Our Biggest Challenge Yet As A Travelling Couple.

Our Biggest Challenge Yet As A Travelling Couple.

For almost 2 months now we have been settled down in Noosa, Australia. Our bedroom has lime green walls and a cat that sits on the windowsill the same time every night. The sun shines most days and the winter wind is making its way through.

The reason we stopped travelling was because we needed to earn some more money to keep going. Working travel is not funded by fairy dust. Whilst its a pause made out of necessity, it has been a great time to work on our blog and my book.

Why Noosa

We hopped on a train, and then a bus, for a few days by the beach after a week in the big Brisbane city. We had been here only a day, enjoying this place that we hadn't really seen properly, even though we passed through it one night last year.I had a good feeling, and could see myself settling here. There's definitely a buzz, also a beautiful beach, all combined with a safe small-town vibe.

And so, I rushed out a few emails at 7am one morning on our 2nd day here (I was super productive thanks to jet-lag waking me up at 5am), and I got so ridiculously lucky because by the next day I had a job.

I wasn't just applying for fun, I was acutely aware of our decreasing bank accounts, so now seemed as good a time as any to stop and earn. But getting a job that quick? it certainly doesn't happen that way out here usually folks.

And then, a few hours later, we had a room in a house, that has now become home.

I couldn't believe it, I had never had such a quick turn-around from unemployed and anxious, to having an income again, and feeling secure. I was so relieved. Taran was happy to have found a spot with some good surfing and water sports nearby. It seemed like we were going to have a really cool few months even if we weren't on the road where we truly wanted to be.

Fast forward a few weeks, nearly two months, and I still have my job, which I'm enjoying, whilst saving up a little bit and paying my bills.

Taran on the other hand, remains unemployed, having had not so much as one interview.

Despite his decent resume and his constant trying, its been impossible. Many of the people we have been in contact with are useless at calling back, replying to emails or are just saying no.

It has really brought us down.

It is really not an understatement when we say that this has been the biggest challenge for us as a travelling couple, so far.

In 3 years of being together we have always been equal partners. We share the costs of our lives together, and we treat each other on special occasions. We are obviously minimalists and money isn't a big motivator for us, but still, we have both been relatively secure and able to enjoy our time together.

Right now, we are so unbalanced in our situations that it has almost ruined our relationship.

Poor Taran is trying super hard to find work, whilst doing a hell of a lot of work on the blog. I help him where possible, and we spend time looking for opportunities together, I then help write emails and perfect his resume. We are trying to deal with this crappy time as a united team. But it's been extremely hard to do this.

I am currently paying the majority of the rent each week. I buy all of the food despite Taran eating a small portion and a limited menu.

We go without constantly.

My mobile phone is 90% broke and needs replacing desperately but I cant afford it.

We never get to do anything, go anywhere further afield, or even just treat ourselves.

We are basically living a relatively small, extremely quiet and restrictive life in a place where we shouldn't be. This wasn't what we signed up for.

We should be doing all the awesome water-sport's Noosa has on offer. We should be exploring the quaint and beautiful towns surrounding the sunshine coast. But most importantly, we should be saving up enough to sustain our travel dreams.

We aren't just travelling on a whim, we fully committed to this lifestyle two years ago. We both gave a lot up back home to come to Australia. It hasn't been a light journey, its been up and down, but never has it felt so stressful as it does right now.

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We fight even though its the last thing we want to be doing.

The tension between us has peaks and troughs. Sometimes we feel fine, we muddle through, and we focus on the positives. Then other times I feel so frustrated and believe that we are just wasting time, and money, paying rent whilst not building our savings.

The only way we have survived thus far is by being honest and by talking things out as much as possible...

There have been some hard conversations, like me telling Taran that I doubted him and his efforts, and then him evidently showing signs of extreme stress at his situation, which has put us into a cycle that can only be broken by one thing: Taran getting a job.

Why don't we just leave town?

You might be wondering, why don't we just leave Noosa.

There's a number of reasons...aside from loving our house, and the time that settling here has given us to work on the blog, and me, the right environment to write my book.

But also, I am not willing to leave a good job in order for Taran to find one elsewhere. I had such a tough time in a previous job in Australia, that I just want to live out this lucky time to its fullest.

Maybe that's selfish but it fills me with major anxiety to walk away from a good opportunity, with not a lot of savings, having essentially wasted 2 months, and yet be no nearer our goals.

