Written by Aus after being settled back home in Iqaluit, NU. Canada.
This entry will serve as the epilogue to our story of round-the world travels. It was an amazing journey and we both agree it was one of the best decisions we have ever made. We have now arrived back where we started, in Northern Canada in our current home —Iqaluit. We left here late last June, and returned May 11th after nearly 11 months away. In that time, we tied the knot on a fantastic day in July with about 140 of our closest friends and family, and then proceeded to celebrate our marriage with two honeymoons! Many may not know of our ‘pre-honeymoon’ immediately following the wedding to Cancun, Mexico, where we lived in total luxury and got the rest & relaxation we needed after all the stress leading up to the wedding day. But that was just a warm-up compared to our 7+ month round-the-world epic, which we started in September. We would like to again take the time again to thank any of our readers who attended the wedding and shared our special day with us, and we also want to thank all those who provided us with contributions towards making our trip of a lifetime happen. Your generosity will not be forgotten, and we could not be more grateful for all the help we had in making our travel dreams come true. And I would like to also thank the readers of this blog, whether or not you were attendees of our wedding or financial contributors to our trip, as knowing that many of you were out there enjoying our posts gave us the motivation we needed to get our entries posted in a regular and timely fashion, and was a source of satisfaction and enjoyment for us to know that you liked hearing our stories.
As the title suggests, we have now quite literally come full circle, having made a path around the globe, and ending up back where we started. The second part of the title alludes to the way we are currently feeling after being on the move for so long and now being very much stuck in one place for a while. It is admittedly a bit like hitting a wall. However, we have great friends here in our sub-Arctic home, and we are both currently back to work in the same locations. Kim is currently doing some substitute teaching and recently secured a job at the high school for September, and I am back at my old job and feel almost like I never left it, which I suppose is a good thing. We are both struggling to adjust with again being ‘rooted’ after being so completely free and mobile for so many months. But these feelings were all anticipated, and do not make us the least bit sad or regretful about the trip. We wouldn’t change it for anything. So we are now full stop, and we are regrouping for whatever major life event will come next, whether it be another stint of travel, starting a family, or any other number of other possibilities. We realize how incredibly lucky we are to have been able to do the things we’ve done, and we are now trying to figure out a life together that allows us to continue to do those types of things throughout our lives, likely not on the same scale of course, but at least having some adventures.
Some pictures of our current life in Iqaluit, where there is still some snow around…and lots more of it when we first got back…
Out for a walk when we first got back, and taking a tour of where our old apartment building used to be before it burned down…..total destruction..
Staying cozy in the cold….
This entry has been one that we have thought of for a while, but never really knew what to do with it. Kim had suggested a top-ten list, or a Q&A that we would do with each other, and I had more of a post-mortem type editorial of entry in mind….what you get will be a little bit of both. We will also recount our journey back to Canada and our journey back north, which forms the official ending to our round-the-world trip. I’ll start as usual where the last entry left off, and that is on our journey back to Toronto from England.
As it happens, our time since landing back in Canada has been quite busy and it was not until getting settled up here in Iqaluit that we finally hit that post-RTW wall and slowed down. The flight back to Toronto was a long one at 8 hours, and we were pretty tired, but that was totally offset and outdone by our excitement to see our families, starting with the Chapelle’s for a night out at a Blue Jays game. We made our way downtown from the airport in a surprisingly quick taxi ride, and continued our travel lifestyle by checking into yet another hotel at the Novotel downtown. We felt so strange riding into Toronto’s downtown in a taxi on the way to a hotel. It felt as if we were home but at the same time still travelling---I think it was a good transition to being back before heading up to Midland to my parent’s place. We had arrived at the hotel before Mom and Dad so we grabbed a shower and refreshed ourselves for the game. We were so excited when we heard a knock at our door and saw Mom and Dad with a bottle of Champagne in their arms to celebrate our return. It was very surreal to be back and in the company of family again, another novelty to us after being away for so long. Anyhow, we hit the street to head to the game and unfortunately the weather was not great with a bit of rain so we hopped in a cab. Despite the weather, I insisted on street meat, and we all got sausages outside the stadium, which may very well be my favourite part of going to the game! After scarfing down our ballpark dogs, we went to our seats in the 200 level, behind 3rd base. The seats were decent enough and we could see the action, but we were by no means right there. It was a busy day for a Blue Jay’s game because they were playing the Yankees, and we ended up sitting next to some Yankee fans. It was a pretty decent game though, and the Jays were holding their own. Despite all the action, I did have to wake myself up half way through due to the fact that it was for me middle of the night according my body clock. I was able to push through and glad I did, as the Jays ended up winning in extra innings. After the game we finally got our much anticipated and much needed rest.
