Introduction - the travelling dragon.

Many people are constantly amazed by how much I have travelled in my mere 28 years. I have been to 5 of the 6 major continents, and my country list is close on 14 countries. What's more, I've often done it on a more or less shoe string budget. In the (northern hemisphere) summer of '06, my man and I roadtripped Europe with his two teenage sons. We travelled through eight countries, camping and eating lots of bread, cheese and salad. It was awesome.

So I thought to myself, what I should do is create a blog that helps people out when it comes to finding cheap or exciting or generally off-the-beaten track places to go, based on places I have been. Maybe some bigwig in BBC will find it, decide I rock and pay me to travel. Who knows? ;)

So, for anyone who finds this by accident, or who gets sent here by someone who knows me, let me introduce myself.

I am South African by birth and breeding, and heart. I lived in SA until the ripe old age of 21, when, having finished a degree in Philosophy and Drama, I came out of University, blinking in the glare of Real Life with no idea what to do next, so I ran away to America. OK, so it wasn't quite so dramatic - I went and spent the first of what was to be three summers in upstate New York working on a wonderful summer camp called Welmet. After the first summer, I was bitten by this travel thing, and proceeded to start looking for work that would allow me to go to far off and exotic places. I got a job teaching kids in the United Arab Emirates. Ended up spending four years there (having met the man I later married in my first week there!). During our summer holidays, we had some truly amazing trips. The first summer was my last in New York. Our second summer I took my man and his kids to South Africa, where we roadtripped around for two months or so, staying in various b 'n' b's, going to game parks, and visiting my all time favourite arts festival in Grahamstown. Our third year, we did the great Eurotrip. By the end of our fourth year we had decided we'd had enough of the UAE and were very ready to go somewhere new.

Thus began the strange transitory stage of which we are only now just getting ourselves out. We spent six months in York in the UK while waiting for visas and employment opportunities, which came in the form of a job for him at the Otago University in Dunedin. Which brings us to the present day. Here I am, sitting in sunny Dunedin, unemployed (though working on that) and finding myself with a lot of time on my hands. Thus this blog. (I may even do a couple of others...)

My next post, and the ones to follow, will talk about specific destinations and even, possibly, specific places we've stayed at. That way, should any of you be planning a roadtrip around SA or Europe, I'll be able to give you some ideas. Needless to say, if there is anything in particular you would like to know about, let me know, and I will do my best to oblige.

That's me. Hi.