How could I travel so much?

   One of my most asked questions, after quite a bit of travel talk, is “What do you do?” and when asked this I have reached the point of asking “Do you really mean to ask me how I could afford to travel so much?”- “Yeah, I guess”.

   Honestly, it's easy... I am stingy, really stingy, well, stingy when I am in Australia. And I made some good investments, and had great help (most importantly the advice) when I needed it. And travel is cheap (when you do it like I do).

   Let's start with stingy. 

   When I think that I know people who spend one hundred dollars every week on booze (alcohol), then I think, really, if you take that $5200 a year and invest it wisely, then a lot more people could afford to travel. Other people spend a few thousand on cigarettes a year.... you see my point here. I don't drink much, and I never smoked because I couldn't bare to spend the money on it... that might make me stingy.

   I also don't spend much on clothes, makeup, shoes, home entertainment, sports or clubs or the myriad of other things people spend their money on. They just aren't things that interest me much. Big screen tv's being sold for thousands of dollars equate to me thinking how long I could travel for on that much money. I rarely buy gifts for friends or family, I don't think the planet needs more consumerism and I would rather they reciprocated and didn't buy me anything (.... although frequent flyer points are always welcome!).

   What I do like to spend money on is experiences. I splurged in South America and did what many Backpackers wouldn't do – the Galapagos Islands.

   I don't want the world to have more people like me, but I dislike it when people imply that I shouldn't be having all this travel, when they clearly have other things they spend their money on. It is your choice, for the most part, how you spend your money.

Investing:

   I was probably 16 when I read a highlighted newspaper text that said that something like 90% of the world's millionaires became so through real estate. That text planted a seed, I didn't want to be a millionaire, but I would be wanting enough money to travel. I even went and discussed the investment idea (though it was only a seed) with an old local guy who had also invested in Real Estate (Jack Gosden was his name). Jack advised me to buy industrial property. At 18 I failed to take Jacks advice and bought a cheap 4 bedroom house instead.

   To buy a house at 18, it was really cheap ($55,000), and I got a Building Society Home Loan because the deposit needed was less. Whilst renting out the unused rooms, I painted it and did some minor fix ups, mostly with the help of family and friends, and then moved out and rented it out to a family (about a year later)... with my outgoings needed to keep it just 10c a week more than what I received in rent. Imagine! Ten cents per week, and your house is being paid off! I paid extra every week, and later redrew some to buy another house.

   I have since sold the houses – perhaps a silly move financially speaking – but I had the money to travel, and that's what I wanted.

The first house I bought.

   I have just mentioned the help I got from family and friends in the repairs to my first house, and also the advise I got from Jack. My parents were instrumental in their encouragement to invest, without them I would never have had the confidence. I realise now that it is this confidence that made the difference, it was them saying “go ahead, do it!” that made all the difference.

   Skipping university, although not always the best option, also meant I could work, invest and renovate in a way that I couldn't have afforded the time or money for had I gone to University. I followed my dream, and my dream wasn't for any career, so this suited me.

Travel is Cheap:

   Travel really is cheap, when you travel as a backpacker. Airfares and Insurance are the only real big expenses. Typically in South America I would spend less than $10 a night on accommodation, often with breakfast included. Menu of the day usually would be a big lunch for me at $2-$3, eaten late and then just an evening snack to see me through the night.

   My big expense was sightseeing, but even so, as a backpacker you could often find other backpackers to do the sightseeing with cheaply. Guide book in hand, walking the streets, you can often discover a lot in the city for no additional expense.

   Even in the USA, when I was backpacking alone (prior to meeting up with my mother) I planned my trip to stay with friends and to couchsurf (www.couchsurfing.org) and I would take a packed lunch. Washington DC, with all it's free museums, and me being accommodated in a friends house, was really cheap.

More Travel worthy Blogs

   Hey, just in case you're wondering about the blogs of this traveller, because they have been a little 'home based' of late, well more travel blogs are coming!
   I plan to write a packing list (because I've travelled 49 countries and worked in a travel goods shop, so I think I am entitled to write this). Another article on making the money to travel, and another on quarantine, and more!

No to Australia Day Fireworks!

   Well, I have spent the better part of my week pushing mud and muddy water in the clean up from the massive Queensland Floods. There really is nothing interesting to report about this, aside from my finding a prawn (shrimp) in a shed in Rocklea (a suburb of Brisbane, badly affected be the floods).

