Finding Love Through Travel

Not your conventional wedding day!

Valentine’s day is coming up, time to share the romance, bring you my story of finding love through travel. This is how a fairly nice Welsh girl ended up switching continents and sweltering in tropical Far North Queensland, I promise not to get too mushy or talk about sex. Here goes.

Finding Love Through Travel Across 6 Countries.

Country 1. Wales.

Here is where we start, in South Wales, Christmas time. I’d just announced to the world that I was leaving my husband, he wouldn’t travel with me, obviously, he had to go.

I’d not long returned from trekking in Thailand, without him, with a small group adventure holiday company and couldn’t wait to get out in the world for more travel fun. I managed to scrape together a few days of annual leave and booked a second group tour to Egypt,  sailing a felucca on the Nile.

All alone on the green green grass of home.

 Country 2. Egypt

So January found me in Egypt, not looking for romance at all, but, as this was a group holiday, there was always that possibility.  I met a strange mix of young and old in Cairo, all nice people, I think about 16 of us. The youngest was an Australian kid, living in London while he furthered his career as a chef.

Despite the 11 year age gap ( yes, I’m a cougar) we got on OK. He followed me around a bit, I knew what he was thinking, they’re bursting with hormones at that age, he was 21. I was a little perplexed at this amount of attention at my advanced age, but by the end of the trip we were friends, we promised to stay in touch and exchange photos. So once we got home, he to London, me to Wales, we continued to chat online. Within weeks we were getting together for a reunion.

So smooth! Helping a lady carry her ridiculously oversized bag.

 Like Madonna and Demi, I’m a cougar. Unlike the celebrity couples, we’re still together.

Country 3. England

It didn’t take long, we became an item, inseparable,  loved up, with plans to trek up Kilimanjaro and take on the world. It’s great when two travellers get together, everything seems within reach. I quit my job in the hospital in Cardiff, registered as a locum and moved to London. We shared a room in one of those grotty shared houses in Kilburn, full of Aussies and South Africans. We went to The Spotted Dog, The Church and The Walkabout, ate Tim Tams and War Heads and had a blast. I relived my misspent youth.

We also hatched a plan, Kilimanjaro was put on hold in favour of a round the world trip, 12 months, no work, just travel and all that mushy love stuff.

I won’t go into details or this will become a tale of 36 countries, but it was fun, the best fun ever.

If you can travel with somebody for twelve months and not fight, not even once, you’re destined to spend the rest of your life with them.

We came back to London and settled in Richmond for a while and planned our domination of the property market.

And we, went on rollercoasters. Chessington World of Adventures, London.

Country 4. Peru

We had to slide another trip in, we were time short, so we booked another group tour to walk the Inca Trail. Another amazing trip. When we finally staggered down the hill to Machu Pichu the chef slipped a silver ring on my finger, I don’t do gold, with the word LOVE stamped across the top. I’m still wearing it, it’s on my right hand now. That took care of the engagement.

Trekking in the Andes and an engagement.

Country 5. Sri Lanka

So now we needed to get married. Do you think we could get married at a normal church or registry office?  NOT A CHANCE!

A wedding is a good excuse for another trip, the Indian Subcontinent is one of the big loves of our lives, so we organised a wedding in Sri Lanka followed by a week in Maldives indulging our new scuba diving habit. It was blissful, not our normal style of travel at all, far more luxurious, but a wedding/honeymoon is pretty special right? We splurged. The wedding rings have the inscription “In heaven on earth“. We thought that was fitting.

In heaven on Earth and happily ever after.

Country 6. Australia

This is where you find me today. We’ve been here almost 5 years. We emigrated not long after our second child was born, financial exiles. We couldn’t afford to live in London on one salary and putting the kids in daycare was breaking my heart, so we left, to find a place where I can be a stay at home mum. It’s the best job in the world. Our domination of the property market back in London went pretty well, we renovated two derelict flats and made a decent lump sum to set us up nicely down under.

It’s alright here, some call Port Douglas paradise, but we can’t settle, we need to be out there, seeing, doing and exploring. Or rather, I do. The chef goes along with all my crazy ideas, fully supporting me through homebirth, homeschool and now dragging the kids round the world to give them an amazing education. I got myself a good one!

Happy anniversary honey, 10 years this week, love you xx

So that’s what happened. That’s how I ended up in Australia about to embark on an amazing family adventure with these two new people that we made. There are plenty of others out there who found love through travel. I have two friends who met long term partners on group holidays, they throw like minded people together, it’s inevitable. Shared goals and interests can transcend cultural, geographical or ( ahem) age, differences. We still haven’t been up Kilimanjaro.