how travel adds value to my life

I’ll see if this is borne out if/when I ever return to live in London, but I was reflecting this morning on the benefits for me of travelling.  Not just the obvious ones – seeing new places, cultures and wildlife, and learning more about the world – but also learning to appreciate things at home that I would otherwise take for granted.

I can get by here in the Central African Republic rainforest without radio and television, without yoghurt and fruit juice, without hot water and internet access on demand – because there are alternative pleasures to savour.  Setting out on a walk around the forest in the knowledge that I’m likely to see monkeys, tropical birds and colourful butterflies, watching the sun set over the river, swimming in the river – or even kayaking on the river which I tried for the first time this week (me on the left, being shown how to get into a kayak!).

& on the other travels I’ve enjoyed since I set out on this nomadic phase last year, I’ve got by with the loss of privacy that comes from staying in dorms with other people and the associated requirements to share dirty bathrooms and to keep all of my clothes squashed into my locked luggage.  Not to mention the limited wardrobe and other possessions that I can travel with given that I have to carry it all from place to place.  Privations that I’m aware of, but that don’t bother me as much as one might expect them to.  They’re just one of the (small) costs of this wonderful travelling life.

But when I think of living back in my London flat one day, I think about having my own private bedroom and bathroom, about having in my own kitchen the food and drink that I want (OK – tomato shortages aside!) which I can eat when I want and prepared in the way I want, about being able to listen to the radio, watch the TV, and listen to my music collection … all things that most people take for granted but that I shall, at least for a while until I get used to them again, value quite highly.  I hope I never get to the stage of taking them for granted, but continue to recognise and appreciate them! 

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