Exploring the harbor of Kleinbaai with my fellow White Shark Projects volunteers
Springbokkies in Phalaborwa!!!
It’s
happening again. For the third year in a row, when I tell people about my next
adventure, one common response I get is, “You’re going to meet the love of
your life while you’re out there, and you won’t have to travel alone
anymore!” There was once a time when this prediction was kind of cute, but now
it’s honestly just annoying. So, without further ado, let me make something
very clear: traveling solo isn’t a last resort for me. It’s not because my
friends and family all have other things to do. Traveling solo is a choice that
I first made about two years ago when I went to work up in Grand Teton National
Park in Wyoming. That was one of the best decisions of my life, hands down. I
absolutely love traveling solo, and it’s an experience that I’d recommend to anyone.
So, to make that point loud and clear, here’s a list of a few things I love
about solo travel.
1. Traveling solo forces you out of your comfort zone.
As one of my
favorite quotes says, life begins where your comfort zone ends. Whether it was
when I was finding my way around the huge, unfamiliar Johannesburg airport,
spending my first night in Africa sleeping in a room with seven strangers at my
hostel, or one of the many other experiences I’ve had, solo travel shoves you
far out of your comfort zone so quickly it’ll make you head spin- and that’s
one of my favorite parts of it. As a side note of this, I’ve definitely met
more people on my solo travel adventures than I would’ve if I’d been traveling
with people I already knew. At my hostel in Cape Town during the free day I had
in between my projects, I sat in one of the common rooms typing out a blog post
and watched two guys with British accents begin to play a round of pool on one
of the tables. When I was done writing, I closed my laptop, stood up, and said,
“I call playing the winner.” They smiled at me and accepted that challenge. By
the end of the day we’d become great friends.
2. Solo travel builds self-confidence.
I remember
the feeling, at the Johannesburg airport, after zipping my way between gates,
checking my bag, and finally sitting down to wait for my flight to Cape Town,
all after not having slept in about thirty hours. I sat there at the gate, let
out a sigh of relief, and thought to myself, that really wasn’t so hard. Or on
one of my first full days living in the dorm rooms up in the park in Wyoming, I
remember walking around outside and seeing a group of guys playing basketball
on one of the courts, with some other guys sitting beside it watching. My first
thought was, ‘I don’t know any of them’. My second thought was, ‘let’s change
that’. Then, with a level of confidence I didn’t know I had, I walked over, sat
down beside those guys, and struck up a conversation. How’d they react? By
making room for me, offering me a beer, and before long I’d learned all their
names, departments they were working in, where they were from, and more. Nearly
two years later, I’m still in touch with most of them, and we love keeping up
to date on each other’s crazy adventures. When traveling solo, I don’t have
friends or family to help guide me around- it’s all up to me. Because of that,
I’ve learned that I’m capable of a lot more than I originally knew, and it’s
taught me to be a more confident person.
3. Solo travel teaches you to be your own best friend.
It seems
like so many people I talk to shy away from solo travel because they’re afraid
of being lonely, or aren’t comfortable with just their own company. First of
all, just for the record, alone and lonely aren’t at all the same thing. The
past two summers I’ve gotten better at just loving my own company. My
adventures have taught me not to be afraid of being alone, and that life can be
very fulfilling with or without a travel companion.
4. When traveling solo, I’m the boss.
Between my
time at White Shark Projects and CARE Baboon Sanctuary, I had a day off in my
hostel in Cape Town. After a month of getting up well before sunrise to prepare
the boat for another day at sea, I decided that if I wanted to let myself catch
up on some sleep during that day off, I could do just that without having to
ask anyone else what they wanted to do. During my days off in Wyoming, I was
completely in charge of what to do with that time. If I wanted to go on a raft
trip down the Snake River, I could. If I wanted to take a bus tour up to
Yellowstone, I could. If I wanted to go kayaking on Jackson Lake, or take my
camera up to Lunch Tree Hill and enjoy the view, or go into the beautiful town
of Jackson and explore it, I could. It also gave me the opportunity to be more
spontaneous- and some of the best times were those planned at the last minute.
For example, I’ll never forget taking that bus tour of Cape Town that took off
right from my hostel and ended in a delicious braai (South African word for
barbecue) right there in the middle of that beautiful city. I signed up for the
tour just a couple of hours before it left, and it was one of my favorite days
of the summer.
5. Indulgences
won’t be judged, and secrets will be kept.
When I got
up in the bar in Jackson two summers ago and sang karaoke in public for the
first (and only) time in my life, I didn’t have a friend filming it to
immortalize on the internet. If I wanted another serving of that delicious
sausage at that braai in Cape Town, I didn’t have a family member raise an
eyebrow; hey, it was 400 rand for the tour, plus unlimited food and beer at the
end- of course I was going to take advantage of that! Traveling solo the past
two summers, I haven’t needed to ask myself if my travel companion is
trustworthy to keep my craziest moments secret, or not judge for the times I
indulge a little more than I would at home. If I don’t want people at home to
know about the time I had one too many springbokkies (damn I miss that drink)
at the bar in Gansbaai and let that stranger pull me out onto the dance floor,
and get to know me very well in those few minutes (didn’t get to third base,
but he certainly rounded second- no pun intended), I could keep that memory
tucked away.
I could go
on and on about why I love traveling solo, but I think this blog post is more
than long enough. So, one more time, for those that predict I’ll meet the love
of my life on my adventures and “no longer have to travel alone”, my goal for
my travels isn’t to find a lifelong travel companion- it’s to continue
reassuring myself that I don’t need one. Traveling solo is one of the best
things I’ve ever done for myself, and it’s an experience I’d recommend to
absolutely anyone.
