Another Year Of Travel Is Over! And Another Is About To Begin…

2017 Is Almost Over! But wait, 2018 Is Just Around the Corner? One year of travel is over but another is just about to begin!

Hello Readers!

It’s that time of year again. 2017 is ending. 2018 is ahead of us. It’s been a big year again for travel and for blogging. At times I’ve been really off the beaten track, and other times I’ve unexpectedly found myself in very on the beaten track places. From the empty red deserts of Western Australia to the glamour of Dubai, I’ve covered a lot of distance and a few countries too. There’s a lot lined up in the New Year too, so here’s a run down of my year in travel, what you can expect from the Travel Tramp website in 2018 and what projects I’m working on right now!

So, here’s what I got up to in 2017 and let me know in the comments how your year in travel was!

Western Australia. The Land Of Sandy Beaches And Red Dust. Lots Of Red Dust

I started 2017 in Western Australia! And to be honest, I ended up spending most of the year there. Right up until October! I worked on a strawberry farm- you know, the whole backpacker experience… – worked in a fish factory, worked at a roadhouse and then finally- the best job of all!- worked in a National Park. This was my Working Holiday, and I saved enough to travel, and enough to keep on the road now into the next year and focus entirely on blogging, which is great.

And I started to really love WA. It was dusty. Really red and dusty in the outback. My clothes were covered constantly a layer of red grime and my shoes became frayed from the rocks and red dust- Click Here for more on the shoe side of things! But somehow, despite the hardships, the Outback was still beautiful.

I saw some of the best beaches in the world, long stretches of untouched white sand, and drove for some of the longest distances I couldn’t even have imagined existed before setting foot in Australia.

I left in October, from the coastal town of Broome in the North of Western Australia, and hopefully next year I’ll be back in Australia.

Anyway, you can read A LOT more about my adventures in Western Australia RIGHT HERE!

United Arab Emirates. Big Buildings And Flashy Malls.

Next stop was the UAE. I flew into Abu Dhabi from Perth, then took a bus to Dubai. I saw a few huge buildings, like the monstrous Burj Khalifa below and walked around a few ice cold shopping malls. It’s a strange city Dubai, and I guess a few days there didn’t really allow me to get under the skin of it, but on the surface, my lasting impression is one of glitz, money, traffic and sand. I guess that’s Dubai.

Oman. Desert, Mountains And Turtles On a Nostalgic Trip To Ancient Arabia

UAE was jump a stopping off point to get to Oman. I travelled down to Muscat, the capital of this Arabian nation to meet up with my parents for a little family holiday, and a bit of travel. We used to live here when I was much, much younger. I went to school in Muscat, and I guess you could say that it’s where I caught the travel bug, all those years ago. This was a nostalgic return for me and my parents!

We explored Muscat, marvelling at how the city has grown since we left almost twenty years ago. We drove down the coast, exploring sinkholes, amazing beaches and finding nesting turtles on the white sand as the sun rose.

Then I went alone to Musandam. An isolated exclave of Oman, separated from the rest of the country by the United Arab Emirates. This was one of the most incredible trips I’ve ever made. There were dolphins, amazing scenery, coral reefs and isolation. I loved it, and would highly recommend anyone visit!

You can read about my off the beaten track adventures in the isolated and rarely visited Musandam Peninsular of Oman RIGHT HERE!

United Kingdom. Home! But Not For Long!

And then I made it home. After 14 months on the road. I caught up with friends and family, visited the World Travel Market Conference for inspiration and bought a drone. But, as always, after a brief stint in the cold weather of England in November, it wasn’t long before the road was calling. This time I was heading back to Asia.

Singapore. On The Road Again

I flew into Singapore, looking for hot weather, cheap food and most importantly, the cheap flight. I flew Norwegian Air and I can’t recommend them enough for the low price and level of service. Mostly the low price! In Singapore I ate too much street food, and went exploring on the trails which extend along the cities ridges, a place where the jungle really meets with the urban city.

