Roz Purcell joked that she has ‘a terrible business mind’ as she lifted the lid on her decision to use her house savings to buy and save a forest near her home.
The model turned lifestyle and travel influencer, who is from Co Tipperary but currently lives with her boyfriend in Dublin, said she couldn’t bear to see her local nature trail chopped down or bought for profit, so she decided to purchase it and preserve it herself.
“I did buy a forest. I bought a forest in Tipperary and the reason being was I have a terrible business mind,” she said, laughing.
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Roz, who is often seen trekking through forests and up mountains during her explorations through her company, The Hike Life, previously said that she said she had been saving for a house deposit.
However, the outdoors enthusiast said she couldn’t let the forest fall into the wrong hands when she saw it up for grabs.
She explained: “There was a forest going for sale and there was only two years left on the grant and I kind of felt if someone would obviously love to buy it to chop it down because there is a lot of money in forestry and those types of trees.
“And it is one of the most beautiful forests in our area at home and all the native deer live in there so I just said I'd buy it. And keep it as it is,” she added, speaking to Dermot and Dave on Today FM on Tuesday.
The former Miss Universe Ireland winner, 32, now spends her days travelling the length and breadth of the country touring Ireland’s best attractions and putting together travel guides for her fans and over half a million followers online.
But she revealed she isn’t ready to put her fitness to the test just yet - admitting she has turned down the chance to take part in RTE’s Ultimate Hell Week series every year for fear that she isn’t fit enough to complete it.
She said: “I get asked every year. And you know what the reason I haven’t done it is because I’m like i'm not at my peak fitness and if I’m going on, i’m going to win.
“When it comes to sports, yes I am [competitive], when it comes to life and work I'm not really, I want to see everyone doing well. But when it comes to sports I want to take you down and I will want to win.
“So I feel like, every time they come to me, like I think the first year I was just after breaking my leg and recovering so I wasn’t at my peak fitness, and this year I wasn’t ready okay,” she laughed.
But Roz reckons she will be more than capable to take on some of the toughest tasks if she ever goes for it in the future, thanks to her years of hikes and treks around the nation and the world.
She added: “One of my friends did Hell Week, Niamh Cullen, and I was like what was the hardest part, and she was like, ‘we had to climb up a mountain for four hours with like 20kg on our back’.
“And I was like, I do that for fun. I do that everyday, I have my cameras and tripods, it’s probably heavier than 20kg."
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