Why I don't want to travel full-time

As a travel writer and blogger, I see a lot of posts from people who are on the road full-time hoping to impart wisdom onto others, so they can do the same in a sustainable way. I have been very lucky to travel a lot throughout my life and despite a number of longer trips, I have always come home.

While a little part of me would like to be constantly travelling, I know that I am not really that person deep down. I love packing my backpack for a trip, having enough time to explore a place properly and at some point want to live abroad again, but I also love coming home.

The feeling that I get when I see the Angel of the North is incomparable to any other. With limited flights from Newcastle Airport available, many of my trips start and end with a train journey and catching a glimpse of this strong representation that I am nearly home always gives me excited butterflies.

If work requirements and money weren't obstacles I would undoubtedly travel more than I do now, but I don't think I would pack up and head off for good. I love where I live and am close to my family, as well as truly believing that the north-east of England is a fantastic place, so think I would always want to return here.

While it is easy to look upon the lives of those who travel full-time as the perfect situation, it is also important to realise that such a lifestyle is not for everyone. I am the type of traveller who needs the time between trips to process and fully appreciate all that I saw and experienced, as well as a few home comforts and cuddles from my nieces and nephew to keep everything in perspective.

When I was 22 I worked in a backpackers' hostel in Cordoba, Spain for a while and one of the best parts about it was meeting so many interesting people. What became noticeable, however, among those who were visiting Andalucia as part of a long-term travel plan or round-the-world trip was that a few of them were no longer able to take it all in.

It's safe to say that not everyone gets incredible experience overload, but it is easy to see how it could happen. When visiting fantastic places that are all very different and new one after another, it must be exhausting. There is no way to compare the beauty of a Mayan temple with a beach in Tarifa or a Klimt hung on the wall of a gallery, but your mind needs space to compute all of these things, or at least mine does anyway.

That is why I value the days when I look out over a grey Gateshead sky and see the new cygnets in the local park as much as my time travelling. I love going away, but also coming home and have the whole of my life to see the world, a small section at a time.

Back to where it all began: Returning to Argentina

Iguazu Falls - 2009

Back when I first started this blog I was about to head off to Argentina and am currently preparing to return. In those early days my blog was pretty basic and I did a few posts during my original stint in South America. There was very little formatting, linking or trickery involved.

Some six years later a lot has changed, with both me and my blog. For a start I have undergone journalism training and am now employed as a travel writer (23-year-old me is very happy about this). I like to think that my writing style has evolved and my blog has come a long way.

Over the years that I have had this blog, it has been a space where I can try out new things and put what I've learned through studying online journalism and working in the industry into practice. It is still not as shiny and professional as I would like, but as I learn, I like to think it improves.

While the blog has come a long way since those original posts, the reasons for writing it remain the same. My passion for travel has never dwindled and my desire to write stays with me. Who knows where it might lead in another six years? Perhaps I'll be planning my third trip to Argentina, but I hope I'm still travelling and writing, and loving it as much as I do now.

On my next trip to Argentina I will be travelling with a good friend of mine, who has never been to South America before. Luckily, having lived together we are pretty much in tune and her concerns were also the ones that I shared. The disparity between my experience in the region and hers could have been a problem, but we think we have come up with a good plan.

Several hours were spent pouring over guidebooks and maps, with the outcome being that we have come up with an itinerary that suits a first-time traveller and someone who is familiar with the region. Our route combines some of the classics - Buenos Aires and Iguazu Falls - with destinations I have not visited before - Montevideo and La Colonia.

While we only have 11 days, this route, which includes three overnight buses, looks like a good way to explore this corner of South America. So roll on May and my return to this stunning part of the world.

Childhood memories of Africa

Back in the 90s, a couple from Newcastle-upon-Tyne took their two daughters - five and nine at the time - on their first trip to Africa. They would return several times throughout the girls' childhood, but little would they know that, 20 years later, the youngest would become a travel writer. Here, Emma Dodd reflects on the impact those childhood experiences had on her development and the memories that outshine so many others.

A few years ago when my parents were moving house, they uncovered a box full of the scrapbooks my sister and I had made of the holidays we went on as children. There was also a photo album that my sister had made after our first trip to Africa. All the photos were taken from knee height and highlighted the things that catch kids' attention, but pass adults by.

Flicking through the pictures really showed how engaged with our surroundings we were and the extraordinary experiences we had. My own first memories include holding a baby crocodile and making friends with an orphaned elephant named Moto in South Luangwa National Park in Zambia, where we stayed on one of our trips.

At the time I didn't realise how fortunate we were to be able to go off to Zambia, Zimbabwe, Botswana, Namibia, Tanzania, Malawi and South Africa during our summer holidays. It is only now that I understand what an undertaking it must have been for my parents to pack up their family and take two small children to such an incredible continent.

One difficulty was always to get us to take our anti-malarial pills and my mother used to employ a wide variety of tactics to ensure we did. These included squashing them between two teaspoons and adding strawberry syrup to disguise the taste or hiding them in sandwiches.

As a child I could see the differences between where I lived and the places we visited, taking in stunning views such as Victoria Falls and the paradisiacal beaches of Zanzibar. Going to school had much more significance after seeing children in these places ask my parents for pencils and their rapt attention as my dad pulled one from his bag and sharpened it before handing it over.

