Our first 18 months as TravellerNomads – the good and the bad…

When we decided to sell our big house and businesses 30 months ago our plan was to try and gradually follow a nomadic life, traveling for months at a time and then staying in one spot or more possibly for a summer. As we are learning as we go along, we decided to try various approaches before settling on a sustainable lifestyle as travellers and nomads.

We spent our first travel period of 12 months traveling to 27 islands as well as Cambodia and Malaysia to see how well we could handle constant travel. This prolonged trip involved taking 37 flights including several long hauls of 12 hrs or more, as well as quite a few flights in smaller twin propeller planes. Every time we take a flight it involves getting to the airport, getting through the often time-consuming check-in procedure, and also getting through often stress-filled immigration on either side of the flight. It’s a necessary evil when traveling over such vast distances, but it can get quite exhausting when you fly so many times within a 12 month period.

In addition we travelled on quite a few ferries and speedboats between islands in Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Fiji and Maldives. These were generally quite pleasant , especially when one was traveling amidst beautiful islands, but of course in rough weather it was quite tough and stress-filled.

And then of course there were the numerous bus rides we took in most countries we visited, which ranged from luxury coaches with actual flat beds in Cambodia to local wooden benched busses in Fiji and Philippines. Some bus rides were actually really cool, and some were just miserable. Our poor backs and asses suffered quite a bit in some countries like Cambodia and Philippines.

Another aspect of travel that is not always discussed in detail is food. Sure, travel bloggers usually post pics of some amazing meals they get to eat, and also some really bad meals, but few people discuss the reality of eating on the road for an entire year, day in and day out. When one travels non-stop, each meal becomes very important, as it is often the only source of nutrition available, especially on islands where other options may be non-existent. We soon learnt to identify what food sources existed on each island we visited by exploring the various supermarkets, markets and restaurants if they existed. We tried to buy fresh fruit wherever possible from local markets and also stocked up on nutritional biscuits, tinned food and 2 min noodles as emergency rations. We have really become quite good at scavenging up the best meals possible out of whatever is available 🙂

One of the great simple pleasures in life to me is a good hot shower first thing in the morning…That is NOT to be taken for granted when spending a year travelling to mostly islands and small villages. I never kept a careful tally, but I’d say that I probably managed to get a half-decent shower for about half of the time we travelled. During our two week stint in Cambodia teaching English we only had cold showers. In Tanna when we visited Mt Yasur volcano there was only a cold shower. In a small village near Borabudur in Java, again cold showers all the way. In Thailand on Koh Mook, also no cold showers….Also in Cebu in a big hotel – only cold showers. Of course, in the homestays in Fiji the chances of a hot shower were also zero. So let’s just say that I had to make lots of sacrifices when it came to my beloved shower regime.

Of course, all of this discomfort was made worthwhile by the incredible sights and experiences we had during this epic island tour….The positives far outweigh the negatives without a doubt, and the memories of these experiences, and the people we met along the way will last a lifetime. As we are realists, we have sometimes gone to great lengths to also make it clear in our blog and on social media that full-time travel also involves negatives and hard days, as we are still living normal lives on the road. Probably our most uncomfortable trip was on cargo ship from Port Villa to Santo in Vanuatu. 27 hours of mostly misery. Our worst accommodation was definitely in El Nido, Palawan in the Philippines – we arrived in a storm to find that the owner had lied about the location and facilities and we found ourselves in a mangrove swamp! We hastily moved to a decent place. Bad meals were a dime a dozen and we eventually just started sending them back and insisting on refunds. There were also disappointments like Bohol island in Philippines, the overcrowded El Nido also in Philippines, Sihanoukville in Cambodia and of course Koh Phi Phi in Thailand. Our best accomodation was definitely at Veligandu Resort in Maldives – at R 7500/night it better had been 🙂

Without a doubt our most amazing experience was in Fiji, where we spent 6 weeks in the Yasawa islands, followed by Thailand, Indonesia, Cambodia and Maldives. Swimming with turtles on Apo island in Philippines, the beaches around Coron and Batad rice terraces were all highlights, as were the temples of Angkor, the boat trip to Komodo island and the klotok tour into the jungles of Borneo to see the orangutans. Top of the list of simply WOW experiences have to be Mount Yasur volcano in Vanuatu and swimming with 30 manta rays in Maldives though.

On our return to Cape Town we found ourselves pretty exhausted, and took a few weeks off to just relax and adjust to being back in our home city. We had bought my family home at the market value from my 90 yr old parents before we left, and during our travels my parents had overseen the construction of an en suite bathroom which was attached to the same bedroom I had grown up in. Our plan was to buy the house to release the funds to my parents so that they could enjoy their final years without any financial worries. They continue to live in the house, and we decided after our return to enlarge the bedroom by 40% and add a 80m2 indoor/outdoor area inspired by our time on the islands. This took about 3 months to complete, leaving us living in a building site during the period of construction. Now that it’s completed we have no regrets as it has given us a great living area….We call it our Gypsy Camp 🙂 It has it’s own outdoor kitchen and lots of space to entertain in…

After about a month in Cape Town we started to look for opportunities to do something to keep ourselves busy and earn some money before our next trip. After much deliberation decided to start a food truck, something I had been talking about doing for years. We find a used 3x2m food wagon at a very good price, and came up with the concept of painting it to look like a Gypsy Food Wagon…Our artist friend Gerda Louw spent two weeks painting it, and Nomads Gypsy Food Wagon was born. We very quickly started trading at markets and events, and within 3 months we had established ourselves as a popular option for healthy wraps and flat-grilled sandwiches. Our vegan and vegetarian options were particularly popular and regularly sold out.

In December we decided that our next trip would start on 5 April 2019 and be 7 months long, so that we could be back in Cape Town again for summer. I went ahead and booked our return tickets and we began planning the trip. Our first stop will be Ecuador, where we will visit Galapagos for two weeks before volunteering with the Waorani tribe in the Ecuadorian Amazon and helping them set up their eco-tourism homestay. We decided that we would continue trading with the Nomads wagon until the end of February and then sell the wagon as a going concern if possible. And that’s exactly what has happened, with the new owner towing the wagon away on 3 March 🙂

Running a food truck was a great life experience, but we realized that unless we were willing to work far harder and for much longer we would not be able to establish it as a sustainable source of income, so it was best to let the wagon go, recoup our capital outlay and move on. We now have added ‘food truck owners’ to our cv’s as well – I must say that Akhona makes a mean wrap 🙂 So when we return to Cape Town in October we will try our hand at starting a new, more sustainable business which we can integrate with our life of travel….Look out for Nomads Travel and Tours 🙂

When we first decided to sell much of what we owned and start traveling we imagined ourselves just setting off on an ongoing adventure, meandering our way around the world as the wind blows…This is certainly possible to do if one is willing to volunteer on an ongoing basis on farms, at hostels and at bars, etc. It would probably best suit a very laid-back younger couple willing to sleep in dorms and eat very basic food on an ongoing basis. At my stage in life I am looking more of an experience during the first few years of travel, and Akhona agrees with me on this. So for the time being we are happy to travel for 5 -7 months of the year and spend summers in Cape Town at our Gypsy camp, with our family and friends around us…