World Travellers: Simon Yeats Author

The latest in my World Travellers series is Simon Yeats, an Australian adventurer, writer and author.

Who are you?

My name is Simon Yeats. Six foot two inches (1.88 meters) tall. Sagittarius (I was sick of being an Aquarius due to all the useless predictions being written about us in the horoscope in the paper, so I changed my astrological sign). I enjoy cooking, romantic movies, travel, long walks on the beach, and for relaxation I like to read about the practice of human sacrifice in ancient civilizations.

Where are you from?

I was born in Townsville, Australia. A medium-sized port town in tropical North Queensland. This is the same town golfer Greg Norman is from, also 3 time Olympic swimming gold medal winner Libby Trickett, and Julian Assange hails from there as well.

I am possibly the town’s most unheralded son, having never been arrested for espionage, won an Olympic medal of any colour, or squandered a 6 stroke lead on the last day of the Masters to lose by 5 shots.

Where have you been?

I have traveled just for the hell of it, even though I have never made a lot of money in my life. I moved from Australia to live in the US when I was 24. I have visited 42 states in America, including Hawaii. I have also been to Japan, Thailand, Ayers Rock, Canada, Hong Kong, Bali, South Africa, whitewater rafting at Victoria Falls, India, whitewater rafting in Nepal near Everest, Bahamas, Costa Rica, Ayers Rock, Panama, Sweden, Italy, Fiji, Tahiti, Bulgaria, Germany, Tijuana (not the nice part, although the nice part of Tijuana is an oxymoron) Spain, France, England, Ireland, Greece, The Great Barrier Reef, Holland, New Zealand, Monaco, Switzerland, Brazil, Argentina, and Uruguay. I have even been to Perth. (Even though Australians travel all over the world they NEVER go to Perth)

It helps to have a best mate who is a travel agent.

Where are you now?

I live in a cozy little Florida beach town that is 3 streets wide. It is a little slice of unhurried heaven. I am pissed off that local traffic is in a horrendous state of chaos if I have two cars in front of me at a light. I have lived in 6 different US states in 20 different towns. In cities as large as LA, Boston, and San Francisco, and in pokey little one horse country towns. I once lived in the California desert for 3 months. (Someone shoot me if I decide to do that again.)

What are the top 3 places you’ve visited?

The Grand Canyon. After 4 trips there, it still never stops taking my breath away. Have hiked to the bottom and back up. Have been there with a foot of fresh snow at the rim with bright blue clear skies overhead and the air as crisp as fresh celery. It is a humbling place. To stand on the edge and think, where do I matter in a history that created this? But so high on my bucket list that I keep going back even though I have already seen it already and I am not dead.

Plovdiv. Yeah, I know. Where TF is Plovdiv? It is in Bulgaria, the remaining European bastion of the Soviet era style way of life and crushing social conformity. But the experience was fantastic, because of exactly that. It is a place I knew nothing about and it and was not ever going to be on my radar to see until my sister said she was going. The town has spectacular Roman ruins, a bustling pedestrian downtown, and is as cheap as chips. Literally, entire dinners for 30 people were costing $100. Also, because I was traveling with my sister, who even though she got me in trouble with the East European Mafia on the trip, I got to spend quality time with a member of my family.

Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe. Flying in over the savannah, the sight of the mist rising above the deep crack in the land that allows the falls to exist is surreal. Getting to watch herds of elephants and antelope meander up to drink at a waterhole, while I sip on a beer during happy hour, is on another level. Sitting in a small boat above the Falls when a hippo breaches in the river beside it was incredible. Watching two Japanese tourists leap off the boat and chase after a crocodile sunning itself on an island even more so.

What is the best travel experience you’ve had?

When I was 20, I went to Steamboat Springs, Colorado to work as a lift operator during my university summer break in Australia. For 3 months, I was skiing, experiencing the USA culture for the first time, and having a coming of age experience that has stayed with me my entire life. I met my first girlfriend, bought my first car, hitch hiked to other resorts to go skiing. I took naïve dumb chances and did not even consider the risks. It was a great feeling. As well, the first night I was there I randomly ran into a great mate from my rugby club in Australia who also just happened to be in the resort for the winter as his brother had been living and working there for several seasons. That is when I first learned just how small the world is.

That first girlfriend and I lost touch immediately at the end of the trip when I went back to finish my university studies, but we miraculously reconnected 25 years later.

What is the worst travel experience you’ve had?

Oh drum roll, please. Was it having a man stick an UZI in my face when I absentmindedly knocked on his door on NYE while on the aforementioned trip to Steamboat? Was it being on a plane that was coming in to land surrounded by emergency crews because the front landing gear had apparently not gone down? Was it having police in Delhi pull their guns on me sitting in the back of a taxi when they thought I was looking for a weapon because I was frantically searching for my lost wallet? Was it becoming deathly sick while on a whitewater rafting trip in the middle of nowhere in Nepal? Was it being stopped by highway patrol in Arizona who searched my car while I had a gun sitting in my car trunk that I had put there as a favor for a complete stranger? No, none of the above. It was being confronted by a contract killer in Rio de Janeiro who had been employed by an adversary to assault me so that I would never come back to the country.

