About

I’ve always had a passion for travel.  I remember as a little girl, playing in the garden and looking up at the planes flying overhead (as they do frequently in London) and longing to be on one, going somewhere.  I’ve always known that I wouldn’t stay in London, but didn’t quite no where I wanted to end up. I still don’t, but that’s more to do with the feeling that I don’t really want to ‘end up’ anywhere.  I want to live in many different places and travel to many more.  I want life to feel like an adventure, not a chore to get through day after day.

I took my first round the world trip at 18 before going to university.  With little idea as to what I could expect from the experience, I kept to the  relatively easy destinations of Australia, New Zealand, Hawaii,  California, Colorado and New York.  I came home  six months later absolutely hooked on the feelings of freedom and discovery.

Sarah and Alan in Thailand

After three years at University, sustaining some very itchy feet, I was able to take off again.  This time with my partner.  Together we strung together a series of family holidays in the US and New Zealand, hostelling in Australia and beach bumming and cultural wonderment in Asia through Bali, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand.

In March of 2009 dwindling bank account balances and a Jury Service summons found us back in the UK.  However, we’d both decided that England doesn’t offer the lifestyle we’re looking for and so we’re currently plotting and planning for our next adventures.

Why I’ve decided to write about my travels

Throughout both of my round the world trips I kept in touch with friends and family at home through regular email updates.  What started out as quick reassuring messages that I was still alive turned into long and meandering essays about my experiences.  It meant that not only was I able to keep everyone updated on my adventures quickly and efficiently, but I then had a wonderful collection of memories from my trip when I got home.  I’ve no committment to keeping a written journal, but with the feeling that others were waiting for my updates it gave me purpose to write them.

So, for this trip I decided to start in advance and keep track of everything from the planning to the packing and beyond.

The trip

A lack of continued employment combined with a high cost of living in London has kept us at home far longer than either of us had anticipated.  It’s a tough pill to swallow to realise that even having been home for 15 months, we’re now looking at another 12 before we will be able to make the dreams of the next trip into a reality.  Although the plan themselves have changed about 37 times, we now have some semblance of a plan: In July 2011 we intend to fly over to North America stop in and visit friends and family in Canada and the US before travelling down through Central America to South America.  While there we hope to fit in some Spanish lessons, volunteering, visit some ancient ruins and have a whole bunch of giggles.  When the money is running low we plan to be running over to New Zealand to do a working holiday visa to sustain our travel around the beautiful country including some of their great walks.  After that?  Who knows?!  Money allowing, we have plans to see more of Asia.  But we shall see.

For now we are absorbed in the planning and the saving; struggling to put away as much money as possible to keep us travelling for as long as we can.  Follow us as we stumble through visa applications, finding volunteer placements and learning Spanish.

Please feel free to leave me comments.  I love to hear from other travellers, prospective travellers or anyone else stopping by my site.