I’m starting a new year with a new series! This, like my A-Z of Iceland series from 2019, will run throughout the entire year with a new installment every other Monday. Let me know if there’s anything particular you’d like me to cover – as at time of writing, I’ve still got a few gaps in some letters.
In time-honoured tradition, I’m starting the A-Z at A, which is for Adventures.
You’re going to hear a lot of horror stories between announcing your solo trip and actually heading off. A lot of people are going to question you and your decisions, tell you it’s too dangerous or that you don’t have the abilities. And yeah, there are things you’re going to have to learn. There are things you won’t even know you have to learn until they come up. Solo travel will change you as a person. Hopefully you won’t become the insufferable “gap yah” type who “finds herself” at the bottom of a bucket of cocktails on a beach in south-east Asia while wearing elephant trousers. What I mean is that you’ll find your self-confidence and your competence and a measure of self-possession that can only come with dealing with problems alone under a certain amount of pressure.
But all that is yet to come! In the next 25 installments I’m going to try to answer questions and solve difficulties but today we’re here to celebrate the purpose behind your solo female travel trip: you’re going on an adventure!
I wonder what shape your adventure will take? A year of travelling around the world? A long weekend in a neighbouring country? Packed with adrenaline sports? Yoga and wellness? City break? Mountain trek? There are so many kinds of adventure and whatever you’re doing, even if you can’t quite consider it a real “adventure”, it’s having adventure enforced on it simply because you’re going off and doing it on your own. I know that in itself is an adventure because if it’s routine and unexciting to you, you wouldn’t be here reading this.
Maybe you are already an experienced and jaded traveller and adventurer, though. Doing it by yourself is very different. You’ve stripped away your backup and your safety-in-numbers. The responsibility is all yours. But you’ll be fine! You’re an adventurer already. You know what to do, you know how to do it, you just have to learn to trust that you can do it without anyone standing next to you, holding your hand.
What is an adventure? In my quest to define myself as “an adventurer”, I’ve… totally failed to come up with a one-size-fits-all definition. Something out of the ordinary. Something that excites you. Something that kind of scares you. Something difficult. Something new. Something your blinkered neighbour wasting her life on washing and brainless TV disapproves of. Something you fantasise about making a great Netflix documentary. Something that’s not routine. Yes, you’re going on an adventure and I’m excited for you. You’re going to see things and do things and meet people. You’re going to learn and grow so much. Don’t let the naysayers kill your enthusiasm. If you have to create an entire presentation to show them that you’ve thought of everything and that it’ll be amazing, so be it. What I’ll be saying over the next year will help you fill in those slides. But make the first one bright and colourful and don’t forget that you’re doing something awesome.
(Ohhhh, the word awesome doesn’t suit me. But I used amazing two lines ago!)
Anyway, if you knew me at school, you might remember me as the shyest, silentest person who was ever going to not have an adventure in my life. Actually, if you knew me then and don’t know me now, you may not realise I’m the same person. Through solo travel – and ok, through being a Guide leader – I’ve discovered my voice and my adventurous side. I’m going to pop a photo of me in my teens here and then some solo travel adventure pictures for contrast.