Photos of Toronto….
Street meat outside Sky Dome…
Knotty Travellers on their last day of travel….
Watchin the action…..
The following day I had a meeting to attend in Toronto before we headed back to Midland. As I am an amateur value investor, and because I had the time off this year, I thought I would take advantage and take the opportunity to see two of my investing role models in person at the annual meetings of their companies. First was Prem Watsa at Fairfax Financial out of Toronto, and a week later I even made the pilgrimage to Omaha to see Warren Buffett of Berkshire Hathaway. Both were very interesting, and I glad to be able to go to these meetings as it’s been something I’ve wanted to do for a while, but being up north makes the cost too high to justify, so it was great to have the opportunity. Not many people seem to understand my interest, but at the Berkshire event especially, I was in good company, joined by about 40,000 other people to attend what some call ‘woodstock for capitalists’. It is a cult-like event, and Buffett is idolized as a guru. Many people have been making the ‘pilgrimage’ for many years, but it was the first time for me. It was great to go and take in Buffett’s folksy investment wisdom in person. He’s still got it, even at 80 years old. Anyhow, apart from my value investing pilgrimages, most of our time was spent at home reconnecting with family and friends.
Pictures of my pilgrimage to Omaha…..
Me rockin’ my Berkshire credentials….
Woodstock for capitalists…the Qwest Centre in Omaha full of people waiting to hear the wisdom of Warren Buffett…
We were home for Easter this year as well, so it was good timing to return home as most everybody was around home for the weekend. We had a quiet Easter with the Rice side of the family and a more active Easter with the Chapelle’s, which included the chance to act as the Easter Bunny for the first time for all the kids. We were also home for Mother’s day for the first time in a few years, and that also meant being around close to Kim’s Mom’s birthday and for my Grandma Mckee’s birthday. We took the opportunity to celebrate and do something special as we usually are not around. Kim’s mom celebrated her 60th Birthday this year, and we helped throw a surprise celebration party for her which was a lot of fun. We really appreciated our time at home though it may not have been as fast paced as we had become adjusted to. Being home with loved ones was a great consolation prize to having to suffer the loss of our continued travels. One thing we did miss out on was the warm spring weather we had anticipated. I understand there has been some more of it recently, but while we were in Ontario we didn’t see much of it. On the whole though, we have no complaints about weather over the past year, as we got pretty lucky in most places, especially in 2011.
Pictures from home…
Easter egg hunt at Chapelle’s… Here you can see Luna searching frantically for chocolate eggies…
Elaine with her family at her surprise 60th celebration…
Saying goodbye….again…to my parents as we head to Ottawa for our flight…
Kim with her good friend Cristina. She got to meet her first daughter, Melanie, who was born while we were away…
Now we’re back in the north and are adjusting to the slower pace of life. It is hard to face reality, but we are doing our best. The weather here thus far has been very mixed, with it only recently starting to get warm again. Today is beautiful, and about 15 degrees and sunny. When we first got here it was much colder, and we saw days as cold as minus 30, so we definitely welcome this warmer weather. It has been fantastic to reconnect with friends here and we are both busy with work. Kim had been relentlessly searching for a position for the fall, and just recently secured a position at her preferred work location, Iqaluit’s high school. She had been offered work elsewhere but was holding out for a high school position, which we are ecstatic she got. There are certainly some good things about being back here and back to work, including reconnecting with friends, and most importantly, an income. We did some serious damage to our financial health during the trip, and while we have no regrets, we are certainly now in a bit of trouble, so are happy to see the money coming in to help us dig ourselves out. Another new thing for us since we’ve been back is that now that we have a routine and a schedule, we have been able to make the necessary adjustments and do some damage control on our bodies after being pretty much completely unconcerned with our eating & drinking habits for the past year. We have started something called paleo eating, or sometimes referred to as the caveman diet. It has been great for us so far. It has only been a month, but we both feel better. The foundation of this diet is fresh meat and fresh produce, and omitting grains and dairy. It is based on the idea that our bodies have not evolved all that much over the past few thousand years, but our diets have changed substantially, so the idea is to go back in time nutritionally, and cut out all the processed foods. There are a few weird rules that I am yet to fully understand, such as things I’ve always thought of as very good for you being considered taboo, such as peas and beans and having too many fruits. The diet is similar to Atkins in that it ends up being low carb and low sugar, but has the added restriction of no dairy, and is very strict in terms of the amount and type of carbs allowed. We have been doing quite well and have been able to make some great meals and are generally enjoying eating paleo. We also swore off alcohol for a time, as it is technically disallowed and we are just generally trying to recover from a year’s worth of bad habits. The biggest trouble with eating paleo up here in the north is that the cost of fresh produce is astronomical, and we find ourselves spending insane amounts of money on groceries. We are telling ourselves for the moment that the benefit to our bodies is worth the cost, but we will see how long we can keep it up.
