Vagabonding Case Study: Hecktic Travels: Dalene & Pete Heck

Greenland 750X500

Dalene & Pete Heck

HeckticTravels.com

Ages: 38 and 36

Hometown: Calgary, Alberta, Canada

How long were you on the road? 

We’ve been on the road for just about five years – we are set to celebrate our “vagabondaversary” this spring. In May of 2009 we sold our house to travel, and boarded a plane to South America the following August.

 

Where did you go? 

After a year of touring South America, we returned home for a few months before heading out again. Since then we’ve been to much of North and Central America, Europe, southeast Asia, the Middle East, with a brief stop in Africa (Morocco). We have had several visits home along the way, and currently find ourselves in Mexico.

 

Did you work or volunteer on the road?

The well-paying corporate jobs we held previous to our lives of travel provided for a good chunk of savings, and then we also did well when we sold our house. Since then we have been building a couple of businesses online so that we can earn money as we travel and not totally deplete our savings.

We have done some volunteering – in Bolivia, Ecuador and Honduras – but now we are focusing on building our businesses such that we can sustain our travels, which leaves us little time for much else.

 

Of all the places you visited, which was your favorite? 

We are both dearly in love with Turkey. We’ve spent a total of six months in that country, and are always aching to go back.

 

Was there a place that was your least favorite, or most disappointing, or most challenging? 

We found Cambodia to be particularly difficult, as we recently spent a month in Phnom Penh. Not that it is a challenging place to be, but some of our experiences there were just difficult to take in. For example, we were witness to a garment worker protest right outside of our hotel, where police opened fire on those protesting. (link to our article about it: https://www.hecktictravels.com/cambodia-protest) That experience, along with others, weigh very heavy on our hearts. The people we all met were so friendly, and they have been through so much. It was just a lot to take.

 

Which travel gear proved most useful?  Least useful? 

Recently, we upgraded to backpacks with wheels and are absolutely in love. Why on earth did we wait five years to save our backs?

 

What are the rewards of the vagabonding lifestyle? 

The best part about our lifestyle is the ability to wake up in a new place every few months – to try new foods, meet new people, and experience a new culture – literally at our whim. Every day becomes a valuable and worldly lesson that we could never otherwise attain.

 

What are the challenges and sacrifices of the vagabonding lifestyle?

The challenge is always in maintaining relationships. We have incredible support from our friends and family back home, but it is still difficult to keep it up when aren’t present for their everyday lives. And on the road, friendships can be fleeting. We are so glad to have each other.

 

What lessons did you learn on the road?

So many lessons learned, but the biggest one has to be how we’ve learned to live with so little. We went from a 2,100 square foot house to 130 litres total in our backpacks. We have never felt more free!

 

How did your personal definition of “vagabonding” develop over the course of the trip? 

We started out as many do – backpackers fleeting from one town to the next every few days. After a few months we quickly burned out and realized that our travel experiences weren’t as valuable as we hoped them to be. Since that first year around South America we have focused almost exclusively on slow travel, and have even started doing long-term house-sitting stints in order to get a real local experience. (link to our house-sitting ebook: https://www.hecktictravels.com/housesitting) Our focus now is on making this lifestyle sustainable, and we are happily getting there so that we can travel indefinitely.

 

If there was one thing you could have told yourself before the trip, what would it be? 

When we made the decision to leave Canada, we did hold onto some material “things” as we weren’t sure if we would love it and want to do it forever, or hate it and decide to pick our old lives back up. We wish someone would have known to tell us that THIS WAS IT. It would have saved us a lot of hassle of coming back to sell everything once we knew how happy we would be as vagabonds.

 

Any advice or tips for someone hoping to embark on a similar adventure? 

Take it slow. It’s so easy to get frustrated and burn out, and travel can lose its lustre. It is easy to think that you have to take-it-all-in-as-fast-as-you-can, but it will be far less rewarding.

 

When and where do you think you’ll take your next long-term journey? 

Still going! With no plans to stop.

Read more about Dalene & Pete on their blog, Hecktic Travels, or follow them on Facebook and Twitter

Website: Hecktic Travels Twitter: @hecktictravels

Are you a Vagabonding reader planning, in the middle of, or returning from a journey? Would you like your travel blog or website to be featured on Vagabonding Case Studies? If so, drop us a line at casestudies@vagabonding.net and tell us a little about yourself.

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