How many times have you looked at a brochure and said to yourself one day…. Why?
You should start today making plans to do what it is that you will do one day! Start small and cast off the bowlines, set sail in the direction that you know you want to go. Don’t be scared when you are blown off course from time to time.
Refocus daily and turn your dreams into reality.
Getting on with the getting on…
Planning ahead can be difficult when there are so many places that we want to visit.
Each week Elena longs for Saturday morning as this is the one time she gets to sleep in and then props herself up in bed with a cup of tea and covers the bed with travel magazines and her Kindle. She has a favourites atlas I bought back in the mid 90’s as a reference guide and the planning sets in. She would stay there until 11am. That’s how we plan. Elena also takes over the computer once I fall asleep and reads travel blogs until the small hours of the morning.
Tasks
We set certain roles for each other to do, Elena’s role is more administration, finance and sorting out the clearing of the debts so that we can get on the road.
My role is to finish decorating the house and to get it sold. When I’m too tired to be swinging a paint brush I sit and load all that you are reading and hopefully enjoying.
The Bucket list came about quite naturally as we started to realize that this crazy idea of travelling full time could be reached by making simple adjustments in our lifestyle.
Mentally we are ready to go, it’s just the localized debts now that hold us here, once these are gone….
So are we.
Elena’s List
Place: South / West Africa
Why: Game parks- I want to sleep on safari and hear the roar of lions at night & West is untouched by the regular tourist.
Place: North Korea
Why: Fascinated about visiting a country that still lives by a regime under which I grew up.
Place: Iran
Why: To take an Intrepid Tour through one of the oldest civilizations on earth.
Place: Turkey
Why: Mountains, Sea, Cappadocia and history. I want to see why my friend rave about this place so much.
Place: Rio, Brazil
Why: To dance in the streets during the annual Carnival
Things I wish to do.
- Learn a new language
- Choose when and where I work
- Enjoy my lifestyle on a smaller income
- Start a new hobby (photography, art etc)
- Get involved in foreign exchange and shares
- Travel and live in different countries and cultures
- Do study – correspondence or day courses
- Lead a healthy life through diet and exercise programs
- Less TV and more outdoors
- Get involved with like minded people
- Be happy with what I have and not to take life for granted
- Save and buy everything for cash
- Be excited and content with not working a regular job
- Find new activities with Wayne to keep our relationship interesting
- Let our friends be jealous of our experiences, not our possessions
- Have a more responsible “green” lifestyle
Wayne’s List
Place: Machu Picchu
Why: Ever since I first saw a picture of this place I knew I wanted to go there. The plan is to walk there and not take the train
Place: Cali, Colombia
Why: We have a friend there that we have never met and for the last couple of years we have said we are coming. Time to make it real
Place: Patagonia, Argentina
Why: To see some of the world’s greatest glaciers before they disappear forever
Place: Petra, Jordan
Why: The architecture of buildings carved out of solid rock and the sheer size and age amaze me
Things I wish to do.
- Live in Bali for at least 6 months
- Travel through China
- Walk up to Machu Picchu in South America
- Motorbike around Australia
- Live in Russia for 6 months
- Motorbike across America
- Spend an hour each day walking with Elena in the countryside of wherever we are
- Learn photography
- Have an hour each day to write
- Have the freedom to be here today and gone tomorrow
- Have friends over for the weekend in Bali
- Motor home around the South Island of New Zealand
- Teach English in a foreign country
- Create new friendships around the world
- Be more creative and spend time painting on canvas, mosaic and craft.
- Spend more time with my children
- Work on a volunteer aid project