Travel now not tomorrow

  People often are shocked that I travel alone. “What do you do at meals?” they ask. I eat and watch people. It is not difficult. Women have been travelling alone for centuries. Ida Pfeiffer is one of my favourite Victorian era travellers. She was a widow whose children had grown and, in 1852, she set out for the Holy Land. She was robbed and cheated but came home exhilarated. She tells of crossing the Nile to visit the Pyramids. Two large powerful men stood side by side; I mounted on their shoulders, and was held fast by their heads, while they supported my feet in an horizontal position above the waters, which at some places reached almost to their armpits, so that I feared every moment that I should sit in the water. On her return to Germany, Ida couldn’t settle back into her old life. She sold her belongings and set off around the world, financing her trips by writing of her adventures. Another woman traveller I admire is Isabella Bird. She shed the role of family spinst...

Poor environment, bad weather or dismal economic opportunities can all lead someone to pack their bags and push off to a new life.   When this happens, we leave with optimism for change, opportunity, sunshine, the good things of life. Sometimes, we believe that leaving home will somehow change us. This is not uncommon after a loss such as death, divorce or redundancy. In this situation, we often travel alone. There are no compromises to be made when you travel solo. This type of travel is about escaping, changing surroundings and our daily schedules and gaining freedom from whatever we feel chains us. However, we can be pulled towards the new, because that is where we want to be. Escaping in the name of adventure. Heading out to an airport, train station or long-range bus terminal can give some of us a thrill. Escaping to where no one knows your name.   Oftentimes, we are warned against this type of journey. However, as Paul Coelho points out: “If you think adventure is da...

 Why do some of us yearn to get away Why do we travel? What makes one person want to set off into the unknown, while the next is perfectly content at home? I knew nothing of the outside world when I was young. However, I remember a cousin saying her family might move to America. I was immediately jealous. Not because I would miss her, but because I wanted to go in her place. I knew nothing of America, only that it was somewhere else, somewhere new, and I was ready to go there. A few years later, I was about eleven, and I told my granny that when I grew up, I wanted to travel. “Oh no,” she told me, with a scowl. “The men in the family travel, the women stay at home.” I still remember the stillness in the air when she said those words. I thought I had stopped breathing. But I didn’t argue with her. No one argued with granny. I simply knew that I had to find a way to bypass the women who stayed at home. Thankfully, when I was 15, a speaker visited an after-school club and she gave m...