia, to learn where her passion for discovery has taken her since 2016.
WINGS: You carried the WINGS Flag to Vanuatu in 2016. Can you tell us about the background and motivation for pursuing this research?
SOPHIE: As a young girl I was glued to National Geographic magazines and stories of Indigenous communities in faraway lands. As I grew older, that fascination only expanded, particularly as I grew to appreciate the resilience and persistence these communities have to the ever-expanding grasp of “modernity”. There is a troubling fallacy that pockets of communities practicing traditional culture unconsumed by technology and globalization are somehow leftovers of a past era. Nothing could be further from the truth. Every unique worldview increases our capacity to cope with the common challenges that face us all. I believe they are modern men and women who continue to defend their unique way of life and prove that there are other ways of interacting with the earth.
Through The Explorers Club I had heard that someone was going to Vanuatu to document a group of female chiefs, at the request of the chiefs. I asked if they had any women on the expedition team. At that point they did not. While I didn’t have a particularly illustrious exploration resume, I put my hat in the ring and made the case for the imperative of having women in the team.
Not long thereafter, I spent my nights and weekends learning Bislama and everything there was to know about the incredibly diverse land that is Vanuatu before departure.
WINGS: What are some of the highlights of your life and career since that time?
SOPHIE: In some ways, a lot has changed in the world since 2016 but on the other hand, there is still so much to explore!
In the past eight years, I have predominantly focused on driving sustainable outcomes for people and the planet: academically, in the corporate arena and attempting to influence hearts and minds.
Academically, I spent a number of years on a Fulbright Fellowship researching the nexus of water security and bioterrorism on the Lake Chad Basin.
In the corporate arena, for the last four years I have been working on various decarbonization, water and nature-based programs with heavy industry in Australia and in Papua New Guinea.
Last but not least when I am not working, I am often found lighting fires or brewing sea urchin beer. “Adventure cooking” started as a creative way to cook when on a four-wheel drive adventure across Australian deserts with limited kitchen supplies. I shared photos of my Indiana Jones meets Martha Stewart ways that ended up capturing the hearts and minds of a very diverse online audience: from Walmart greeters in the south, to investment bankers in Manhattan. I realized with my unique way of cooking over the fire, there was an opportunity to inspire people to think about different ways of interacting with the planet, and their impact on the planet.
Adventure cooking was the gateway drug to sea urchin stout. Continuing to mix my passion for cooking and adventure, sea urchin stout and sea urchin Saison started as a covid project that has continued on. My boyfriend and I free dive for the non-native invasive sea urchins in the backyard of our Sydney apartment and then brew a stout and put the uni in the beer boil and fermentation. Honestly, you’d never know there was sea urchin in them if we didn’t tell you.
WINGS: What expedition/experience made the strongest impression on you and your work?
SOPHIE: That is certainly a hard question to narrow down, as I truly believe we are constantly evolving based on our experiences (big expeditions and seemingly unimportant trips to the supermarket!) I have had profound experiences in Nicaragua and Namibia where unparalleled levels of generosity restored my faith in humanity.
However, most recently, sailing along the bottom of Australia in the Southern Ocean and Bass Strait I feel completely dwarfed and insignificant by the power of the Ocean.
In most of my expeditions to date, I’ve been part of a team and I was rarely the most senior team member. Now on my sailboat, I am the captain. My boyfriend Craig, is very new to sailing. The buck stops with me. I am the one calling all of the shots. Our safety, our safe passage and wellbeing is predicated on decisions that I make. Often on very little sleep at 0200 in the morning. The challenging thing is it is a very steep learning curve. It is a 20+ year old boat and most of the systems are custom builds without relevant user manuals and the conditions are always changing.
While I worked on boats a decade ago, and did every single safety at sea survival course, celestial navigation, engine maintenance and repair classes, nothing has prepared me for the full enormity of the journey I’ve undertaken. Everyday feels like I am drinking from the fire hydrant.
