The Thoughtful Travel Podcast

In July 2025 reports were published by The Observer (UK) suggesting significant parts of Raynor Winn’s story are untrue. This is a really sad development for books that both I and my listeners have held dear. You can read the main Observer article at https://observer.co.uk/news/national/article/the-real-salt-path-how-the-couple-behind-a-bestseller-left-a-trail-of-debt-and-deceit   This special episode is the audio of the Facebook Livestream of the October 2022 meeting of the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, talking about The Wild Silence by Raynor Winn. We chat about Raynor and Moth's journey from homelessness to a farm in need of rewilding, her experience of writing and publishing The Salt Path, and their hiking trip in Iceland. Thanks to Justin, Pam and Philippa for joining me!   If you'd like to join the Thoughtful Travellers Book Club, all the info is at https://notaballerina.com/bookclub, and you can keep up with all the thoughts about our current books in the Thoughtful Travellers Facebook Group at https://facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

My own kid is twelve years old now, and thanks to the pandemic had spent more than two years without a trip outside his home state of Western Australia. I wish it could have been otherwise, but what excited me no end on our recent trip to New South Wales was that all this time without travel hadn't blunted his enthusiasm for it - quite the opposite, perhaps, he was more excited than ever to step on a plane and explore someplace new to him. On this trip I saw so many ways that our past travels had shaped him, so I was keen to put together this episode of other voices saying the same about their own kids. First up, I chat with Carmen and David Allan-Petale who spent a year and a half travelling around Australia in a caravan with their young daughter. The stories they share of her experiences and how they believe it shaped her personality are truly heartwarming. Next, I speak to Erika Kritikides from Intrepid Travel. Her son's experiences of China as a six-year-old - what was important to him, and how he dealt with such a unique trip - confirm that travel really shapes kids. Finally, I talk to Eliza Raymond who is literally doing a PhD on what kids learn from travel - truly a woman after my own heart! I can't wait to see the results of her studies (and hope she confirms what this episode anecdotally proves to be true!).   Links: Carmen and David Allan-Petale of Red Platypus Creative - https://redplatypuscreative.com Also, hosts of the Committed Creative Podcast  https://podcast.redplatypuscreative.com  Erika Kritikides from Intrepid Travel Small Group Adventures www.intrepidtravel.com Eliza Raymond from Good Travel - https://www.good-travel.org/ Eliza's research profile - https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/som/research/phd/tour/eliza-raymond Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/275 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Dale Neill, photographer, traveller, teacher and all-round nice guy, is my guest for this special Deep Dive episode. I've known Dale for a decade or so and many times been entranced by his fantastic stories (travel and otherwise!) and it was such a pleasure to chat with him at length for this episode. Dale's tales on this episode start in Borneo photographing orang-utans, then move to meeting local dogs on Naxos in Greece. He's led many tours so has a crazy tale to tell of dealing with tour participants with high expectations in Turkey, and we finish up with his expectations not being met in a hotel in Vietnam. Links: Dale’s website - http://www.daleneill.com.au/  Previous stories from Dale: Episode 178 Interesting Plane Passengers Sitting Next To You - https://notaballerina.com/178 Episode 136 Photography for Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/136 Episode 146 Travelling in Iran - https://notaballerina.com/146 Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/274 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Broome in Western Australia is in my home state, but it’s over 2000km away, so earlier this year was the very first time I’d finally got that far. Of course, it was worth the wait in many ways. Episode 273 is about my Broome experience, which was mostly a work trip, but it’s also about being a thoughtful traveller, and how I went with applying some of the key principles of thoughtful travel to my days in Broome. This was a very special trip for me - my first flight since January 2020, when I returned from Kuala Lumpur amongst rumours of this strange virus circulating. Getting quite far away from Perth was a wonderful reset and refresh and I hope you enjoy hearing about it. Links: Salty Plum Social for bar and art tours - https://www.saltyplumsocial.com.au Documentary I watched in Broome - Djkamirr - https://www.birthingoncountry.com/djakamirr  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/273 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Whether you're hitchhiking, making new friends or buying a train ticket in India, all of these things take confidence. We talk often on The Thoughtful Travel Podcast about the myriad ways travel helps you grow, and one of the biggest benefits I've had from travelling is that it's given me immense confidence - a trait that's carried through into my personal and professional life far beyond my travels. In Episode 272, my three guests tell me about incidents from their travels which have given them lasting confidence. I start with Sophia Bentaher who has a great philosophical approach to what she's learnt from travel and thinks that travelling gives a compounding benefit as you see the results of your actions and become increasingly confident in all that you do. I then chat with Nathan Thomas who describes the daily achievements in travel like buying a ticket at an Indian train station where even the scam artists are dressed in an official-looking uniform. Each of these kinds of achievements add to your confidence. Finally, I hear from Sarah Meyer who intentionally went looking for her confidence to be built on a long-term solo trip in Asia - and found it in spades. Links: Crossing cultures: Student travel and personal development - https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0147176797000217  Sophia’s website https://sophia-b.co/  Nathan of Intrepid Times https://intrepidtimes.com/  Nathan’s new book Travel Your Way: Rediscover the World on Your Own Terms Sarah’s site Last Minute Wanders https://lastminutewanders.com/  Ep 15 - Travel Builds Confidence, So Do It! - notaballerina.com/15  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/272 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can you believe this - because I almost can't - that The Thoughtful Travel Podcast turned six years old recently?! Unfortunately, my household were all suffering with Covid on its actual birthday, but I've now recovered enough to put together this episode to celebrate. In particular, I'm excited to share some wonderful voice messages from friends and listeners of the podcast - collating these gave me such a thrill! In this episode I also outline a few of the last year's successes, and talk about some plans I have for the next year of the podcast. Thanks so much to everyone who listens, shares, participates in our groups and in all other ways supports The Thoughtful Travel Podcast - I am so very grateful for you all. Links: Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/271 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

