Anna Hingley


Anna Hingley is the first woman to ride on horseback across the Australian Outback, which she completed on 5 August 2006. The 3510 km journey was undertaken to raise for Angel Flight, an Australian charity that co-ordinates non-emergency flights for financially and medically needy people.
Hingley and Ostwald met in 2004 whilst Hingley was travelling from Sydney to Darwin by bus as part of a year-long backpacking tour. Ostwald was driving the bus and their conversation turned to their mutual passion for horses. They decided to perform the trek while visiting Hingley's parents in December 2005.

Angel Trek

Hingley, a veterinary nurse from Stourbridge in the West Midlands, Great Britain, began the journey from Broome in Western Australia on 17 March 2006. She and boyfriend John Ostwald used six Brumby horses that they had caught and tamed through a process of horse whispering before the trek. The pair were assisted in their record-breaking effort with a support truck carrying the spare horses, gear and water tanks. The couple covered an average of twenty-five miles per day.
Also travelling with Ostwald and Hingley was English filmmaker Thomas Guerrier. His documentary "Rode Trip, The Australian Horse Journey", will be released in 2009.
The first section of the route involved following Outback highways and traversing the top of the Great Sandy Desert before turning into bush roads, tracks and fording rivers. Notable points of interest on the journey were Fitzroy Crossing, Halls Creek, Daguragu, Top Springs, Daly Waters, Borroloola, Doomadgee, Burketown, Normanton, Croydon, Georgetown, Atherton and finally Cairns, Queensland, on 5 August 2006.