2 travellers
13 Countries
8 volunteer projects
12,478 blog views
2 cameras
4 billion photographs
2 cameras
4 billion photographs
1 parasite
4,357,805 mosquito bites
4,357,805 mosquito bites
2 pairs of flipflops
379 days
1 wedding proposal
136 rambling blog posts
1 pretty awesome year!
Life is a funny thing and no matter how you chose to steer
it, you can’t always direct its course: The dice rolls, you look at the number
and you consider your next move.
Over the course of our year away, we have met so many people
who do not have the freedom that we have to explore this planet or the liberty
to make the decisions that Brodie and I have. We were reminded for the
millionth time how fortunate we are that by sheer chances of fate, we were born
as citizens with the freedom of travel, in a country where your income on a
global scale makes you rich and life abroad affordable, into a liberal culture
that embraces independence, and into loving, supportive families who will
support us along our journey. It is from this perspective that we found
ourselves looking down at a new roll of the dice and making the decision to
return home.
I remember writing my first blog 54 weeks ago in the airport
lounge of Heathrow in a strange melancholic haze that was the result of an
emotional hangover from too many goodbyes, and fortified by an overwhelming and
thrilling sense of impending adventure. Have I changed much since then? In some
ways, yes…indescribably. In some ways not at all. On the surface I don’t think
you’d find me much different…although as Claire likes to point out, I’ve
softened my Ts (a habit I must quit), I have long hair and for once in my life
I have a tan (not that you could see it under my nasty restrictive British winter
clothes-who invented skinny jeans?!!). My feet now have an aversion to shoes,
and I seem to crave tea as if my British roots are clawing at me to stay put.
But these things are all superficial.
I don’t think you can spend a year on the road and fail to
change. Without trying to sound clichéd, I like to think I’ve broadened my
horizons, fine-tuned my ideas and my ideals and have perhaps a more balanced
outlook on the world. Wow that did sound clichéd.
You hear people talk about how their travels have uplifted them and how they were inspired and reassured by the things they have seen and people they met. On this I am split.
You hear people talk about how their travels have uplifted them and how they were inspired and reassured by the things they have seen and people they met. On this I am split.
On the one hand I have just finished probably the most
wondrous, explosive, awe-inspiring and fulfilling years of my life. But…the
more I travelled the more I observed, and the more I observed, the more I felt
an impending sense of tragedy. We are a desperate race, facing a toxic cocktail
of problems which we are so far from sorting out, or in many cases even
engaging with, that it just frightens…no it petrifies
me. The insane rates of deforestation, the over-farming, the over-fishing, the
poverty, the lack of healthcare, the poor sanitation, the lack of education,
the illegal poaching, the shark-finning, the invasive species, the littering
(OH-MY-GOD THE LITTERING!!), the crazy extinction rates, the frightening decline
in biodiversity and increase in monoculture, the insane levels of pollution (of
the sea, the soil, the sky) the need to feed our 7.4 billion people and our
increasingly demanding appetites, increasing drought, increasing flood risk,
the greed, selfishness, sheer ignorance and severe apathy of our leaders to do
anything tangible about it…Our world is turning (has turned?!) into a giant
landfill, we just don’t realise it in the UK as we’re so good at burying it or
leaving it to squander in the bottom of our oceans where we can’t see it.
Yes, sadly, my overwhelming emotion when I think about the
state of the world and where it is headed, is one of hopelessness, and my year
travelling through it has just heightened this sentiment in me.
So do I think we really are a hopeless case?...I am
claustrophobic with the crushing reality of what we are doing to our world, and
the overwhelming sense of responsibility we have as citizens of a rich nation,
and as world citizens, to do something about it….
However, a friend recently told me about the idea of a
Eucatastrophe –a phrase coined by JR Tolkein to mean the sudden turn of events
that rapidly alters the course of fate for the better (as demonstrated
beautifully at the end of Lord of The Rings). I have a perhaps naïve faith that
some big changes will happen soon that will switch the course of our demise.
They have to, otherwise I think our outlook really is hopeless. But I do think
people are switching on to environmental and climate issues and we now have
platforms for communication that were never open to us before, so I think it is
our responsibility to make these things visible-we can’t just sit by and wait
for change to happen. Since being home, I have heard so much more about
renewable energy, about climate change, about environmental policy, about address packaging problems, about the
carbon footprint of food, about addressing waste issues…. the tide does feel
like it’s starting to turn, and I hope the increasing profile of these issues will begin to gain
in momentum. We need to reach that tipping point where picking the green option is financially beneficial, and thinking environmentally becomes the norm...on a Governmental level and a local level (Al Gore gave a nice Ted Talk on this point if you have a spare few minutes).
