My Itchy Feet
My Itchy Feet
I was 17 years of age when I first realised that travel was life changing.
Until then I had taken the family vacations to camp sites and holiday camps all over Britain. I had enjoyed traveling to farms, cider presses, and mountain trails with my grandfather in his caravan. I’d spent 6 weeks every year in London with my grandparents. and I always learnt from my vacations and the people around me... but life changing... No !
At the age of 17....nearly 18, I had already lost both of my parents and a sister, in very close succession. I’d fallen in and out of love... as you do at that age. ..and my spirits were low.
My best friend asked me if I’d like to go on a bit of a trip with him. I asked him ‘where to ?’
He said that it was going to actually be a big trip !
I agreed to his plan and we got prepared to hitchhike across Europe and into North Africa !…a trip that was scheduled to last 6 months.!
Our preparation involved cutting up 4/5 sheets of cardboard and with the aid of a thick marker pen, I scribbled different destinations onto them...for instance the ‘Afrique’ sign would be used once we hit the coast of France.... yup... we really were prepared for this and I realised that we were going to have to live on our wits.
After a few heady days of intense prep.. and after a hurried trip to my bank to get the £50 that I’d live off for 6 months, we set off.
On another day, I’ll tell you how the trip went, but suffice to say, we did it. Our adventures included oyster farming in Brittany, orange harvesting in Spain, fishing in Spain and Portugal, and a knife attack in Fez in Morocco ( I was the victim.... sort of).
Eventually arriving back in Britain after 5.5 months on the road, we found ourselves in Portsmouth with no means of transport, or money, with which to go the last few miles to our homes in Bath. Speaking to a railway station ‘superintendent’, and explaining who we were and what we had done, he pointed out a lone first class sleeping carriage, parked by a quiet station platform. He indicated that it still had hot water and clean bunks and that we could use it for the night, so long as we were out by the morning... it was an extremely generous offer. We thanked him and were able to clean ourselves up properly that night, before ‘thumbing’ our way back to Bath the next day.
It was on this night that I realised how this trip and travel had changed me.
I was back in England where all the damage to my spirit had occurred. It was these shores that I, a heart broken teenager, had left, as a fairly disenchanted human being.
I had now returned... I was happy, I was confident, and more importantly I had grown up.
Travel had changed me.
Very positively...... but now I suffer with my ‘itchy feet’.
I hope it has had the same effect in you ❤️