   Today I want to mention the current appeal for people to say no to Australia Day (January 26) Fireworks, with the money instead being spent on the Flood Recovery effort. There is a causes page on Facebook that you can sign up onto... they already have almost reached their target of 50,000 people.
   Basically the gist is that Fireworks are expensive and unnecessary and we have things that need rebuilding now, so let's put the money towards that.  But I also support this cause for environmental reasons.
   Call me a wet blanket if you must, but I'm tired of seeing fireworks at almost every public event. It seemed that they were all the more exciting when they were on just twice a year, and tell a kid these days "Hey look, Fireworks!" and they give you a look like "Well, so, same as every other event this year...".
   Fireworks are bad for the environment, do some research and you will quickly see that they are toxic. And if they are terrifying for dogs (an animal used to our (humans) selfish stupidity), then imagine what it must be like for the other small animals that live amongst us.... Possums, squirrels...
   So, for me I'd like to see Fireworks at an occasional event throughout the year, and the rest of the year, let's find some other entertainment.

If you'd like to support the Facebook cause:

STOP Australia Day fire works, GIVE that money to QLD!

just do a Facebook search for it and I'm sure you will find it as I did.

Flooding here versus there

   The flooding in much of Queensland this week has been bad, really bad, but Queensland is in a good position to recover. We are very fortunate compared to other parts of the world.
   Yesterday morning I decided to check BBC World News (they have a fantastic iphone app) to see if there was actually anything else happening in the world (because mostly we seem to only be getting news about our very own disaster that has been unfolding right here). I discovered that there are floods in Brazil, Sri Lanka, and the Philippines also at this time. With over 400 people dead in Brazil, it really makes our problems pale in comparison. (We have 16 confirmed dead so far, and 28 missing)
   In those countries, recovery is a much tougher item. Lose your house here and it is a tremendous lose, but, likely, you will still have your job, or welfare, and with either of those, if you spend carefully you will have enough money and support to house and feed your family and enough left over to start to push ahead again. In other parts of the world things aren't likely to be so easy.

   Years ago I was in Guatemala during a landslide that left a whole village buried without chance of recovery and the next village (to where I was staying) with 1 metre of mud through it. Risk of disease was great, water and sewage were posing risks, as were the decaying bodies in the mud. Many of my friends went and helped dig the mud away, but I donated some money and kept working on another volunteer project I had already been on.

   What has been tremendous in both locations is the sense of community spirit disasters like this produce. So many people are helping out, and both the helped and the helper are reaping the rewards of this assistance.... for the person being helped the benefits are obvious, but for the person helping it is also giving them a great feeling of being of assistance to others. Lets hope none of this charity and its rewards are forgotten anytime soon.

Flood Photos

We don't normally have footpaths like this, but this is what the water of Mondays flood in Toowoomba did.

Also in Toowoomba, check out the side of the building on the right... like a bomb went off, but all the damage is water damage.

 A yard in Dalby after the water has risen and fallen multiple times. It was a pleasant garden before the floods.

That's not chocolate lining the cupboards and floor, it's mud! But with help we cleaned the entire bottom floor of this Dalby house today.

Stuck! In flooding of South East Queensland.

   It was my intention to come home for Christmas, volunteer at the Woodford Folk Festival, and then get going on some more travelling. But things don't always turn out as intended, especially when one doesn't have any kind of plan in place.
   The town I grew up in, Dalby, was one of those hit by major flooding during my time at the folk festival, so last week I went out there to help to clean things up. That was a waste of time, because another flood has come through again and everything I washed is now grotty again!
   I didn't actually finish the cleaning last week anyway, because early on Thursday, as I was working, I received a call from my brother telling me I had better leave Dalby ASAP, or get stuck there. He was right, I made it through to Toowoomba before the road was closed.
   This is the State we call the 'Sunshine State', and our logo is 'Beautiful one day, Perfect the next', but I haven't seen a full day of sunshine since my return. After years and years of drought, I have returned to find my state a soggy mess!
   Yesterday trumped all prior rain events for the area. I am now in Toowoomba, and Toowoomba is situated at the top of the mountain range (the Great Dividing Mountains), so you'd think it would be pretty safe from flooding... wrong! Yesterday we had hours of torrential rain, and it was too much, and so an 8 metre wall of rain came rushing down the creek through the centre of town. It tossed cars about like they were aluminium cans, and knocked down buildings. More water then went to the bottom of the range and took out a tiny community. As I write this they are saying 7 people are confirmed dead, and 72 are missing, but that both these numbers look likely to rise.
   I haven't been out for a look so all my information is coming from the tv, radio, and internet. I urge you to have a look at this video (my link mightn't work, so copy and paste) http://www.abc.net.au/news/video/2011/01/10/3109884.htm
look carefully when the van hits the second tree (it completely knocks over the first one), there is a man clinging to the second tree. I heard he is OK. Current advisories are that people should stay home and keep out of the way. It still hasn't stopped raining!
   Being in this has been weird, I mostly have what could be described as an ominous feeling of dread. As soon as it's allowable, I want to go and help with some clean up. But right now, I can't get to Dalby to help there, Toowoomba has said stay away from the centre, and the road to Brisbane has been cut too. So I've been in the garden harvesting things to eat...  can't get to the supermarket either!

