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9 Reasons Why You Must Travel While You Can
If you asked me a couple years ago, what my biggest fear was, i'd probably have said spiders. Then once i'd thought about it, i'd of said, spiders and being unemployed...
9 Reasons Why You Must Travel While You Can
Updated 2016: This post was originally published in April 2014, and we are now over a year into our Australia journey. You can read more about our recent adventures here.
If you asked me a couple years ago, what my biggest phobia was, I'd probably have said spiders. Then once I'd thought about it, I'd of said spiders, and being unemployed.
I have always been scared of the things most of us are: instability, unpredictability and struggle.
Most of you might agree, that you too are terrified of not having a regular income and a secure job, and not being able to comfortably live and enjoy life with a healthy bank balance.
I personally have always played it safe and feel much more secure when I am paying each bill, in full, every month, and so, financial peril has always been just too unnerving a prospect to think about; I have always made sure I was never unemployed.
But I have now left behind the relative relaxed lifestyle I had, where I at least had enough money to get by, stay out of debt, and live fairly happily.
I became a nomad in March 2015 and I have been unemployed (or casually employed) for much of the last year, and guess what, I'm doing okay!
It has not always been an easy or wondrous experience since arriving in Australia, but as of yet, none of our fears or obstacles have made us quit. And neither should they stop you from travelling in the first place.
If you really need convincing as to why travel is awesome, beyond the fact that it's fun, eye-opening and life-altering, keep on reading...
9 Reasons To Travel While You Can:
1. Life is short, too short, and sometimes really crappy
Okay, interesting and negative place to begin, but, what I mean by this is, life, from many angles, is frustrating, stressful and endlessly unfair, which is why we have to carve out beauty in our lives as best we can.
We have to try and squeeze out as much joy from each day, which for some can involve taking our little selves across sea, land and sky, to see it all, before we no longer can, before we are old enough and cynical enough to regret not having done so.
2. Routine leads to predictable (and boring) results
Our daily lives often become made up of routines and habits, rarely deviating from a normal range of actions and emotions. It can feel like nothing is that exciting or inspiring when we are lost in unfulfilling ruts.
If you ALWAYS work a Monday to Friday, and ALWAYS eat spaghetti on a Wednesday, and ALWAYS sleep in on a Saturday, is it really possible to ever feel anything other than entirely predictable feelings that are okay and fine, but they are just that, fine.
Travel is unpredictable, in a good way; everyday can bring something new and never-before experienced, and it can completely reinvigorate your senses and alter your world-view.
It can make you fall back in love with life, enough to not need the safety (and dullness) of predictable routines all the time.
3. Your career or job does not define you
You are not the achievements you have built up on your resume or the promotions you have gained or the title on a name badge.
Yes, you should absolutely strive for success and be proud of your achievements but if you choose a different path, even for a short while, that's okay, and it isn't a regressive move.
Maybe some people enjoy living to work, as opposed to working to live, but I know which kind of person I am, and that's one who wants to see the amazing stuff and DO the amazing stuff.
I fully appreciate that one day I will likely settle down and that will likely involve regular work. But I like to think that first I can focus on selfish exploration and adventure, and that I don't need the outward markers of success to feel good inside.
4. Babies are cute, but they can wait
Many of us millennials are ready to pro-create, because its the done thing. People do it all the time, and that's totally cool.
But babies turn into children and children turn into teenagers who turn into adults; having a baby is not a short-term thing and you have to be truly ready to grow, birth and then build that human for, well, the rest of your life.
So when you start popping out mini-me's, it will inevitably make it harder to simply leave your home country for an unlimited amount of time and do whatever the hell you want.
There is a lot more to think about when children come into the frame; education, health, stability.
All the things you would need to provide your children, are not as easy to manage when you're living a nomadic lifestyle, so maybe travelling now is better than later, before chubby little humans take over.
5. Life is unpredictable; but you can bet on death and taxes
Our lives take the oddest and harshest of turns at times. I have always had a tendency to ruminate on the worst possible scenarios that could befall me.
