The 1000 Day Holiday

The 17th of February brings the 3 month anniversary of being in Vancouver. This is a big milestone for me. Prior to this, 2 weeks was the longest I had been in one location since 2005.

It highlighted for me what I had noticed with super long term travellers/vagabonds.
You start to get a little strange, as time goes on with no real home, short term friends etc. For me it was a way to keep things interesting. By adopting Baby, I created a new type of interaction mechanism.

A few travellers I met that had been gone 5+ years were rather strange, and they checked my desires to be gone much longer.

Having a home base allows continued interaction with a core group of friends that you can actually maintain. Otherwise friendships that you look on as being close, you realise are 3 years stagnant. You view the friendship as current, but the people on the other side have moved on and replaced whatever role you had in their lives. Sure you can pick up where you left off, but 3 years is a long time in peoples lives to have missed.

I recall a discussion with another long term traveller, way back in Africa. We agreed that 3 – 5 months is the ideal length of time for a trip. It is long enough to disconnect completely from your normal life. Become established in a new location, or explore an area in depth.You don’t run out of steam, or have any chance to feel like you’re in a rut.

Then you return to what you had before with new insights, feelings, goals and desires. You can step back into your ‘normal life’ and carry on with little disruption.