It’s kinda crazy to think that I have been travelling (and blogging) my way around the world for twelve years. I went on my first ever overseas trip (which was solo I might add) when I was a baby faced nineteen year old!

Back then, I lived at home with my Dad, was in university studying midwifery and made my money to travel through any way possible. I worked in a bakery, I nannied kids, I bought clothes at sample sales and ran an eBay store – I even enrolled in medical trials to make extra cash.

Back then I thought my iPhone 4 was the height of photography, 8 bed dorms were a treat and would happily take a full day bus instead of a 1 hour flight to save a mere $10.

I am now 31 and my life looks very different. I live in a home that my wife and I own (very grown up vibes), I have three gorgeous fur babies and work as a midwife in Australia’s public health care system. I am also very blessed to not have to subject myself to experimental meds for the dosh anymore!

As to how I travel, a lot has changed but some things never have and likely never will…

What hasn’t changed

Aisle seats for lyf

I still remember taking my first ever international flight (Adelaide to Dubai in Emirates -13.5 hour overnight flight) and immediately gravitating to the aisle seat. I am not at all claustrophobic in nature (OGs might recall the adventures of caving beneath Budapest circa 2013) but being boxed in on any busy economy flight is just not the vibe.

I like the freedoms that come with the aisle seat – being able to get up and down as much as I like, being able to access my bag whenever I like and being able to spy on what other people are watching on their seat back screens.

That being said, there are a few instances in which I would want the window seat. If I am flying with someone I know and it is a 2 seat configuration, if we are flying over somewhere particularly scenic or if I am lucky enough to have been able to snag business class seats with my frequent flier points – in those instances I would absolutely adore the window seat, but generally speaking, I will be an aisle seat gal forever.

Lugging around camera gear is always worth the effort

When I went on my first trip, I truly thought I was an iPhone-ographer and that people with big cameras were making life hard for themselves… but within only a couple of years I had completely changed my tune.

I invested in my first camera (an Olympus OM-D E-M1) and a 12-40mm lens (that I still have and occasionally use) in mid 2015. It was an absolutely huge investment for me, I was working with a brand new graduate midwife salary and it was a big chunk of money.

I shot JPEGs in auto mode for a painful number of years but over time learned more about my camera and how to use it, eventually invested in a 7-14mm pro lens, then upgrading to the OM-D Mark II body, then a pro 40-150mm lens, adding drones and other bits and pieces in the process.

Over time, my skills and kit have expanded and taking photos has become a part of my life that I love and look forward to. I love planning a shot, composing it, taking it, editing it, sharing it and more. I absolutely adore the process of creating an image and thus, lugging around all my gear will always be worth it.

I hate early mornings at home but love them when travelling

I have never exactly been an early riser. 6am alarms have long since been my nemesis, but for some reason, the moment I step into a foreign country this completely changes. Suddenly I become an early bird, ready to photograph any sunrise and get to any popular site well before the crowds descend. This has been the case ever since my first trip abroad and since falling in love with photography, has become even more solidified as part of my travelling self.

Arriving to the airport early is a way of life

Some of my travel buddies absolutely hate me for this (looking at you Chelsea) but I am simply not a lady who can rock up at the airport late and barely make it on the plane.

This requires nerves of steel and a level of confidence that I simply do not possess. I have always been the kind of lady who will happily arrive at the airport nice and early and my care to do so has helped avoid disaster numerous times over the years.

I will arrive to airports 90 minutes before domestic flights, 2-3 hours before international flights (unless I am flying out of Singapore or somewhere with similarly efficient security and immigration processes) and I will be happy to do so.

My routine of buying overpriced airport beer and snacks before walking to my gate and checking it exists (iykyk) and downloading last minute movies will be a part of me until the end of times.

I’m still determined to make friends with wildlife, no matter how big or small

I am yet to meet an animal that I didn’t (however foolishly) believe wanted to be my friend (except maybe for saltwater crocodiles) and in my travels, I not only relish encounters with animals and local wildlife, but I seek them out. Animals (especially those of the marine variety) are endlessly fascinating and enchanting to me and I think wildlife will be a main drawcard for me in all my future travels.