But its possible the saddest thing that can happen to anyone is not living life to the absolute fullest because of the fear of what could happen.
You really have to ask yourself the question, whether the bad things come or not, what can I do to build solid foundations and powerful memories which will build me up when I need to recover from whatever life throws my way.
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6. See the world without financial commitments elsewhere
People might associate travel with needing a lot of money in the bank to begin with, when that's really not the case. However, you do kinda need to not be paying for 5 different bills, from loans, to credit cards to mortgages.
What you do need is limited financial commitments and some healthy savings to launch yourself off on your way.
Thanks to the thousands of people who travel, and who thus demand better deals on all things associated with it, it is becoming easier to afford your backpacking adventure. But there will still be times where you will have no regular income, and during that time, you really don't want to be worrying about your bank balance at home.
Fantastic websites such as Workaway and Couchsurfing are evidence of a whole sect of services geared at making travelling easier on the bank balance, but it helps to have few financial burdens to begin with.
7. If you don't use it, you lose it
This is true of a lot of things; if you don't actively engage your mind, it turns to mush. And here I apply that idea, as well as physical health and fitness.
When you go travelling, you are often constantly seeing and doing new things, potentially challenging your mind and body, and so there will inevitably be health benefits that will come with these experiences.
Whether its slightly tighter thighs, enviable calf muscles, or simply, a clearer and less stressed mind, what else is going to shake up your life so radically, from the inside-out?
8. You deserve fun before the serious stuff sets in
Many people focus their everyday life entirely on the things that will come down the line, as mentioned above, like babies, marriage, a home.
But of course none of these things are guaranteed so much as they are wanted and expected.
Then again these things CAN wait, because if you are like Taran and I, still young enough to be mildly terrified of babies, marriage and mortgages, that's because you aren't yet ready for them and you should be using your time to grow and have fun!
The awesome clear waters of Noosa river.
9. If not now, when?
People often see happiness as a destination, as a place they will eventually reach, if they just get THAT job, buy THAT car, buy THAT house, marry THAT person.
But what if you get all the supposed markers of fulfilment and still feel dissatisfied?
Life doesn't have to be merely the ticking off of a list of things you believe you need or want, with a deadline attached to each milestone.
Instead, you can focus on the now, and make choices each day that make you happy, instead of gearing your every move towards an imagined and unpredictable future.
I believe that travel is an option for anyone, whilst acknowledging that it's not necessarily an easy one.
Many of us choose to live our lives guided by an imaginary timeline put upon us by societal norms. We feel like we should follow a certain path according to a certain method and we often break our backs trying to conform because we believe it will make us happy.
Or, we can do things differently whilst it makes the most sense to.
If life really is one long list of deadlines then maybe we should defer some, and appreciate that life is more than a tick-list of actions we must undertake based on the opinions and behaviours of others.
From our experience, travel has helped us appreciate life differently, and become more open-minded but most importantly, more present and mindful, focusing on the joy to be found from one moment to the next.
More Travel Inspiration:
1. Budget Travel Will Turn You Into An Adventurer
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!
Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!
Latest Travel Inspiration:
7 Things We Wish We Had Done Before Travelling
We wouldn’t change any part of the trip so far, even the crappier times, and so, this isn't a negative retrospective, more of a list of the things we have thought of and discussed along the way.
7 Things We Wish We Had Done Before Travelling
I’m not big on having regrets in life. If I wake up most days feeling basically happy with my decisions and I retain perspective on my good fortune, regrets are pointless and silly.
Yes, we've had 16 months of new experiences, learning opportunities and true challenges, all of which balance out to create a story of immense awesomeness...
Yet that doesn’t mean however that we must ignore hindsight and not acknowledge the few select things we wish we had done differently before we left the UK (Beware, our blog was in its infancy when we posted that), because it’s possible we’d have made the journey even better.
We wouldn’t change any part of the trip so far, even the crappier times, and so, this isn't a negative retrospective, more of a list of the things we have thought of and discussed along the way.
