Roughing it? - Why

I promised to tell you a bit more about our plans so here we go.

We love travelling. By travelling I mean just about everything that goes with it, from deciding where we want to go and researching the place to sitting on trains or driving around, taking in the surroundings, people, culture and trying to experience and learn as many new things as we can possibly squeeze in. When driving, we tend to avoid main roads and highways, looking for dirt tracks and winding country roads instead. We also love to plan our travels on old-fashioned printed maps. Sat-nav is great once you already know where you want to go, but nothing beats having a huge map unfolded on the carpet, plotting your next trip.

Geothermal area Haukadalur in Iceland

Probably the only thing we do not like is the actual booking of travel. It might be just us, but sometimes I feel we are spending hours on the Internet, trying to research flights, tickets and hotels, only to come back a day later and repeat the whole exercise again, before finally settling on something we saw right at the beginning. Rant over. Actually, thinking about it, there is one other thing I am not a massive fan of and that is the unpacking. Packing, however tedious, generally precedes the promise of something new and exciting. The problem with unpacking is, it screams ‘holidays over, it's all work from now on’. But other than that, we love travelling!

Depending on where you live, some places can be seen, and to some extent ‘experienced’, in a day or weekend, without contributing to the depletion of your holiday allowance. For others you might need to take off a week or two, and you will still leave feeling you have not quite had enough time. Then there are those where you know you need more than the standard holiday slot. And for all of the above, isn’t it so much better exploring a place and knowing that should you bump into someone with a ‘must do/see’ tip or just see something that takes your fancy, you can spend a couple more days, weeks or months there, without risking the ‘no show’ consequences at work?

Iguacu Falls in Argentina

When working, The Duke and I give it more than hundred percent. As a consultant, my work is often based ‘out of town’, only being at home at weekends. Whilst this is a challenge in my private life, it also makes me more flexible about working late nights during the week knowing, there is not exactly a queue of friends wanting to have a drink with me after work or The Duke running me a hot bath (note for The Duke –take note). Great for work but not exactly a sustainable lifestyle in the long run. Contrary to what my career choice might suggest, my private life is extremely important to me and I want to make sure I spend it doing things I enjoy with people I love, without being limited to weekends or a couple of fortnight-long holidays a year. ‘Work hard, play hard’.

Vulcanic Lake Viti in Iceland

We believe that embarking on a long adventure around the World will allow us to finally see those places we have so far only read about and give us enough time to divert off the beaten truck to more authentic areas, being truly able to soak up the local culture and spirit of the places. Some of the most memorable and unique experiences happened to me during my back-packing years whilst at university, and I want to not only recreate it for myself but also introduce The Duke to this unpredictable and highly addictive way of exporing the World.

Now you are probably wondering when we are actually planning to go. Unfortunately this is not as easy as picking a date so we will tell you more about it in our next post.