Make Your Dream a Reality

Matt Green’s celebratory cake (see below)

In my first post for the year (Welcome to 2012), I mentioned that many people have found ways to indulge their love of travel, often for extended periods of time, and that if you are prepared to make the commitment and sacrifice, you too can travel sooner rather than later. What I didn't include in that post, however, were links to some of the many blogs and websites from these travellers. So today, I have decided to address that omission.

All the travellers highlighted have embarked on amazing personal journey's that often defy logic, logistics, money, and maybe even common sense. But as I also wrote in that entry:

“You will … encounter naysayers, sceptics, and critics who will argue that the world is filled with dangers lurking around every corner – as if watching an hour of the evening news doesn’t reinforce that time and time again.

Then there are others who argue that you need to knuckle down and focus on finding a life partner, or family, or career, or homebuilding, or making a fortune, or [add your own inner nagging voice].”

The intrepid travellers noted below, have all chosen to ignore the critics and live their dreams.

The World on Wheels…

Bearing the tag line: An ongoing adventure of travel and living while using a wheelchair, Tim and Darryl Musik’s website is a detailed record of the father and son’s travels across America and further afield. Tim has been disabled from birth. Darryl is his father and caregiver. Together they have embarked on journeys to Austria, Belgium, Dominican Republic, England, France/Monaco, Germany, Ireland, Mexico and throughout the United States.

Filled with numerous images and short, high quality videos, The World on Wheels is always positive, uplifting, and insightful. And it shows that confinement to a wheelchair is no excuse for staying home, when there is a world of wonders waiting to be discovered and experienced.

Feel The Earth…

Someone else who is exploring ‘the world on wheels’ is Keiichi Iwasaki. In April 2001, the Japanese national, then aged 28 decided to ride his bicycle across Japan. He had just 160 yen (around $2) in his pocket. His plan was to perform magic tricks wherever the opportunity presented itself, and to pay for his bike ride as he went. Keiichi not only completed his ride across Japan, but he enjoyed it so much he caught a ferry to South Korea and kept going. Ten years, thousands of miles and dozens of countries later, according to this September 2011 report on the National Geographic website, Keiichi is still riding – and still paying his way by performing magic tricks.

Along the way he has been robbed by pirates; arrested in India; nearly died after being attacked by a rabid dog in Tibet, and narrowly escaped marriage in Nepal! But he has also climbed both Mont Blanc and Mount Everest; used a rowboat to travel from the source of the Ganges River in India to the sea (a distance of over 800 miles), and also rowed across the Caspian Sea just because he wanted to see “…how big Caspian sea is?” It took him 25 days.

Dervla Murphy...

Irish author Dervla Murphy has written over twenty travel books, many documenting the details of her journeys by bicycle across an incredible range of countries. In 1963, at the age of 32, Dervla embarked on her first major bike ride – from Dunkirk, France to India, and wrote her first book Full Tilt: Ireland to India with a Bicycle, about that ride. Still travelling at 80, she recently published her latest book, The Island That Dared: Journeys in Cuba.

But why ride when you can walk?

The Longest Way…

German born, Christoph Rehage set out on November 9th, 2007 – his 26th birthday – to walk from the Chinese capital Beijing to Bad Nenndorf in Germany. One year and 4600+ kilometres later he ended his walk – still in China – at Urümqi, a couple hundred kilometres shy of the border with Kyrgyzstan. Although he didn’t complete his walk, Cristoph (who now studies in Berlin), writes that “…getting as far as I got was an experience for which I am very grateful.”

His website, The Longest Way, documents his walk in great detail, with this time lapse film of the journey receiving over a million hits.

I’m Just Walkin’ (USA)…

Someone who did complete his walk across America was Matt Green, who walked from Rockaway Beach, Long Island, to Rockaway Beach, Oregon, crossing New York state, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, North Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and finally Oregon. After roughly five months, 3,000 miles, and 1500 blog entries, Matt said:

“A couple years ago I started a walking group called Hey, I’m Walkin’ Here! in New York City, and my love for walking really blossomed over the course of our adventures. Moving through the world at three miles an hour, you can fully take in your surroundings. There’s nothing separating you from your environment. You notice things that go completely undetected by people zooming by in cars. It’s such a rich experience: you can see, hear, and smell everything around you, and even touch and taste things if you feel like it.”

Having completed his walk across America, Matt began 2012 with the goal of walking every street across the five boroughs of New York City. As you would expect, he is documenting this challenge on his website I’m Just Walkin’ (NYC)…

Want more? Check out this list of people who have also walked across the United States.

Going Slowly...

Tara Alan & Tyler Kellen set up Going Slowly in February 2008, to document their bicycle tour around the world. That epic ride may be over – but the website acts as a permanent scrapbook of their many adventures together.

