We decided to pack up our lives and travel the world. So with my same pink backpack that served me well for 19 years, we ventured off on 27 February 2025.🎒
Long ago, Jono and I agreed on certain milestones. We wouldn’t travel for 5 years, and we wanted to purchase a property before we did. As recently as December 2024, we plotted out our short-term and long-term goals and this trip didn’t feature. Honestly, we only decided +-5 months before, and only started truly planning 3 months before. The itinerary looked very different to how it has evolved.
Roxy:
It wasn’t easy to make the choice, and the ‘guilt’ and repercussions of a midwork break play on my mind daily. For 20 years, I’ve known when the next paycheck was coming in to top up the bank account, or I’ve known an exact date when ‘normal life’ will resume. At the moment, this trip doesn’t offer that stability.
I am growing, learning empathy, resilience and emotional regulation each day by embracing the discomfort and uncertainty.
Jono:
Life is hard either way, whether you’re at home working or trying to make a living while you’re seeing new things and travelling. While, of course, you can always see new things around your hometown, but with the comforts close, it’s easy to never leave your bubble. When you pack up and go, albeit a scary decision, the new adventures push you to overcome your fears.
This time is different to the other occasions that I’ve made big travel moves, and it has been much harder. When I was 18 (technically 17 and 11 months!) I had very few commitments. In many ways, I was improving my life through travel. The growth and earning opportunities by becoming independent by caring for myself, learning about the world and earning big pounds money was more than I had available to me in Cape Town at that age! I also had so many years ahead of me, and a plan to start college in 1 or 2 years.
When I was 27, I decided to backpack through South America. I was immigrating to South Africa from the United Kingdom anyway and the gap in my CV would simply be explained by the need to move back home. And again, I had those pounds saved up!
I keep reminding myself of the advice I received less than a week before departing, “Take the time you promised yourself. The guilt to work and make an income in your industry is all coming from your ego.” I’ve battled with it every day. I envy the young British travellers taking a gap year between school and university or university and their career. They are plentiful on the Banana Pancake Route and a constant reminder of what I see as a more carefree time to travel. I envy the European and American travellers when they shrug off a cost, “that’s like 20 pence / that’s less than a dollar fifty”. But this is our journey to overcome, and all our paths are different.
So far, for me, the strain of the life gap is much more difficult than the mental strain of travelling. The new mid-thirties, mid-work crisis strain is new to me.
It’s been 36 days so far. Right now, we are in Dalat, Vietnam, volunteering at a hostel in exchange for room and board, and we’ve got so many stories to share and post about. #moretocome. We are super well-fed, comfortable and meeting lots of travellers daily.
But we do miss my friends, family and ex-work colleagues, so while you’re reading or following our video stories, don’t forget to drop us a message or a video call, please. 😀🙏
2007
18 years old in an old castle turned hostel in Loch Lomond, Scotland, with the near-new pink backpack.