But still, if you are yet to embark on your travels, the things we wish we had done, might be the things you still have time to implement, to help you avoid some of the difficulties we have faced.
The 7 Things We Wish We Had Done Differently:
Built A Larger Savings Account
I know that it can feel like you will never have enough savings when you begin travelling, because no matter how much you have it will still run out one day.
Plus, if you spend too long saving then you put off travelling even further into the future. Still, we wish we had been even stingier and amassed larger savings accounts.
The benefit would have been that we could have left more behind in the UK as emergency money instead of all our money being in our current account out here.
We also could have purchased a vehicle when we got to Australia.
We went back and forth about this and now know it’s too late to buy one...
We didn't have enough money to get one and now cant afford to, but we felt we could travel just fine without one and it would force us to be more imaginative, but in a way, not having one has been a restriction.
SOLUTION: PLAN FOR YOUR BIGGER TRIP EXPENSES BY INDULGING LESS AND LIVING ON A BUDGET.
Had a Second Income Source
To have been able to save more we would have needed to work more. I worked as much as I could as a dog-walker during the day but still had free time I could have filled with extra work, be that by beginning my freelancing career or getting a small side-gig.
Taran only did a little part-time job with a side-business of selling his art.
I sometimes think a little bit of overworking and suffering in the short-term would have benefited us in terms of savings.
It might have better prepared us for the hard work and long hours we would end up doing out here as well as helped us appreciate, even more, those first blissful work-free months in Australia.
SOLUTION: TRY TO FIND SHORT-TERM OR PART-TIME WORK WHERE POSSIBLE.
Gained Different and Varied Work Experience
It turns out we both came to Australia with very few of the skills and experience really in demand from backpackers and working-holiday makers.
I had never worked in hospitality before this trip (I had worked in retail, banking and self-employment) whereas Taran had done a little bit of bar work and waiting, around 5 years ago.
We have struggled to find jobs that we could even apply to let alone the issue of competition from fellow travellers and Aussies.
The upside has been that we have been given chances and have come to learn lots of new valuable skills, with me finally understanding what a Latte and a Cappuccino are (and also randomly how to service a bloody tractor!) whilst Taran learning how to properly prune trees.
Thankfully going forward we are better equipped for a variety of jobs but we wish our arsenal of experience was a bit broader from the get-go.
SOLUTION: RESEARCH, TAKE COURSES OR FIND PART-TIME JOBS IN THE FIELDS RELATED TO THE EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES IN THE COUNTRY YOU ARE GOING TO.
Got Rid of More Clutter
When we visited home in February I realized just how much stuff and clutter I had held onto despite my love for minimalism and my belief that I had shed a lot of things in preparation for nomadic life.
It turns out I could have shed a lot more, and most importantly, I could have sold more stuff to free up cash for my savings.
I hate to think that my bedroom at home is a treasure trove of random stuff that is getting no use or love and I wish I had felt unafraid of letting go of certain luxuries like my TV.
SOLUTION: DONATE OR SELL ALMOST ALL OF YOUR REPLACEABLE BELONGINGS.
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Purchased A Good Camera
It wasn’t until a good 7 months into our travels until we invested in our Canon G16, meaning our photography of the first pivotal days and weeks of our adventures have been captured on less than stellar smart-phones and our go-pro.
Had we saved more money and considered how much use we would get out of a camera then we would have a full library of equally brilliant photo’s.
Our new camera in action!
SOLUTION: SET ASIDE SOME TIME AND SAVINGS TO RESEARCH AND PURCHASE A GOOD CAMERA (AND ENSURE THIS IS COVERED BY YOUR TRAVEL INSURANCE).
Brought Smaller Backpacks
Now of course we can change our backpacks at any stage, throw away a ton of stuff and downsize, but I like my current backpack (and it cost quite a lot) and I know all the little quirks of how to best use it.
We have gotten used to having a certain amount of stuff whilst travelling and have become accustomed to having the room that we have.