Without Wings…

Also going slowly are Anna Rice and Alex Hayton. Anna and Alex are currently undertaking a year long round the world journey by rail, road, ship and whatever other forms of transport they can arrange – short of flying. They have decided to embrace the concept of slow travel with all its joys and challenges, aiming to eat and sleep locally, and travel with as small a carbon footprint as possible.

Ok, I know I have chosen some pretty extreme examples, and I don’t expect you to walk or ride in the footsteps of the people mentioned. But the point of this entry is to push home the message that anything is possible if you are prepared to make the commitment and sacrifice to see your travel dreams come to fruition.

Folks, if it was easy – everyone would be doing it!

It isn’t easy, but as the examples above show, it is doable. So remember…

“Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it!”
~ Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

The Frugal Traveller Takes it Slow

~ I’ve written before about slow travel The Slow Traveller, and the benefits that can be derived from that form of travel. Now that I am getting closer to my next extended trip, I thought I’d take another look at the concept.

At the end of June, I am heading off to the USA for three months, two of which will be spent in New York City. Having visited New York in 2008, and having seen many of the major tourist attractions (State of Liberty and Ellis Island, Empire State Building and numerous major galleries and museums, etc), I am not fussed about returning again to some of these locations.

However I do want to get a sense of how life is for the average New York resident. Or at least how it might be for a local resident on vacation, since I don’t have to go to work five days a week while I am there, and contend with the morning and afternoon rush hours.

So how does a slow traveller get the most out of their travel experience? By acting like a local and participating in the same events the local citizens will be getting involved in. This time I want to immerse myself in many of the events that New Yorkers will also be participating in. To that end, for the past few weeks I have been spending hours a day, researching some of the hundreds of events being planned for July and August in New York. Many of the websites I have visited are yet to post their full summer schedules, so I will need to come back to those over the next few weeks.

Things like the many free or low cost events that take place around the city every summer. For example: Shakespeare in The Park, the Central Park Summerstage program, free film screenings and music performances in Bryant Park, the Lincoln Center Out of Doors summer festival (July 28–August 15), as well as numerous other free events at the Lincoln Center, free events put on by the City Parks Foundations, and events at many other locations.

Perceptive readers will have noticed my repeated use of the word ‘free’.

The only way I can afford to spend three months in America, and two in New York City is by making my limited finances stretch as far as possible. Thus, there will be no luxury accommodations, no $100 meals, and no spending sprees on Fifth Avenue for this frugal traveller. Instead I will be making the most of the hundreds of free or almost free events taking place across the whole of New York.

My few indulgences will include a Broadway show (or two), possibly a cooking class with Rustico Cooking, a Hidden Harbor Tour, a couple of major concerts (if I can find something or someone worth seeing), and several other events currently in the pipeline.

I’m sure I will return to this theme over the coming weeks and months as my departure date approaches. However, if you have any places on your must see list favourite New York locations, or better still hidden gems you think I should know about, I’d love to hear about them.

You know what to do. The Comments box awaits.

What’s The Rush?

~ Why is it that no matter how fast you may be driving along the highway (or suburban road for that matter), someone always wants to get in front of you. Even when you are sitting on the speed limit, someone will still come up behind you and wait for an opportunity to race past.

Occasionally, I have found myself speeding along a major highway, inadvertently exceeding the speed limit by 10 or 15 kilometres and hour, only to look into the rear-view mirror to see another driver waiting impatiently to get ahead of me. Of course, once I adjust my speed back to the speed limit, the speedsters sweep past at the earliest – although not necessarily the safest – opportunity.

Surely getting there should be half the fun of travel, so why not relax and enjoy the ride?

I now try to cruise along at a comfortable speed rather than the fastest speed permissible. For me this means driving at around 90kms an hour rather than 100-110kph. At the slower speed I find I can relax a little and find too that I have time to look around at the landscape I am passing through, rather than race blindly down the highway.

Driving at slower speeds also increases a drivers ability to avoid hazards such as kangaroos (or deer or moose for that matter), which clearly have no road sense whatsoever. In fact, sometimes I think kangaroos deliberately wait until they see cars and trucks approaching before they attempt to bound across four lanes of interstate highway! Not only that, but they insist on crossing highways often just before dawn, or at dusk when the available light makes it even harder to see them.

The downside of driving a little slower than the speed limit is the grinding of teeth you can almost hear from fellow road users who are lined up behind you. Thankfully, most Australian interstate highways offer long straight stretches of road, which makes it reasonably easy and safe for other drivers to get around the slower travelers like me.

To get back on theme, I think there is lot to be said for taking the slow road; for taking time to smell the roses; for taking the road less travelled – and other well worn clichés.

In the words of the great American folk singer Woody Guthrie: Take it easy – but take it.