I think I got bitten with the travel bug when I used to meet “holiday makers” coming to the self-catering cottages on our farm. It was always a source of interest to me where they had come from, and the different accents they brought.
When I was older my mother suggested that I look into a career in the travel industry, and the rest as they say is history. But for a few deviations my entire career has been associated with the hospitality industry, with the majority of time spent on the tour operator or travel agency side of the business.
My own travels have taken me to Southern and East Africa many times, as well as a number of destinations within Asia, Europe, Mexico and the Caribbean, and the most recently to Colombia.
Originally from the Highlands of Scotland, I am now a recent transplant to the US Pacific Northwest, following a long and very enjoyable stop in Texas. My goal is to live a life where every day is satisfying and enjoyable, I am inevitably pulled back “on the road” and itchy feet lead me on another adventure.
I think that travel allows us to experience things a new, and while in that space and time we are also given the chance to grow, and dream. Maybe it’s the fact that when we travel we are outside of the routine, or out of our comfort zone, and that forces us to live more mindfully. Whatever it is there is something that we seem to find and learn while traveling that we don’t easily find in our day to day life. Perhaps it’s right there every day but we’re preoccupied by the minutia. Whatever it is, traveling seems to allow us to see others, and even ourselves in a different light, and that can be transformational.
My first trip to Southern Africa was many years ago now, but I remember the excitement of it as if it was yesterday. I felt like I was 12 again, in the best possible way. Old enough to know that there was nothing under the bed, but young enough to still believe that there might be. The anticipation and excitement that I felt the first night sleeping under canvas in the African bush is still as fresh today. The exhilaration, the awe, the nervousness, the wonder! It really was truly magical. It made every sense come alive, and it started a love affair that has not waned yet.
The world IS magical. Whether it’s the African savannah, or the streets of Varanasi in India. There is so much to see and experience my wish list just gets longer the more I travel.
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