Travel has a great deal to offer: the sights, sounds and smells of new places; the shedding (for a period at least) of some of the mundane responsibilities of our normal lives; a welcome change of routine; and the chance perhaps to re-invent ourselves – or at least, to allow other sides of ourselves to shine through.
Now while these aspects of travelling are best enjoyed whilst they are happening, even their anticipation can be like a cool spring in the midst of a barren desert. One of my favourite parts of any trip happens before it has even begun: preparation. In the planning stages, everything is ideal. The balance of good and bad that is inevitable in every place and experience is hidden and all I can see are the shiny, happy things. Poring over maps and guidebooks, searching for accommodation and transport, hashing out itineraries and routes – I LOVE IT!
These build-up periods bring the start date closer somehow, or maybe it’s that they carry us there to revel in the freedom before it’s really ours. Not that there aren’t frustrations at this stage: cancelled or fully reserved flights on precisely the date we had hoped to go; websites that just won’t allow our desired booking to go through (grrrr); and ever-present shortages of time and money to allow for ALL the things we want to do and see.
But still, when I am caught up in planning a trip, I find myself floating through the drudgery of work, and the final weeks and days leading up to departure fly by ever faster as the excitement builds. The trick I still need to learn is how to slow time down again once I am actually on my break, so as to take as much out of it as possible, and not find myself suddenly back at the grindstone in what seems like only the blink of an eye…
Next week I am setting off on a much-anticipated two-month trip with the lovely Ana. Starting in Paris, we will make our way across France to the starting point of the El Camino de Santiago. Over the next month we will, along with many other pilgrims, make our way by foot across hundreds of kilometres of French and Spanish countryside. From Spain we go south across the Mediterranean and into Morocco in search of markets and mountains. From there, it’s on to Israel and Jordan to explore millennia of history and culture. Writing it down just gets me more and more excited!
I can’t wait to share a sunrise over the majestic Atlas Mountains and listen to the wind blowing across the desert. I am looking forward to navigating winding back-alleys to discover hidden markets, basking under glorious open skies and feeling the regular rhythm of my feet as we crunch our way across sand and rock. It is the anticipation of these things that has gotten me through a very mundane stint of work in London. But even more than these things which I expect to encounter, it is the anticipation of the unexpected, of the adventures that we will have, which is really keeping me going.
The anticipation of the unexpected, though it may sound like a contradiction, is what gets me out of bed in the morning. Travel provides, I think, the most conducive environment for the unexpected sort of adventure, and this is precisely why I throw myself into it with such regularity and enthusiasm. In keeping with this, I am off to book a train trip. So far, it has proved stubbornly elusive but the thought of where it will take me keeps me going and it will be mine!
Keep an eye on these pages if you’re interested to find out just what adventures I do end up having and I hope you will have at least a few of your own.
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