Taran however wishes he had a roomier bag as his is quite small inside and he'd prefer to have less clothes and more room to store camping gear.
I almost wish we had been more restrictive from the beginning, buying smaller bags which would force us to carry less and make it easier to travel with the important things we have gained on the road.
SOLUTION: TRY OUT BACKPACKS OF A SMALLER SIZE BUT NOT A LESSER QUALITY, AND BRING LESS CLOTHING.
Enjoyed Home More
We spent a lot of time in the build-up to travelling almost just waiting around, not making the most of the final weeks of time with friends and family.
We realize now we could have spent that time better and not worried that it would take us away from our tight spending mindset.
I wish I had seen certain family more often because you can never have too much time with your loved ones, but you can certainly have too little.
SOLUTION: PLAN TIME TO BUILD GREAT MEMORIES WITH FRIENDS AND FAMILY PRIOR TO YOUR TRIP.
Evidently some of our regrets are incongruous with one another; its unlikely we could have worked more, spent less and also had plenty of family and friend time.
But maybe even just a couple of these ideas will help you realize that the time before your trip deserves as much attention and thought as the time spent on your travels.
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!
Be social and come follow us across the virtual world!
Latest Posts:
Budget Travel Will Turn You Into An Adventurer
Travelling on such a small budget will force you to make crazy decisions that you might never have made if you...
Budget Travel Will Turn You Into An Adventurer
When you travel long-term, life becomes a whole lot more unpredictable, but in a good way. You open yourself up to seeing and experiencing things that make you feel incredibly alive. That's why it becomes addictive, knowing that you are going to have your mind blown and your heart made full, exploring beyond your immediate surroundings.
When you know how it feels to travel, how it truly makes your senses heighten, and your stresses melt away, you will never want to stop.
And the best thing about travel, is that it can be done on a budget!
We came to Australia with about £3000 which may sound like a lot of money.. but we made that moolar last 6 months before we did any sort of paid work; in turn I know people who have spent that amount on a 2 week holiday!
Travelling on such a small budget will force you to make crazy decisions that you might never have made if you could afford the comfortable alternative.
When we first landed in Melbourne we set to work researching all the different ways we could travel the 10 hour journey to Sydney, as we knew we weren't going to hop on a Greyhound coach, not just because of the price, but because we kinda feel it takes the adventure out of the experience. We also didn't fancy spending hours sat on a cramped bus, catching brief glances of Australia out the tinted window, not stopping anywhere but at the designated drop-off's.
During our search we found a website called Co-seats, which is a kind of pre-arranged and paid hitch hiking deal; drivers can advertise their car journey, or you can advertise your preferred destination, and you then look for a match, send a text or make a phone call, and agree to pay a certain small amount towards fuel. It really is a super simple process. We got ourselves a ride with a really friendly young couple, who picked us up just after sunrise from a street corner, at the beginning of another busy day in Melbourne.
Over the next few months we continued to look for cheap and alternative ways to travel; we spent a month living in a two man tent and working for accommodation in Byron Bay, at the same hostel featured in the Inbetweeners 2 movie. Hannah cleaned toilets 3 hours a day, and I helped do some basic maintenance across the site, we worked 2 days on, 2 days off.
This saved us so much money and we made some great friends during our time in Byron Bay. We also got into the habit of hitch hiking as much as possible and although we've had some long waits and some strange people pick us up, you just cant beat the unpredictability of it.
We love the idea of the sharing economy that makes up so much of travelling; opportunities to get food and accommodation in return for a few short hours a day of work, plus the social nature of hitch-hiking, where people often love to pick you up just to hear your story.
One of our most memorable experiences so far was the time we met a hippy named Spartacus in Bellingen, who told us about a festival coming up in Nimbin called Mardi-Grass. He offered us a lift in his van (which is also where he and his son Apollo call home) for the 4 hour trip it would take to get there.
