Sara John
Hello. My name is Kathy Gardner. Travel has played a huge role in my life. I definitely inherited my “wanderlust” from my mum and being the youngest, I was the lucky one who got to accompany her on many trips around Europe and the US as a child. My interest ignited, I finally ended up making a career in travel and have had the opportunity to visit some amazing places all around the world. I almost enjoy planning a trip as much as actually experiencing the destination, and once there relish exploring “off the beaten track” and visiting local bars and restaurants, meeting the locals and finding out about their lives.
I finally decided that a two week holiday was never enough time to really get to know a place so I took the plunge and ticked off the biggest item on my “bucket list”. I rented my house, quit my job and set off on a solo “gap year” trip around the world. It was an experience of a lifetime – the places I saw, the people I met and the things I did certainly shaped me as a person. Age and experience were my greatest assets and I got so much more out of the trip than I would have done as a youngster. I ended up visiting 16 countries, travelling over 100,000 kms on 68 buses, 15 boats, 28 planes and 5 trains, saw 31 world heritage sites, made several lifelong friends, maxed out 6 credit cards…and created countless wonderful and funny memories…
Initially wanting to create a record of my thoughts and experiences on the journey, my trusty netbook became my travel companion and I started writing a blog. I found I actually enjoyed writing and was inspired to keep it updated by friends and family who were following my adventures. I’ve recently had the time to turn my epic account into a hard backed book (only one copy for myself – Bill Bryson I’m not – although it had over 4,000 hits at the time!).
Since then, I remain a “thrill seeker”, a “restless soul” if you will, who has at least two trips in the planning at any one time (even in these uncertain times)!
I always try to record my adventures whenever I visit a new destination – although I do find this more challenging when I’m travelling with a companion. During lockdown in this extraordinary year, I signed up for a travel writing course, run by the wonderfully inspiring Dave Fox (http://www.globejotting.com/) which has rekindled my enthusiasm for travel blogging and led me to finally get to grips with WordPress.
The result is this website – a work in progress, so please bear with me…and I hope you enjoy visiting (and indeed revisiting) with me some of the amazing places I’ve had the privilege to experience..