No return – full time travelling, hiking, climbing

I made a decision and now there is no return. I recently quit my job so that Andy and I can live a dream and go travel for a year or so. The main activities will be hiking and climbing. It has always been a dream of mine to do such a trip but it is not easy to find someone who wants to come along for the ride. A few years ago I met Andy who has the same interests and is willing to live cheap and out of a car for a long time. Although it sounds fantastic to not work and just play I realize that it will also be tough not to have a home and always have to live out of a suitcase (or backpack in this case). But what I am looking forward to and what was the main purpose of this kind of trip is to not have any responsibilities except to yourself, no work to go back to, not having to do anything if I don’t want to. Imaging the freedom of doing today what you feel like and not what you have to. Maybe that is not the correct way to express it, I guess we have all chosen our lives and even if it feels like we have to do things we have put ourselves in the situation where we have to do certain things to be able to maintain a lifestyle or care for other people. I did that too in a way. Before I worked a lot for some time to then take time off and go travel, dive and hike. The trips I made were quite expensive and although my job allowed me to take longer holidays on several occasions there was always a time when I had to go back. This time I have chosen to quit my job entirely and live on little money but instead be able to stay on the road for a long time. What will limit our trip is money or if we simply don’t feel like travelling anymore. I think the second one will happen first.

Andy and I have been talking about making a long trip basically since we met but it was never certain exactly when we would do it. Now seemed to be a good time for several reasons. So tickets has been booked and the route is USA-Canada-Hawaii-New Zealand-Australia-Hong Kong-Stockholm. The plan is to return to Sweden in July 2013 and spend the summer in Stockholm. After that we’ll see what happens. We might stay or move to Switzerland which is Andy’s home country. If we have not decided something else on the way that is.

The 23 May we will be returning to Stockholm from Phoenix, were we have lived since Jan 2011, and my last working day will be 31 May. 4 June is the day when it all begins. Then we are going back to Phoenix to pick up our car which we bought here a year ago. It is a Toyota FJ Cruiser which is prepared for camping and will be our home in USA and Canada for the summer.

Our home in Needles, Canyonlands, Utah

You will be able to follow our trip on this blog. I hope you will and that you enjoy it.