"30 Before 30" | Travel Creative

Many women ‘freak out’ at the prospect of reaching 30. I feel more excited than panicked and that is possibly largely to do with the list I made exactly 18 months before my 30th birthday.

With 18 months to go, I made a list of 30 things I wanted to do, places I wanted to go and skills I wanted to learn. They had to be a little different – not just the usual ‘do a skydive’ or ‘do a bungy jump’. Read on to find out a little about a few of my goals.

Things to Do

Hike the Inca Trail

A 4 day trek from the small town of Ollantaytambo to the ancient site of Machu Picchu. It involves altitude sickness, reaching around 5,000m in height and at least one whole days walking of almost continuous stairs! It is a true challenge and despite being usually fit and healthy you can’t predict what the altitude can do to you. That said, you also cannot imagine the feeling of achievement when you reach the top of the second day (with all the stairs!) and also when you reach the final destination.

The third day of the trek is outstandingly beautiful with plants, wildlife, little caves and views. We reached a high lookout point on November 11th 2016 and stopped to hold a minute silence for those lost in the wars. In addition to remembrance, it also gave us a unique opportunity to stand in the sun and look over stunning scenery in Peru where Inca royalty would have trodden years before us.

Go star gazing in the Atacama Desert.

This turned out to be one of the most memorable days of my life. Despite being in recovery of chronic food poisoning from the Bolivian salt flats, we dragged ourselves out of our hostel bed to go and visit a man called Jorge. An extra-ordinary man who has converted his back yard in San Pedro de Atacama in to an outdoor observatory. He creates a unique experience each night, taking around 12 people to his back yard observatory and teaching them the very basics of astronomy; surrounded by arguably the clearest view of the Milky Way and Southern Sky. His guests sit with coffee and hot chocolate under blankets as the sky gets darker and darker until his finale where he points each of his extremely powerful telescopes at particular constellations in the sky for all his guests to see in turn.

Make a throw from all the flags I have collected from around the world.

As I have made my way across the world, I have collected embroidered flags. Now I have ticked off 50 countries I decided to make those flags in to something for my home. The object I finally decided on was a throw. I have bought a cool grey throw with a world map on and here I shall begin… watch this space.

Places to Go

Day Trip to Harry Potter World.

Regardless of age this place is spectacular! So much to learn about set design, production and some amazing sets to see. You find out how things are filmed, how special effects of the characters are performed and the best part for me was the full model of Hogwarts to finish. The detail in the buildings and even all the owls and wizards walking in the grounds below is incredible.

Follow link for tickets: https://www.wbstudiotour.co.uk/tickets

See the Northern Lights.

This has been a long time dream if mine and is still in the pipeline. Have you seen them? If so get in touch with your recommendations – I would love to hear from you about your own experiences.

Take a trip to Marbella again.

Marbella has a mixed reputation these days. Personally, I love it as I grew up there. If you know the right places to go you can find absolute gems of restaurants, bars and hotels – not just of the TOWIE variety! This is mainly a nostalgic one, where would you add to your list for nostalgia value? Blog post coming soon on how to do Marbella, the right way!

Skills to Learn

Scuba Dive

I had always wanted to try scuba diving so couldn’t pass up an opportunity to learn in the Great Barrier Reef. Pro Dive Cairns were amazing. I joined their 5 day course which included a 2 day live-aboard on their awesome, fully kitted out scuba boat. We saw huge turtles, sharks, a multitude of fish and bright coral and I completed the 5th day as a full qualified PADI ‘Adventure Diver’.

Check out my post on the Top 7 Things to do in Australia to add to your Australia bucket list: http://www.travel-creative.com/top-7-things-to-do-in-australia/

Take a Surf Lesson

I had always imagined that I wouldn’t be very good at surfing. Which is how I managed to reach nearly 30 without ever trying. In the spirit of giving everything a go at least once, I booked on to a beginners lesson with Black Dog Surf School in Byron Bay…and absolutely loved it!

Learn Calligraphy

Probably every month of every year I write cards to friends and family. As a child there was one particular family friend who always wrote her cards to me in beautiful calligraphy and I remember thinking how sophisticated they looked. So, now I am reaching a point where I can no longer deny definitely needing to ‘adult’ (at least at times), I paid a visit to Quill London to take their Modern Calligraphy beginners course.

The course lasted 1 hour and a half and really set you up to be able to practice on your own when you went home. With the course you receive your own quill, ink and lined practice book, as well as their alphabet guide to copy from.