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| Backpack hugs are the best kind of hugs! |
This year, Brodie and I have been indescribably blessed to
have had the pleasure of meeting and getting to know a simply awe-inspiring
army of world warriors, who have devoted their lives to making this world a
better place: Victoria, Tina, Shavez, Bazillah, Ryan, David, Jackie, Martin, Janet,
Samban, Lucie, Yo, Tom, Linda, Frank, Nat, Caroline, Jack, Euginio, Noé among others…Not to
mention many of the woofers, volunteers and friends we’ve met along the way who
share their passion and their ideals and will hopefully carry their messages
back to their home countries. To you all, thank you for having the discussions
that other people don’t want to have, for living the life we should all lead,
for confronting the issues we face, and for leading by example. I am motivated,
humbled, inspired by you, and I am honoured to know you, and to call you
friends. These are the kind of people who will change our world, and they are
the roots, however small, and however hidden amongst the weeds, that make me
believe that something beautiful can still grow in this world, and that there
can be some hope for its future.
Biologists and environmentalists are often criticized for
caring more about trees than they do about people. These things aren’t mutually
exclusive. They are absolutely, categorically and intrinsically linked to one
another. I am a teacher, I care tremendously about people. I care about my
unborn children, about their unborn children, and I care about your unborn
children, but if we neglect to preserve the world around us, then how can we
provide a future for them? Without our natural resources we can’t begin to
start addressing the human-related problems we have.
Do I feel satisfied by our own efforts this year? Not at
all! I have flown more times this year than in the previous 5 years combined,
and if everyone in the world kept up the same rate we would be in a severe
state. That has to change. This year we have seen so much litter, and such a
devastatingly apathetic attitude towards litter almost everywhere we’ve gone,
that we cannot have failed to have reflected on our own resource use….I now
cringe at how ignorant I was about this before I left. I have always recycled,
used my own bags and dutifully put my rubbish in the bin as I’m sure most of
you do, but this is simply not enough. Our global use of plastics is
mind-blowing and the amount of waste we produce is simply sickening. We need to
address this and we need to address this quickly. It starts at home, in the way
we choose to live, in the conversations we have, in the decisions we make when
we buy products, in the way we bring up our kids. As the very wise Nelson Mandela once said, "Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world." -this trip has made me acutely aware of my role as a teacher and my responsibility to raise the awareness of these issues amongst our next generation. It's not their fault we've messed it up, but it's going to be up to them to help fix it.
So despite the sad fact that my net impact on the planet
this year is most-likely a negative one, I hope that I have learnt enough from
my travels that through the decisions I make moving forward, my future impact
on the Earth will be a much smaller one than it would have been otherwise. As
Tolstoy once said, "Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no-one thinks of changing himself." I have a long way to go.
Anyway, enough of the heavy stuff, the fact remains that we
have had a simply mind-blowingly insanely spectacularly outstanding year of
adventures which would normally fill up a few life-times.
We have walked, hiked, Zumba-ed, cycled, driven, go-karted, swung, flown, run, crawled, motorbiked, moped-ed, cable-car-ed, swum, climbed, sky-dived, jumped, snorkelled, camper-vanned, volcano-boarded, ridden on horse-back, sailed, kayaked, canoed, trucked, zip-lined, bused, tuk-tuked surfed and skipped across 13 different countries. We have blundered our way through 9 different languages, confuddled our brains with 14 different currencies and worked our butts off for 8 different projects. We have climbed magnificent mountains, we have shuffled our feet through white sand, yellow sand, grey sand, black sand…We have scrambled through spider webs, crawled through caves, snorkelled in crystal clear waters, jumped off waterfalls, swung from rope-swings and wobbled across rope bridges, been spooked by scorpions, teased tarantulas and provoked poboscis monkeys, watched 360° thunderstorms from a boat on the Kinabatangan, partied into the New Year on a tropical beach, got engaged on the most beautiful lake, under the most beautiful sea of stars, and cycled naked through the streets of New Zealand!
