My day at the Hotel Kalina has been spent alternating between  sleeping, contemplating my life on road and abject horror at the realisation that not too far down the road I must return to what passes in our so called “civilized” world as normality. For me the world can never be as it was, far too much has happened over the last three years for a simple return to the status quo of “ normality”. Not least over the past two months I have been given a glimpse of an alternative life style, lived by many , many people that I have met, that offers for me at least, something far better. My only problem is how to reconcile the opposing torments within me to finally arrive at an equable solution!

Living on the road can be amazingly cheap if you do it right and I have a host of people to thank for showing me just where I was going wrong. Foremost must come Taz and Joel, their gentle humour and quiet ways have taught me so much in the weeks we have travelled together and I can only hope that in some small way I have been able to return just a little to them from the way I travel. Hanno, our German friend that we met at the Horizons meeting and who travels on less money than many spend at the pub over a weekend; Alex, another German and one who must rate amongst the luckiest of men, for not only finding salvation from his depressions in the world of travel but also for finding the girl of his dreams, the very beautiful  Mila, on the road! Just how lucky can one man get? He supplements his travel budget by writing articles for an agricultural magazine. There are many more I could mention such as Iain and Debs, at present in Korea, living their dream but as the song says “ behind them the queue stretches right down the hall”.

One of the first questions that always crops up when you talk to wannabe travellers (amongst whom I classify myself) is the thorny one of cost. “ How can you afford it?”  The biggest problem is that there is no single answer, and certainly not a simple one. I remember being told when I was very young that I could do anything, be anything I wanted ,if I set my mind to it; and to be honest that was not too far away from the truth! You just have to want it bad enough! Taz and Joel live like students in rented accommodation when they are not travelling shoving every penny they can earn from long working hours into the bank for the next spell on the road. Iain and Debz sold their comfortable home to finance their dream of travelling the world together. Hanno, lives for his small amount of benefits to arrive, sometimes staying on a wild camp site for days, until the cheque hits the bank. One thing however, that all have in common is that they have learned the art of managing quite comfortably on a very small budget.  Many people also use a variety  of web sites such as www.workaway.com , www.couchsurfing.com, and www.housecarers.com  to find both accommodation and work to help along the way. It is also fascinating and an utter joy to learn how quick like minded people are to offer their help and their homes to fellow travellers. On this trip we have been offered a 10 bed roomed mansion in the Italian hills for the winter, a village home on one of the Greek Islands, Chios for whenever I want to go there. Not to mention similar offers from Athens, Munich, Chalkidiki and various other points around Europe.

So where does that leave me??? Until I get home and do my final reckoning, to be absolutely honest I don’t know. What I do know however is that my daily budget has dropped dramatically  over the past two months or so, partly due to travelling less miles each day; after all, what’s the rush? My 4/500km per day average is now down to around 200km or even less. With fuel being the largest part of my budget that means I travel for twice as long on the same money and an added bonus is that by travelling slowly I see far more and meet more people because I stop more often! By finding wild camps rather than paying over inflated prices to pitch my tiny tent on a patch of land and use their filthy toilets, I save another 10 to 15 Euros, easily enough to pay for the odd restaurant meal or, as at the moment, a couple of nights in a reasonably priced hotel. My guess is that the final tally will be around £25 or 30Euro per day and for that I get to see a myriad of beautiful places, meet amazing , very interesting people AND choose what weather I want by just changing my destination!  This could really be heaven I guess! Although there is still a little fluffy thing missing from my paradise !!!

So where next? Again I have to answer that I don’t yet know, possibly Bansang, possibly India or Thailand! But one thing I do know is that spending the winter in cold, wet Wales looks ever less attractive.