The Love of Travelling

There is something special about travelling. The experiences. The memories.

Travelling combines my loves. I love geography, road trips, exploring.  

In every country I see people living their lives. Many people all around the planet all doing their own thing. Given enough time, humans find it possible to adjust to almost anything, good or bad. Some people having a blast with little. I see that life is what we choose to make of it.

All countries have the good and the bad. All forms of government have the good and the bad. All experiences have the good and the bad.

I need to take a break at least once an year. I also feel that I haven't spent enough time travelling as I would have liked and want to do more.

Travelling does make me feel somewhat fulfilled. I prefer to be in a dirty boat in the middle of the sea than in my job. However, even though I enjoy travelling, my energy and happiness levels are not as high as they have the potential to be.

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2022 update:

I drew a map of all the countries in the world when I was around 5

I scored in the top percentile in the Geography Competition in school when I saw other kids taking it and decided to try it out

I read the Melways (street directory) all day long and followed all the major roads on my city. I used to have a favourite road and would play games with the roads. I thought I would take the Melways with me if I was held somewhere

I volunteered for a charity for children with disabilities as one of my motivations was going on trips and camps

I knew every suburb in my city and then proceeded to visit every suburb in my city

I then visited every major town in my state

I then visited every major city in my country

I then visited every major country in the world

I want to visit every geographical land mass

I take photos of all the landscapes through the plane window

I visited many far flung places just to see the geography

I visited over 1000 cities and 100 countries

I love looking at maps

My favourite Facebook widget was Cities I have visited by TripAdvisor and I was always excited pinning cities and being higher on the list than my friends

My favourite day in my life was visiting Window of the World in Shenzhen where I could visit miniature versions of the famous attractions of the world

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Along with mountaineering where over 6,500 people have now summitted Everest, extreme travel has taken off in recent years.

In 2017 Cassie de Pecol became perhaps the second woman to have visited every country in the world. In the space of five years, we have witnessed around 15 to 20 women achieve this feat.

When Harry Mitsidis, founder of Nomad Mania, completed every country in the world in 2008, only around 20 people had completed it. As of 2022, there are 280 to 300 names on Nomad Mania and Most Travelled People. Add in people who don't participate in these communities, and the number could be 400 to 500.

For me travelling has been an addiction. Watching many people travelling inspires curiosity, jealousy, and some bitterness. This year travelling has been more draining for me than enjoyable. While travelling, I don't feel the same joy as I used to. There are other things that are important. As Mitsidis said 'So many of the big travellers are single or divorced and that's fine if it's a choice but for me, the art of being a traveller is to successfully keep my foot in both camps'