When we travel, what are we really travelling for?

Having counselled on travel for over 17 years, the one thing I know for sure is that there is a common thread amongst us: most of us who long to roam free, feel a mysterious type of homesickness for a place we have never been.

I can travel everywhere and still feel like I haven’t found “the place” where I want to stop and rest. Around every corner, over every hill, under every rock, before every sunrise and with every smile & wave, I sense there must be one more thing to experience. My hunger for sensory saturation of the natural, pure and true is never satiated. At the same time, the longing for more never comes from a void within me, the act of roaming isn’t about escaping from something, it’s about running towards everything.

I can walk down the street or fly 6000 KM away and the sensation is exactly the same: I have an endless desire to experience a moment worthy of sharing with anyone who will listen. Even more powerful than this is the never ending curious sadness that a precious moment might pass me by if I am not paying attention.

The desire tor travel and to share our experiences is a common consciousness that binds us and the only difference is how we take in and return it to the world. I will never understand the need to travel with the intention to leave a place in a lesser state. I travel to learn, grow and experience things that are different from me. Never, ever will I travel to teach anyone anything other than the fact that I am there to learn.

My feet should be light, my impact small, my mind challenged and my heart completely blown wide open.