Holidays have become totally transformed for me since I began travel journaling. No more lazy evenings. No more laid-back relaxed moments spent in idle contemplation. Now, when I am not doing, I am recording. I think I come back more exhausted than when I left in my quest to get 'everything' down, every memory, every exploration and adventure, every experience and every important visual treat. Inevitably, this gets done quite differently to art and journaling back home. There are limited supplies, lack of time and opportunity but, most of all, I am usually doing it when I am already exhausted at the end of the day. It doesn't help that I am obsessed, too, with printing out mini polaroid photos to stick in, too, with my Pogo printer. Another addictive occupation! The machine gets hotter and hotter, and prints ever more slowly, but each night I am determined to see it through!
I am telling my story through the pages of my travel journal made during the holiday. It's as much as I can manage without neglecting my holiday companions, and losing valuable adventure time. It has to fit in with the actual day's wonders!
This trip was wonderful. This little hamlet at the top of the valley of the River Tejo in a remote area of Portugal is my idea of heaven. An untouched, unspoilt corner of the world where time has stood still. Where goats, donkeys and the local 'Donas' rule.
Here is where we get to see what the world really is, and how we are meant to live in this simple, naturalistic way. I feel so alive there, so energised and excited. I am seriously considering living there one day - though so dependant on other events to enable this. But I know I would be happy there....and with friends like my hosts, Lynn and John, close at hand, I can't imagine a better existence. Anything is possible.....
Can you see the donkey cart still in use top left above? This lady told me she had never been out of the village - she is 79 years old!
But the true joy of travel journaling is apparent long after the holiday is over. I now have two shelves crammed with all my adventures, accounts of the wonderful people I have met, the amazing scenery and unforgettable experiences. Details I would have forgotten over time. Everything is there - where I bought stuff, contacts, wildlife records and all my maps, sketches and photos. Sometimes I write poems - the only way to describe the most wondrous sights. I can relive my travels over and over again - it is always worth the extra effort!
