Walking and talking sole sisters

Middle age women and older gather to walk and talk

Middle-Aged Women from around the world are joining forces to walk and talk. Women from Perth have joined the Sole Sister Ramblers for their first walk and to share their experiences with the group world-wide.

They have taken part in several rambles including their last walk in March strolling from Cottesloe to Leighton and finishing up with a coffee at Bib & Tucker or a swim.

Five friends from Canada who travelled to different parts of the world launched the group in 2021. Now there are 27 Sole Circles in six countries, many with almost 200 women members.

All up, there are about 6,000 ramblers from dozens of countries on the Facebook Group and almost 7,000 women subscribed to the weekly Rambler Café email newsletter.

Jill Thomas, one of the founders of the group, who now lives in Florida, but raised her children on Salt Spring Island on Canada’s West Coast, says mid-life and beyond is when many women find time to focus on themselves after years of caring only for others. 

“It is a time of empowerment but also of loss. We need close friends and community to navigate all of this,” she says. 

“We know that amazing (and unpredictable) things happen when women come together in empowered joy-filled communities. What a great feeling – it makes all this hard work feel so worth it.

“It wasn’t our intention to make Sole Sisters a global community. Still, it was our destiny. As the founders are a globally distributed bunch, it was a natural evolution. Now, the international nature of this community is one of the things that makes it so wonderful and enriching.

“This group has taught us the importance of friendship and community during a time of life when many women find themselves feeling invisible and rudderless. 

“Friendship and community among women, especially in mid-life and beyond, is critical to their longevity and happiness.”

Sole Sisters beginnings were in the Canadian summer of 2020 when Jill travelled to her home on Salt Spring Island with her husband. At the same time another of the founders, Jane Witherspoon travelled to the island from her home in Panama.

Jane and Jill raised their now-grown kids on the island and were close friends when they were young, but had drifted apart in the natural ebb and flow of a long-term friendship.

That summer, the pandemic lockdowns brought them back together, and they decided to walk every road and trail on the island. They didn’t complete this challenge but had fun trying. When they returned to Panama and Florida, they decided to keep walking together and signed up for a 420-mile virtual walking challenge.

They finished the first challenge in three months, so they signed up for another and recruited more friends to join. They created a Facebook chat group where the women shared pictures of their daily walks and discussed things, they all had in common as women in mid-life and beyond. They called their chat group Sole Sister Ramblers.

Tara Romoff, Naomi Weisman and Jill Cohen Morris joined this group. Tara, Naomi and the two Jills attended high school in Toronto, Canada together and remained close friends throughout the decades despite leading lives that scattered them around the globe. 

They were thrilled that this group put them back in daily contact for the first time since their school days.

In the autumn of 2021, Tara’s husband accepted a job in Singapore, which made them realise how important the group had become in terms of being in contact with each other. 

“We also learned how each of us, in our own way, had come to love long, meandering, destinationless outdoor rambles during the pandemic,” Jill says. 

“This is why the five women decided to found Sole Sister Ramblers and launched it into the world with a brightly coloured shoe logo in the fall of 2021.

“The initial goal was to grow a vibrant and empowering Facebook community for women in mid-life and beyond. Each of the founders invited their friends to join so in the beginning, everyone knew someone in the group who knew someone, and this intimacy is what made our group so special. 

“As our community grew, it quickly became apparent how much the women in the group craved in-person connections. Inspired by Tara’s walking group hosted by the American Women’s Association in Singapore, we organised in-person rambles in WhatsApp groups we call Sole Circles. 

“Women flocked to these circles in overwhelming numbers, so we knew we were onto something. Today, we joke that launching a new Sole Circle is like making popcorn in a pot on the stove without a lid. 

“Sole Sister Ramblers is a supportive global community where women in mid-life and beyond grow, thrive, and connect. We help each other live our best active and joy-filled lives.” 

Anyone who identifies as a woman can join. 

“The women in this community ramble in many different ways. They walk, snowshoe, row, ski, hike, swim, cycle, sail, play tennis and pickleball, do yoga, and paddle canoes. They explore the world and their backyards. They go to farmers’ markets, concerts, and community events. Some hunt for urban murals, vintage treasures, and hidden trailmagic.

“Rambling teaches us that we can enjoy these activities without the pressure of being an athlete or getting in shape while still enjoying the critical benefits of an active lifestyle.

If ramblers want to join a Sole Circle they will find links and info at solesisterramblers.com/pages/sole-circles.

“We are building groups as fast as we can and hope to have many more in Australia. If people want to request a Sole Circle in their home town, they can email us at helloramblers@solesisterrambles.com,” she said.

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Allen Newton
Journalist and public relations specialist Allen Newton has worked across major media organisations in Western Australia and PR locally and internationally. He and wife Helen Ganska operate Newton Ganska Communications. Allen started his journalism career at the long defunct Sunday Independent and went on to become the founding editor for news website PerthNow, Managing Editor of The Sunday Times and PerthNow and then Editor-In-Chief of news website WAtoday. As well as news, he has been an editor of food and wine, real estate, TV and travel sections. He’s done everything from co-hosting a local ABC television pop show, to editing a pop music section called Breakout with Big Al, and publishing his own media and marketing magazine.