Bit by the Travelling Bug

Well, okay, not literally. For as long as I can remember I’ve wanted to travel. Even going back ten years as to when I started Secondary School, I can still remember that first ‘introduce yourself to the class’ session that every eleven-year-old child dreads. 

“Hi...I’m Chloe. I like to write and I want to travel the world someday.”

To be fair, eleven-year-old me knew what she was on about. Seven years on I chose my degree of Multimedia Journalism at Canterbury Christ Church University and so began my future of writing in a new place. Of course, Canterbury was hardly Timbuktu, and although my halls of residence were certainly questionable at times, I was hardly slumming it backpackers-style in a hostel somewhere. Nevertheless, those three years I spent away from home provided me with both the life and professional experience needed in order to one day make that big move abroad.

Deciding who to go with was the easy part. One bit of advice my sister gave me based on her own Australia adventures back in 2005, was to go with someone who would compliment my easy-going, ‘sure’ attitude. Someone who would take charge when it came to organisation and planning. She said to me "If you have two people trying to control everything it will never work, just like if you have two laid-back, go with the flow people - they won’t even find their way out of the airport." (She’s right, I couldn’t find the way out of Brighton train station once) 

So meet Jack, my lucky / unfortunate friend from university, who gets to move across the other side of the world with me and witness my bed hair every morning for himself. 

Jack & myself

We were originally looking at doing a backpacking trip across a range of countries, including Dubai, Thailand and Fiji, but in the end decided that we wanted to be making money whilst away, so had to look for something more permanent and with easy to come across jobs. Australia seemed like the perfect choice, and with a year long working visa we will be able to travel and work our way around the country, not having to worry about running out of money or being stuck in one place for too long. As we are both new to the whole travelling experience, we also felt more secure knowing we’d be in an English speaking country and not just going at it alone Bear Grylls style in the rainforest somewhere!

I'm hoping this blog ends up as both an informative site to other travellers and a place my family and friends can visit whilst we are away, just to clarify that I'm still alive and haven't be eaten by a shark...