It was pouring down with rain that day, and it just didn't stop for the whole journey. We were diverted from a main road due to a massive accident, and pointed in the direction of a small one-way back-road. Headed down a narrow road more akin to an English country lane, after a few minutes of trying to see the road through the windscreen wipers, a feeble effort with the lashing rain, we spotted something sitting on the side of the road.
A cat? Surely not out here in the middle of nowhere..
We wish we could of got a better picture!
We stopped the van, and jumped out as Spartacus said excitedly, 'it must be a Koala!'
We both got a bit excited as we had been yet to see a Koala and weren't really keen on going to a zoo just to hold a docile one for a quick photo op. And then before we could even actually prepare ourselves, Spartacus had wrapped it in his jacket and was bringing it back to the van!
We grabbed some towels as it was really wet and cold, and then we got our first look at it before we wrapped it up like a little baby! Hannah then proceeded to cradle the baby Koala in a state of disbelief and cute overdose, while we drove to the nearest town after contacting a Koala rescue team.
This was such an amazing experience and we still look back at it and cant believe it actually happened.
There's very little chance something like this would of happened if we had just hopped on the Greyhound bus!
Watch the video below if you wanna see how it all went down:
We're not telling you that something like this will happen to you, as we are very aware it was extremely lucky for us to have had the experiences we've had. But we do believe that when you seek out cheaper and more adventurous ways to travel, amazing things can happen, and you get to see a side of a country you probably wouldn't have otherwise.
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If you stick to the pre-arranged tours and activities that are peddled to you as a backpacker, you will only ever experience the same thing everyone else does; you will stay in an pre-determined comfort zone.
For example...
While on the East Coast of Australia, we were searching for a way to experience the famous Fraser Island. We had seen all the various backpacker tours and day trips and knew that we wouldn't be paying their crazy prices, and our plan had been to try and hitch hike around the island; we did end up doing this briefly while on the island, getting a lift down the beach, but lifts are few and far between with everyone's 4x4's packed with supplies.
In the end we got to the island because of a job. Way back in April 2015, we happened across an advert for a remote campsite on the island, and from then on, we sent our resumes multiple times each time the ad resurfaced on Gumtree. Finally, in October, we actually got a response and then a phone interview! We secured the couples position and looked forward to finishing up our farm-stay to start working and saving up again; and of course, visit the mythical Fraser Island.
To actually get to the island, we were treated to a 4 seater plane ride over the island with a beach landing. Long story short, we ended up spending 2 months living and working on the worlds largest sand island, living in a tent, spending every day without phone signal let alone internet access.
Two months of being totally disconnected, the only possible way to communicate with the outside world being a hike up a massive sand dune. Two months of living in a tent that needed constant repairs. Two whole months of being exposed to light pollution-free night sky's full of stars; this was an experience we will remember forever, and we know that going on a 2 day party tour of the island just wouldn't have been the same, nowhere near.
You must try and challenge yourself when you travel.
It doesn't matter what kind of traveller you are, be it a luxury hotel frequenter, a hostel bunk-bed addict or a camping master, you can still experience a crazy adventure and all you need is a little imagination and the right mindset.
By sharing some examples of our improvised travelling method, living every day way out of our comfort zones, we hope to inspire you to seek out the road less travelled; it's the best way to create a travel experience that's entirely unique, utterly unforgettable and completely life-changing.
Make sure to share this with your friends who you think will benefit from it :]
Do you seek adventure? It may be easier than you think (and cheaper) https://t.co/5RYWVVJwIK #adventure #travel pic.twitter.com/IfiN8uUSH2
— Taran & Hannah (@Nomaderhowfar) June 3, 2016
Need some more inspiration?
Thanks for reading!
Taran here, owner of Nomad'er How Far. I'm fond of psychedelic rock, photography & videography, anything to do with space and I'm also partial to the odd gaming session. Oh and I love to travel :P Get to know me here!
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Latest Travel Inspiration:
10 Annoying Things About Australia: An English Person's Guide.
Australia has become home for the past year, and as much as we love it, it certainly isn't perfect...
