Feb 17

Feb 17 Time for new adventures?

It might seem perverse to be writing this just as we’ve postponed our planned trip to Japan for the fourth (fourth!) time. It was originally supposed to be my 60th birthday bucket list adventure. I’m now entirely resigned to fact that it will probably end up being my 70th.

But slowly, slowly, the world is beginning to open up again. Slowly, slowly it’s starting to be possible for us to lift our eyes beyond the horizon directly in front of us, or on the edges of our home shores, and to consider planning and embarking on adventures farther afield.

I wonder if I’m the only one facing that prospect with, yes, a thrum of excitement, but also a little unexpected apprehension.

What I love about travelling

I’ve always loved everything about travelling. From the anticipation of planning and booking a trip, to setting off from home (with an always over-filled suitcase. I still haven’t entirely given up on hope that one day I’ll master the skill of travelling light), to the actual travel bit itself (I’m endlessly fascinated by people, and airports are one of my favourite people-watching places). And most of all, of course, there’s the thrill of discovering and exploring new places and/or relaxing on a glorious beach and swimming in an azure sea.

Then there’s the fact that I don’t live with my lovely fella (which I fully appreciate is almost certainly why our relationship has lasted as long as it has) and one of the things we have always most enjoyed doing together is travelling. Being able to spend time with each other and discover the world has been a double bonus that we have grasped on as many occasions as possible during the decade we’ve been together.

Travel has always added so much to my life and given me so much joy and wonder, I imagined the minute I could embark on new adventures I’d be bursting to brush the cobwebs off my suitcase, and frantically figuring out which of the destinations on my go-to list to book first.

Something unexpected

However, whilst it’s certainly true that I’ve already embarked on early stage negotiations and planning with the aforementioned fella over just how much time he’s prepared to spend away from the ball and chain of his desk, and which order he’d care to take my reconfigured destination list in. And whilst I’ve started excavations to uncover my full, rather than weekend, size suitcase, there’s also, surprisingly, a small part of me that’s feeling just a tad……unsettled. Wistful almost.

It isn’t that I haven’t learnt to be, at least mostly, sanguine about the fact that all plans can be thrown off course for all manner of reasons. Lord knows we’ve all had to adjust to that being the case, whether it’s something as low-key as an evening out, or as big a deal as a trip-of-a-lifetime holiday (see Japan above, sigh…).

Or that I have any degree of nervousness about either the travelling (continuing precautions and the many reports of how the air on a plane is actually more germ free that the stuff we breath every day are more than reassuring enough for me on that score), or the being abroad. On the contrary - I really can’t wait for that burst of difference that hits you as you emerge down the plane steps. And the thrill of anticipating the experiences that lie ahead.

I think it’s this

The best I can work out is that, for me anyway, it has been unexpectedly comfortable and even comforting to have my travel horizons temporarily limited. Not to have to deal with the sometimes exhausting clamour of choice and the stresses involved in booking flights (how is it possible aren’t any on the dates I want other than with two stop-overs and an eye-watering price tag?) and accommodation (what exactly does ‘sea glimpses’ mean?).

Pandemic travel restrictions have also given me the excuse and the opportunity to explore more of the truly wonderful places there are to revel in here in the UK. That has been both a gift and a joy. And a chance to create magical holiday memories with my girls and their families that may well not have possible if everyone had been jetting off separately to sunnier climes.

Now we have the chance to find our travel feet again, some more speedily and enthusiastically than others, I’m very happy to be able to brush off my passport and start scanning the flight schedules, but mindful too of the reminder that there’s so much to savour and treasure closer to home.

Time, then, to get back out in the world? Indeed. Time to be grateful for the adventures we’ve been able to have in spite of everything? Oh yes. Time now for new ones? I do believe it is.

I’d love to know where you’re planning to travel next.