I don’t think we’re at the post-pandemic stage yet, but we definitely seem to be at the stage where people are travelling a lot more - even the Australian border is open now, and Western Australia’s will be soon too. So it seems like an appropriate time to revisit the great hopes of 2020 - when we all said that after the pandemic we’ll be much more thoughtful travellers, basically. In this episode, I talk about some academic research and a prediction of the different ways people will approach travel after the pandemic - they’ve based it on ‘terror management theory’ which is intriguing in itself. After discussion both the short and long term predictions of how people may change their thoughts about travel, I dig into the anecdotal evidence I’ve been able to collect in recent weeks. Basically, I think there is good news and bad news. And I really hope the good news wins out in the end! Links: “Proximal and distal post-COVID travel behavior’ in the Annals of Tourism Research, Volume 88, by L Miao, J Im, X Fu, H Kim and YE Zhang - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annals.2021.103159  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/270 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Working in the tourism industry sounds like a dream, right? (Well, maybe not during a pandemic ...) But there's certainly something to be said for working in an industry where the focus is on something happy and joyful, and the three guests in this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast all have had some wonderful experiences working in tourism and travel.  I start off by chatting with Lucky Legong who migrated from South Africa to Australia to continue working in the hospitality industry. She started off spending several years on gorgeous (but remote!) Kangaroo Island and then moved to Lord Howe Island - there are definitely some perks to this work, especially the beautiful surroundings. Shelley Winkel spoke to me about her career in publicity in the tourism industry, with a wide-ranging list of appointments across the globe, though for some years now her big love has been promoting Queensland - which is how we originally met. To finish up I talk to travel writer Bev Malzard about one of the most envy-inducing parts of working in travel, the famil - I've also been on a number of familiarisation trips and they're most commonly thought of by others as a holiday when in fact they can be quite a lot of hard work - in the case of this hilarious story from Bev, it's her stomach which had to work hard! Links: Lucky Legong from the Baillie Lodges group - https://baillielodges.com.au  Lucky's previous interview about migrating to Australia to continue her hospitality work - notaballerina.com/254 Shelley Winkel from Tourism and Events Queensland - https://teq.queensland.com  Bev Malzard’s blog TravelGal on the Move -  https://travelgaltravels.com  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/269  Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Warnings of danger on our travels seem to be over-represented in the discussions people have before rips. Perhaps it’s the (understandable) fear of the unknown, combined with our tendency to spread more bad stories than good ones. For Episode 268, I’ve brought together a bunch of guests who’ve had a range of experiences that are dangerous or could-have-been dangerous, with one overarching message: they are all okay! That’s not to say we shouldn’t be aware and somewhat risk-averse when we travel, of course. My first guest is Jess Stone who had an experience in Mexico which to start with, was quite frightening. I then chat with Brent Hartinger and Michael Jensen about two experiences they’ve had with fire while travelling (the second of which made me properly scared!). Finally, Helena Fox tells me about an experience she had as a young backpacker in France, where she ended up being lucky in a situation I know can turn out quite differently. Links: Jess Stone of Go Ruffly, ethical outdoor dog gear - https://www.goruffly.com/ Brent and Michael are Going Places - https://www.brentandmichaelaregoingplaces.com/  Helena Fox - https://helenafoxauthor.com/ Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/268 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Are you a fan of group trips? Or are you, like me, more generally a keenly independent traveller who needs a very good reason to decide to take a group tour of  any kind?  When it comes to group travel, I've learned over the years that there really is a group trip to suit everyone, even people like me who are highly reluctant group travellers - and often what turns us is the idea of some highly specialised group travel. In this episode of The Thoughtful Travel Podcast, I speak with three people who've had experiences in specialised group travel and they make a great case for why we all should try it sometimes. First up, I chat with Evan Petrelis from Renaissance Tours, who specialise in tours connected to special interests like ballet, archaeology and gardens. He runs through some of the advantages and disadvantages of group travel and highlights how travelling with likeminded people with the same passion can be particularly rewarding. Next, I speak to Debbie Clarke, who has run tours for the LGBTQ community for many years. She has a pretty touching story to tell of the outcome of these tours for some of the participants. Finally, Vicky Sahami joins me to explain her highly specialised group trips which focus on visiting the best places in the world to observe total solar eclipses. It's a fascinating special interest which has seen Vicky experience some really far-flung parts of the globe, and in really unique ways. Links: Evan Petrelis from Renaissance Tours - https://renaissancetours.com.au/  Debbie Clarke from the Good Awaits podcast - https://goodawaits.podbean.com/  Vicky Sahami’s solar eclipse tours at Sirius Travel - https://siriustravel.com/  Join our Facebook group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://www.facebook.com/groups/thoughtfultravellers Join our LinkedIn group for Thoughtful Travellers - https://notaballerina.com/linkedin Show notes: https://notaballerina.com/267 Support the show: https://thoughtfultravel.substack.com/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.