A mother-of-three who was devastated by 'empty nest syndrome' has been walking along American highways for five years to escape her grief.

Randilyn Allred, 40, grew up in suburban Missouri, and has worked a number of odd jobs over the years, including stints as a veterinary technician and aircraft mechanic.

But since 2020, she has been living a nomadic life and sleeping in a makeshift caravan, relying on only the bare necessities to survive.

She travels on her donkey-pulled wagon with six dogs, as well as pigeons and chickens who are both 'friends and food'.

Randilyn butchers the birds herself and forages plants to supplement her meals.

'While I still eat meat I still think it's more ethical than going to the grocery store,' she told Ben Fogle on the Channel 5 programme Lives in the Wild, airing on Tuesday at 9pm.

'Yeah, you don't have to look at it and face it but are you putting other things through a hard life so that you can feel better about something? I try to make sure I'm aware of what I'm eating.'

Randilyn, who uses clay and water to wash her hair and sometimes must just make do with a tarp covering if she needs the bathroom, told the presenter about how seeing her son and two daughters grow up has pushed her towards becoming a 'modern day pioneer'.

Years ago, she had been living a 'different life'. 

'In the aircraft industry it was mainly... I was always skilled with my hands and figuring things out but I've used that lifestyle a lot to make this lifestyle possible,' she shared. 'It's what gave me the possibility to build wagons for instance.

'But despite the fact that I was excelling in my job, I struggled a lot with the pressures of providing for children, not being home as much when they were really little and just not feeling like I was giving my children adequate time.'

In late 2014, she had decided she 'didn't want to keep chasing the rat race', and eventually, as the years passed, her son had grown up and moved out.

'Empty nest syndrome kind of got me,' she admitted. 'It's hard. It's part of what set me into travelling... your world's been centred on them and trying to make a life for them and then you're kind of... "wait, who am I?".'

One day five years ago, Randilyn decided - with no plan - to simply set out and start roaming.

'I got dropped at a Walmart parking lot about 30 miles from where I was with my dogs and a garden cart,' she told Ben.

'I didn't even have a tent, just a couple of tarps and a sleeping bag. The world was an open place and I had nothing left behind me. You kind of look forward to what can happen.'

She had spent the first night of her journey 'in a ditch, between a highway and a saw mill'.

Randilyn explained that she was motivated by the fact that she kept asking herself, 'well when was the last time you did something for yourself?'.

'When I was six, in my stick fort,' she continued. 'This is kind of how I've started to give myself a little freedom away from debt and kind of world everybody's living in.'

But while empowering and freeing, Randilyn's life is far from easy.

She sleeps in a makeshift caravan which has a wood burning stove for cooking and heating. Sometimes, she uses a little grill to make food as well.

Days often include walking along long stretches of highway, including getting right into the traffic among other cars. She also makes her own leather pouches to sell.

But Randilyn explained that due to a large nearby Amish population, Missouri drivers are used to driving around livestock and wagons.

At one point she and Ben were even stopped by the police - but this was simply a welfare check.

'Typically they're there to help,' Randilyn told the programme, insisting that she had in her five years not been arrested nor faced any trouble. 'The US constitution protects the right for equine travel, that's kind of how this country was founded.'

And although she is sure her children think she is 'eccentric', the mother-of-three is still close with her three children. 

'It's taken a while for everyone to see that, you know I wasn't gonna kill myself,' she shared. 'They imagined me being eaten in the woods by a bear, when I first started travelling the highway.

'I don't come from a farming background, I grew up in the suburbs... I've not had any big incidents. I've got a lot of little old ladies around the country worried about me!'

Randilyn is also accompanied by her animals, some of whom sleep in the cabin with her - and she assured the series that she makes sure not to over-exert her donkey, knowing 'what signs to look for when something is too much'.

While she currently has a mobile phone and solar charger - which she uses to get in touch with people in the area which she has befriended, should she need help (or a clean bathroom every now and then), eventually she would like to 'go even more primitive'.

'With so much convenience we forget how to use our brains and do things,' she explained.

'People do a lot of things and they're just reactionary. They're not really paying attention, taking it all in.

'I could sell all these things and buy a really nice car. Probably get into an apartment. But I don't see that happening any time soon.'

Ben Fogle: New Lives in the Wild airs on Tuesday, February 24, at 9pm, on Channel 5