What is the funniest travel experience you’ve had?

Well I can now laugh about all the experiences listed above as being the worst, so I have written about them and made them funny. (Except for the experience with the contract killer) But the funniest was probably the week traveling in Ireland with some rugby mates from Los Angeles. We had 7 sleep in a hostel dorm room meant for 4 in Dublin, we drove through Northern Ireland and thought we would get killed by the IRA, we lost a member of our traveling party for 24 hours in a small little town named Donegal and thought he would turn up dead, we visited the cliffs of Mohr, on the off ramp to get the rental car back to the airport on the day we were leaving we blew a tire for the second time that day, and one of our party danced with a midget to win a bet.

And then we went to Greece for a week and I nearly killed myself on the island of Ios. That was hilarious.

What is the scariest travel experience you’ve had?

It was either jumping off the lip at the top of Tuckerman’s Ravine to prevent myself likely freezing to death as the weather suddenly changed at the summit and I was caught in a freezing storm, or having my Dad drive the family down the 4WD only Skippers Canyon road (one of the top three deadliest roads in the world) in a 2WD rented minivan, or handing my passport to the immigration control official in Brazil and then being rudely informed that I was not permitted to leave the country. That a judge had issued an order that I be retained in the country without reason or justification and that I would be unable to return to the USA. This was the same week that COVID was having countries shut down world travel and the USA was a week away from issuing a ban on incoming flights from all countries.

What is the most random job you have had on your travels?

It was either being a ski lift operator in Steamboat, as the job I had lined up was to work in a hotel but I decided that I had to take a chance and fulfill a life-long dream of having a really cool job such as a lift operator at a ski resort. Or it was to pick up glasses working in a pub on a visit back to my hometown of Brisbane in Australia so I could fund hanging out in the country secretly for a month, so I could surprise my mum for her 60^th birthday.

How do you fund your travels?

With a regular job while saving my money fastidiously to build myself a healthy travel pot. And good planning so that I do not overspend while I am away and if I am lucky to come home with some money left over, I treat myself to a bonus trip.

What 3 tips would you give a new traveller before they set off on their adventure?

1. Do your homework. Have some idea of things you would like to see or do in the places you are going to visit and then leave some space for adding new stuff you will hear about when you get your boots on the ground. You can never do everything, so have a plan that if you know a particular activity needs a day of dedication to go on a hike to see this waterfall, factor that in. Don’t think you can get drunk, sleep in, go on the hike, see the waterfall and get back by 2pm to jump on the bus for the group going on the winery tour. Someone you meet in the local area may tell you about a shorter hike to another waterfall as well, so then you can decide, do you still want to hike to waterfall A, OR get drunk, sleep in, see waterfall B, AND also make it to the winery.

2. Get an idea of what things will cost before you go. Have money dedicated for that activity that you do not touch. Money specifically for if you want to go paragliding in Switzerland, or whitewater rafting in the Santa Elena Canyon in Big Bend National Park, or for being able to bribe a government official in Tibet, then do a little research so then you will not be so shocked when you get there.

3. Only pack an extra t-shirt, shorts, some extra undies and that is it. You do not need any of the shit we surround ourselves with on a daily basis to have a great time while you are away traveling. I just took my girlfriend to Europe for ten days and we traveled with a day pack each on the plane to get the lowest possible fare with no carryon luggage. We had more than enough space to come home with gifts, and she still took an outfit that she never wore. Travel lightly. You are never going to run into the same person twice while you are away and so no one will suspect that you are wearing the same clothes that you were wearing on Monday, and IF YOU do run into someone who saw you on Monday, they will more easily recognize you as you are wearing the same clothes. They will then come up to you and say hello, and you can ask them to buy you a drink at the bar. Boom! You just came out ahead on the beer front and you saved yourself a ton of space in your luggage.

Bonus tip. Get yourself a best mate who is a travel agent.

What are your future travel plans?

In May, I am heading home to Australia for a fortnight on a family visit and impromptu college and high school reunions at two different pubs over a long weekend. Planning a trip to Montana and Glacier National Park in June 2024. My girlfriend and I are also bouncing back and forth between a trip to Italy, Scotland, or Iceland. Just need her son to head off to college in August and for Facebook to send us the most intriguing video highlights of one of these countries after our phones hear us talking about where are the places we would like to go.

Biography

Born in Townsville, Australia. Went to boarding school for 8 years in Brisbane and then 6 years at university. Moved to the USA after finding myself a job there while skiing in Whistler after graduation. It was a planned 2 years working vacation that somehow became 32 years and counting of living away from home.

Started to write books on his travels and experiences with life in 2023 and has currently published 4 memoirs. Has been close to death approximately 9 times.

Links (Website, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, YouTube)

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CLDBSXGX

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Simon-Yeats/author/B0CBNQLSPW?ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

tiktok @authoryeats

Instagram @authoryeats

Thanks to Simon for being the latest in my series of World Travellers! If you travel the world and run a travel blog or are a travel writer, please get in touch, you can be featured , either e-mail jonny (at) dontstopliving (dot) net or head to my contacts page and get connected! You can also subscribe to Don’t Stop Living by filling in the form below! Safe travels!