04 Jun We’ve Come Home After Two Years On The Road…Now What?
We’ve seen some incredible places. Beautiful places. Places we never knew existed until we reached them and dragged our jaws along. We’ve been hot beyond boiling and cold beyond freezing. We’ve had perfect sunsets, more than perfect sunrises, gloomy and cloudy days, and days where the sun didn’t go down #gottalovescandinavia
We left our third world country and explored the first world. We ventured into regal hotels and slept on the floor in dirty ones. We ate king crab until we were sick of it, tried kangaroo, moose, even whale – then one of us gave animal products up for good. We tasted flavors from over 40 countries, and still can’t agree on the best beer in the world.
Our world became smaller as we made friends in every country we visited. We experimented with our (many) creative projects, grew an incredible (larger-than-life-and-we-cannot-thank-you-enough) community around our story, and (thankfully) even made all our money back.
Now, after 26 months and 242 859km of non-stop travel, we have come home. If I could only put into words how surreal it is! How strange it feels to be looking at the country that was my world for such a long time, and now to see it as merely a part of my world. Ah, if only there was a word to describe it…Phantasmagorical? Does that kind of paint a picture?
Practically, we have come home to rest and unpack our smelly bags, (and wash them because I’m pretty sure there are still bits of Vietnam and Switzerland somewhere in the pockets). We have come home to see faces we haven’t seen in two years, hug people we’ve missed, and spend quality time sharing stories with family.
Then on a holistic level, we have also come home to reflect on everything we’ve done, and to let the mud settle* in order to find a new purpose.
*A phrase we learnt while staying at a yoga retreat in Cambodia – one must be still and really wait for the mud to settle in order to see through the water clearly again.
You see, we have realized that we will no longer aim to see how far from home we can go. Uh uh. That ship has sailed, anchored and, well, is waiting for its new voyage. It has become too easy for us and frankly, is borderline comfortable (something you know we’re not fans of). We have come home to complete this mission, and (imagine me saying this with pride) “after 242 859km, we feel like we are satisfied with this project”.
(If this news is shocking you at all, then please read on.)
The last few months have been extremely difficult for us. It’s quite a feeling to be given the opportunity to see some of the world’s most spectacular places…and be thinking about a nap with more enthusiasm than a second chance to photograph that spectacular spot. The truth is that (as we have come to realize) when you’re so exhausted that sleeping is more exciting than creativity and travel itself, then you know it’s time to give it a rest for a while (and we know we’re not alone in our thinking either).
Please don’t get me wrong. We have loved every minute of our travels. It’s been life-changing and rewarding and eye-opening and just…well…amazing! We have simply realized, that in order to keep going, we must (firstly reboot, then) find a new purpose to propel us forward. Counting kilometers and traveling to get further is just not enough of a driver anymore. We have grown to need more than that.
“So what is next?” you ask? Well, it’s not a simple answer.
What we do know, is that in order to be fulfilled, we need to fill our life with creative projects. Epic, experimental, life-altering projects that change our perspective, keep us feeling alive and push us away from anything that makes us bored and contempt and uncomfortably comfortable. Sadly (or fortunately), our kilometer counting project has reached a point of comfort for us, and, well, it’s time to shake things up again.
*To loosely quote Mr Manson again here (Mark, not Marilyn), “as long as we are progressing, we will be happy, because there is no perfect…every time we reach a goal, we will create a new bigger one for ourselves.”
With that in mind, our initial plan is to rest and recover from the brutality of nomadic (budget) living, and to spend some time touring our own country with fresh eyes.
We’re also beyond excited to (finally) be packaging everything we’ve learnt into a practical and inspirational (and undoubtedly entertaining) guide for anyone and everyone wanting to do what we have done. Although we’re (slightly) terrified putting so many of our resources into an online course, when everything is virtually available for free online, as (one of our new favourite authors) Monika Kanokova said: “the bigger the ocean, the more important it is to have a guide.” So! On that premise, we’re hoping all the wanderlustful and travel-hungry people out there think of us as whale-spotting guides, leading them into a big wide ocean of traveling full time, to see that very rare whale hunt or whale tail (too much whale-ey metaphors here?)
Beyond that, we have a few thoughts up our sleeves…there’s an ambitious project we’re currently brainstorming, and we’ve set a goal to reach in less than 5 years, so let us see! We will be unpacking our quest to get to said new goal, and we will certainly continue collecting memories (not things), and of course traveling (once we’ve rested and launched the course) so hopefully you stay along for the ride.
Are we scared? Yes.
Do we think we’re doing the right thing? Maybe.
Are we happy with our decision and are we listening to our gut (just like we did when we originally set off on this journey)? Hell yes!
How Far From Home 2.0 is coming soon peeps, and we couldn’t be more pumped!
CC & SD
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