I committed to my employer to at least 3 months, and I had a figure in mind for what I wanted to save up; we both did. And we won't have achieved that, not by a mile. But there is another valid reason to stay put.

For tax purposes, it is beneficial to remain in one place for 6 months in Australia to ensure maximum tax rebate come the end of the financial year. To be considered a resident for tax rebate purposes this is generally a requirement. I am just trying to make our life a bit easier down the line when we go to try and recoup the thousands of dollars we will have paid in tax.

If we stay here and work for 6 months, we won't simply save a lot via our earnings, we will be saving up lots in tax too.

We haven't yet lost all hope or succumbed to the idea that we have to start over elsewhere.

We know that an opportunity could arise at any moment, and our worries could be gone, just how it happened for me.

We have however realized that based on present circumstances, its possible Taran will actually have to leave me. He may have to move further away to find work. That is not what we want, obviously.

Space is sometimes good, absence can make the heart grow fonder and all that, but when you set out to experience travel with the person you love the most, being torn apart by money, is a very sad prospect.

We are already thousands of miles away from home. We are already isolated from the others who we care about the most. We are already limiting our experience by not having the funds to enjoy our temporary home. We are struggling enough, we don't want to throw separation into the mix. But it might have to happen out of necessity.

We didn't sign up for this, but its real life.

I think the distance could be painful and I could end up wanting to leave my job sooner than I can. I just generally fear what the time away could do to us if I am being completely honest, especially seeing as we don't just work together on the blog, but we are best friends.

We keep each other laughing, happy, entertained, grounded and creative. We give each other encouragement and energy.

We can be really good for each other, but right now we aren't...

I really hope this situation changes soon and that we will have good news to report back. I also hope we can overcome the stress this has put on our relationship, and that we can become equal again, because for money to force us apart, that would truly truly suck.

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at Nomad'erHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!

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LATEST POSTS:

Sell Out or Miss Out? [The Travel Blogger Problem]

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I can see this post being received in a couple of ways. They’ll be a few who will agree with me, nod their head in sage agreement. Some might agree even though they are kind of the subject of the blog. Then they’ll be some who are downright offended.

And I welcome them into the discussion.

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Sell Out or Miss Out? - The Travel Blogger Problem

Travel blogs have gained popularity and thus commercial value in recent years. As a result, there is a trend toward a formulaic style of travel blog, designed to market the blogger as a good salesperson, in response to what is supposedly commercially appealing. They use their blog as a way to sell themselves, doing what it takes to get freebies, press-trips, product placements and sponsorship deals. Cause’ obviously that’s the only way to afford travel right?

Photo of attractive individual in a perfectly photographed shot, check! ‘As seen on…’ various websites, check! A tagline about your unique approach to travel, check! I get it, any travel blog aiming for the big-time needs bold branding, and wants to demonstrate their gravitas by highlighting their total online domination.

But since when did a travel blog become less about great content, genuinely useful tips and above all, storytelling, and more about marketing, bragging, image, and money?

Blogging grew from a niche hobby people were embarrassed to admit to, to a fully-fledged business model, with successful blogs on every topic out there in the world wide webs. Over time amidst the rise in blogging popularity, a dumbing-down of sorts has occurred. People begin a blog with the express purpose of it becoming their job. Now with thousands of travel blogs out there, bloggers end up rehashing (side-note: check out South Park episode, '#REHASH') content shared by other blogs, barely making any effort to cultivate an original voice. They become a content pumping machine without much regard for quality.

Admittedly, some people think there isn’t an original thought in existence these days, so what hope does the blogging world have?

But in pushing for the further commodification of our blogs, are we not also bastardizing what can and should be a beautiful expression of life-changing adventure?

Definitely loving that I got to use the word ‘bastardizing’ there.

Maybe I am bringing too much of my own prejudices into this. Maybe I am just envious of the success of others. Maybe I have to accept the fact that anyone can start a blog, and that they certainly won’t all care about content as much as I do. Maybe I am just a hateful individual who vomits in their mouth several times a day whilst looking at other travel blogs. Maybe. But I do believe it’s a positive thing that many of us are able to make a living off of our talents, because some of us are actually talented. Then again I know why I began blogging, with no thought of money in mind, and I always remind myself that each time I write. I always ask myself if I actually believe in what I am sharing, and I always do, considering I write a travel blog not advertising copy.

