On Tuesdays, Don’t Stop Living highlights the top travel essentials as you backpack round the globe!
Down the years of backpacking the world, hiking became a big part of my journey. I have done hikes on every continent now, including a wacaday trip up Cuverville Island in Antarctica in 2010. Looking back, my favourite hikes were the Real Inca Trail to Machu Picchu in Peru, it was so epic, I even…
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“Stepping out to a different world and you might be home late” – Ocean Colour Scene. All these years of long term backpacking has meant a constant need to change, alter, switch, shift, upgrade to a new, clean, pristine backpack, multiple times. I’ve changed backpacks about 15 times in the last 26 years, since I…
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As I become more and more experienced as a traveller, I also learn what things to pack and what not to pack – what to leave behind. Down the years I made many mistakes when it comes to preparation, equipment, packing etc. It’s all a learning process, a trial and error. You learn from your…
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After losing my wallet in horrendous fashion in 2012 while tubing in Laos, I had to really look after my possessions a lot. Yet down the years, I have managed to lose phones, wallets, cameras and hats – sadly my famous blue hat was also lost in Laos in 2012. Since the Laos disaster, I…
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If you have followed my stories since this blog’s inception in 2007, then you will probably have seen my varying array of backpacks. I can’t even remember half of the brands I used, from Hello Lulu to a £6 ASDA job to Adidas to the ones that got slashed on a night bus in Colombia,…
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As technology advances and I find myself trying desperately to have the newest laptop, a phone that works, a hard drive that doesn’t break and just any device that helps me work faster and easier. I’m always on the lookout for new ideas to try, even though I admit I am usually one of the…
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I checked my hard drive recently, and tried my best to compile all my photos and videos from my journeys into albums on there, it takes a lot of organisation. I will never be able to count, but I’ve probably taken 1,000,000 travel photos in my life. But my expertise is in writing, not in…
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Recently I came across a new app called Pepo. After testing it for a while, I would like to introduce it to you today on Tuesday’s Travel Essentials. I found the Pepo app through its official website – Pepo.com and when I found out that some of my travel friends have been using it for…
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If you have followed my journey the last 10 years on here, you will know that I love to be the tourist, every day of my life. I am a very spontaneous tourist who ventures anywhere and everywhere I can. “If it exists as a place, I’ll go there” – Jonny Blair. I am a…
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You might have read that around 2 years ago, I visited a dentist in Hong Kong and had a few problems with my teeth. Well this month was dentist time again for me as I visited the dentist twice in the space of a week in my hometown of Bangor, Northern Ireland. I went to the…
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