This coming Sunday, March 21st, ‘Travels of an Earth Pilgrim’ embarks on the first leg of a two week journey. A journey halfway round the world from OZ back to the UK. As such that is nothing special, we have done this few times over the past years, as many others have.

So, what makes this journey different?

What’s new is the focus that we now have. This is because we came to the conclusion, recently, that ‘Earth Pilgrim’ is not just like the regular travel blog; with stories on how we went here and went there; how we visited ‘such and such’ and “this is me in the museum”. We are not travelling just for the sake of travel. Sure we do that every now and then and, like everyone else, we visit landmarks and swim in the ocean. Heck, we even write about it occasionally! But that is not how we live the other 300 odd days of the year. The bit we call our life…

So what is ‘Travels…’ about then? Why do we run it?

Last month we took time out and talked about the purpose of this blog; what we want people to “get”. We developed the three focal points:

Conscious Living | Independent Working | Travel Culture

This focus is about being aware of the ‘ecology’ of what we are doing. As we travel we keep our impact to a minimum; we earn a living as we go, and we become absorbed in the areas we stay in through stepping into people’s lives and and connecting with them and the local community.

But what does that mean? It looks great on paper, yet so far these are only words, and what is more, words that can be interpreted in many different ways. We have our thoughts and ideas about that, of course, but somehow that is not enough; it remains too vague. So we have decided to put it to the test and look for a definition that resonates with us on a personal level. That is what we are seeking to find out. A bit like a quest, you could say, and who knows, there might even be a holy grail at the end of it…

This journey will test our focal points. It will hone our purpose. It will bring to the surface how that purpose filters through on a day to day basis, in what we do. How it plays out in real life. Last, but definitely not least, it will allow us to share it with you AS WE DISCOVER IT!

Why these two weeks?

A couple of weeks ago all we had planned was a flight back to the UK, via Beijing, with Air China. Then we changed direction, dumped that flight and arranged this trip instead. We changed because we wanted to attend an event central to our overall purpose in life. Then the Universe backed up our choice by adding layers on top, business meetings, family visits, staying with friends, etc. etc. What we have lined up over the next two weeks spans everything we stand for. At least, that is the assumption at the beginning of the journey. Who knows what it will bring!

Front Row seating…

You are invited to be the “fly on the wall” and join us on our two week quest into the depths of the purpose and mission of ‘Travels Of An Earth Pilgrim’, and find out first hand where we are at, through our daily posts. The details of what we are doing will be up on the site tomorrow.

Join us on this quest!

Comment on it. Be part of it. Let us have your take on what being an ‘Earth Pilgrim’ is all about for you…

OZ2UK – We leave here (Bundaberg, Australia) this Sunday, March 21st. You can follow us all the way from the first leg of the trip on the train down to Brisbane, until we finally arrive in the UK. So far our appointments and meetings place us in the United States, Ireland and the UK!

Come back and keep reading!

Meanwhile Tom waits for his plans to work out, “One day it will happen”, he thinks, “and Dick will miss it”. Maybe, one day…

So what is your approach? Plan and wait for it, or live in the moment, adjusting and adapting as you go along?

My experience over the last couple of weeks shows me that the latter can produce the most amazing results. Results that inspire me, results that challenge my ideas of what I should and shouldn’t arrange ahead of time.

It all starts in Sydney. I had just come back from London. We have a trip to Melbourne planned, then there will be a month free till a house-sit near Bundaberg in March. We plan to go to New Zealand so Cheta can leave Australia for her visa. But I get an email about a week’s sit in Singapore, I respond and we secure it. We quickly look at some dates and organise the trip with a 4 day gap in Singapore after the sit. What are we going to do? No idea!

In Singapore we meet up with a friend who lives in Hong Kong, she’s there for Chinese New Year. We enjoy the place and feel it would be a good idea to spend the extra four days here, especially as we have somewhere to stay.

So fixed then? Ahh… no!

Cheta gets an email from her sister in the Netherlands, she is going to Bangkok to see her daughter! Not having seen her since October last year we thought, “Let’s go to Bangkok, that would be fun”.

Well yes, except there are no flights back to Singapore for us to get our flight back to Brisbane. It’s Chinese New Year and everyone in S.E. Asia is travelling. So we can’t go?

Well what about the train? Looking up the Man in Seat 61, we find it takes 48 hours from Bangkok to Singapore. Wow!! That would be amazing and still give us time to see Cheta’s sister. Ahh! No seats…

We find a return flight to Kuala Lumpur and a train back to Singapore. All organised.

I am now in Bangkok writing this post, maybe I should go out and see the Golden Buddha now I’m here. Yes, but I also need to keep my work going!

I read a regular email from Chris Guillebeau in Bangkok. Wow! That is amazing. He is a blogger I admire. He is someone I aim to meet sometime, and here he is. Not only that, he is inviting anyone in Bangkok to meet him tonight! I’m on! Email and response and we are meeting at the Ban Mae Yiu Restaurant.

We are in Bangkok, we are meeting Cheta’s sister and Chris Guillebeau! Was any of this planned? NO! Could we have planned this? NO!

This is not an isolated case, it happens to us all the time. We are learning to go with the flow knowing that something we didn’t expect is going to happen. If we had planned the whole trip ahead of time these opportunities would not come our way, we would miss them. Or would we? Would others not be there if we had taken another route?

It doesn’t mean we have no plans. I have speaking engagements in Las Vegas in May and Boulder in October. We have an event in Palm Springs in December, an offer to sit over Christmas in Singapore and a potential long sit in South Carolina in 2011. There is family around the world we want to see, places we want to go to. We want to travel from Australia to London overland….

So I am learning a mixture of a long-term vision along with going with the flow. But how do I mix the two? Where is the balance? Where is your balance?

Finally, as I am meeting Chris tonight, I was wondering about how others do it. Chris talks about Non-Conformity, he is working to break the mould, but is he? His target is to visit every country in the world by age 35. To do this he makes detailed plans for specific ‘trips’. He is on one now, that’s why he is in Bangkok. But does the specificity of his goal and the detail of his planning get in the way of living with the flow? Does he let things happen around him and take him to places he never imagined? I hope to find some answers to this tonight, but meanwhile what do you think?

This great quote from the film puts this post in a nutshell:

April Wheeler: “Don’t you see? That’s the whole idea! You’ll be able to do what you should have been allowed to do seven years ago, you’ll have the time. For the first time in your life, you’ll have the time to find out what it is you actually want to do. And when you figure it out, you’ll have the time and the freedom, to start doing.”

Frank Wheeler: “This doesn’t seem very realistic.”

April Wheeler: “No, Frank. This is what’s unrealistic. It’s unrealistic for a man with a fine mind to go on working year after year at a job he can’t stand. Coming home to a place he can’t stand, to a wife who’s equally unable to stand the same things. And you know what the worst part of it is? Our whole existence here is based on this great premise that we’re special. That we’re superior to the whole thing. But we’re not. We’re just like everyone else! We bought into the same, ridiculous delusion. That we have to resign from life and settle down the moment we have children. And we’ve been punishing each other for it.”

So why don’t people go travelling, or follow any of their dreams? The reasons are usually the same old ones. I have collected them here in this video to kick you in the backside if you are still wondering/planning/not sure.