Why travel?

I can pin point the beginnings of my lust for travel to one specific moment in time. I was 17 years old in the first term of my last year at school, it was the October break and my family and I were in Tunisia on vacation. I had only ever previously visited Spain, and taken a day trip to Morrocco but my appetite for new cultures had already been whetted. My life plan had involved finishing my last year of school, and heading off to university to do International Studies with French and Spanish and then seeing where life took me after that, but Tunisia had other plans for me. We took a tour of El Djem, a 3rd century amphitheatre, which seated 35,000 spectators in its day. It was an incredible and yet terrifying experience wadering around in the underground chambers. We also visited Matmata, a troglodyte villiage which were made famous by the filming of Star Wars there. One of the most beautiful things I have seen is the sun rising over Chott-el-Jerid, the salt flats. Explosions of unending colour. Definitely worth getting up at 3.30am for the bus trip to see it! It's so interesting even for me to be writing about this, for I had forgotten exactly how incredible the trip was! There was one moment that I was a little fearful for our safety (asides from the fact that my dad was offered 20 camels for me by a very creepy guy!) and that was when we were on the tour bus driving along the Algerian border, not a good idea when you have a massive sign alongside the bus that says "TUNISIAN TOURIST BUS", hardly very inconspicuous! Our bus, with darkened windows was pelleted by stones, bottles and a couple of broken bricks. It was a little nerve-wracking. On our last evening of the tour, after driving for what seemed like forever, we reached the Sahara, mounted our camels and away we went. I have never felt such peace in my life, the only sound was the feet of the camels in the sand and our own hearts beating. The sun was setting and the stars we beginning to shine in the deep blue sky and in the distance I could hear the hauntingly beautiful sound of the call to prayer. At that very moment I had a realisation. I wasn't going to return to school when i got back from this specific trip, and I knew that I needed to see more of the world, and not just as a tourist, but I wanted to LIVE it. And live it I did. I arrived back to Scotland, told my teachers and friends that I was leaving school to travel for a year before going on to unversity. Well... it has been 11 years since i said that, and I still havent gone back to school! But then that is another story for another time...