10 Annoying Things About Australia: An English Person's Guide
So Australia is super pretty, breathtaking in places, and perfect for a first-time traveller. But with that good comes the annoying, and it can take some adjusting to when you're English...
There are numerous cultural similarities and on the East Coast you will come across many of your fellow Europeans, but still, Australia has its funny little ways and a bold specific personality of it's own.
During your time here prepare to pick up new phrases that will sound super odd if you utter them back in gloomy old blighty, and you will soon learn to live without TV because, well, it's really really poor!
10 Annoying (but totally bearable) Things About Australia:
1. Supermarkets close super early and don't sell alcohol. 5pm on a Saturday? There's simply no accounting for the desire that might strike me at 5.05pm whereby I require 1 fruity cider and a vat of ice cream. Distressing.
2. There's many big cars. Mildly intimidating as a foreigner driving around in rental cars, Aussie's love their pick-up trucks, and they love getting up your bottom on the highway.
That time we drove our own trucks around!
3. Hostels rarely succeed in having the backpacker trifecta; decent (hopefully free or cheap) wifi, air-con and a kitchen that actually has utensils in it. Hiring a saucepan for $10? Takeaway it is then.
4. Going back to that need for decent internet, WIFI in Australia is incredibly overpriced, especially for travelers trying to save a buck staying at camp-sites. Sort it out Australian internet bosses, or at least tell someone to hurry up on inventing those wifi tree's.
5. You are no longer English here, you are now a Pom/Pommy/Pommy bastard. Forget about even telling them your given name. And if you take a dislike to your new nickname, prepare for them to add 'Whinging', to that Pom.
6. Australian TV is basically American TV. Adverts every 5-6 minutes, programmes that take basic concepts to their extremist of lengths, and just a bizarre slew of programming, you better hope you don't run out of movies on your hard-drive on those quiet or rainy days.
7. The fish and chips vastly suck. How many times I have longed for fat soggy chips laden in salt and vinegar, delivered in a hot soggy bag, and I've been given dried out skinny fries in a box. Endless disappointment.
8. The Australian weather is incredibly overzealous. 25 degree's at 7am? Cheers sun.Then again, waking up to sunshine is pretty nice...
9. People talk funny and are mildly confusing. Be prepared to be told you are "too easy" but don't be offended, it just means "that's great". Or is it "not a problem", I can't be too sure.. and then there's the shortening of every word in the world, which usually results in the addition of syllables plus a 'y' at the end of each word.
10. The sea has this way of being so warm, like a bath, that it's almost not refreshing you know?
AH, WHO AM I KIDDING, Australia is actually pretty bloody brilliant!
10 Awesome Things About Australia:
1. The people are friendly, chatty and outwardly positive. Maybe its all the sun and warm weather they get because they are far more chilled and easy-going than people back home.
2. Waking up to blue skies is the norm, and when you do get storms, they are usually quite spectacular and often short-lived.
3. Life is lived outdoors all year long, whether its taking in the beach views, or catching the waves when the swell picks up. The lack of TV or other entertainment as a traveller on a budget is more than made up for by the numerous fun outdoor activities on offer, from adrenaline exploits to a relaxed stand-up paddle-boarding stint.
4. People have more space and room to move and breathe, unlike the more over populated areas we both come from, crammed side-by-side in little old England.
5. Healthy (and tasty) food options are abundantly available, with food market culture alive and thriving.
6. Its often easy to move place to place, with some public transport working out incredibly cheap; we travelled 2 hours out of Sydney to the Blue Mountains for $3 each at the time.
7. Its a traveller/tourist paradise, fusing modern attractions and numerous tour options, with its natural wonders and national parks.
8. It has a rich indigenous culture and sparsely untouched beauty lies intact, making it a land of diverse geography and history.
9. The contrasting wild-life on offer combines cute with deadly,from roo's, possums and Koala's, to snakes, spiders and croc's.
10. Its such a perfect place to begin your travels, as you are able to ease yourself into experiencing different cultures by first being amongst one, very much like your own, but with an entirely different landscape and lifestyle on offer.