This time has taught me to truly live in the present and not take myself too seriously. It forces me to deal with the realities that exist in the moment, MacGyver as required and be patient (a challenging character trait for an overachiever coming out of the corporate world). No part of the adventure will end well without looking at and facing the facts as they are, not as I’d wish them to be, be it weather, equipment failure or morale.
WINGS: Can you catch us up on any future initiatives and/or planned expeditions?
SOPHIE: My boyfriend and I recently purchased a monohull sailboat S/V Offshore (a Tayana 52’). We plan to spend the next 2 years sailing around the world. Part of me wishes that right now I could tell you there was a great scientific aim with a grandiose world record breaker where I could proudly fly the WINGS flag.
But in all honesty, I am doing this for personal reasons. I worked on other people’s yachts for years polishing stainless steel and sailing the Caribbean and South Pacific, eventually earning a 200-ton captains license (at the time I was the youngest female on record to do so). It was always my dream to sail around the world on my own boat.
Admittedly, this was a dream I always thought would happen much later in life. Fast forward to 2021, and my picture of a healthy 25-year old little sister had a completely unexpected stroke. My world turned upside down and as cheesy as it sounds, made me realize just how precious our time on earth is. Once my sister was back on her feet, I set about focusing on my dream.
For now, this is a personal expedition where I will hone my sailing, engineering and electrical skills, cook locally sourced food over the fire on remote beaches and paint. I want time to slow down and soak it all in. That being said, I’ve never been one to sit on my laurels. Amidst the current firsts and follies, I am starting to understand how Offshore sails and operates. Once I get a better grasp of the boat’s systems and am more confident in her operations (things are always breaking!), I’ll start scheming how to use my floating home and the amazing stories of the communities I am sailing through to help drive a more sustainable future. If there are any WINGS women that could use the boat as a platform for their research, please reach out.
In the meantime, you can read about our escapades on The Sofia Log. Stay tuned.
WINGS: How do you think the landscape for women working in the field of adventure and exploration has changed since you first became engaged? Do you feel women are still encountering the same obstacles?
SOPHIE: Every year I believe things get easier for women in exploration. We are all standing on the shoulders of the female explorers that came before us.
However, there is still a lot of work to do. In some environments more than others.
And while there are still some obstacles, we must also recognize the wins along the way. Many people used to tell me I was born 200 years too late to be an “explorer”. However, if I was born 200 years ago, yes there was more quintessential exploration, but women were typically not allowed on the expeditions, had to pretend they were men, or were brought along as companions.
WINGS: Has becoming a WINGS Fellow benefitted or impacted you in any ways (personally or in your career)?
SOPHIE: Personally, being a WINGS Flag Carrier introduced me to a community that initially I didn’t even know existed. I had been a part of other exploration membership communities and there were so few women at most events, I could count them on one hand (not to mention the majority were plus ones, not ladies out in the field).
WINGS enabled me to engage with a community of like minded women to bounce ideas, challenges, and have conversations with those who were experiencing similar things. To feel heard by your peers and then go a step farther to be sponsored by your peers was incredibly valuable.
In my career, WINGS was my first official sponsor for an expedition. I had very little on my resume at the time, but I had a dream and a plan to achieve it. WINGS support was a significant part of what made me believe I could actually achieve my dreams. I photocopied the sponsorship check from the WINGS and hung it in my home office.
WINGS: Before moving to Australia, you were the WINGS Junior Board Explorer in Residence. What advice do you have for young women on how to engage in the “next great age of exploration”?
SOPHIE: Yes! It was such a joy to be on the WINGS Junior Board Explorer in Residence to connect women in the field with women in cities. There is no one size fits all way to engage in the next great age of exploration… Ultimately my advice is to just go for it, the timing will probably never feel right and you will likely never feel ready. Personally, I’ve never felt 100% ready, the timing was never perfect, I was told no most of the time, but nevertheless persisted.
