I Took a Career Break in my Mid-30’s to Solo Travel Australia: Part 2
Charlie Womack bravely decided to take a career break in her mid 30’s to female solo travel Australia. Little did she know that her adventure would take her far beyond Australia and teach her so many life lessons along the way. Now back in the UK, Charlie shares her thoughts and reflections with the Travelista community.
This article is a follow on from Charlie’s first contribution; I Took a Career Break in my 30’s to Solo Travel Australia.
Travel has always been a massive part of my life, and as I reached my mid 30’s I realised there was nothing holding me back, other than the feeling of ‘should I be doing this at this age?’ So I made the decision to make travel the priority and I left my job of five years to female solo travel to the other side of the world, starting with Australia.
After an incredible five month adventure, it feels surreal to be back home. While everything here remains much the same, the big difference is how I feel about myself. I have arrived back carrying with me a lifetime of the most amazing memories.
The moment I realised how much I had grown and changed was just before my final destination of the trip. I headed back to Sydney for a few days before embarking on my journey home. Landing in the airport for a second time, back where it all began, I was reminded of how nervous and afraid I felt when I was here at the start of my trip. How I was feeling five months later could not have been more different.
I simply felt excited and happy to be back. Later that day, as I stood in front of the Sydney Opera House, in the same spot as five months earlier, I felt a full circle moment. I felt in myself how much I had grown, how strong I was, and how proud I was of what I had achieved. Female solo travel is a big deal. The decisions you have to make alone, knowing that the only person you can rely on at that moment is you. It is challenging, but the rewards are so immense. And I did it!
What I Learned from Taking a 5 Month Female Solo Travel Adventure in my Mid-30’s
So, where did I go?
Before I set off I had the ‘rough plan’ of countries I wanted to visit in my mind, and followed this almost exactly. The plan included;
- Australia
- New Zealand
- The Pacific Islands (Samoa, Fiji and Kiribati)
- I also ended up visiting Doha on my return to the UK with a Qatar airlines stopover package
Despite only having a few nights accommodation booked when I landed, I think my gut told me it was still what I wanted to do. I just ended up spending longer in almost all of the countries than I had originally thought, or planned, particularly New Zealand. I also decided to take advantage of one of the airline’s stopover offers on the way home, allowing me to visit one last country.
Starting with Australia, and then visiting New Zealand second, was the perfect way to do it. Given that this was my first time long-term travelling solo, it gave me a sense of security that I would understand the language and the culture while I found my feet. I was able to learn how I wanted to travel, and set the boundaries I needed to put in place, without being too far out of my comfort zone.
Talking to people I met along the way helped me frame and plan my trip, adding a few stops in here or there and changing the amount of time I planned to spend in each place.
“One of the best things I learned was that; the more people you talk to on your travels, the more authentic advice you will get about the places you’re planning to go.”
My time in Australia turned into nearly 7 weeks, travelling up the East Coast, followed by a few nights in the outback before heading to Victoria to Melbourne, the Great Ocean Road, and staying with a friend I had met 8 years ago in Guatemala. We even went camping for a few days in South Australia.
After Australia it was time to head to New Zealand. This was really the country that inspired the whole trip, it has been top of my bucket list for many years. So I decided I didn’t want to rush and planned to spend at least 3 nights in each place. This meant I ended up spending exactly 8 weeks in the country, and I still feel like there is much more I would like to see.
For the remaining couple of months I travelled to three countries in the Pacific – Samoa, Fiji and Kiribati. Finally, I visited Doha on my way home – taking advantage of Qatar airlines stopover packages.
How I felt as a female solo traveller
I had a lot of questions in my mind about whether I was doing the right thing when I set off. The main one being, ‘am I too old to be doing this?’. Particularly as I was planning to stay in hostels for the large majority of the trip to make the budget go further. The answer was; absolutely not. The array of people you meet travelling is incredible, and I spent time with so many people in very similar situations to me, and with very similar mindsets. Age wasn’t even a factor.
Connected to this, I was also worried about whether I would feel lonely, or find people I wanted to spend time with. Again, it was nothing I needed to even remotely worry about. I met some of the most amazing people, and love that I now have friends all over the globe. Everyone had their own inspiring story and tale of why they were travelling.
“The great thing about meeting people travelling, is that you get to know them really well really fast. I felt like I had known people years after just a few days. It meant I never felt homesick once!”
People also had similar routes, so I didn’t have to change my plans to travel with people – our paths keep crossing. I had dinner in Fiji with someone I met in Samoa!
I found my feet with female solo travel travelling relatively quickly. There are positives and negatives in planning a trip entirely on your own. It meant I had the freedom to do exactly what I wanted, when I wanted, which I thoroughly enjoyed. It is a chance to be completely selfish, and I think that is a wonderful thing. Despite this, every now and again it would have been nice to have someone for reassurance I was making the right decisions. However, from very early on I trusted my own decisions and intuitions and can safely say there is very little I would change.
Travelling my 30’s gave me the confidence to know exactly what I wanted. I didn’t feel the pressure to go with a group decision, or say yes to every offer of a night out for fear of missing out. I was confident in what I needed to do for myself at that moment, and stuck to it.