Making friends has never been a problem for me and I became adept at connecting with children that I met in all these countries despite, usually, the lack of a common language. This formed the basis of a fundamental skill that has come in useful all through my life.

On visiting the Sossusvlei region of Namibia when I was seven, the whole family climbed one of the smaller burnt orange sand dunes. I was determined to see the view from the top of the very tallest and set off towards the summit. After a while, my parents realised I wasn't going to tire until I had achieved my aim and set off in pursuit to be presented with one of the 'great views of Africa'.

Twice in my life I have seen leopard - once on a night drive in Zambia and then again in Malawi, where we stumbled upon a young cub behind an anthill – and, despite my young age at the time, I can still remember the excitement. By contrast, when I then first visited a zoo during my time at university, I was stunned to see a tiger, normally even more elusive than a leopard, just sitting there. Despite the fact that tigers are Indian not African it was then that I really appreciated the patience required to see a big cat in the wild and how the anticipation and search builds the whole experience into something truly holistic and memorable when the 'spot' is made – crucially, even if one misses the sighting, the looking is part of the fun.

For a long time I have had an interest in conservation and campaigns that extend well beyond my own situation and this interest is directly attributable to those early safaris in Africa. Even when I was quite young I had a much greater sense that the world was a huge place than any of my peers and I  understood that there were people who were significantly poorer than us.

I wore my Save The Rhino T-shirt until it practically wore out and, at the age of 12, announced that I was becoming a vegetarian; a decision that was based on careful thought and what I had seen in the world. Travel broadens the mind and my wonderful African experiences as a child had a truly positive impact on me that can I can, today, still trace back to those safaris.

Travel continues to come as second nature to me and I have spent time volunteering as an English language teacher in a pineapple farming community in Costa Rica and taken up every opportunity to visit new places that have come my way. Before I turned travel into a career, my parents would suggest I should be sensible in my thinking about the future and what I would do. To this I have always replied that they shaped what I wanted to be: they took me to Africa when I was five!

This article was originally written for The Explorations Company and appeared on their website in May 2014

Meeting Michael Palin - a travel writer's lifetime ambition fulfilled

When I originally wrote the bucket list I have included on this blog, there was one experience that had to be included - meeting Michael Palin. While for many people, this man is irrevocably linked to comedy and the genius of Monty Python, he has always been a travelling inspiration to me.

Not only does Palin get sent to fascinating destinations and is paid to do so (something I have always aspired to), but he does it with such warmth to the people he meets. I personally believe that his style of travel is something that cannot be faked, but is nurtured and this comes across in his footage and books.

When the New Europe book was released my sister and brother-in-law queued to get it signed for me. Unfortunately there were so many other Michael Palin fans also waiting to meet the man that they had to settle for a pre-signed copy. It still contains a post-it note inside reading: "To Emma, Bet I've been to more countries than you!" which they had hoped he would write inside.

So imagine my delight when a friend informed me that the man himself was about to embark on a tour of the country entitled Travelling to Work. Already sold out in York, I managed to procure tickets for me and two of my best friends at the Manchester Opera House on September 29th. I was excited about the show, but nothing could prepare me for actually meeting Palin in the flesh.

The Travelling to Work show was split into two halves, the the first concentrating on some of Palin's incredible journeys and the second offering up a crowd-pleasing insight into his comedy. He even included time at the end to dip into a steel bucket and answer questions submitted by the audience. For me, I was enthralled by the tales covering everything from Around the World in 80 Days to New Europe and beyond, with the stunning photography to accompany it.

Like any self-respecting world traveller I took delight in smiling to myself when places I had visited were mentioned and looked across to my friend who accompanied me on five weeks around Eastern Europe in 2007. We shared a knowing look as Palin described the Merry Cemetery in Sapanta, northern Romania, which is populated with garish wooden gravestones depicting scenes from the lives of the deceased.

During the interval I set off in search of the book and came across a stand selling volumes of the hefty tome. I was dismayed to see that they were already pre-signed, thinking that any opportunity to meet Palin this time was lost. The representatives told me he had spent two days signing books prior to the tour and that he insisted that all sales of the book were completed through an independent bookshop. I proffered my business card and begged them to pass it on to my hero.

The second half lived up to expectations and a very sprightly Michael Palin had the audience in stitches with tales of Monty Python inspiration and even some sketches that didn't make it into the final versions. An idea depicting the conversation when trying to book the Last Supper was particularly hilarious.

Our laughing muscles having gone through a thorough workout, we came out of the venue and my long-suffering friends agreed to join me in hovering outside the stage door. A small number of people had gathered and we didn't have to wait long before a representative appeared and asked us to form a queue. It was only when the slight 71-year-old came out that I started to believe I would actually meet him.

Understanding what a big deal this was for me and being truly altruistic, my friends stepped back as we reached the front of the queue, allowing me to have a proper chat with Palin. I told him that he was the inspiration behind me becoming a travel writer and he asked where I had visited this year. As we chatted about Malaysia, he wrote "To Em, Happy Travels" in my book, as my friends snapped photos of us. They then stepped in for a picture of all of us. My incredulity lasted all the way home.

Photos in this post by Rebecca Lyons and Siobhan Holt