This week, WSGT is interviewing Caroline Makepeace of @YTravelBlog, a site which aims to help people travel, ESPECIALLY with kids!
1.)Where was the first place that you traveled that made you think WOW—travel is amazing (think history book come to life or …..)
It was my first backpacking adventure through Indonesia. I was hooked and have been travelling ever since – nearly 20 years as a nomad. The one experience that stands out as the most amazing and beautiful was watching sunrise over Mt Bromo on the island of Java. It was the first time I’d seen something so exotic and mesmerizing. I knew I wanted to continue seeing what other treasures Mother Earth had to wow me with.
2.)If you had unlimited resources, where would you go and what would you do?
I feel I’d continue to do what I’m doing now – travel wherever I feel called to travel. I think when you falling those callings, the resources appear for you! You don’t have to wait for them until you can start.
3.)What were you afraid to do and how did you find the courage to overcome it?
Go on our road trip around Australia. We didn’t have strong financial stability backing us, but I had gone through a health challenge that showed me life is too short to let it be ruled by fear. I accepted my worst case scenario and had a backup plan and made the leap. It was the best decision I ever made. The greater the fear, the greater the reward lying at the end of the giant leap through it. I’m currently experiencing the same with making a giant leap to road trip the USA. Rinse Repeat.
Video: Caroline Makepeace from YTravelblog.com at Blogher 2016
4.)What apps do you use regularly that make your life easier?
I limit the amount of apps I use as I feel too many has the opposite effect of overwhelming you. I started travelling when postcards were the norm so it’s natural for me to continue to travel without the use of apps. But the few that I do use regularly are Tripit, Uber, TripAdvisor, Xero and Google Maps.
5.)What place do you wish more people had seen?
Their own countries. I feel so many people venture overseas failing to see the beauty of their own homeland. It wasn’t until I traveled around Australia for 18 months that I felt I could really tell the world that Australia was one of the most beautiful countries in the world. Before that, I was saying that purely because I was born there. Getting to know your own country helps you get to know yourself more and fills you with a lot of love and gratitude.
6.)Best advice you have been given and by whom?
I think my parents telling me that I was born to live my own life. It’s allowed me to make decisions without guilt and given me a lot of freedom as a result. I know my nomadic lifestyle is hard on my parents, especially now I have children, but they’ve never been anything but encouraging and supportive of that. I am so grateful to them for it.
I now have the same attitude with how I parent my children. I am raising them as strong, independent women who were born to do amazing things for them, not because I need them around me. I’m here to support their dreams and allow them to blossom.
7.)When were you surprised by the kindness of strangers on a trip?
The kindness of strangers is such a normal part of my life for so many years now it’s hard to pinpoint one particular instance. There was a family who were friends of neighbours in my childhood street who took me in for a couple of weeks when I first arrived in London. I’d never met them before, but I arrived in London not knowing anyone and had a badly infected foot. They treated me as their daughter while I healed and adjusted to life in a new country.
8.)What inspired you to travel for extended periods of time or live in a new country?
The stories of my brother and his friends who were living in London and travelling around Europe. I just knew that was the kind of life for me, so three days after I graduated from University I moved to London, via a three-month backpacking trip via Indonesia. I absolutely love the immersive experience of living in another country. I’ve lived in 4 other countries since.
9.)I travel because….
I travel because it helps me feel so connected to life and the powerful emotions of joy gratitude, awe, and wonder. I feel that’s the state of being we were born to live in and travel gets me there the fastest and keeps me there the longest. Without it, i feel life has no purpose or meaning and I feel trapped.
Caz and Craig want to live in a world where people fearlessly follow what’s in their heart and embrace more travel. Their mission is to help people do this, ESPECIALLY with kids. They just completed an 18 month road trip around Australia to prove it’s possible.
They’re into outdoor activities and adventures, sports, food and wine, and swinging in hammocks at sunset. Y Travel is one of the world’s biggest travel blogs and creates inspirational and epic content that provides useful tools, strategies and resources to move their readers from dreaming about a trip to making that trip a reality.
Caz and Craig are also the proud authors of “How to move from blog to business in six stages”
Our next Travel Influencer interview will be up in a week, follow the series here.
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