Pushing myself outside of my comfort zone
There were many times on the trip where I pushed myself outside of my comfort zone, such as travelling to Kiribati as a female solo traveller! I have realised that all achievements deserve to be celebrated whether they are big or small and I feel proud of how much I stepped outside of my comfort zone. Some of these are huge things, but others that are seemingly small are still worthy of celebrating. The little things for me were things like being brave enough to cook in a hostel kitchen, as well as walking into a tattoo studio alone. The bigger things included driving a camper van solo around New Zealand, spending Christmas solo on the other side of the world and skydiving for the first time.
“Each and everyone of these are things I didn’t think I would be brave enough to do. Yet solo travel has shown me how much I am capable of, and how much I can achieve if I put my mind to it.”
3 Female Solo Travel Lessons I learned along the way
1. Accepting who I am as a traveller
I learned to accept who I am. It seems very obvious, but I knew I was a planner before I set off, however I really wanted to be a more ‘go with the flow’ kind of person on this trip. I tried this for about three days before settling for a happy medium in the middle. I created a spreadsheet itinerary to keep track of everything. It helped to have it written down, rather than constantly trying to check if my buses, hostels and activities all aligned and had been booked for the right day! I realised there was no point in trying to completely change who I am. I just had to adapt it slightly. I found that having plans comforted me, and gave me peace of mind. Which in turn meant I was a lot more relaxed.
“I realised that being a planner was a good thing for me, and that not everyone has to travel in a certain way.”
2. Living day-by-day
Despite this, I did also start to live much more day-by-day, rather than constantly worrying about what was coming up in the next few weeks. I would set aside an afternoon to plan out the next stages, and then trust myself that I had done it. Previously when at home I would be constantly checking and double checking my plans, and thinking days and weeks ahead. However, while away I definitely had the feeling of ‘it will all work out’. This is something I really want to keep in my life now I am back at home.
3. Allowing for rest days
Despite all this, not all days are easy while you are travelling and I learned to take the rough with the smooth. I accepted that some days I would feel unhappy or frustrated, or not in the mood. I just let myself ride those days out, I didn’t beat myself up about it and did what I needed to do – often curl up in bed with a book. Constant travelling is tiring. You are always unpacking and repacking, checking in, checking out, ensuring you have everything you own and that it is safe. Chilled days are essential, and I really learned to not give myself a hard time for not making the most of each and every day just because I was in a new country. I kept saying to myself ‘you can’t do everything’. It took some time to accept that, but I have no regrets over the experiences I did enjoy.
“Coming back from travelling I have a new mindset that if something doesn’t give me joy, then it is not worth my energy.”
My thoughts on each country I visited
Australia
Each country showed me something different, and gave me a chance to experience new things. Australia, being my first country, helped me settle in and find my feet with solo travel. It is an amazing country, and I will never get over how vast it is.
New Zealand
New Zealand will always have a special place in my heart. However, it took me a couple of weeks to truly appreciate it. I landed in Auckland late at night, which I am never a fan of doing. I then really didn’t gel with Auckland as a city. Arriving in a country I had always wanted to visit and feeling disappointed wasn’t something I had planned. Regardless, I decided not to let it get me down and as I travelled further I realised how much I loved the country. By the time I reached the South Island, I would almost go as far as to say it is my favourite country I’ve ever visited. It goes to show how little importance first impressions have. I travelled around the country on a hop on hop off bus, giving me the freedom to plan my itinerary but also meaning I got to meet a lot of people along the way.
Samoa
I actually found Samoa the hardest country to travel, mainly because of how I was feeling. I left New Zealand, a country I had fallen in love with, and felt outside of my comfort zone again. It was a less well travelled route, and as such a little harder to navigate. I was also just over the halfway point in my trip, and feeling a little jaded. My planning also went slightly awry as due to storms the previous week I couldn’t book a ferry I needed to get to travel to the other island. It took some adjustment, but the lessons I learned from my first 3 months solo travelling gave me the resilience to adapt. After having some down time to reset,I ended up having some of the most special moments, including sleeping open air right on the beach.
Fiji
Fiji was paradise, and the perfect place to relax. It is also surprisingly geared up for solo travel, with a lot of the Fiji resorts having dorm rooms. I met a lot of people island hopping and had a wonderful time.
Kiribati
My final country in the pacific island was Kiribati, one of the least visited countries in the world. I realised, as I walked along the streets of this tiny nation, how much I had changed. Again, I would never have been confident to do this 6 months ago. While I still had feelings of nerves, and had to give myself little talkings to, I was doing it and I felt so proud. This is not a country made for tourism, they have as little as 1,000 visitors a month and most of these are on aid projects.
Doha, Qatar
Finally I visited Doha on my way home. Qatar has never been a country that was really on my radar, but when I saw how little extra it would cost me to have a few nights in the country, rather than just a 2-hour layover in Doha airport – I thought why not! And it really surprised me. It is a beautiful city, and the perfect short break to help fight the jet lag.
So what’s next?
Even though I am back in the UK, I am still not quite ready to close the door on this long term travel portion of my life. So I will have a few weeks at home, to catch up with friends and family and to go on a skiing holiday. After this, I am then heading to Africa for a month. I will be joining a group tour through Tanzania, Malawi and Zambia. After this I will be having a few days of female solo travel at the end in Zimbabwe and Botswana. I’m so excited to take all the lessons I learned with me as I travel back to one of my favourite countries.
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