THE UN-RELATABLE TRAVEL BLOG

Often when visiting the more popular blogs (and the ones trying to be), I am made to feel like I just can't join this group of people who are generally quite pleasing on the eye. The back of my head with its curly ginger locks looking at a view just isn't that aspirational. My hairs really average. A focus on image and appearance is understandable in the fashion/beauty blogger realm, but ours?

Well, I suppose people can't help if they are attractive, but then again there is a widespread attack of the filters and overly posed photography across many travel blogs.

When I see articles pop up on pinterest, or see a blogger has made it onto some trashy news site, my attention is often drawn to the appearance of the bloggers, not their ‘amazing’ story. That’s because they look like frickin’ supermodels.

Our best attempt at a piss-take model shot haha!

They don’t look anything like I do when I’ve just hiked 3 hours up out of a rainforest, or even just walked 2 minutes to the shop in the Australian heat. I rarely see much of the sweat and sun-tan lotion combination that is the key everyday look of the average pale traveller in hot exotic land (disclaimer: this is not pitch for free sun-lotion).

Even on the blogs created by so-called relatable budget travellers, it can still feel like they are pandering to being a marketable product void of edge and self-awareness.

I can’t imagine Christopher McCandless posing up a storm whilst listing his achievements boldly and intimidatingly, alienating those regular folk who just want to read a well-told story and look at some pretty pictures. Nor can I imagine him purporting to be unique or special, as if he is doing something nobody else is doing or has done, when in reality, there are a lot of travellers out there (not all of whom travel into the Alaskan wilderness and eventually die). Very few travellers ever blog about it, some just travel, embrace it, enjoy it and don’t feel the need to try and make money out of it.

Of course its great to share and be proud of your achievements, if you put in the hours being creative, you deserve the joy of sharing that. But when your achievements all lead back to numbers and figures, then you just aren't that relatable any-more as a travel blogger. Just remember how it felt that day you had 1 visitor and then that day you had 100. That's still pretty cool. And much more a common occurrence for most bloggers.

Others, like us at NomaderHowFar.com decide to share things. In a selfish sort of way, we like to believe our words make a difference. We write out of compulsion and love, whilst also hoping to find some modicum of an audience, to engage people, and potentially inspire them. But I cringe at the idea of ever representing ourselves as anything other than normal people.

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GAINING FINANCIAL FREEDOM THROUGH BLOGGING

We are not against the idea of travel bloggers earning an income via blogging which enables them to keep travelling. But of course when they do, it kinda takes them further away from the members of their audience who aren’t being paid to travel.

We are naturally very open to the idea of making an income from our blog. Why? Because obviously we don’t want to spend our entire travel life going from one short-term and uninspiring job to the next. It’s often quite demoralizing. And let’s face it, if a company wishes to pay for my lifestyle of choice, then I am not going to throw it back in their faces. But I also won’t compromise my world view for a payday.

But a major reason why it might be nice to earn a bit, is because we bloody love creating. We love writing, taking photo’s and making movies.

Whitehaven Beach was an amazing place, this is the view in the evening when all the tours leave!

We pour love into all that we do, but money (or the lack of it) won’t alter the way we do things. Even though the short-term jobs we take on, pull us away from our creativity and temporarily ground us, blogging is still the thing we do most evenings and weekends, out of pure passion. It has been for two years, and we have never made a penny from doing it. But its a priceless collection of memories for us, and the connections and conversations we have as a result, are pretty awesome too.

Some of the bloggers that I genuinely do put on a pedestal, are not the ones that everyone would immediately recognize by name. They are the ones who found success naturally and over time, their own small pocket of opportunities and travel experiences, which does technically mean their blog is also a business. But the humble manner, and content-focused way in which they conduct themselves, is done with so much more elegance and integrity, it feels right to aspire to them.

It’s refreshing to witness their success via their continued creativity and engagement with their audience, as opposed to seeing them shout from the social media rooftops, just how great they and their blog are.

WHEN EMULATING SUCCESS ANNIHILATES INDIVIDUALITY

I suppose it is a double-edged sword. We witness bloggers gain commercial success, we look at the way they sell themselves, and we copy them.

We all dream the same dream and end up resembling a queue for the X-factor auditions; we all have our own life stories of hardship and how travelling is the dream we just have to live out. And the other edge is that we try to write stuff which will be frequently clicked and read, based on the algorithms of trends, social media sites and hashtags. We create differently, we alter our natural output, do some nipping, tucking and censoring, occasionally raising feathers with attention-grabbing posts when we believe it will equal clicks.

We iron out the kinks of our own individuality, because we think it’s the only way we can be successful.

