Emily's great big adventure

In the world of travel, there are tourists and then there are explorers.

Most of us fall into the tourist category: sightseers and holidaymakers, following roads well-travelled.

Explorers, in contrast, are rare.

Emily Hulbert, from Rhyll, is one such rarity.

Listen to the global travel tales of the 30-year-old and vicariously you feel an awe, a kind of innocent love for the world and its people.

Most summers for the past decade, Emily has waited tables at Pino's in Cowes not only to pay for her "bikepacking" trip around the world, so far clocking up 18,000km riding a bike solo across the planet.

But since 2024 she has also been fundraising for her informal charity. She buys water filters to distribute to impoverished families and villages she encounters on her travels, to ensure they can access clean drinking water, with a GoFundMe page raising funds for the cause (see separate article).

In 2025 alone she personally distributed 50 filters to remote communities through Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, China, India, Nepal, as well as Myanmar through an offshoot charity.

"I'm so full of hope because in places like rural China and Nepal I experienced immense human kindness. They are the most generous people, even though they're considerably underprivileged," she told the Advertiser last week.

"But then I have heavy doubt because I've seen things like political torture. In places like India the poverty is deep. That is suffering and struggle.

"After seeing that I broke down, it hit me hard. I had a deep pang of privilege, about my place in the world."

On January 27 Emily has been invited to recount her travel experiences at St Philip's Anglican Church, Cowes, from 7pm (tickets $15).

The event is organised by a regular Pino's customer who shares a love of travel and will include a slideshow of her pictures and a question-and-answer session.

Questions

Emily says the most common question she gets asked is about her personal safety, especially from women.

While she recounts several stories of threatening situations in the past year, these have made her "cautious but not deterred me from travel".

"It sucks as a woman traveller.

"If I listened to the advice I was given I'd never go to India. In general I didn't feel unsafe, even though I was riding at night because it was so hot, but never in remote areas. I also learnt the Hindi word for 'f*** off' which seemed to work.

"I listen to my gut and have courage in my pocket and do tend to think I'm lucky. These things can also happen in Melbourne.

"People tell me now I've turned 30 I'll become more cautious."

Emily is also lucky in terms of health, only becoming sick twice for two days in 2025, both stomach bugs.

Emily featured in The Island magazine Autumn 2025 edition - which saw an outpouring of support and donations - where she recounted her previous travel highlights and lowlights.

She also details her explorations through her Instagram page (@emhulbert).
She says her most inspiring experiences in 2025 included the generosity of rural Chinese people.

"It completely deconstructed my previous beliefs, such as that they were rude," says Emily, who teaches English along the way.

"Travelling through there I almost didn't pay for anything. At one point their gifts filled a whole table - soup cans, trinkets, fruit. One day I woke up and there was a packet of money on my bike and I had no idea who it was from."

The greatest experience of 2025, though, was cycling through a remote Nepalese village in Annapurna in the Himalayas, the world's 10th highest peak, which is also where she had her emotional breakdown.

"I was going through the most amazing place and that deep pang of privilege hit me really hard.

"Just as I was suffering I heard children laughing and I backtracked and these two little cherubs ran up and hugged my legs.

"Their teacher beckoned me over and gave me food. I ended up staying there for two months teaching."

What next?

The January 27 speaking event is just four days before she flies out for the next leg of her explorations.

Emily says she was forced to backtrack after Nepal because the Pakistan-India border was closed.

"I sent my bike to a bike shop in southern China so I'll fly there to pick it up," she says of her 2026 itinerary.

"Then I'll ride through China for three months to the Pakistan border. From there I could go through Afghanistan - which I'd feel ethically conflicted about being a western woman freely travelling through a country that represses women - or Iran, which is geopolitically changing.

"I might be able to go through Tajikistan and then head through the Stans to Turkey."

When invited to speak in the middle of last year, she wasn't even sure she'd make it back to Phillip Island.

She returned basically because she'd run out of money for travelling, with Pino's once again helping her travel budget.

Emily is not sure whether she will return to Phillip Island at the end of the year, and is looking forward to first attending her cousin's wedding in Cyprus in October and then resting "offline" in the UK.

And after that? Any plans to settle down?

In 2014 the high-achieving Emily won a full scholarship to study physics at Hofstra University in New York City, focusing on astronomy and maths with an ambition to become an astronaut.

The scholarship was given because she is a soccer star, having played for Melbourne Victory.

After university, she even played professional soccer for the Czech Republic for six months.

So, not surprisingly, settling down is not high on her list of priorities.

"I would love next to ride through Africa and South America.

"I'm most of all eager to get back to Nepal.

"My heart is there."

To book tickets to the January 27 event, scan the QR code or visit: www.eventbrite.com/e/island-girl-riding-around-the-world-tickets-1979945019853

To donate: www.gofundme.com/f/water-cycle