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Gap Years for Grown Ups
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 Round the world in my thirtiesKaren Batchelor writes... "I finally decided to give up all the stability I had built up over 32 years in November 2002. Deciding to take a year out and travel was an easy decision: putting it into action was the hard part. When I first mentioned to family and friends that I was going travelling, they looked at me incredulously. Everyone knew I loved my holidays but to give up a good job, sporty car and decent money to live out of a rucksack? A lot of people thought that it was a whim, that I would never really do it, and to be honest part of me thought the same. Once I had told people of my intentions, my good friend Lorna decided to come with me. This helped our parents come to terms with us leaving, knowing we weren’t alone. They worried about us even at our ages! After everything was confirmed and I started tuning into travellers’ websites every day (whilst supposedly working) it started to dawn on me that I wasn’t officially young any more and that everybody else was going to be a good 10 years younger and fitter than me. Would I cope? Would people talk to me?  I had nothing to worry about. In March 2003 we travelled across South East Asia. Most of the people we met were around our age; some were older, some slightly younger, but it dawned on us that age didn’t matter, as we all got along famously. We lazed by gorgeous beaches, went elephant trekking and bamboo rafting, saw fantastic temples and learnt a lot about different cultures. We were befriended by a local hotel owner in Penang who gave us a tour of the island just for the enjoyment of practising his English. The Thai and Malaysian people were some of the friendliest people we had ever met. We then hit Australia and encountered a different type of traveller. Our first experience of a proper hostel was the Underground Backpackers in Perth and it was completely different from anywhere we’d stayed in Asia. I can remember talking to two 21-year-old girls who were at the end of their trip; they couldn’t believe that we were stopping in a twin room instead of a dorm. I commented that there was only a $4 difference per night. They replied that this attitude wouldn’t last and we would be in dorms before long, conserving money. I hadn’t really thought about dorms before travelling: because I was older and used to my own house, let alone my own bedroom, I didn’t consider them an option. My, how you change! A lot of the travellers we met were young people on gap years who needed to work to fund their travels. Their experiences were very different from ours. After selling my car and using some savings, I had enough money for my year out. One lad we met had flown out with only £100 to live on, and needed to get a job immediately or he’d have to go home. I couldn’t imagine what that would be like. From Perth I decided to experience a little of the work culture for myself and got a cash-in-hand job managing a hostel in a small town on the west coast. It turned out to be an excellent eight-week stint where I made great mates, but it really hit home how lucky I was. The hostel was mainly for workers, fruit-picking and working in the crayfish factory. All of the travellers were younger than me by a good few years and had to work all hours to earn enough money to move on to the next place. One spent six weeks working just to afford a trip to Exmouth to see the whale sharks: fair play to him!  We stopped in Exmouth for a week and that was really my first experience of a dorm. I dreaded it at first, but it turned into a right laugh and was comforting in a way: you realise that fellow travellers are your family and it’s just like living at home again. I took a microlight ride and what an experience that was; unfortunately no-one else could afford to do it but everyone stood on the whale-watching deck to wave and cheer me on as I flew overhead. It was little moments like this that made me think how glad I was to have waited for a year out. After years of university and work, I appreciated how much this meant. We had no time limits and wanted to experience as much as possible within a year, so we travelled from the North to Ayers Rock and then over to Cairns. If we liked a place, we stayed; if not, we moved on somewhere else. In Cairns we obviously wanted to go to the Great Barrier Reef, but I was surprised at how many young people came to Cairns for the cheap Blackpool-style pubs and didn’t even attempt to see one of the natural wonders of the world. We of course did both! We decided to travel on the Oz Experience down the East Coast because of their itinerary, but were slightly cautious as they are advertised as a party bus and we wondered whether there would be loads of 18-year-old lads on heat! Luckily most people on it were out to have a laugh and enjoy themselves. We met a lot of excellent people and ended up travelling with Emma and Jon (in their twenties) for three months. Click here >> for more about the Oz Experience Our first major city in Australia was Brisbane where we initially planned to stay for just two nights and ended up staying over a month. It happened to coincide with the rugby World Cup and was our best month in Oz. We took a step back from seeing the real Australia and spent a month in Irish pubs! We did try to stay out of the backpacker bars and met lots of genuine local people. It was nice to relax, get tattoos, watch the rugby and drink copious amounts of beer.  We left Australia having seen in the New Year in Sydney, aware of just how much we had seen and done in nine months. I couldn’t wait for New Zealand; there was so much I wanted to see and do. My guidebook was well-thumbed and we had heard lots of good things from other travellers. This seemed to be another difference between younger and older travellers: the older ones seemed to do their research more thoroughly (where to go, where to stay, what to see...). Maybe this comes from working for a number of years and knowing that the best way to be good at your job is to know it inside out. We walked the glaciers in Franz Josef, and experienced the Shotover canyon swing (near-death experience for me but Lorna did it twice!), paragliding and jet boating in Queenstown, Skydiving over Lake Taupo, white-water rafting and zorbing in Rotorua, caving in Waitomo and walking the Auckland bridge. Absolutely mind-blowing! Click here >> for info about adventure sports in NZ Not just content with the extreme sports, we weathered the winds at the most northern point, Cape Reinga, and experienced earthquakes and storms in Wellington, whale-watching and swimming with dolphins, as well as the local lifestyle of the Kiwis. We left New Zealand and travelled home via Fiji, Hawaii and New York. We landed exactly a year later, changed and enlightened people, more chilled-out but scared of returning to normality.  I’m glad I travelled in my thirties. I think I appreciated the whole experience more than I would have done earlier in life. Having the money to take time out and really see countries rather than having to work in a city just to fund a month of sightseeing has its advantages as you can really experience a country’s lifestyle and culture. After working for a number of years, taking a year out was the best thing I could ever have done. I have met so many people of all ages and nationalities and have made great friends for life! I’m more tolerant of people and consider myself to be quite a patient person now. I have also come to realise that there is more to life than having material items and status symbols! Unfortunately the rat race beckoned and I was drawn back into the nine-to-five routine, but I hope to be strong enough to give everything up again soon and see more of the world before its too late!"  Click here >> for more Australia info Click here >> for more New Zealand info |
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