When I was 6 years old, we lived on a housing estate in Kent, UK. 100 metres from my front door, there was a bridge over a rough little stream, and that was the boundary my parents put on me. I was allowed to play around the block of houses that we lived in, but I was not allowed to go up the street any further than The Bridge.
I needed no further motivation. One Saturday morning, my parents picked me up five miles up the road. Unbeknown to them, I had been stretching that 100 metres further and further over the past months. It felt perfectly natural to cycle away and lose track of time exploring.
As time went on, I pushed my boundaries further. The next shock for my parents was to find me secretly taking the train to London and wandering around bookshops when I had told them I was going for a cycle ride nearby. The best feeling for me then was to be somewhere I hadn't been before. It's a thrill that still lives with me.
This drive to be somewhere and do something new has followed me ever since. Moving country and living in Holland and Vienna was all about pushing the horizon as wide as possible, to see more and be more. Little wonder, then, that when I returned to Amsterdam and reigned in my horizon to the known big skies of Holland, I felt something was missing. Maybe my sense of adventure had been stifled by a perceived need for safety and familiarity. It simply did not suit me.
The blessing of the life-challenge last November – stay in Amsterdam or go one step even further back, home to UK with my job – caused an instinctive reflex not to go back or backwards just yet. And the year that has since passed feels like it has been leading to this moment.
Because today, Nicki and I take our boundaries and throw them to the winds. I write this sitting next to her on a plane to New York on Day 1 of our 145 day adventure. Our Round The World tour will take us to 9 countries across 4 continents, with every country new for Nicki, 90% of the trip new for me.
As we neared the date of leaving, we were asked again and again “are you excited?” We had to say “not yet” because the practical reality of preparing for such a trip has been all-consuming.
It has been a flurry of arrangements as Nicki put a hold on her life in UK for these 5 months. Renting her house, loaning her car, sorting the packing and setting up banking – all done against a back-drop of farewell dinners and cards, calls and texts from friends wishing her well. I left Amsterdam 11 days ago, so these days have been easier for me, supporting rather than having to manage and finalise the arrangements. But we finished everything together, just as we will do so much for the next 5 months together.
The excitement probably really started as we checked in at Heathrow. The counter-attendant asked us “is New York your final destination?” and I answered “Not exactly...”. As she looked through our schedule, she exclaimed with a broad smile about how great the trip looked. We assumed she sees people on such round the world trips every day, but if the woman from American Airlines was excited for us about our tour, we felt we should be too.
It still feels slightly unreal to be starting. It hasn't been that long in the planning – we first talked in early July about going travelling together – but I feel like this trip has been waiting for me for a long time. Perhaps the most unreal part is the feeling of “normality”, to be heading away for so long.
We landed at JFK airport and quickly got our bags and hire car, and within 90 minutes of landing we were checked in at our hotel by the airport. To get the blood moving after being sat down for 9 hours, we went for a quick run around the industrial surroundings of the hotel. As Nicki said, you can find beauty anywhere, and we saw a beautiful red and pink sunset over huge silver cylinder tanks of petrol (the pic here was not taken by us, but you get the gist...). An early night after gasping at airport hotel prices in the bar helped us minimise the jet lag of a 4 hour time difference.
On this trip, a past experience of breaking boundaries will come in handy for sure. But the unforeseen will throw itself at us and we are ready for it, together.
