JULIE ANGUS is an accomplished adventurer, scientist and bestselling author of Rowboat in a Hurricane, Rowed Trip and Olive Odyssey. She is the first woman to row across the Atlantic Ocean from mainland to mainland and a recipient of the National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award.

She has also cycled across continents, rowed thousands of kilometers of coastlines and rivers, and organized a National Geographic expedition that sailed the ancient Phoenician trading routes to research the olive.

Explore Magazine listed her as one of North America’s leading adventurers and in 2016 Canadian Geographic named her one of Canada’s Greatest Women Explorers. She is a recipient of the McMaster University Arch Award and a Canadian Geographic Fellow. She is regularly seen on television shows such as Canada AM, CBC Sunday News and Daily Planet.

Julie is a scientist with an B.Sc. from McMaster University in Psychology and Biology and an M.Sc. in Molecular Biology from the University of Victoria. She also studied at the University of Leeds in England. She spent a decade developing therapeutics for genetic ailments and cardiovascular disease as a researcher and in business development. Currently she is the co-founder of the boat company Angus Rowboats and is an engaging and entertaining motivational speaker who inspires audiences and demonstrates techniques to reach goals and overcome challenges.

3 words to describe Nature?

Harmony. Joy. Peace

3 things Nature taught you?

How to be at peace with myself

To look at the bigger picture

To respect others

3 most treasured Nature spots?

Our off-the-grid boat access only cabin in the Gulf Islands

Old growth forests of Vancouver Island

The alpine environment of BC’s mountains.

When you look at the ocean, it makes you feel…?

At peace

When you see a forest, it makes you feel…?

Awed by its greatness and complexity

When you see a volcano, it makes you feel…?

Enthralled and humbled by its force

When you see a sunrise or sunset, it makes you feel…?

Appreciative to be able to experience such beauty and grateful for the day ahead or day passed

When you hear thunder, it makes you feel…?

Like curling up someplace dry and being a spectator

When you hear the wind howling, it makes you feel…?

Humbled by its power

Are you an Ocean, Mountain, Forest, or Desert person?

Ocean

On a scale of 1 to 10, how important is Nature to your well-being?

10

Share with us a childhood nature memory?

When I was kid, we lived in Edmonton Alberta. One evening, the sky exploded in waves of colour: green, purple and pink. At first I thought something was terribly wrong. It was still the Cold War, and in my school on a military base, nuclear war was on people’s minds; my best friend even had a bomb shelter in her basement. It wasn’t long before someone wiser explained that it was the Northern Lights, aurora borealis. Terror turned to amazement and relief. It was a very emotional event, to behold a phenomena so beautiful, otherworldly, and incomprehensible to my young eyes.

Watch her video with LEXUS