Erin loves to hike, and Brook loves to fish. And we both love to surf, swim, explore, and camp. So we resolved to spend a year (or so) in pursuit of adventure. Along the way, we hope to find some great wine and beer, take some good pictures, meet a few new friends, and enjoy a year in the great outdoors.
Our goal is to wander, to truly travel to some new places and take on whatever adventures arise. This isn't a big vacation, but it's not gap-year backpacking either. We have been fortunate, have worked hard, and have (hopefully) set aside enough cash to make this one-year sabbatical happen. It's all a little nerve-wracking, but in a bracing sort of way. If you're interested, our "Kit and Logistics" page has some more information on gear, budgets, travel tips, and the kind of planning it takes to put this sort of trip together.
We've already done a decent amount of traveling in Europe, North America, and South America. Our general plan is to visit some cool new places where we can mix hiking, surfing, and general exploration. Here's our preliminary list of target destinations, subject to change as we go along:
- Chile: Patagonia, Torres del Paine Circuit Trek, fly fishing in the Lakes District, Chico Norte, the Atacama desert, and Santiago's wine regions.
- Victoria & Tasmania, Australia: Tasmanian backcountry, Adelaide's coast road, wine country, diving the Great Barrier, surfing the Indian Ocean out of Perth, and wandering the Outback.
- New Zealand: More hikes and surf breaks than you can count, emerging craft brew scene, and some diving up north. Rumor has it they also have some pretty good wine.
- Malaysia & Thailand: diving, surfing, amazing food and crazy jungle.
- Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia: Boating down the Mekong, jungle treks, Angkor Wat, more great food, and very different cultures.
- Mongolia: horseback riding on the steppe, fermented mare's milk (seriously).
- Japan: Hiking, biking (and perhaps fly fishing) on Hokkaido, and exploring the urban jungle.
- Nepal: Annapurna Circuit trek, himalaya wonderland.
- And onward...
We take our inspiration from many sources, but the last stanza of Tennyson's Ulysses stands out:
There lies the port; the vessel puffs her sail:
There gloom the dark broad seas. My mariners,
Souls that have toiled, and wrought, and thought
with me—
That ever with a frolic welcome took
The thunder and the sunshine, and opposed
Free hearts, free foreheads—you and I are old;
Old age hath yet his honour and his toil;
Death closes all: but something ere the end,
Some work of noble note, may yet be done,
Not unbecoming men that strove with Gods.
The lights begin to twinkle from the rocks:
The long day wanes: the slow moon climbs: the deep
Moans round with many voices. Come, my friends,
'Tis not too late to seek a newer world.
Push off, and sitting well in order smite
The sounding furrows; for my purpose holds
To sail beyond the sunset, and the baths
Of all the western stars, until I die.
It may be that the gulfs will wash us down:
It may be we shall touch the Happy Isles,
And see the great Achilles, whom we knew
Though much is taken, much abides; and though
We are not now that strength which in old days
Moved earth and heaven; that which we are, we are;
One equal temper of heroic hearts,
Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will
To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.
-- Alfred Lord Tennyson
