Most satisfying in All Good Things

When I was growing up, my every goal was about travel. I wanted to live in London and travel, that’s all the ambition I had for my future. Now, at just over 40, I’ve been almost everywhere I’ve ever wanted to see. I once planned a trip to South America, but I don’t actually want to go there. I keep putting opportunities off, and I wouldn’t mind if I never get to see it. I’ve seen enough on Google Earth to satisfy me.

Some things I’m extremely happy I’ve done in my life, in no particular order:

• Swam beneath the frangipani trees and the full moon in New Delhi, India.
• Kayaked and scuba dived in the Pacific Ocean in New Zealand.
• Climbed some of the tallest mountains in the UK, Hong Kong and several countries in Africa.
• Watched ice hockey at Madison Square Gardens in New York.
• Watched cricket at Lord’s in London.
• Explored the Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland.
• Visited San Francisco right after the earthquake in 1989.
• Floated in the Dead Sea and explored Jerusalem.
• Walked in the Swiss Alps in the falling snow.
• Watched my favourite dancers perform especially for me.
• Explored the Great Ocean Road on the south coast of Australia.
• Paddled in a gorgeous mountain lake in Canada.
• Met the actors of my favourite fictional characters and thanked them.
• Wrote two full length novels that people have loved, plus a lot of shorter fiction.
• Climbed volcanoes in New Zealand and kayaked down glacier streams.
• Visited the remains of the Berlin Wall.
• Walked between the geysers in Yellowstone National Park and the sequoias in California.
• Enjoyed numerous tropical beach holidays in Thailand and Malaysia.
• Explored the Forbidden City and Tiananmen Square in Beijing, China.
• Watched ballet in Paris.
• Watched the migration of the wildebeest in the Serengeti in Tanzania.
• Climbed up to a fire that’s burned for six thousand years at Burning Mountain, Australia.
• Survived flying through a typhoon and landing in the midst of lightning in Taipei, Taiwan.
• Played with the penguins on Boulders Beach in Cape Town, South Africa.
• Walked on glaciers in New Zealand and Switzerland.
• Visited all the filming locations of The Sound of Music around Salzburg, Austria.
• Explored the canals of Amsterdam.
• Spent my 12th birthday at Disneyland.
• Visited five countries in a single day, and then again the following day (Western Europe).
• Snorkelled in Lake Malawi.
• Lived in Hong Kong!
• Introduced a bunch of American attorneys to cricket in Perth, Australia.
• Watched the fountains dance beneath the tallest building in the world in Dubai.
• Explored the spices and beaches of the island of Zanzibar.
• Frolicked in the Mediterranean.
• Hiked around the islands along the Swedish coastline.
• Visited Victoria Falls (both side and Zimbabwe sides) numerous times.
• Ended up in Copenhagen when I was originally flying to London from New York.
• Explored the islands of the Pacific Northwest by boat.
• Rode African elephants along the Zambezi in Zambia.
• Visited night markets and temples in Seoul, South Korea.
• Climbed the giant desert dunes of Namibia.
• Count as hometowns: London, Sydney, Hong Kong, Dubai and Singapore.
• Watched wildebeest babies being born in the Ngorongoro Crater in Tanzania.
• Learned how to fly planes in New Zealand.
• Floated down the Rhine in Germany and the Danube in Austria.
• Discovered some of the bushmen’s secrets in the Kalahari Desert, Botswana.
• Sailed into the white cliffs of Dover, England.
• Explored everywhere Jamie from Outlander went in the Highlands fifteen years before anyone made it into a TV series.
• Screamed through Lagos, Nigeria, in a cavalcade of armed cars and bodyguards.
• Spent a week in Rome without ever setting foot in the actual city.
• Stayed in the same hotel in Singapore off and on across twenty years and watched the city change and develop and grow.
• Viewed all the famous art and sculptures in Florence with an artist who could explain to me the significance of it all.
• Discovered Halloween rituals in Boston as a kid.
• Explored the magnificent ruins of Great Zimbabwe.
• Visited Stonehenge and numerous other famous stone circles in the UK.
• Picnicked at the actual Hanging Rock from Picnic at Hanging Rock in Australia.
• Managed to find a career that took me all over the world.

This list could go on and on, but that’s enough for now. There are places I haven’t been that theoretically I’d like to go:
- The Greek islands.
- The Amazon jungle.
- The Canadian Rockies.
- The Sahara Desert.
- The Mayan ruins.
- Above the Arctic Circle in Scandinavia.
- The Carpathians of Romania.
- The Kimberley wilderness in Australia.

I’ve dreamed of taking a trip from Ushuaia at the bottom of South America all the way up to Alaska, or across the continental United States, or through the outback of Australia or around West Africa.

But, honestly? I don’t care if I never see any of these. I’d care if I hadn’t seen New York or Vancouver or Hong Kong, if I hadn’t visited the Alps or the Danube or the Mediterranean, or Zanzibar or the Kalahari or the Serengeti. My list contains everything I didn’t want to die without seeing or exploring or experiencing. It makes me really happy to know that I made all my deepest travel dreams come true.

And it would be almost a relief if I couldn’t see anything else. Travel is exciting, sure, and rewarding and fulfilling, but it’s also extremely stressful and difficult and exhausting and draining. It’s even worse when you have agoraphobia and struggle to leave your hotel room. When you know you’re surrounded by amazing adventures but to get to them you have to walk out the door and you. just. can’t.

It’s a beautiful evening here on the English Channel. The earlier rainstorms have swept inland, leaving everything clean and shiny in the evening sun. The sea is dark blue and choppy, and newly sprouted spring leaves are scattered across the road. It will take me two minutes to get to the beach from my desk here in my study. I’m going to try tonight. It will be good for me to get outside. I live in such a beautiful, glorious place. I hope I never have to leave.