The Magic of Travel

People make passing comments to me all the time about how brave I am for travelling to the other side of the world and that one question I always get is “Why did you do it?” Now those who have been travelling will understand the reasons but to try and explain it to someone who doesn’t have the “Travel Bug” for me it can be a little challenging so I just answer with a shrug saying “don’t know really the weather is a start”

So I thought I would write this to give you an insight to what it’s like travelling as a solo backpacker.

As you’ve seen already with my first couple of pictures i’ve given you a picture of travelling being 24/7 full of sight seeing and filled with harmony and laughter but there are times when it can be very lonely with nobody to help pass the time and you eventually start wondering whether you have made the right decision to jump to the other side of the world far away from your creature comforts.

I’ve compiled a list of 5 of what I would call annoyances of Travel but you just can’t escape it

1: Shared Rooms: As you have to save as much money as possible generally you have no choice but to stay in a dorm. Luckily I’ve not had any real bad experiences in the dorms i’ve stayed in but you do hear some horror stories of people arguing and people coming in at all hours of the night after a few drinks. (me on occasion i’ll have to admit) Snoring was the worst for me as at times you’re sharing a room with 8 blokes and half of them are snoring like a plane is about to land next to you. Definitely not good for my beauty sleep especially if I was working or on a long journey the next day.

2: Food: Being a backpacker on a budget you definitely become used to looking for the best deals possible in the supermarkets whether it would be super-noodles, Pasta or my Favourite 4 Kangaroo Burgers for $5 in Coles. I don’t think i’ll be able to eat tuna and rice again i’ve had enough of that to last me a lifetime. The lack of space to cook is difficult as hostel kitchens are generally quite small with hundreds of people trying to find the one gas hob that works. You also have to watch for the food thieves who steal your food.

3: Heat: My backpacking was done in Australia so it was extremely hot most of the time. I arrived in Cairns and the weather was sweltering in the tropics and i genuinely thought I was going to faint half the time I was walking around. The worst experience of heat was in a town called Glendambo in South Australia where at 8:30 at night it was still over 40 degrees so we went into the Roadhouse for a bite to eat and stayed in there for over an hour as we didn’t want to sleep in the car yet. Eventually we had to go to sleep and I was sweating that much my boxer shorts felt as if they had just been in a swimming pool. I genuinely thought i wasn’t going to wake up the next morning.

4: Living out of a Backpack: Don’t get me wrong living out of a backpack has it’s cool side but it can become a nightmare at times especially if you’re in a shared dorm and only having a tiny locker to put it in. My general hygiene is normal i would say but some others I would strongly disagree where some instances you can smell your room down the hallway due to the stench from some peoples bags. Also if you’re planning on moving from place to place every couple of days it can get tiresome having to pack and unpack your things all the time and especially taxing if the bag is heavy and you have a long walk ahead of you.

5: Boredom: Yes my friends you do get bored when travelling. I’m sure you’ve saw all my pictures on Facebook and Instagram where i’m having the time of my life but there are times when you feel like the day is passing you by, this would happen quite a bit especially if you were in a small town and the weather was bad so you would have nothing to do except plan for where you’re going next or start to think about back home which naturally happens if you’re all by yourself.

Where do you start there is so many positives that you can take from travelling. For me it’s having the total freedom to do whatever you want and you can move at your own pace without having to please anyone. Independence where your time and budget are completely your own and if you stay in a place where you don’t particularly like you can pack your bags and leave without any fuss it’s as simple as that. Meeting so many like minded people is such a positive where you know you already have something in common with them so it’s easy to make friends. For example on my 29th birthday I was only planning on having a quiet night at the hostel I was staying at as I was working that day but I was talking to a couple of people a few days before and i told them it was my birthday and they said we should “Go Out for A Bit” So by the time it was time to go out there was a big group of people there many whom i had never met up until that point but they were all friendly wishing me a happy birthday and there were all different nationalities with different cultures and backgrounds American, Canadian, German, Irish, English and Dutch. That’s the thing with travel expect the unexpected one minute you think you’re day is going somewhere then later it can change completely but the thing with travel is that the best thing is just to embrace it, make plans but be flexible to change.

For me I think having family on the other side of the world definitely made my decision a lot easier as I knew I had a good base to start from. From a personal perspective I was fed up of having the same routine, seeing the same people and talking about the same things. What travelling gives you is an opportunity to test yourself with new experiences and challenges. You broaden your horizons as you meet people with different ideas and views to your own and you have to be able to adapt to it. Travelling definitely makes you get in touch with yourself as you reflect on what you have done in your life up until that point. Each day is unique and being able to adapt to challenges as a traveller makes you understand who you are as a person and what you can and what you can’t put up with. Most importantly why I went travelling was just to have an adventure, never in my wildest dreams would I think I would be wondering the streets of New York or getting up at 5am to watch the sunrise over Ayers Rock it gives you that get up and go to do something positive with your life.

Absolutely you should travel. Now i’m fortunate enough not to have any ties at home where i’m restricted in where I can go but if you don’t the World is Your Oyster. My perspective is I don’t want to look back in 10–20 years and think what if I never travelled, what if I only spent my peak years in Scotland. Don’t get me wrong I love my friends and family but I believe that I wasn’t put on this earth just to stay in the one place so if you’re thinking about it just go it will be the best decision you’ve ever made and as I once said to an old friend “You’ve got to do what makes you Happy”

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