What do you love (or hate) about Australia?
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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8 Realities of Farm Work [The good, the bad, the eight-legged]
So do you want to live and work on a farm in rural Australia? Well here's some useful tips on the realities of the experience!
8 Realities of Farm Work - The good, the bad, the eight-legged
It's one of the few ways you can obtain a 2nd year visa in Australia, and for some, it is a bit of a scary prospect. It can be a completely alien environment for many, especially those not used to outdoor work or Australia's heat. But now, nearly at the end of our 88 days, we are no longer scared of it, or apprehensive about what's involved.
So do you fancy living and working on a farm in rural Australia? Well here's some useful stuff we've found out along the way....
Weather
It will be hot, and you will pray for cloud cover when your out in the fields. But not the grey kind, cause rain means mud! Of course the crops need a nice shower now and again, and drout is a terrifying reality, but if it does rain, you will struggle to have anything to do. Although if your house relies on water in the water tank, rain will be a mixed blessing. Basically you will experience the extremes, and you will celebrate the rain and the sunshine, as long as they come in balance!
Early Morning Starts
Because of said hot weather, you do have to begin your work whilst it's not yet horrifically warm. At first waking up at 6am will seem beautiful, the farm is always a pretty site just after sun-rise. Maybe 5 days in, you will be thankful for even an extra hour in bed. But soon enough you get used to it. Your body clock adapts, and even at the weekends you want to get up early enough to make the best of the day. Plus sleep will be a warm blanket of beautifulness each night.
Cute Creatures
Whether it's moths trying to invade your house at night, spiders trying to sneak in with your laundry, or frogs hopping on your veranda, you will share your farm life with a whole host of nature. There's also the cuter ones; the roo's, the wallabies and maybe a farm dog.
Crawling Critters
By the end of your time you will be less likely to want to squish each and every little bug that harasses you. You will become a better more tolerant person for allowing these guys to share your house and your bedroom curtain.... Who am I kidding this spider dude was removed from the house, but not killed. I'm getting there!
Sweat And Dust
Never will be a hot shower be so welcome as after a day where sweat and dust fuse to create an extra new layer of skin. But you will shed it and regain it by the end of the next day. Just embrace it. Revel in it. You will be clean again one day. Definitely bring a lot a bumper size of body wash and a nail brush.
Remote Living
We were quite lucky at our farm, as it's only a 40 minute drive from the nearest big town, and ten minutes from a small one. A lot of farms are much farther in-land, and this can lead to a bit of cabin-fever over time. Food shopping will be a bit different too; it might be weekly or even monthly. It just takes some getting used to and some well-though-out shopping lists.
The best way to push through the remoteness is to enjoy all the relaxation that can come with being in the middle of nowhere. Look after your home, enjoy it, walk around your farm and explore it. Sometimes you have some beautiful local gems, like our farm, that has a lagoon about a 20 minute drive away, as well as Fraser Island and other beaches an hour down the road.
If you aren't so lucky as to have lots of attractions nearby, use the time differently. Maybe read or learn a new language. Make time to truly rest. You may want to invest in a wifi dongle and some data though, staying connected to those you love will still be important, and will help you through the weeks or months.
Pump Those Muscles
It's part and parcel of farm-work, that there will be some lifting, throwing, chopping, digging and then there's the old vehicles with temperamental gear sticks. I hate to admit the amount of times I tense my right bicep to see how it's coming along. It's worrying, but so satisfying to see your body change and strengthen amidst the hard-work.
Bum-Fluff And Grease Those Nipples
Yes these are actual farm terms, this post didn't take a weird turn. As you'd expect, your face, hair and clothes will inevitably get a good coating of dirt, but your hands too, these bad boys will be the hands of a mechanic by the end. Be prepared to work on the vehicles and tractors you use; before you know it your changing oils, and greasing nipples, which is as it sounds, applying gooey grease to certain parts of the machine to keep it all moving smoothly.