Conversely, we over-push the thing about us that we believe is unique, and thus create a vast distance between story-teller and reader.

WHAT IS THE SOLUTION TO THE TRAVEL BLOGGER PROBLEM?

So you want to make a living travel blogging but you don’t want to compromise your integrity? Well, that might be a bit tricky. The marketplace for bloggers is a competitive world, and the advertisers and companies helping them make money, are pretty much all looking for the same thing; a marketable blogger of the aspirational kind, who can get high traffic that will provide a return on their investment.

If you can get high-traffic and commercial success whilst being your completely honest self, to the nth degree, then more power to you.

If you have the passion for storytelling, but still decide to follow the blueprint of others, and focus on the money, then you need to regain perspective on not just blogging, but the thing you are blogging about; travel. The truth and purity of that dream, the purpose behind it, goes way beyond your blog.

Long-term travel is something people have done and will continue to do for a long time. They will have amazing, challenging and complex experiences, and yet, many of them won’t make a commercially successful blog in the process. They won’t sell out, and they will certainly not miss out.

For more food for thought, check this this awesome piece 'Travel Bloggers are Lying to You'

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!

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Our Goals for 2016: Growth and Travel Plans

Our Goals for 2016: Growth and Travel Plans

Originally we had a wix site, which was shocking. Then we moved over to squarespace. This was our first blog post ever. Bless...

The first year we just wrote about preparing to travel, because it's what we were living and breathing. The second year we started sharing our travel stories, as we hit the road in Australia. Now into our third year, we want to take things to the next level.

Yep, that was what our website used to look like...

We love our blog. We love being creative, and communicative, and love the interaction and inspiration. We simply wouldn't blog and make videos if we didn't enjoy it. But we'd like it to expand in ways that are even more creative and engaging.

Its a very British thing to do, play down your goals and achievements. We wouldn't want to seem a bit over-zealous or hopeful, or as if we actually have self-confidence and self-belief. We succeed but we do it quietly, most of us anyway...But we are not defined by the culture in which we grew up in, being international travellers, people of the world, so I am going to step out from the shy, reserved trope of an English person and be bold and honest with you.

We want big things for nomaderhowfar.com this year. And we want to continue enjoying Australia, and see the rest of this ginormous place.

• We want to increase page views, partner up with companies, causes and brands that we believe in, feature more guest bloggers, and feature on other websites.

• We want to try out new cool relevant travel products (we have our first product review coming soon).

• I want to get published somewhere other than on our website, as much as we love it and our audience. I love writing and reaching readers who i can interact with, so writing on some other platforms seems the right way to go.

• I want to work in social media, building great followings for other bloggers and companies, having learned so much in the past two years about consistent and quality social media strategy.

• Taran wants his videos to gain a broader audience. He spends hours creating these beautiful visual stories, hours editing the footage and hours sharing it, and it deserves a bigger audience. Especially with some of the absolute shit that people in their millions watch every day. I may be bias but I am the first person to say if I think his video isn't right, and he'll be the first to tell me he doesn't like something I've done.

• We want to keep producing original, topical and personal content. Sharing our travel stories, and our thoughts on all manner of topics that we care about.

• We want to get some more stunning shots and footage on our go-pro and our newer canon addition.

• We hope to meet some of our fellow blogging comrades and nomads.

• I want to finish, publish and release my e-book on minimalism. On the back of that release I'd like to create a consulting service designed to aid people with introducing minimalism into their lives.

• We both want to continue to travel Australia, meet its awesome residents, as well as our fellow travellers from all over the world.

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Maybe it seems like we are hoping for too much, that our goals for the blog are cliched or predictable. But we are encouraged toward these goals by the fact that we have witnessed a steady consistent growth in audience and page views. February saw a record-high of 12,000 page views. We get so excited to see that more and more people are hopefully being guided or inspired by our content. And that is what drives us.

At the core of all our goals is that fact that we obviously love travel, it is what we do, what we gave up our previous lives in England for, so we would like to keep doing it, capturing it, and sharing it, for as long as possibly can.

Blogging goes hand-in-hand with our nomadic lifestyle, so we hope this beautiful partnership only grows in 2016.

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Thanks for reading!

Hannah and Taran here. We hail from Southern England, where we met online and are now realizing our mutual passion for travel here at NomaderHowFar. We discuss Nomadic Living, Simplifying your Life and Long-term Travel, to empower, motivate and inspire our readers. Get to know us here!

Want More?!