At 39, Itchy Boots’ Noraly Schoenmaker FINALLY Admits What We All Suspected

In June 2024, Noraly Schoenmaker released her book Kier Punt in the Netherlands, publicly sharing for the first time, in a structured way, the personal experiences she had kept private for years.

The book revealed that behind the familiar image of Itchy Boots was a life-changing event entirely different from what audiences had seen on screen.

A year later, the English edition, Free Ride: Heartbreak, Courage and the 20,000-Mile Motorcycle Journey That Changed My Life, extended her story to a much broader international audience — and shortly after its release, it became a New York Times bestseller.

In the memoir, Noraly described in detail, for the first time, the event that led her to leave her former life behind entirely.

She wrote about discovering that her longtime partner had maintained a long-term affair, confirmed through messages she found that ended the relationship she had once trusted completely.

Notably, she chose not to use the book to criticize or blame her former partner, instead focusing on her own experience and how those events shaped everything that came after — a calm, consistent tone that gave the memoir its emotional weight.

At the beginning of 2018, Noraly’s life had appeared stable. She worked in geology, took part in international projects, and was in a long-term relationship, with both her personal and professional life pointing toward a clearly defined future.

The discovery of her partner’s affair — something that had reportedly continued for more than a year — shattered that foundation almost overnight.

She could no longer afford to keep the home they’d shared, and selling it became a financial necessity.

The personal crisis unfolded alongside a career upheaval: her employer wanted to transfer her back to the Netherlands after years working internationally, pulling her toward an office routine she no longer wanted.

Rather than accept it, she resigned from her geology career entirely, sold most of her belongings, and bought a one-way ticket to India with no itinerary and no idea when — or if — she would return.

After arriving, she rented a motorcycle to learn the local roads, then bought a Royal Enfield Himalayan she named Basanti — her first true traveling companion.

What began as short trial rides gradually expanded into longer routes, and in November 2018, she uploaded her first video to YouTube under the name Itchy Boots, with no promotional campaign and no intention of building a global brand — simply a way to document her journey for friends and family.

Over the following months, she rode Basanti roughly 36,000 km across 25 countries, completing nearly the entire journey alone — navigating her own routes, pitching her own tent, filming, editing, and uploading every video herself.

That raw, unpolished authenticity became the channel’s defining identity, and her audience grew rapidly as viewers responded to the honesty of watching someone genuinely figure things out on the road.

Each subsequent expedition introduced a new motorcycle and a new chapter: Dhana, Ronin, Savannah, Alaska, and eventually Frankie, a 1987 Yamaha XT600 chosen specifically for its simplicity and repairability in remote locations.

By 2022, Itchy Boots surpassed 1 million subscribers, and by mid-2025, Noraly had ridden more than 190,000 km through over 80 countries — among the longest documented solo motorcycle journeys by a woman on YouTube.

The road hasn’t been without serious setbacks. In May 2024, she crashed on a dirt road near Embea, Tanzania, breaking her collarbone and cutting her African expedition short for the first time in the channel’s history.

She underwent surgery and endured a months-long recovery, sharing each stage with her followers even as production paused.

During a subsequent UK book tour in mid-2025, a motorcycle loaned to her by Yamaha was stolen in Swansea, Wales — though it was quickly recovered thanks to an attached air tag.

She also chose to cancel her planned U.S. Book tour entirely, citing visa concerns tied to her travels through Middle Eastern countries, including Yemen, preferring to avoid any risk to future journeys.

This year, Noraly launched Season 8 with a route through Mongolia’s Gobi Desert, documenting sandy tracks, extreme temperature swings, sandstorms, and stretches of hundreds of kilometers without fuel or repair services — traveling once again with Frankie, her four-decade-old Yamaha, and handling every mechanical issue herself along the way.

Alongside her continued travels, she has completed the manuscript for a second book, Beyond Fear, expected in 2027, expanding on the journeys and lessons that followed her original turning point.

Now 39, unmarried, without children or a permanent home, Noraly continues to fund her lifestyle through YouTube, book sales, merchandise, and select sponsorships — maintaining full creative control over every video, exactly as she has since the beginning.

Nearly eight years after walking away from the life she once had, Noraly Schoenmaker’s journey has become proof that devastating heartbreak, given enough distance and honesty, can be transformed into something extraordinary — not through escape, but through the simple, deliberate choice to keep moving forward.