If you find yourself doing a tree-pruning job, remember to bend your knees when you bumfluff; the water-shoots or weeds around macadamia tree's will sometimes need you to hand-prune them, and so bumfluff, you must!
We wouldn't swap any of the sweat, spiders, 6am starts or greasy hands for having been anywhere else the last 3 months. It's been a really awesome experience, made even better by living on the farm, getting to admire and enjoy the results of our labours from our veranda, with a cold cider
It's natural to be afraid of the unknown and to want to avoid the difficult, and farm-work isn't always easy. With positivity and a good attitude, you can get out as much as you put into your farm-work, and it will end up being a really memorable phase, where you at first adapt, and then thrive.
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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Is it Worth Quitting your Job To Travel?
Does hitch-hiking along a dusty road, backpack on and thumb out sound better than a safe drive to the shops and back?
Is it Worth Quitting your Job To Travel?
Some people spend years climbing a career-ladder, or studying, all in the pursuit of their dream job. Many of them invest a lot of time and energy into this pursuit, some foregoing other things, like families, relationships, and of course, travel. For many people the sacrifice can seem worth it.
This isn't the case for us however. Having both quit our jobs to travel the world, starting with exploring Australia for 2 years, we didn't feel like walking out on our jobs was the hardest thing to do, unlike others our age might feel.
We were not in careers that earned us much money; my job was working a few days a week making just enough money to pay rent, feed myself and save a little bit on the side.. I knew that I wanted change soon.
Hannah was in a different position, she ran her own dog walking business and loved it! But she too didn't like the thought of doing it for the rest of her life..
So leaving our jobs wasn't a big deal for us, but for many other people our age it is a different story. Once you get to your mid 20's most of us will have moved out of our parents homes and will be either paying rent or locked into a mortgage which makes things way harder.
That being said almost half a year in and we have managed to keep our expenses way down, which has meant we have had more time to explore without having to top up our funds with part time jobs. Our relatively small savings have been stretched to the limit!
We still cringe when other backpackers tell us how many thousands of dollars they have spent over the last few months on alcohol and partying..
That's not to say we don't like a drink, we just do it differently; a beer/cider from the bottle shop on the beach has always been a better option to us than a drink in a bar.
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Plan!
★ When it comes to saving, you don't have to follow the crowd and take out a loan to travel the world.. In fact you don't really need that much at all! Depending on your style of travel of course.. We have a taken every opportunity to save money; we hitch-hike, camp, couch-surf, drink tap water and eat cheaply! If you follow these tips and use your own common sense you should be able to make about 5000 AU Dollars last 6+ months easily!
Mike from NZ couch surfing with us!
★ Setting a date will cement things in your head and will really help you ramp up the saving and will also help you mentally plan for it. You're about to make a great decision that will change you forever.
★ Start couch-surfing via your current home (if possible). We started having people stay with us before we set off on the road. Its a great way to meet amazing people currently travelling and will also get you excited to get on the road!
Change!
Does hitch-hiking along a dusty road, backpack on and thumb out sound better than a safe drive to the shops and back, does setting up camp on a beach under the stars or meeting amazing people from different cultures sound like your kind of thing?
If you truly want something in life, you will work your hardest to get it.. And if travelling the world is something you long to do, then there is no doubt that whatever your situation, you will eventually reach your goal and live out your dreams!
Our 2 years in Australia started in March 2015 and we have had an absolute blast taking in everything that it has to offer, but there is still so much to see! And that, my friend, is the beauty of it all, there is so much to see in this world and many adventures to come, which will surely be filled with exploration, tales of peril and awe-inspiring views that will continue to take our breathe away!
We feel like we made one of the best decisions of our life.
Thanks for reading!
Taran here, one half of NomaderHowFar. I'm fond of psychedelic rock, photography & videography, forcing Hannah to do crazy things, and I'm also partial to the odd gaming session. Oh and I love to travel :P Get to know us here!
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Taran & Makoto here, together we form Nomader How Far photography.
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