Also, once I have a camera in my hand I have pretty much zero fear of any animal (even if I really should) which may sound careless (and look, it may be) but it has made for some truly epic photos over the years!

I still love travelling solo, it just so happens that I don’t do it much these days

For the first five or so years of my travel life I almost exclusively travelled solo, I mean, the blog is literally titled as such! However, over time I have had many more adventures with friends, family and partners and my solo travels have fallen into the minority of my adventures.

It’s not that I don’t still love travelling solo, I really really do, it’s just that I have also found so much joy in travelling with the humans I love most in the world and as I’ve gotten older, trips with my wife, my father and my treasured lifelong friends have become more and more of a priority for me. I know that I will always have my own company, but life is so random and who knows where it will take my loved ones – if I have the opportunity to make memories with them, then I should definitely jump on those opportunities.

That being said, I do still travel solo! I went to the Komodo Islands solo last year and have a solo trip to the Maldives in the works that I am super excited about, so the solo travel definitely isn’t behind me, it just isn’t the whole picture for me anymore.

What’s changed

I am no longer prepared to sleep on airport floors (where avoidable)

Oh man, a huge theme of this ‘what’s changed’ section is comfort based. I would do anything to save a buck when I was in my teens and early twenties – I would go days without eating anything other than a hostel breakfast, I’d stay in bedbug infested dorms and would never, ever, in a million years pay for something expensive like an airport hotel.

Lel, life could not be more different now. I now have the luxury in life of being financially comfortable enough that I can indulge those creature comforts and I have grown very fond of an airport hotel. Gone are the days where an 8 hour layover would involve getting broken sleep on the floor or just plain not sleeping at all, now I am absolutely prepared to splash out some cash for a few hours of comfortable shut eye – I am certainly a changed woman in that way!

My days of hostelling are (mostly) behind me

I was still a big champion for dorms until very recently, however, after some bad and annoying experiences in Tbilisi and Tashkent I have since decided that the dorm life is no longer for me. I am not saying I’ll never stay in a hostel again – sometimes private rooms in hostels are still way better value than hotel rooms (especially in notoriously expensive cities) and honestly, would it kill me to spend a night here and there in a 6 bed dorm? Probably not!

Truly, some of my best travel experiences have happened because of people I met in dorms and hostel common rooms and I am so happy to have had all those experiences, but it is a chapter of my life that is definitely now closed.

I wouldn’t hitchhike these days (although I do still sometimes accept lifts from strangers)

Younger me was certainly a dickhead from time to time. I engaged in much more risk taking behaviours when I was younger and this inevitably involved hitchhiking. At the time I thought I was being smart about it (only getting into cars with women etc) but in hindsight it was pretty bloody dumb of me and behaviour that my adult self really cringes at.

That being said, in certain parts of the world I still do occasionally get in the car with a stranger. Earlier this year when Ella and I were in Iceland we realised that I had booked us to pick up our rental car from the city office and not the airport (whoops) and after a guy working at a neighbouring office called that car company, one of the men who worked there arrived to the airport to pick us up and bring us to the city office, and honestly, I didn’t even give it a second though… so maybe I haven’t changed that much, lol.

I am all about the credit card and point hacking life

I really bloody love flying in business class, however, despite my relatively good financial standings, paying thousands and thousands of dollars for business class flights just isn’t possible, feasible or good for me.

Enter credit card hacking.

Signing up for credit cards, meeting the minimum spend, getting the points bonuses and redeeming for flights – its amazing. At the time this goes live I will be one week out from a trip that involves three relatively long haul flight legs (Australia – Africa – Europe – Australia) and I am flying all of those long haul legs in premium cabins and doing so cost me less than $1000 – it takes planning, careful management of finances and not an insignificant amount of effort – but boy is it worth it!

