Update: “Vagabonding Ireland at 41”
Late in 2005, a reader named Andrea wrote Rolf about her midlife adventures vagabonding around Ireland. A month-long “practice round” trip inspired her to put her belongings in storage and hit the road with just a backpack and her fiddle. She is currently back “home” preparing for a return to England, where she will join her new love in less than two months. Here’s her update:
You may remember me. A year ago I emailed you about my “Vagabonding Ireland at 41” experience which lasted one month, the longest I’d ever Traveled for, which you then posted on your blog page.
Well, I’ve been meaning to email you for quite a while now. Six months ago I quit my very safe job which I’d had for 14 years, put my stuff into storage, gave away the rest, and set off vagabonding Ireland again. Just me, my backpack and my fiddle! After 3 months of Ireland, I then went on to England for another 3 months.
Does it count as vagabonding if you are in the same place for 3 months? Does it count as vagabonding if you are back in your hometown? I am back now, “couch surfing” and filling in for old co-workers during the Holidays at my old job. I am jumping into the abyss and have been doing so for the past 6 months. Every time I jump, I do so with all my heart and in so listening to that wisdom, my needs are met and sometimes they are met more so than I can possibly imagine. In other words, I jump and the net appears again and again.
Call me lucky, call me a fool, call me totally free. You can call me In love, too. It was divorce that spurred me on to my first vagabonding adventure last year, and now I’ve met someone new on my most recent adventure while in Ireland. I plan on going back to England where he lives to be with him again in two months. For how long, I’m not sure. Am I still vagabonding or just drifting? Where does one leave off and the other begin? Maybe it has to do with intention. And a way of looking at everything with a newcomer’s perspective.
August 6th, 2007 at 3:28 pm
Hi Rolf, I recently read Vagabonding and it has been a great inspiration for me in my decision to travel around the world. Although the book is great, it would be nice for someone with some extensive travelling experience to tell me whether or not my iternerary is too ambitious. I feel as though I might be trying to fit too much into one trip. Here is what I have so far:
June: Fly to New Zealand (Interested in renting a car with my 2 travelling buddies)
July: Fly to Australia (Probably explore the east coast then fly to Perth)
August: fly to singapore. overland to Bankok ( or mabye further)
September: Fly to Beijing. overland to Shanghai and Hong Kong
October: Fly to India (Mumbai, Delhi, not sure where)
November: Fly to South Africa. overland to Nairobi
December: Fly to Cairo. Overland to Tel Aviv or mabye Istambul
January: Flight to Rio via Europe. overland to Buenos Aires
February: travelling around Patagonia
March: make our way up to Uruguary, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, and Ecuador via overlanding and flights
April: Cross the Darién Gap via flight and/or boat. Overland through Central America. Fly home at the end or April.
This is a very tentative plan. I don’t know if this is too much ground to cover in a year, but my goal go to every continent and get a good feel for it (i have already been to Europe). i know that i won’t be getting to know any one place too well, but do you think this is feasible? Do you have any suggestions for other places I might go? I will be travelling on a budget, but my goal is to save up $15,000 worth of spending money. (not including the flight costs.) do you think that this should be enough? I know that I have asked a lot of questions, but I thought it would be worth it to have a seasoned traveller look over my plan. Thanks for you time and I look forward to hearing back from you.
John Whaling