We have walked, hiked, Zumba-ed, cycled, driven, go-karted, swung, flown, run, crawled, motorbiked, moped-ed, cable-car-ed, swum, climbed, sky-dived, jumped, snorkelled, camper-vanned, volcano-boarded, ridden on horse-back, sailed, kayaked, canoed, trucked, zip-lined, bused, tuk-tuked surfed and skipped across 13 different countries. We have blundered our way through 9 different languages, confuddled our brains with 14 different currencies and worked our butts off for 8 different projects. We have climbed magnificent mountains, we have shuffled our feet through white sand, yellow sand, grey sand, black sand…We have scrambled through spider webs, crawled through caves, snorkelled in crystal clear waters, jumped off waterfalls, swung from rope-swings and wobbled across rope bridges, been spooked by scorpions, teased tarantulas and provoked poboscis monkeys, watched 360° thunderstorms from a boat on the Kinabatangan, partied into the New Year on a tropical beach, got engaged on the most beautiful lake, under the most beautiful sea of stars, and cycled naked through the streets of New Zealand!
We’ve learnt how to cut vines, plant trees, drive a speed
boat, use a machete, propagate bushes, build a house, identify frogs, cut wood,
mix cement, crowd-fund, collect seeds, use bench saws, master (ish) an electric
drill, cut forest trails, learnt what is meant by a “3-by-2”, identify monkey
pee, plan events, plaster walls and cook vegetarian food for fussy American
kids.
We’ve smiled, we’ve screamed, we’ve whispered, we’ve cheered
and we’ve whooped, we’ve absorbed, we’ve laughed, we’ve loved.
We have been blown away by the wildlife: from the tiny
little insects to the magnificent swooping eagles, from the naughty little
monkeys to 500 year old trees: from the intricate orchids to the sexy little
vine snakes, from the extraordinary tree frogs to the giant bees, from 5 meter–long pythons, iridescent worms, luminescent plankton, glow in the
dark fungus, bug-eyed tarsiers, to sleepy (green!!) sloths…WOWEE what an
absolute feast for a biologist!!
We have shared our journey with so many extraordinary people
–some who we will inevitably forget, and others who will stay with us forever…all of
whom we have learnt from in one way or another.
I will not miss the dorm rooms, packing (and unpacking) my bag, changing
beds, rice and beans, hairy legs, spotty foreheads, booking.com, rolling my
eyes at insanely dull conversations about how many places you’ve visited in 2
weeks with 21 year old backpackers….
…But I will miss the intense freedom, the independence, the
adventure, meeting new people from all corners of the world, learning about new
places…the history, the people, the culture, the wildlife…trying new foods, the
sounds of the jungle, getting lost, getting found, discovering new places and
stumbling upon gems, the indulgence of being able to read (what an absolute
treat!), wholesome physical work, being outdoors all day, every day, living in
flipflops, writing my blog….
I am not looking forward to the weather, winter clothes,
television, consumerism, putting my feet in horrible cramped-up shoes,
traffic, the need to be responsible again, being trapped indoors, dull-grey
days, £5 glasses of wine and not spending every minute of every day with my
favourite Mr Lea…
…But I am excited about seeing our family and seeing our
friends, and giving them all super giant, all-consuming hugs, snuggling in my
own duvet, cycling, proper teabags and proper cups of tea, decent digestive
biscuits (why do they taste so different everywhere else?!), smelling good,
starting dance classes, hot showers (no more buckets!!), getting fit, roast
potatoes…
I have spent 379 days waking up next to this man. 379 days
of endless discovering, exploring, meandering, card-playing, chattering, rolling-on-the-floor-laughing,
and simply relishing the opportunity to indulge in our sweaty, smelly, spotty and
delicious companionship. My god I am a lucky girl. He challenges my outlook,
indulges my ramblings, questions my ideas, laughs at me and with me and makes
me believe that anything is possible. He has kept me safe and he made me
realise that as long as I am with him, even if we are by ourselves in the
deepest darkest middle of nowhere, then I am home. I am so indescribably proud
and excited to call him my fiancé. Yes I’m a little nervous about returning
home and a little apprehensive about the future, when suddenly everything seems
a little unknown, but I know that whatever life throws at us, we will embrace
our next adventure hand in hand.
My very wise Aunty Sue told me last January to “Go explore
and fill up your cup.”. My God did I fill up my cup…In fact I upgraded my cup
to Super-Size Mega-bucket and this beast is overflowing!
I am not looking forward to finishing my blog. I imagine it
will feel a little like when you finish writing a book and you miss the
characters…except this time we are the subjects, our lives are the story, and
I’ve no idea what’s going to happen in the next chapter.
Frank said to me on our last night at
Cloudbridge…”Travelling is the only thing that you spend money on that actually
makes you richer”. I like that. And it’s very true.
We
Are
Millionaires