Overnight flights are my nemesis

It used to be that I would always fly the quickest route anywhere, but now, especially if I am flying economy, I just despise an overnight flight. I am almost never able to successfully sleep in any kind of upright position and so flying for 24 hours without sleeping before landing at 7am in my destination and not being able to check into my hotel… it just ain’t the vibe.

To combat this, I now try to stay overnight in whichever city my layover is before taking a day flight the following morning. Yes, it takes longer and it is absolutely more expensive, but it reduces a great deal of discomfort that comes with long haul flights and for me, it’s worth it.

Sometimes it does make sense to trade in my backpack for a suitcase

I still bloody love my backpack and still do utilise it from time to time, but sometimes it just does make sense to be a suitcase lady.

Recently on our honeymoon we travelled from the Arctic to Western Europe city vibes to Asia to a bloody Taylor Swift concert! We crossed so many different climates and had so many different types of clothes and shoes that we would need that there was no way we could have done it with backpacks – at least not without sustaining injury – we are in our 30s now after all.

I am unable to do the carry on only life

Further to the above – how I used to pack my camera equipment (including my tripod) plus all my other stuff into a 7kg carry on I will never know.

Now, my camera equipment takes up my entire carry on allowance, and honestly, I am usually over that weight and praying that nobody weighs it. As much as it is nice to breeze through customs and security that much faster by not having to wait for a bag to come out, it is just no longer feasible.

No matter where I go, I always want to go diving

I really didn’t get the appeal of diving for a long time. I thought snorkelling seemed much easier and that you could see everything cool from the surface. I also thought diving was way too expensive and just not worth the time or effort.

Oh how wrong I was!

Scuba diving has become one of my favourite things to do – ever. Not only is there so much incredible wildlife to see that you definitely can’t see from the surface, but it is one of the most meditative and relaxing things I have ever done. Weightlessness, nothing but the sound of your own breath and so much stimulation while also so little – it is the only thing I have ever found that makes my ever busy brain go quiet.

Furthermore, yes diving is a bit of an investment at the start with courses and such, but as it turns out, you can actually go diving in a lot of places around the world fairly inexpensively. It is not unusual to see fun dives costing under $50 AUD across much of Asia!

Now, whenever I travel, the first thing I am googling is the dive sites! There will never be a time when I don’t want to go diving, except night diving (I will do them when they’re included in a liveaboard trip but overall, they just ain’t for me).

My travels are less aimless now, I am focusing on doing things that are really special and important to me

When I was younger, travelling the world independently served to shape me as a person. I was really just a kid when I started backpacking and my prefrontal cortex was woefully underdeveloped! Those first years were pivotal in shaping the woman that I have become and they also served to help me heal from past traumas. Truthfully, for a while, travelling was a way that I tried to prove to myself that I was okay and over time I actually did heal, even if I didn’t realise it at the time. It turned from a coping mechanism to a part of who I was and something that I loved so much.

Back then, just being away from home was enough. Sure, there were things I wanted to do and see, but I was also more than happy bumming around a city aimlessly.

Now that I’m older, my travels are less about personal growth (although sometimes that still sneaks in) and more about enrichment and fulfillment. It has become so important to me to embark on adventures that I am wildly excited and passionate about, rather than just killing time abroad.

So now, my travels overall may be less often and less spontaneous, but I have chosen to focus on things that are truly special. By the time this publishes, I will be one week away from setting out on a trip that will hopefully accomplish something that I’ve wanted to do for years. It’s costing me a small fortune and it’s certainly not for the faint hearted, but to my core, words cannot explain how excited I am – and that’s a feeling I want to keep experiencing.

Travelling is still important, but so is my home life

As per my previous point, travelling is still an incredibly important part of my life and who I am as a person, but you definitely may have noticed that I don’t spend as many months each year overseas anymore – and it’s pretty simple – I have been so lucky to meet my wife and cultivate a life together that brings me so much joy. I had never really anticipated how wonderful building a home could be and now it really makes me sad to leave it – I now experience homesickness, something that up until a few years ago was a completely foreign concept to me.

So now my life is about balance.

Balancing my loves – my love of the world and my love of the beautiful family that I have been so fortunate to build.