Sani Top Chalet, Lesotho, Africa
I love to travel and write about it. Marilynn loves to travel and take photos and plan adventures. Sometimes she takes me to countries that most people (including myself) have never heard of. We are fortunate as a couple to share a desire to see and feel this diverse planet as much as we can. Sharing our travels with readers via this blog adds to the fun, plus it allows us to relive our travels with the click of a button. That is all. We are not selling anything here.
Travel enriches our lives in countless ways, including those that we do not understand. The root of the word stems from travails and torture. Those long, grueling days of travel that exhaust a person pay off in a spectacular manner more often than not. I believe that stepping out of your comfort zone and feeling awkward in a different culture has to be good for the psyche on some level. Not sure exactly how, though. All I know for sure is that Marilynn and I need to travel, or we get restless.
Our blog posts show real-life experiences and feelings in various places throughout the world. As independent budget travelers with backpacks and hostel stays, lately we have been treating ourselves to tours and luxury more often while growing older. The stories we post focus on the story part of traveling rather than the “how to”, although fellow travelers often contact us by email for specifics.
From our first blog post years ago about a West African adventure, complete with genuine voodoo ceremonies, to the most recent “post Covid” stay in Spain’s Canary Islands, and then the Portuguese Island of Madeira, we have hundreds of stories in-between to relive. Strange that it feels like past travels occurred a hundred years ago.
We travel with minimal reservations not made too far in advance, and usually book one-way flights. Plans made the night before often change course the following morning over a conversation with other travelers. Our style would drive most reasonable people crazy. Again, we are lucky to have found each other. We have also found that if you have the freedom to stay “out there” for a long period of time, the cost of travel gets less expensive than staying home.
Whether it is pitching a tent in Iceland, crossing Russia on the Trans-Siberian Railroad to Lake Baikal, and south to Mongolia, or sitting on a beach getting a massage in Thailand, we feel an urgency that our time on earth is running out. So, we had better get out there and appreciate the gifts of mobility and good health before it is too late.
If you are still reading this, we invite you to peruse our stories. Stay tuned for upcoming travel posts about independent travel to Scotland and Ireland, followed by a total cultural change via tour group travel to Uganda and Rwanda on a trek in search of gorilla families.
Happy trails!
Ron Mitchell and Marilynn Windust