How I Went from Studying Science in Sydney to Founding a Global Women’s Adventure Travel Company (At 23! 😝)

- By Madison Ambrose

After high school, I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do, so I enrolled in university and worked in bars and cafés to pay my rent. But after just one year, I felt restless. I craved adventure, something more than textbooks and late-night hospitality shifts. I didn’t know exactly what I was searching for, but I knew it wasn’t in a lecture hall. So, I deferred my studies and took a gap year.

I scrolled through Seek.com with the broadest filters possible, looking for any job that would get me out of Sydney and into the outdoors. That’s when I saw it—Outback Tour Guide, based at Uluru. I applied on a whim, and within hours, I got a call from the manager asking when I could book my flight. Four days later, I packed up my life and flew to Alice Springs. I had never been there before. I didn’t know a single person. But something in my gut told me this was it.

Falling in love with Guiding

From the moment I arrived, I was hooked. Getting paid to take people on epic adventures, sleeping under the stars every night, swapping stories around a campfire, and sharing bush knowledge (which I was learning as I went—you've just gotta stay one step ahead of the class, right?! 😝). I knew I was never going back to Sydney.

Surrounded by travelers from all over the world, I was inspired to try this backpacking thing for myself. I took my first trip overseas—Thailand and Laos—and, well… I caught the travel bug HARD.

I fell in love with the feeling of freedom that backpacking gave —waking up with no plan, no expectations, and no limits on where the day might take me. One moment, I’d be sharing street food with a stranger, and the next, hopping on a bus to a place I’d never heard of. Every encounter held the potential to shift my path, turning chance meetings into lifelong friendships and spontaneous decisions into unforgettable adventures. The world felt wide open, and all I had to do was say ‘yes.’

For the next three years, I would spend 6 months working at Uluru during the peak tourist season, saving every penny, and then go travel the rest of the year—stretching my budget as far as possible. I solo-traveled across Southeast Asia, South America, and East Africa.

And then, something very rude stopped me.

Enter: Covid.

The unexpected pivot

After a narrow escape from being stuck in lockdown in Egypt I landed back in Darwin with no money, no job (since all the guiding companies shut down), and a whole lot of time. With travel off the table, I picked up new hobbies, including yoga, and found an incredible group of people who started teaching me about mindful ways of living and I was introduced to the idea of a women's circle. (A hosted gathering for women to come together, share openly and connect authentically).

As I shared my travel stories with women around me—especially about solo backpacking through Africa—I started getting the same questions over and over: “But how did you do it?” “Was it safe?” “Weren’t you scared?” “Where’s the best place to start?” “Is it okay to go alone?”
Hearing this made me realize just how many women wanted to travel adventurously—but didn’t feel like they could. And that’s when the idea hit me: What if I took a group of women on a big adventure?

I imagined us camping under the stars in remote places, having deep conversations around the fire, hiking through the red rock landscapes, practicing yoga, and—most importantly—empowering them to take control of their own lives and adventures.

The place I imagined this taking place was of course Uluru. The place which kick-started my own journey of empowerment and held such a place in my heart.

I mentioned the idea to a few women around me, and their reactions were electric. Many had never even been to Uluru and said that that was exactly how they wanted to experience it.

Building Wild Women Journeys

I reached out to my connections in the tourism industry—friends and mentors who owned travel businesses in the Northern Territory—and asked, How do I even start something like this? (Turns out, the answer involves A LOT of paperwork and logistics. 🤪)

But my community had my back. They helped me with everything—from lending me camp stoves and swags to explaining the joys of GST and insurance. I’m forever grateful to them because, honestly, there’s no way I could have done it alone.

In October 2020, I created an Instagram account, shared some posts, and put up posters around Darwin advertising a Women’s Yoga Adventure to Uluru. Within a few days, the trip was SOLD OUT. I couldn’t believe it. To the 16 women who took that first leap of faith—who booked flights to NT, trusted me without a website, and sent money to some random chick on Instagram—thank you. 😝

And just like that, Wild Women Journeys was born.

At 23, I became the youngest tour operator in the Northern Territory.

The Journey continues

In a way, Covid was a blessing in disguise. I don’t think these trips would have taken off so fast if people still had the opportunity to book a cheaper, more well known yoga retreat to bali, or hadn’t been stuck inside their homes for a whole year, craving to get outdoors. And I probably wouldn’t have stopped traveling for long enough to start a project like this if I hadn’t been forced to stay in Australia.

Since then, WWJ has grown beyond my wildest dreams. (Little insight, we are approaching our 100th trip! In 4 years! Across 8 countries!)

It still blows my mind —and it’s all because of you.

The truth? I had no idea what I was doing when I started, and I’ve made plenty of mistakes along the way. But the reason this dream keeps growing, the reason I get to create life-changing adventures, is because of this incredible community. Because you keep taking the leap for yourself to go on a big adventure, to make a positive change in your life, to do something truly WILD!

So from the bottom of my heart—thank you. ❤

And thank you for trusting me to guide you on this journey — even though my website has typos and my email reply times are embarrassingly slow.

Lots of love,
Madi x