I am a modern-day nomad. I have no permanent address, no possessions except the ones I carry, and I rarely know where I’ll be six months from now. I move through the world without a plan, guided by instinct, connecting through trust, and constantly watching for serendipitous opportunities.
Rita Golden Gelman "Tales of a Female Nomad"

On my "women who inspire" list with Karen Blixen, Osa Johnson, Beryl Markham, Dian Fossey and many others who refused to be limited by time, place and circumstance, Rita Golden Gelman is near the top. Blessed with an adventuring spirit that years of the high life in L.A. couldn't dampen, when faced with middle age and divorce she packed her talents, wit and curiosity and took off for parts unknown.

Hers is no gap-year backpacker story, as Rita was forty-eight when she hit the road. At an age when many have settled into uncomfortable tedium and allowed fear of the new and different to begin to grow like liver spots, Rita chucked much of what some would see as security and headed off on an adventure that continues to this day. As the blurb on the back of her book "Tales of a Female Nomad -- Living at Large in the World" explains:

In 1986 she sold her possessions and became a nomad, living in a Zapotec village in Mexico, sleeping with sea lions on the Galapagos Islands, and residing everywhere from thatched huts to regal palaces. She has observed orangutans in the rain forest of Borneo, visited trance healers and dens of black magic, and cooked with women on fires all over the world.

Rita's book came to me though an Internet friend, an Ethiopia adopter I met online who visited me here in Seychelles (Thank you, Karen.), so even it is well traveled and connected by threads of gender and interests. After reading it, I contacted Rita, and we are communicating regularly. I'm tentatively on her list for a 'nomad' stop some time this year, as she'll be in East Africa, right next door, in the Spring.

I'm hoping our paths do cross for a while. I love meeting my heroes. Plus, she's a really good cook.