Solo Travelling - What you really need to know
Seeing the burning silhouette of sunrise over London from 31,000 feet will always have a surreal feel to it. Every tourist’s dream and every Englishman’s signal home. The specs of black taxi cabs starting to appear bigger as you reach the runway, parading commuters into the centre. The water droplets trickle down the oval window as you head below the clouds and are welcomed with typical British weather. It hits even harder when you know you’re back in reality, with a new sense of opportunity and confidence you didn’t really know you had.
When I read the acceptance email my stomach dropped. I didn’t think I was genuinely good enough to go. In a way, I didn’t want to go. But I knew if I let my fear get the better of me, I’d regret it for the rest of my life. I was a shy 19-year-old girl living in Southern England, who was still scared to take the two-hour drive from university back to my hometown alone. Travelling 8,000 miles -solo- did not seem like something I was capable of at all. When I found out I had the opportunity to take part in a month-long journalism internship in South Africa, it was unbelievable that I had this shot or that I would actually shoot it.
This became immediately clear in the comments from people around me. “You’re way too young”, “you won’t actually end up going”, “you don’t know anybody else there, it’s too dangerous.” Even remarks about my appearance, being a 5 foot 1” blonde girl, appearing a lot younger than my age: “You look way too vulnerable, you’ll need to be constantly looking over your shoulder”. But, with my stubborn nature, their judgement only gave me the confidence I needed to overcome my initial doubts, pushing me to make the most of what could be a pivotal moment in my career.
I’ve always been into the lighter side of journalism: the ‘fluff’ pieces. Leaning towards stories about ‘why you should watch this new reality show on ITV2’, or ‘the young panda couple moving into the local zoo’. Travel was where I found I could keep this style but also be able to write about something ‘higher in the ranks’, as journalism goes.
Powered by a wave of determined motivation, I started a go-fund-me and used what was left of my summer-job savings to book my flights. Making sure there was no turning back, the preparation began. I researched where I was staying, planned endless vaccinations, read government advice and spent way to long trying to memorise the airport map. Finally, I was confident in the decision.
Walking through the security gate at Heathrow airport was where reality finally set in. I am actually doing this. Alone. Am I too young? I don’t know anyone else there, will it be too dangerous? I didn’t think I’d end up going. What if I look too vulnerable? With a deep breath, I swallowed all of my instincts, letting my new-found independence take the lead. Since the tender age of 14, I’ve always wanted to work in the media. From then on, I’ve been pursuing my plan of action. I decided a specialised media college would be the way forwards, and my experiences there lead me to get into university on a journalism degree. But I knew that the mainstream route would always get the same mainstream result. That is why things needed to change. With universities churning out the same ready-to-write 20 somethings year after year, all wanting a career with the BBC or some version of Condé Nast, I needed to do something different, to gain more experience and have the upper hand.
18 hours later fuelled by the microwave dinner and what I could make out to be a full-English style breakfast on the flight, I arrived at George airport. George is a quaint little city in the Western Cape of South Africa: I immediately picked up on the fact when airport arrivals were a room smaller than my student flat, with only one working baggage carousel. This was the place I got so worked up about?
Here I was greeted by a beaming Afrikaans woman who I knew to be my tutor, Rouxne. Her excited demeanour put me at ease as we drove to where we would call home for the next month. (Which just happened to be an old British house with more bedrooms than I could count!). We talked about all of the opportunities waiting for me, but just before I could get too comfortable, Rouxne gave me a few tips on adjusting to everyday life in South Africa. “Never go outside on your own; when you do go out, make sure you’re not wearing too much expensive jewellery. Be prepared for the electricity to go out for a few hours a day. Oh, and keep the windows shut when you can. Sometimes monkeys like to break in to steal the food.”
Most of this I was sure about. I didn’t bring any branded clothing or anything valuable with me. I made sure everything was in a safe place and I knew my surroundings. But one thing I was not prepared for was the monkeys... baboons and vervets were now as much of a common nuisance to me as pigeons or foxes.
Everything on the trip pushed me to do things to help me better myself, even if I really didn’t really want to at the time, from the smaller stuff like letting go of the picky eating habits I brought with me into adult life, to going shark-cage diving whilst being terrified of the ocean - as well as all the lessons in between. Each new experience brought with it new skills helping me personally and professionally.
Twenty-nine days, six published articles, one monkey incident and countless new experiences later, I am back at Heathrow Airport at six in the morning, still wearing yesterday's socks. Through the chaos of half-asleep strangers, scrambling to get the next tube, I spot my Dad, looking relieved that I’d managed to make it back in one piece.
As clichéd as it sounds, new experiences really do help you become a better person. (I know, cringe). It doesn’t always have to be travelling somewhere and ‘finding yourself’. It could be making that career change you’ve never had the guts to pursue, or conjuring the motivation to take up that hobby you never thought you’d be able to master. This is your sign to go for it!
Written by Rebecca Toogood
My name is Rebecca Toogood, I am a 20-year-old journalism student from Bristol going into the last year of my degree and am currently working in retail.