Same Same, But Different

Mum, can I go to Greenland?’ I was just seventeen years old when I first got the travelling bug. I was at school, in the first year of my A-levels and had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life. I’d never been further than the South of France on holiday with my parents and that was quite exotic considering the years of caravanning on the Isle of Wight and Cornwall. Then one day as I sat looking out onto the rest of the school and listening to another boring assembly, something caught my attention. The British Schools Exploring Society was running expeditions to remote locations of the world and inviting young people aged sixteen to twenty-three to join. It would be for seven weeks in the summer holidays, you raised the money yourself through sponsorship and hard work and got to travel and see the world. I felt that little spark of excitement in the pit of my stomach, started imagining all the fantastic opportunities, already started planning how I could raise the cash and for the first time in my life I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I wanted to travel. This book isn’t intended as a travel guide, or novel, but is a way of sharing my amazing travel experiences in Greenland, Australia, Southeast Asia, New Zealand and Colombia with others – those who have travelled and those who have yet to. But also to inspire those who’ve ever heard themselves say, ‘I’d love to travel’, but never thought they’d be able to, to realise that it is possible, if you really want it enough. There is a beautiful world out there...what are you waiting for?