Backpacking baby!

Where on earth do I begin with this?

IT’S ONE OF THE BEST THINGS I’VE EVER DONE!!! Outside of my wedding day, having my son etc…And how bloody carefree to just pack a bag and jump on a plane with a round the world ticket for one year!

Now don’t get me wrong - it was fucking daunting/scary/nerve racking! But I have the fondest of memories from spending a year backpacking. It built up my confidence and took me out of my comfort zone numerous times by doing things I wouldn’t have dreamed of - things like skydiving, of course, but also just building up the courage to go and talk to a “stranger” and find that they were a like minded traveller on the same route. There were times when I wanted to go home to the places and people I knew, sure. But I’m so glad I didn’t. I’m so glad I, on occasion, had a word with myself and put myself out there. It was so incredibly rewarding!

I guess a good place to start is with my route; a classic round the world number;

Canada > N.America > Hawaii > Fiji > New Zealand > Australia > Singapore > Malaysia > Thailand

I actually started this trip with a guy I grew up and went to infant school with but for lots of reasons it didn’t work out and in some weird way (whilst extremely upsetting at the time) I think my trip was all the better for it. And vice versa. I was too comfortable with him - we stuck together and kept to ourselves 24/7. A recipe for disaster - when do you spend that much time with one person, you have to mix it up for yourself and each other.

Plus if we didn’t go our separate ways, I would have never have changed the dates of my flights and met my husband - a little bit of fate, no?! That’s for another post.

So 2-months into a years trip ahead of me, I had to put on my big girl pants and get right in amongst it - I was a shy girl, this was going to be hard! Living in London had helped with my confidence, but this was another level. I was on my own halfway across the world without any comfort from my family and friends.

At that point I was also stuck in New Orleans locked into driving someone else’s car close to 2,000 miles across the other side of the country to San Diego (a legitimate way of getting from A to B in America) in 8 days. I’m a confident driver but in a different country on the opposite side of the road? Not so much confidence! Now this is going to sound a little bit mad but at the time it kept me sane and focused on the job in hand - I spoke to my camcorder everyday! I filmed myself talking to myself about what I had done that day! HA! Watching it back was hilarious, it’s like I was Tom Hanks in Castaway, talking to Wilson the ball!! I phoned my Mum every night (who was naturally worried about me being on my own), regardless of the time difference she wanted to hear from me to know I’d made it across the next state. I finally made it to San Diego in the allocated time (whoop!) and found myself a backpacking hostel in Ocean Beach. Once there, I phoned my brother (who’d just returned from his own trip) who gave me the best bit of advice - meet people by making food in the kitchen!

The biggest misconception/worry I had about backpacking when travelling on your own was that everyone knew each other - they were all really good friends having a great time together. Not the case. They’d just met that day or the previous day. Thank fuck for that.

What makes me laugh is how times have changed (hello old lady!) - We didn’t have a mobile phone, we had to go to an internet cafe, no WiFi, dial up. To phone home you used an international dialing card. To meet people you had to speak to them to arrange a time/place and hope they’d be there. To book a hostel you had to turn up and move on to the next one if it was full. You had a proper camera, an i-pod with headphones connected to it and carried actual books around with you! Ahh the ease of travelling these days - WiFi everywhere, WhatsApp, social media; so many ways of getting in touch.

From San Diego, it just got better and better - (here come the backpacking cliches…) I made some amazing friends, I got drunk A LOT (mainly on beer and wine from a box) and fully immersed myself into most things that were on offer - skydiving, bungee jumping, river rafting, glacier climbing, boat trips to see whales/dolphins, snorkeling, turtle spotting, full moon parties, karaoke nights…the time of my life.

So much so that I went home with Jack Johnson and Pete Murray on my I-pod, a love for beer (and the belly to show it), a tonne of dodgy DVDs from Thailand, a full on tan that to this day I’ve never been able to replicate, 100s of photos on discs, a well worn pair of flip flops, new like minded friends and a head full of memories. Oh and a boyfriend to complete the set.

Now I just needed to get back into work to fund the next trip…bring on the long-haul holidays!!