Jonno

Are we still travelling?

It’s a classic story isn’t it? Boy meets girl. Boy falls in love with girl. Boy and girl marry. Boy and girl setup home and have a family. Boy and girl work hard to create successful careers. Boy and girl are extremely comfortable. Boy and girl quit their lives and wander off. Classic huh? No?

It’s two years since we made the decision to leave our jobs and go travelling and it seems so much longer to both of us. One of the reasons for changing our lives was that we wanted to get off  that work-treadmill where every day is somewhat like every other day. We dreamed of every day being different and that is exactly what’s happened. Of course we wanted to see new places and travel to countries we’d never visited but more than anything it was the sheer excitement of being able to make every single day be what we wanted it to be.

We don’t have many possessions as those of you that have shared our journey will be well aware of. Just a small case and a backpack each and that is it. Getting rid of our house and virtually everything we owned felt like an almighty weight had been lifted and the sense of freedom it gave us was almost palpable. We’ve never been possession-obsessive but now we actually use everything we own.

The day we left our old lives, little did we know what was to come.

So we’re approaching the two year anniversary of leaving the UK on our little adventure and it’s still as exciting and refreshing today as it was on June 1st 2015. We love having a blank calendar to plan our lives on and the only real problem is fitting everything we want to do in.

When we returned from Canada in December we’d already decided on the next stage of our JWalking. We’d heard of housesitting and thought it seemed like an interesting way of travelling around to new places and meeting new people. Our plan was to try it in the UK for 7 or 8 months to see how we felt before perhaps going further afield. One of the brilliant things about housesitting is that it can take you to places that you wouldn’t have considered going.

Returning to the main question then,

Are we still travelling?

The answer is most definitely Yes.

We’ve lived in a host of amazingly interesting and beautiful locations in England so far and met a lot of fabulous people. In our humble opinion travelling is not about bucket lists or counting countries, it really is all about the experiences that we have and the people that we meet along the way.

So we’d love to say a huge thank you to Carolyn and Ric, Rosemary and Roger, Simon and Mary, and Susan and Tim for making us so welcome as we’ve started this next phase of our JWalking lives. We had absolutely no idea what we’d let ourselves in for but it’s been wonderful caring for your special pets and taking care of your homes as if they were our own. We have several more housesits organised this year and if they are half as good then we’ll be well pleased.

Our plan is to continue this irresponsible life for the time being and just see what life throws at us. This time last year we’d never heard of housesitting so you never know what’s around the corner do you? Any ideas for future JWalking expeditions would be most welcome, the world appears to be our oyster still.

Thank you so much for following us and sharing this amazing journey. Don’t go away ………..

24 comments

    • We’d absolutely love to come back to Aldeburgh and look after Ed, we loved our time there. Let us know if you book any more international adventures.

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  2. It certainly is a wonderful life and I am enjoying reading your take on it. Look forward to reading the next installment, Cheers, Suz

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      • We are having a “break” in Amsterdam ☺ Then to Switzerland until the end if April then the UK until Mid June. We are booked up until January 2018! Time goes by so fast!! Suz 🌻

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  7. Hard to believe that it’s nearly 2 years since you triggered JExit and abandoned me at work! What a journey you two have had. Looking forward to hearing about the HelpX experience as your DIY skills are just a bit better than mine! I’m still going with the American Mid-West by train for JWalking 3.0.

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      • You lucky b*****s! Fortune, a much-maligned lady but if you look after her she will return the favour. I am now thinking Scandinavia by sled as you should be able to handle a pack of Huskies after looking after all these housesitting pets!

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