terug
A trip abroad can provide a welcome opportunity to
The Observer
Life changing holidays
A trip abroad can provide a welcome opportunity to
reassess your life. Jane Knight talks to people whose
holidays sparked a new future
| Louise Counsell, 43, exchanged her Mercedes, a designer wardrobe and her high-flying job as a sales and marketing director for khaki shorts and work in an African bush camp. ‘Five years ago I went on a 12-night safari to south Luangwa in Zambia and was [id:27677] the raw wilderness of Africa, the colours, the sunsets and the animals. When I came back, I was driving to work along the M25 and thought ‘What am I doing here?’ I was playing cards one night with a friend and I told her how much I missed Africa. She told me to go back. I said I would if I won the game of cards, which I did. Within a week I had [id:27678] my job. It wasn’t that I hated my work, but the Africa bug had got me. I wrote off to the main African travel companies and got an interview for a job as a caterer at a bush camp in south Luangwa, where I worked for |
two years before taking my guide’s exam and then managing my own camp. In my third year there I got pregnant - I now have a half-Zambian son called Henry. Winter here is the rainy season there, so then I come back with Henry and [id:27679] a few comforts we don’t have in Africa, such as television, though I do have electricity in the village where I live. I’m going back this year to set up a trendy cafe called the Camel House in the bush, where we’ll sell cappuccinos and cocktails to tourists. There is a problem with malaria though; one year, I had it three times and Henry has had it once. I will have to move back to the UK at some stage to educate Henry but for the moment [id:27680]. If I hadn’t gone on that holiday, I would quite likely still be in England and probably on that same career path.’ | |
| ‘People say I’m mad but I’m living the life’ | ||
| City trader Paul Richardson, 39, fell in love with Spanish culture on a flamenco dance holiday in Granada. Now he has ditched his job, is in his final year of a Spanish degree and is considering a move to Spain. ‘I took up flamenco when I was working as an equity sales trader in the City as something to keep me fit and stop me going out drinking so much. Then I went on a dance holiday to Granada - it was a week-long fiesta and because it was raining we ended up dancing sevillanas (an easier variation of flamenco) all the time. [id:27681] I came back I knew I wanted to live in Spain. I started saving, then quit my job and went to Granada to do a two-month flamenco course. When that was over I started a four-year degree in Spanish and |
archaeology in London and [id:27682] my studies by working on the marketing side of Danceholidays.com, with whom I went to Spain in the first place. I got to live in Extremadura where I completed my third year. I will graduate in June, am now fluent in Spanish and have kept up my flamenco. I might decide to move to Spain. When I dance sevillanas out there now, people come up and shake my hand, but my pure flamenco isn’t so good. Besides, I have blond hair and blue eyes so I will never have the look. People have asked if it isn’t [id:27683] to ditch a great job just for a hobby and sometimes I do have nightmares, particularly when money is tight. But at the same time, I know I am living the life.’ | |
The Observer