I suppose that brings you up to date on our situation post-travel. We still fantasize about taking off again, but it will be a while as the more we dig our heels in and adjust to real-life, the more we realize just how much the trip cost in terms of financial and career progress. No regrets, but we have some work ahead of us. Now that you are up to date, I suppose we will close off with a bit of summation of the trip and try to bring a satisfactory end to our tale of round the word adventures.
One of the questions we’ve been asked most often is “What was your favourite place?”. It is very difficult to specify just one, as we had so many, so the best we can do is a top 10. Here is a list of our top experiences in no particular order...
1. Hiking in Rwanda and spending time with a family of Gorillas
2. Spending Christmas in Thailand, becoming qualified Scuba Divers and having the time of our lives with great friends on Koh Chang
3. Extreme White Water Rafting in Uganda on the Victoria Nile
4. Hiking the Great Wall of China and other great Chinese experiences with my parents
5. Sharing time with our second family in England and showing Courtenay some of Europe
6. Finding an oasis of calm and beauty amongst the ‘Arab Spring’ in the Middles East as we explored Jordan, culminating in a micro-light flight above the desert in Wadi Rum.
7. Taking in all the sights, sounds, smells and experiences of India, but most powerfully in Varanasi
8. Driving around New Zealand discovering a beautiful and diverse country, and finishing with an adrenaline-filled few days in Queenstown.
9. Finding heaven on Earth in the Maldives
10. Receiving the royal welcome and fantastic hospitality in Samoa.
11. Going back in time to a place where liability and insurance concerns don’t get in the way of a good time, and having a fun-filled few days in Vang Vieng, Laos.
That list is certainly not comprehensive, as we had so many unforgettable experiences, but it does provide a snapshot of some of the highlights. Looking back at this list, I am again reminded of just how lucky we are. This was an amazing experience and I am so glad we took the time out to do it. It would not have happened without sacrifice, and I think many people are too concerned about what they are giving up to ever take the risk and try and do something like this. In my opinion, it was priceless, and I would never change it. No matter what happens in our lives, we will have these great memories and know that we did something that was important to us. I am proud of that. I am also very grateful to have found a woman like Kim who shares my passion for travel and who helped make all these great experiences even more amazing. I don’t think there’s anyone else in the world I would have wanted to spend day and night with non-stop for 7 months. I am very lucky to have a partner that not only had the interest but also the courage and spirit to do all these things we’ve done. Now we are firmly planted again in our Arctic life, and although it does not currently seem all that adventurous, it too has been an example of our adventurous spirit leading us into things that we are so lucky to have each other for.
We now are at the phase of looking seriously at our new adventures and challenges, and trying to sort out our new 5-year plan, as for the past 5 years its been a bit up in the air. We are both approaching 30 and don’t want to put off family indefinitely, but are both still intimidated by the idea of doing anything immediately. We are struggling with priorities right now, as we want it all – family, good jobs, good income, being near extended family, living in a hospitable climate etc., but we realize that perhaps we may need to make some sacrifices to arrive at the best scenario for us. Anyhow, we remain very happy about the fact that we took the time out to do what we did, as no matter what happens now, we will always have those experiences, and we both agree that they are priceless.
So at this point I will say thank you very much for keeping up to date with us on this blog. It has been a wonderful experience and this added to it as it is so nice to have to look back on. This served also as our personal journal, and we will be getting it published into some sort of coffee table book or similar album so that we can have it forever in print format as well. We will finish with an interactive map of our round-the-world travels, that shows our route for reference purposes and may be useful for anyone planning a similar journey in future. Best wishes.
View Knotty RTW in a larger map
Cheers,
The Knotty Travellers
