“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.”

― The Lord of the Rings

Last year, I made a decision to take a five-month sabbatical (an extended leave from work). Tomorrow, my journey will finally begin! 🌴 I mostly want to travel the world, but I will also focus on self-discovery and pushing my personal limits.

Route

My goal is not to visit all the tourist hotspots or collect as many countries as possible. Instead, I will focus on experiences that I enjoy: exploring new places, hiking through nature, observing animals in the wild and seeking adventures that get my adrenaline pumping. Of course, I will capture all these moments with my camera.

My current travel plan is as follows:

• Qatar: 3 nights
• New Zealand: 5.5 weeks
• Australia: 2.5 weeks
• Japan: 6–7 weeks

At the time of writing, I don't know yet what countries I will visit after Japan, but I'm planning to stay in South East Asia for the last few weeks.

Equipment

I decided early on to travel carry-on only. I will be changing locations a lot, often using public transport, so a lower weight and size is highly appreciated. This decision lead me down the rabbit hole of "one-bag traveling" (although I will be traveling with a backpack and a sling bag). It all comes down to taking only the bare necessities and minimizing the weight and volume as much as possible. I tested my setup on Tenerife last December, giving me the confidence that it's feasible. I won't share my full packing list, but I want to highlight some relevant decisions.

• Patagonia Black Hole 32L backpack. With only 760 g, it's one of the lightest options I could find, while still fulfilling carry-on limits.
• Think Tank Vision 13 sling bag.
• Alpin Loacker merino wool clothes.
• MacBook, mainly for planning and photo/video editing.
• Peak Design packing cube (small) and ultralight packing cube (x-small).
• Minix P3 with plugs for all the countries I will visit.
• Fujifilm X-T5 camera with four lenses, covering all the situations I will encounter.
• DJI Osmo Pocket 3 camera. I only took it because I still had some place left and I think there will be a couple of situations where it will come in handy.

Most airlines in Asia have a 7 kg limit for the main carry-on item. To fulfill those requirements, I will put all my camera gear and my laptop into the sling bag, which counts as a personal item and usually doesn't have any weight limits. In total, my baggage weights "only" 12.5 kg + 1 l of water.

Journaling

Photos and videos will cover most of my journaling needs, but I also want to share some experiences with my family, friends and colleagues (👋). I have stolen the idea from a colleague to share one highlight and one lowlight in each post, but I will be also adding a learning and a quote from The Lord of the Rings 🧝🏻. It's my first travel blog, so the structure will probably change over time.

I was thinking about using an app like Polarsteps, but I prefer to keep full control over my content. Instead, I will document my journey here on my blog. I'm planning to post updates every 1–2 weeks, but I don't know if I will be able to keep up.

If you want to follow my journey, you can subscribe with RSS to all my posts or just the travel-specific posts. If you're not using RSS, check my travel posts from time to time.

• Highlight: The wait is finally over 🥳
• Lowlight: Leaving my home, friends and family behind for five months 😞
• Learning: I should have tried to finish all the tasks well before the last day 😅