““All journeys have secret destinations of which the traveler is unaware.” – Martin Buber

Packing!

23 Nov 2011 | No Comments | posted by Intrepid Explorer | in Before We Left Home

Though we don’t leave on the Round the World trip until January, we have to move out of our flat in the next week, so we are in a packing frenzy at the minute. We’ll be spending a few weeks at a friends house, and then we head down to the family for the holidays. I hate moving normally, so you can imagine this is the all time worst version of it, as we dont get to unpack at the other end! Our stuff is piled into three different piles – Stuff that is going on the trip (everything from clothes to medicines to newly purchased travel towels), Stuff that is heading to our friends house who have kindly offered us a place to stay for the next few weeks, and the Stuff that is going down to the folks house for storage. Lol, it sounds easy, but there are far too many things that we need now that will then go into storage, and some things we wont need for the next few weeks, but will need before we go. Crazy, eh? Wish us luck!

The Bucket List

11 Nov 2011 | No Comments | posted by Intrepid Explorer | in Before We Left Home

This round the world trip is a massive adventure for us, something people call ‘once in a lifetime’. And it got me thinking about Bucket Lists. You know, the things you want to do before you die (or kick the bucket). While I’ve never had a formal list written down, it struck me that this trip will actually be ticking off quite a few for me.

Visiting all seven continents - I can still remember, about 12 years old, stating that I was going to get to all seven continents before i was 21. While I was quite lucky in having a flight attendant mother, I dont think I ever realised just how hard that last one was going to be. So, it might not be 21, but hey 36 isnt so bad and we’ll be stepping foot on the Antarctic peninsula in January.

Becoming fluent in a second language – I think it’s pretty sad that most native english speakers don’t speak a second language. Everyone else learns English at such an early age in schools and our two years when we hit 14 or so doesnt really cut it. I took five years of Spanish, but with lack of practice, you get rusty. I’m hoping four months of speaking daily, will get me to the point of fluency.

Visiting more of the world’s wonders – I’ve been to the Colosseum in Rome and the Taj Mahal in India. On this trip we’ll take in the majesty of Macchu Piccu in Peru, the statue of Christ The Redeemer in Rio and walk along the Great Wall of China.

Swimming with Great Whites – I tried to do this the last time I was in Cape Town, but the weather was too bad. I have two stops there on this trip, so I have all my fingers crossed!

Visiting the Galapagos Islands and Madagascar – I love the idea of places evolving without other contact. The Galapagos is just meant to be another world, and to see what nature can do will be fantastic. And as Thomas Jansson (our Intrepid Mascot) can attest, I’m a big fan of lemurs and can’t wait to see them in their natural habitat.

That’s just what I can think of in my virtual list for now! I’m sure there will be more to come!

Why Now?

10 Nov 2011 | 1 Comment | posted by Intrepid Explorer | in Before We Left Home

Everyone we’ve spoken to has been really positive about our decision to take off a full year and see the world, but it’s been a something that’s been brewing for a long time. I went travelling in 2002, and Jon had been on some serious adventures (climbing Kilimanjaro for one), but we’d never been together. We were saving for our wedding last year and then just kept saving, not really knowing what the money was going to be for. We could buy a house, move to the USA, start a family, or possibly go travel.

At the end of the summer, we sat down and talked about what we wanted out of the next few years. A family is on the cards, but we realised that we really had one opportunity to do something amazing and selfish, just for the two of us. If we didnt go and see the world now, it wouldn’t be for another 18 years that we could do something of this magnitude. So, we said ‘Let’s go for it!’ We told our respective jobs, our friends, family and landlord, and now we’re packing up the house and getting ourselves ready!

It’s scary, exhilirating, amazing, and terrifying all at once. Wish us luck!