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“Life is an adventure” according to Kate Manning, but how many of us truly treat it as such, living out the things on our bucket list rather than simply putting them down as far off fantasies?
From finances, to the fear of leaving a stable job - many of us simply reflect on all the reasons not to fulfil our dreams and they remain just that.
But for Kate Manning, she was determined to take a leap of faith and embark on the adventure of a lifetime. The 28 year old Cork native, had been working in IT for nearly five years, but always the nagging feeling that this wasn’t what she wanted remained. What Kate really wanted was to see and experience the world before it change or got eroded by Climate change, she dreamed of far flung locations, she might one day visit. Determined to make it a reality, she saved hard, and took off on a 14 month world tour despite her family and friends fears.
“I knew no one, I had no accommodation booked, I had no return flight, I didn't speak the language, I was blonde, female and alone” Kate recalls, listing just some of the reasons people told her not to go.
“These worries actually do impact you so I had to constantly re-encourage myself that I made the right decision and boy did I have the journey of a lifetime.”
“It was definitely the best thing I’ve ever done,” she enthuses. But she’s quick to add that despite people continuously asking her how they can possibly make it happen, you can travel anywhere on very little if you know how.
If it is a question funds being tight, Kate recommends volunteering abroad, with many websites and companies offering the chance to work and volunteer around the world.
For Kate, her most valuable resource when travelling was couchsurfing.com, a website which allows you to stay with others for free. “It’s amazing” she enthuses. “it’s a global community of like minded travellers that will host you when you visit their country. I went to Brazil and I stayed there for two months and I didn’t pay a cent of accomodation”.
“I was hosted by so people. Many of them had never even met an Irish person, so they were dying to know what Ireland was like. “
Like many travellers, Kate was discouraged from visiting certain countries due to their reputation, however, she reveals that she believes that sometimes you have to look past the horror stories we can see on the news.
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“I was told El Salvador, was the murder capital of the world, but you know of all the countries I went, I met the most amazing people there” she says.
“I had people come up to me in the supermarket and thank me for coming to their country, how much it was appreciated and begging me to tell others the good things about the country when I went back home. They were the most beautiful people.
“People are fearful of what they read,” she continues, “but it’s not always true. There are amazing people out there.”
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