Breaking the news: how to tell people you're going travelling

One of the first steps that I've had to take in my journey towards going travelling was telling other people. Obviously it's not something that can just be left undone, otherwise people will start wondering why you haven't been in touch for weeks and then find you're on the other side of the world. The main realisation I had was that there are so many people to tell - siblings, grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles, friends, even my hairdresser (well I had to tell her so she'd cut my hair in a style I can handle on the trip!). It feels like I've been answering the same questions over and over, plucking the answers from a script in my head for what seems like months.

That said, I was most scared of telling my mum and dad. Not because, at the risk of sounding like a petulant teenager, they had the deciding vote in whether or not I was going, but more because... well, they're my parents, and at the end of the day I don't want to disappoint or upset them by making a bad decision. I agonised for days over how to tell them, trying to find that ideal moment, but in the end I just had to bite the bullet and tell them face-to-face. It was something of a two-pronged attack - N told my dad and I told my mum - and thankfully they had a really good reaction, once they understood we were doing it through a proper travel company and we had the money to do it.

In fact, everyone's response has been overwhelmingly positive - very much along the lines of 'do it while you're young and don't have any major responsibilities' and even offers of advice and financial support which we're really, genuinely grateful for. I think the only people now who don't know are my nephews (the 20 month old's too young to understand, and I'm not really sure how to tell a four year old - I'm guessing if we do anything to mark it I'll just tell him we're going on a very long holiday) and work, but that's a blog post for another day.

In other news, we should hopefully be booking the trip sometime in the next few days, and getting the vaccinations not too much longer after that. Then it's the serious stuff - buying equipment and clothing and medicines. Not too long to go now!