Traveller of the Month: Janice from The Backpacking Housewife

Welcome to Traveller of the Month! Each month I’m featuring a fellow travel blogger to help build connections within the blogging world and share some new travel wisdom on Teaspoon of Adventure.

Without further ado, meet June’s Traveller of the Month: Janice from The Backpacking Housewife!

And if you missed last month’s, check it out here!

Who are you, where are you from and where are you now?

I’m Janice Horton – the person behind the inspiration and information travel website, The Backpacking Housewife. I’m also the author of the bestselling The Backpacking Housewife series of romantic adventure novels published by HarperCollins. I’m originally from the UK and right now I’m living in Scotland and waiting for the day I can travel with my backpacking husband to the far-flung corners of the world once again!

What’s your travel story?

I’ve always loved the idea of travel – well before I’d ever travelled anywhere – and throughout my adult life, with my husband and three children, we always prioritised travel. But, seven years ago, when our boys had left home and we found ourselves with an empty nest and not much in the way of savings, my husband and I decided we’d sell everything we had – our home in Scotland, our cars, our business and all our belongings – to travel the world full-time. Since then we’ve travelled to 56 countries and been around the world twice.

When did you start your blog and what sort of stories do you share there?

I started with a personal journal style travel blog so family and friends could see where we were in the world and what we were doing. But, fairly recently, I set up The Backpacking Housewife website to share travel information and our travel tips and to inspire all those who, like me and my husband, are middle-aged and not particularly rich but want to know how to travel more and for longer and how to travel sustainably.

What do you do when you’re not travelling or writing about travel?

When I’m not working on my website, I’m writing fiction. The third book in my Backpacking Housewife series of romantic adventure novels has just been published by HarperCollins and I’m really pleased that readers say they love the books and find them inspiring.

If you had to sum up your travel ethos in one phrase, what would it be?

We travel not to escape life but for life not to escape us!

What is your most unique travel moment?

My most unique travel moment happened in Cairo, Egypt. After visiting the Museum of Antiquities – a lifelong dream – we hired a local archaeologist guide to take us around the pyramids and the Sphinx at Giza. It turned out he knew many of the local officials around the pyramid complex and somehow he managed to get us into a secret hidden tomb that wasn’t open to the public. I was so overwhelmed by what I saw inside – the hieroglyphics and the tomb – that I burst into tears and had to explain that I was crying from emotion and happiness!

How has COVID-19 impacted your travels? How will it change how you travel in the future?

The pandemic impacted our travels massively. On the 14th March 2020, we’d travelled back to the UK to see family and friends for just a few days before we were due to fly off to Central America via the USA. That day we heard that all our flights (eight flights spread out over the summer to bring us back into the UK for our eldest son’s wedding in October 2020) had all been cancelled.

Fortunately for us, a friend offered us her home, and we stayed with her until we managed to find ourselves a house to rent back in our home village in Scotland. It seemed, quite unbelievably, that our travelling life had come full circle! We hope we can resume our travels sometime in 2021 when it is safe to do so. I can’t wait! I really miss travelling and, after being a travelling nomad for seven fabulous years, I do find it difficult to live my life in one place again.

What is the best piece of travel advice you’ve ever heard?

Don’t plan ahead too much. Allow space for spontaneity and time for plans to change.

What’s your best travel memory of the last five years?

There have been so many, but if I have to pick just one from the past five years, I’d say it was while helping out at a turtle conservation project on a small Perhentian island off Malaysia. I was on night watch and under a full moon I saw a huge green turtle come from the sea and haul herself up the beach to lay her eggs. I sat close by all night and watched as she eventually covered her nest and headed herself back across the beach and into the sea. It’s a beautiful memory that I’ll treasure all my life.

Which celebrity would you want to travel with and where would you go?

I’d love to travel with Joanna Lumley across India. I recently watched her TV Series ‘Joanna Lumley’s India’ and I was enchanted. I think she’d be a fun and interesting travelling companion and, at 68 years old, she is a fabulous example of an older person travelling and having travel adventures. I’m a long-time fan of Joanna’s work (all her travel shows and I loved her in Ab Fab!) and she actually has a house very near to where I live in Scotland. I have seen her shopping in the local village!

How do you see your travel life changing in the next 5 years? 10 years?

I hope to continue to travel with my husband over the next ten years and even longer if that is possible. We are both in our 60’s and if we can stay healthy then we don’t have any other plans except to travel.

We want to travel slowly. Seeing places in the world we haven’t yet seen. Meeting interesting new people. Eating wonderful food. Re-visiting places we love and our friends there. Until we simply can’t do it anymore. Then we’ll find somewhere in the world to settle, grow old and reminisce on all the amazing adventures we’ve had!

What’s something you pack on every trip?

I have a black cashmere sweater that my son gave me just before I started travelling. He bought it for £10 from a charity shop in Edinburgh. I love it. It has been everywhere and around the world (twice) with me in the past seven years and I’m wearing it right now!

What do you want to inspire other travellers to do?

I want to inspire other people who might not have travelled extensively before – due to work and family commitments – to realise that it’s not too late when they reach their mid-life or in retirement to travel and achieve their travel dreams.

I’ve done quite a bit of research while setting up my travel website – The Backpacking Housewife.com – and I recently read a study into population aging that states by 2030 the number of people in the world aged 60 years or over is projected to grow by 56%. As a result of this senior population explosion, it is anticipated that future generations of older adults will have higher levels of human capital in terms of education, skills, abilities, and better health-profiles. This will enable them to remain active, productive, and contributory for far longer than any generations before them.

And, crucially, it is recommended that one of the ways of achieving a better health profile, adjusting to retirement and improving quality of life is through travel. I want to promote senior travel and inspire people to realise their bucket lists and travel more!

Travelling has made me realise…

…that our world is beautiful and life is precious.

Lastly, where can we find you online?

Website: https://thebackpackinghousewife.com/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/JaniceHorton
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/janicehortonwriter/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheBackpackingHousewife/

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Thank you for joining my Traveller of the Month series, Janice! Head on over to Janice’s blog to be inspired to travel at any age and check out her fiction series. And stay tuned for July’s Traveller of the Month!