Malaysia. Highlands And Islands At The Festive Time Of Year.

From Singapore, the next stop was Malaysia. Where I am right now as I write this post! I’m on Langkawi where I spent Christmas, and will be spending New Year too. Before this I was hiking in the mountainous Cameron Highlands, exploring jungle trails and waterfalls and now I’m lazing around tropical beaches and still exploring the odd jungle trail too. And from here I’m making the next plans for 2018…

So What Are The Travel Plans For 2018?!

I’m waiting in Malaysia for my Australian Visa to come through- I earned a second year by working on a strawberry farm, as you should!- and then I’ll heading back to Oz to explore the East Coast, but mainly Tasmania.

After that I’ll be in Asia for a bit, Indonesia and Philippines, getting off the beaten track of course, and there’s a few thing I’m working on along the way….

What Projects Am I working On?!

Travel Continuously

This is the biggest thing I’m working on besides Travel Tramp! I launched this website- Travel Continuously- with my good friend Jordan Simons a YouTuber who makes awesome videos under the name Life Of Jord. We are inspiring people to travel the world, and at Travel Continuously we are showcasing travellers, who make travel their life, be it bloggers, vloggers, tour guides, English Teachers or retired folk, we want to hear from everyone and we will be writing about everyone.

We will be giving practical advice to help people to travel and to work and travel and giving awesome inspirational stories too!

You can find the Travel Continuously website RIGHT HERE!

Steemit

Have you heard of Steemit? If not, and if you are a writer, content creator or just someone who spends a lot of time on social media, then jump on this website now, sign up and start blogging!

Steemit is the only social media platform that I know of on the web that actually pays you for what you write. I’m a big believer that this will be the future, and I’ve been slightly addicted to it for the last month. Now is the time to sign up, as it it is still growing and there is huge potential for growth!

So what is Steemit? 

Steemit is related to Crypto Currency, basically. You can’t have missed a little thing called Bitcoin which has got huge all of sudden. This is a very loose explanation of how you make money from this platform, but Steemit is based on a similar method of creation to Bitcoin-  a blockchain- except the value is provided by users creating content on the platform, sharing content and curating other people’s content. You write a post. You post said post. People like your post. Then Steemit pays you in cryto currency- Steemd Dollars, Steem- which can then be exchanged for Bitcoin and then into US Dollars, based on the votes that you get for the post that you wrote.

This may sound crazy, and perhaps it is. I certainly thought it was when I first started blogging on here last month, but then I got my first payout. In one month I’ve made well over $1000 for very little work. And that’s real money I can deposit into a bank account. If it all crashes in the future I’ve lost very little and in the mean time stand to make a lot, to fund even more travels and to keep this website going too.

Join up now! The more people on Steemit, the stronger it will become. And if you have any questions feel free to ask me.

You can follow me and find out more about the exciting STEEMIT platform RIGHT HERE!

E-books!

The last few weeks I’ve been working on my first e-books! That’s right, e-bookS, plural. This is going to be exciting stuff, and they are a work in progress for now, but I’m writing some awesome stuff from off the beaten track destinations that I’ve either never really got around to writing about properly in the last two years that I’ve been on the road. It will be longer form stuff, and things that needed a much longer and in depth story to be told about them than I could ever squash into a web article.

There will also be some epic photography e-books coming out too, starting off with an Abandoned Places photo e-book showcasing my best shots from all the run down and abandoned buildings I’ve explored across the world, from the jungles of Singapore to the radioactive wasteland of Chernobyl. Watch out for that one in January!

Support Me!

Guys, if you like what you read, if you find it useful or entertaining- and I hope you find at least one of those qualities somewhere on this website! – then it would be great if you could help keep me on the road, and to keep this website continually improving and growing! All it takes is for you to click on the links in articles and on the sidebars when you need to book a hotel, find travel insurance or need some new travel gear. It doesn’t cost you any extra but I get a much needed sales commission to pay for fun things like web hosting! You don’t have to, but it would be great if you could!

Richard Collett