Donna Mulvenna

I was born in Australia during the 60s hippie revolution; grew up on the Gold Coast, an imitation of Miami, alongside surfing, bodybuilding and bikini contests; kicked off my working career during the ‘me’ decade of economic greed and consumption; and set off to travel the world well before my 25th birthday. Perhaps that explains why I’m a person always on the move, whether that is time or place, or at least I was until life slowed down in the Amazon.

I’ve lived in a gypsy caravan on the Isle of Skye, a renovated farmhouse in Yorkshire, a fairy tale castle in the Loire Valley and now a bush carbet in French Guiana.

My career path has changed 8 times and includes legal administration, communications, equestrian show jumping, naturopathy, cheese making and horticultural science. I’ve also started two businesses - an organic health food store and a farm sitting business.

Interests include English bull terriers, seed saving, and star gazing but my hobbies tend to morph into obsessions like sprint canoe paddling, camping in the wild, living on a plant-based diet and writing.

Today my life is planned to maximize the amount of time I spend on the water and in nature, and that never gets tired or boring.

It is so far off the beaten track that neither I nor any of my friends had ever heard of it. Even the staff at the International medical centre where I had my yellow fever vaccination had to look it up and the nurse told me, “I’m sorry but French Guiana is not a place.”

Temporary insanity, the type driven by hormones, inspired the move. I fell head-over-heels in love with my new boyfriend, Franck, a former Olympian sprint canoeist who was on a personal mission to “give something back by putting kids in canoes.” He chose French Guiana (Guyane), as the place to do it. I simply tagged along with his sprint canoe.