Where in the World is Wadi Rum?

Yep...that's actually a place on my tentative itinerary!  Wadi Rum is the largest wadi (valley) in Jordon and the place where T.E. Lawrence based his operations during the Arab Revolt of 1917-18. 

So far, I've had a few mixed responses to my announcement of taking a year off.  Some people seemed surprised at the thought that I might actually want to spend a year on the road.  Others reminisced about their own travels from the days of their youth :)!  But "where on earth are you going to?" seemed to be the basic question on everyone's mind. 
I write my plans with this old Spanish Proverb in the back of my mind.  "If you want to make God laugh...tell him your plans!"  And yet, I truly believe in the other old adage, "Plan as if you'll live forever, live as if you'll die today"!  So here are my tentative travel plans which of course will remain flexible!

Month 1:  My plans for Cambodia have now changed.  I plan to start my trip in Cambodia volunteering for a month with a partner of Real Gap.  The program I have signed up for is to work at a Cambodian Orphanage and the Cambodian Children Support Foundation.  I will be teaching English to the kids here as well as helping out with various farm activities.  The kids live in the school and aim to be sustainable by growing their own food, capturing their own water supply and keeping various farm animals such as cows and chooks. 


Month 2:  I plan to then join an overland trip around Thailand, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and perhaps do some trekking in Northern Thailand for the next month and half.  


 

Month 4: I plan to visit Sri Lanka, spend time with friends and family, travel around and be completely flexible as to what I do and where I go.

 

I plan to spend a few days in Dubai before heading off to Africa....

Month 5:  I plan to volunteer in South Africa in a project based in St Lucia that deals with Wildlife Photography & Conservation.  The volunteers are involved in creating a complete database of wildlife photographs and birds as well as raising awareness in the local community about the importance of conversation and the local wildlife.   St Lucia Wetland is South Africa's first Natural World Heritage Site.  
Month 6:  I plan to then volunteer on a project which is based in Namibia and deals with Cheetah Conservation.  The volunteers assist at a reserve dedicated to the conservation of cheetahs and other big cats. The activities include essential maintenance duties in the mornings such as dam and bridge maintenance and further exciting activities in the afternoons such as tracking leopards and cheetahs, and getting involved in the cheetah welfare program.  This is the largest big cat conservation program in the world! 


Month 7: I plan to join an overland trip that will take me through Zambia, Malawi, Zanzibar, Kenya, Tanzania, and Uganda.    


 

The Dream

This blog will document my adventures as I attempt to make one of my dreams a reality.  A dream to travel around the world for a year, volunteering in places I've yet to discover, experiencing exotic places I've never travelled to previously, making life long friendships with perfect strangers and rekindling old friendships with friends and family now scattered around the world.

I think I started to visualise this trip about 13 years ago when  I first experienced how liberating it was to give up my day job and live on the road.  My partner and I were moving from North America to Australia and we'd decided to take a 2 year break to experience exotic places we had only read about so far. That break, spent backpacking Europe for 3 months and later Asia for 4, was split up by spending a year teaching English in South Korea and finally living in Sri Lanka for a short time before migrating Down Under.  

I have been back on the road many times since then but they were shorter excursions, that included 3 months of 4 wheel driving around Australia, backpacking South America and going on safari to Africa.
When I look back on my life, many of the moments that took my breath away have been a memory from a place I travelled through, or a person I met while travelling.  I have marvelled at the instant connections I made with perfect strangers over a shared experience, that has lasted long after the excitement of the trip had faded.  I have often looked over photos of those distant places and felt transported back in time to the sights and smells of those exotic locations!

While on the road I have met many ordinary people living extraordinary lives and they've inspired me to live my own life a little differently.  This has resulted in a life experience stretched to more than 10 jobs on 3 continents always interspersed with interesting travel to faraway places.  I hope this blog will in turn inspire you, to question the purpose of your own life and ask if it is time to challenge yourself to do something a little outside your comfort zone!