As I fly back to Sydney my mind travels back to April 2010, when I started this journey….
I had felt a little stressed as my friend Andrew drove me to the airport. I felt unsure about what lay ahead and my decision to travel solo. Was I completely crazy to have thought of travelling for so long? Did I have everything I needed in my backpack? Would I feel lonely?
As I travel home to my friend Steven who will be at the airport to pick me up, I feel elated, excited and joyful. It has been an amazing year. Better than I had expected. While there were many things that might have gone wrong - riots I might have been caught up in, luggage that might have gone missing, stuff that might have got stolen, flights I might have missed…I have been incredibly fortunate. Some of the countries I travelled through are now in turmoil. Yet after travelling through what others might call risky destinations, I complete my time away with beautiful memories; of friendly locals, amazing travel companions, wonderful photographs and stories that will keep me and my friends entertained in my old age!
When I look back on this year, I can say that I have truly accomplished my dream and been true to my goal:
A year spent stepping outside the established routine of my comfort zone to explore the realm of fresh possibilities along the road less travelled….
This year away has enriched my life with new friends from around the world, new experiences in places I had only dreamt of visiting previously, interactions with people from all walks of life, and a new found confidence in myself! The world truly became my oyster. I have re-discovered the free spirit in myself and when I look back I can say it was a year in which I truly lived life to the fullest.
I can now tick off my long-term goal of spending time on every continent before I turned 50. With the exception of Antarctica where I only spent a few weeks, I have now spent at least 3 months travelling through the 6 other continents. With the completion of this journey, I have visited more than 50 countries and taken more photographs than I care to think about! I have spent time with countless locals who showed me there are wonderful people the world over and shattered any preconceptions I might have had.
The highlights have included many challenges and activities I had never done before:
- Watching the sunrise at Angkor Wat - Cambodia
- Enjoying a mud bath - Vietnam
- Cruising the Mekong River in a long boat - Laos to Thailand
- Bamboo rafting in hill tribe territory – Thailand
- Eating crabs with my mom in Jaffna - Sri Lanka
- Four wheel driving in Dubai - UAE
- Trekking impenetrable jungles to interact with mountain gorillas – Uganda
- Photographing the Drakensberg mountains and visiting friends and family - South Africa
- Tracking hyenas and cheetahs - Namibia
- Hot air ballooning over the wildebeest migration in the Massai Mara – Kenya
- Camping in the Serengeti –Tanzania
- Dancing at the full moon party – Zanzibar
- Swimming in Lake Malawi at night - Malawi
- Walking with lions & a micro light flight over Victoria Falls – Zambia
- Interactive drumming - Zimbabwe
- Floating on the Dead Sea – Egypt
- Exploring Petra - Jordan,
- Enjoying a Turkish bath - Syria
- Hot air ballooning in Cappadocia – Turkey
- Re-connecting with my cousin & attending classical music concert – London
- Strolling the streets of the Falkland Islands
- Observing the penguin colonies - South Georgia,
- Touching the rocks of Antarctica
- Camping, Riding, Hiking the Torres del Paine – Chile
- Ice Climbing & a glacier walk in Videma Glacier – Argentina
- Reuniting with old friends in New Zealand AND
- Falling in Love Again – Sydney
Yes, that’s right…even as I complete this journey, and travel home in time to celebrate my birthday, a new journey awaits me in Sydney. I fly home to my best friend Steven, who unbeknownst to me, became single just before I set off on my journey. While I have known him as a friend for more than 6 years, I re-connected with him on a deeper level via emails and skype while travelling in Turkey, about 2 months ago!
He was one of those friends who always kept in touch, supported and encouraged me in all my endeavours. Over these past couple of months our friendship transitioned into a deep love for each other that was based on the foundation of mutual trust and respect, built on the 6 years of friendship that preceded it.
I hope our partnership will take us down a far more interesting path than I have ever travelled previously. Our new journey together is completely unmapped for now but I know it will include foreign shores, exciting challenges and more unexplored territory.
Many of us put off living our lives till we reach retirement, till we find that perfect person to live it with, till the weekend, till we win the lottery, till the kids leave home. I want to share with you that the time to live your life is NOW! When your start living your dream, everything else actually does fall into place. The Universe never fails to deliver, when you go in search of your destiny.
Remember that the greatest risk of all, is a life of riskless living!
I always wanted to share my life with a person who shared my passion for living. I started this journey not just to discover places I had never explored previously, but also to discover myself and to rediscover love.
It is amazing to think that my year of living life to the fullest will culminate in the beginning of a new dream. The start of a new journey with a man who is not afraid to live an unconventional life. A man who is not afraid to think outside the square and live life outside the rigid bounds that society and people incapable of lateral thinking impose on us…
A man travels the world over in search of what he needs and returns home to find it. ~George Moore
Epilogue: I would like to send out a very special thank you to all of you who made comments on my blog, wrote messages on my wall and sent me emails about my adventures and photographs. Your emails, stories and photos from your lives at home were incredibly important to me and helped me stay connected to my life back home. I thank you for keeping in touch, for your encouragement and support. I truly appreciated it.
Thank you as well to all of you who listened to me as I planned this trip and then helped me through the months and the years of upheaval leading up to this journey. Thank you to my managers who gave me a year off to rest and rejuvenate. I feel inspired and ready to tackle whatever new challenges might await me at work, although the thought of returning to a day job is daunting!
Thank you to Shane Wallbank, from Flight Centre, who helped me plan the year and booked all my flights – you did an amazing job. It has been an incredible journey with absolutely no hiccups!
Thank you to all the travellers, tour guides and friends and family, I met or re-connected with along the way. The instant connections one makes with perfect strangers who then become life long friends is one of the most enjoyable fruits of travel. The travellers I met were brave, courageous people who were adaptable and flexible enough to travel rough in places very different to the places they called home. We helped each other through many sticky situations and always shared a laugh. I thank you for your friendship and look forward to the reunions, some of which are already planned!
And so sadly, I think it is time to close this blog. Please do send me an email if you have any comments on my blog, questions on my journey, or anything to share . I would love to hear from you: travelbug62@gmail.com
I will keep you informed if I do start up a new blog. I still have a month at home before I start work, but I think I might take a break from blogging to truly rest, have a holiday(!) and enjoy the start of my new journey!
Steven Covey wrote that it was important to value a child for his/her own uniqueness rather than base it on motives that stem from internal sources of security based on our children's ‘acceptable’ behaviour.
I would like to dedicate this year to my beautiful mom, who always kept in touch in spirit, via emails and skype and has always supported me in my mad schemes and valued my uniqueness!
– Thank you.
No comments:
Post a Comment