Camping in the mud

Woodford Folk Festival, Queensland, Australia
27 December 2010 - 01 January 2011 (and the 2 days either side)


   Camping in the mud is such fun! Actually it's not, but it's ok, and you really have to take it with a positive "I can handle this" attitude, or it would really get you down.
   I arrived at Woodford Folk Festival site on Sunday December 26th, and set up my camp site in the rain. I put my borrowed tent on the back of my borrowed ute*. This kept me up off the sodden ground, but gee I wish I had borrowed more blankets, as the metal ute* tray was cold and the borrowed blow-up mattress provided no insulation. But I survived.
   It continued raining until Thursday, when we had a pleasant two days of sunshine, and then it rained again all day Saturday and provided us all a wet pack-up on Sunday. It was extremely muddy. Long timers at the festival (those who have been every year or almost every year in its 25 year history) told me that rain was an important part of the festival, that it washed down the site and gave a new appreciation of life. I liked this. They also told me that rain during the festival wasn't a problem, but that the 3 months of rain prior to the festival was giving extra challenges.
   I went to the festival as a volunteer in the 'Infology' department. Infology are the people that others go to for information or if they had lost or found something. And, we also took in, and dispatched a lot of laundry for the Woodford Laundry service. I am an observant person, so I like being involved in 'Information services', next year though, I think I will take another look at options before deciding what position to volunteer for. I would definitely do Infology again, but I might like to try something else.
   So, what is Woodford Folk Festival? Well it is a whopping great big folk festival, some call it a Hippy Fest, and I have heard it referred to as a Feral Fest. It is indeed one of the most entertaining and interesting events I have ever known. With over 20 venues you can be entertained by bands and solo artists - from new and undiscovered, to ones that have been popular for years  - by dancers, circus performers, street artists, comedians, and so much more. You can also learn! I attended workshops on playing the harmonica, on decorating slumped glass, and I went to numerous talks on environmental issues and alternative health. Had I been game, I could have learnt trapeze! Food is also a treat at Woodford Folk Festival. Forget Dagwood Dogs and Fairy Floss that might be the main stays at other festivals, this gig has vendors selling food influenced by far way places like Ethiopa and Jamaica.
   For me, Woodford Folk Festival is about trying new things. I would look at the programme each day to plan things out a little, but for me serendipitous discovery is one of the treats of the festival. Wandering in to a venue and sitting down to the fantastic sounds of a group I had never heard of, leaves one feeling quite delighted. And everyday I would attend a talk, even if it wasn't on a subject I was interested in, because by attending something I'm not 'into', I learn more.
   People watching at Woodford FF is always a treat. Woodford attracts a whole lot of people who don't fit into, or don't want to fit into, conventional society. And then there is a whole lot more folk that take the opportunity to wear something completely outrageous just for this event. On day three I called my mum (a natural redhead) to tell her she should come over, as Woodford FF seems to have more redheads than the rest of society.
   Environmentally, Woodford is a pretty good festival. They really are limiting their waste output as best they can. Water bottle refills are the expected methods of keeping up your liquid intake, and food outlets use eco packaging. However there was also a lot of merchandise for sale and way too many new clothes being worn to play in the mud, which tells me that too many people there aren't getting the anti consumer message or understanding that acquiring what you don't need is actually damaging to the environment (and I know, I fly airplanes across the globe, so I shouldn't be too hard on them).
   Next year I do plan to go back to Woodford, hopefully as a Volunteer, maybe in Infology, but maybe someplace else. And next year I really hope I have a camper van to sleep in.

 By day 2 my Gumboots were hurting and I was debating whether barefeet or my croc shoes were my best option. Either way I would be muddy. This photo taken at my campsite. I had to set up a bucket outside my tent for feet washing.

Although my site was muddy, at least I didn't have water running through it like these folk. 

A dry day at the festival provided the perfect opportunity for a lot of people to work on getting sunburnt.

Juzzie Smith teaches us some harmonica. I first discovered Juzzie busking at the Darwin markets years ago... he seems to be doing pretty well now, and he deserves to.

More information about the Woodford Folk Festival can be found on their website: www.woodfordfolkfestival.com 

*this is Australian terminology, short for utility vehicle, Americans might say 'Pick-up truck'.