“Paris is always a good idea” – Audrey Hepburn
To change one’s life: 1. Start immediately; 2. Do it flamboyantly; 3. No exceptions. ~ William James
Welcome to our little piece of real estate on the World Wide Web; thanks for stopping by!
We are Al and Carol, hailing from Toronto, Ontario, Canada and we are a married 40-something couple with no children and a wanderlust that’s never satisfied (and we’re very happy about all of these things). In the end of 2012, we took our longest vacation yet to Southeast Asia and loved it. However, we wouldn’t be honest if we didn’t also tell you that this trip was a trial run for bigger and better plans down the road!
We went on this trip to help us decide if long-term Round the World travel is something we want to do. Our answer has been a resounding “YES!” So when we arrived back to our home in Canada, we set to work to figure out how to do this and we are now in the throes of downsizing our belongings, getting our house ready to go up for sale and responsibly extricating ourselves from our careers. It is hard, emotionally draining work and it often feels overwhelming. Our tendency towards procrastination has led us to set a very ambitious deadline for being gone – by the end of the summer at the latest but preferably in May/June 2013.
We are and will be eternally grateful for the support we’ve received from our family and friends when we announced this hare-brained idea. We expected more resistance and questioning than we got – it seems you people are finally getting used to our stubborn non-conformity?! 😉
Will we do it? Will we successfully leave the rat race and find a way to live this life we’ve been given that fits better with our goals, values and interests? Well, read along and find out….
And check out our very first post to learn how we came to be the Travelling Mudskippers.
Thanks for reading and sharing,
Al & Carol
the Travelling Mudskippers 
My husband and I are embarking on our very own similar journey to yours! We are currently in the downsizing and extracting from careers phase, planning to take the leap of faith into the unknown in 2014… It sounds like you are enjoying your adventures, which gives me hope! Happy travelling! 🙂
Thanks for the comment. Wish you all the best as you move towards your adventure. Do you have a blog, we would love to follow along as you make your plans.
I do have a blog, the first one I’ve ever done so I’m learning as I go! It’s here: https://mushette.wordpress.com/ (I think!) I hope you enjoy it, all encouragement, advice, ideas and inspiration will be very happily received 🙂
Congratulations with this exciting decision. Looking forward to read all about your adventures.
Thanks! We’ve checked out your blog too. Your wide range of travel experiences and your posts will provide valuable information for the planning phase of our trip.
How exciting! very good you are doing this while still young enough to do so. I was only able to indulge mywanderlust fantasies once I turned 60, and more than a decade later, the old bod is complaining & curbing my style. Very irritating. Looking forward to reading about your RTWT.
Thanks for your support, Alison. Wow, a decade of travelling after 60? That’s inspiring! I hope we will still be indulging our wanderlust at 60 and beyond! I also appreciate your “while still young” statement. So many travel bloggers I come across are in their 20s or early 30s, I was starting to feel pretty old at 41. 🙂
Hats off to you. I will be following your Blog with interest. Thanks for following mine. More holidays than worldly travel, but thanks all the same. Good luck in your Round the World Trip!!
Thanks for your comment Richard. Any time we stop our daily routines to go do something different we learn something about ourselves and the world around us, even if only on short holidays. Travel is worthwhile no matter how long you’re away and how similar or exotic the destination.
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Hi, thanks for stopping by my blog! I’ve been reading your posts, and so glad to hear you guys are travelling this year. It’s never a bad decision. Excited to read where you guys are in the world 🙂 – t
Thanks for your words of encouragement, Trisha. They’re coming at a good time because we’re really bogged down by home renovations right now and have been feeling a bit discouraged with how long it is taking. Also thanks for reading our blog. We’ll keep following along on yours too and enjoying it. 🙂
Hi, thanks for looking at my blog Urbanicity, I’m pleased that you enjoy my urban photos and that this has led me to follow your blog. I’m almost a couple of decades ahead of you guys and did a lot of my travelling when very young, but the wanderlust bug still lingers on. I have been toying with the idea of taking a year out – a sort of granny gap year – if I can persuade my OH to take the plunge, so I shall be following your trip closely to see how things go! So far I’ve managed to persuade him to take three months to see New Zealand and some more of Australia, hopefully in 2014. Some of my travels can be found on the Travel Words blog if you are interested.
Take care, and good luck with the preparations 🙂
Thanks for reading our blog. We love your photos! We’ll check out your other blog too. With our travel plans in the works, we’re enjoying checking out blogs like yours to hone our photography skills. Once bitten by the wanderlust bug, it never goes away. Hopefully, you too will have the chance to wander again. New Zealand and Australia are definitely destinations we plan to see. Happy travels!
Thanks for stopping by Onelifethislife and deciding to follow my journey!! I am so glad you did. I am beyond intrigue with your blog. I really looking forward to reading about your adventures. I have always wanted to take a step back from my career to travel the world. I commend you both for living your dreams! Now that’s one life this life behavior to the fullest!!
Thanks for reading and following! We appreciate your encouragement. Redefining our lives is exciting and scary but totally worth it. We will continue to enjoy your blog also.
Sounds like an amazing idea!!! I am looking forward to reading more about your adventures 🙂
Hi Christine, Right now, we’re experiencing adventures in home renovations but we hope to have the house up for sale in the next two weeks and then we can focus on travel planning. We appreciate your interest in our blog, thanks for following.
You guys are incredible! Hope it all goes as you plan – best wishes!!
Thanks for the support, Louise. We’re getting excited now – can’t wait to get on with our adventure!
Dear Al and Carol… glad to connect and interact with you… 😀
Thanks for stopping by and following my blog. I’ve already followed your blog too.
Best wishes to you.. !!
Thanks! We enjoy discovering new blogs like yours and thanks for following us too.
Thanks for the follow! Best of luck with your trip planning – you will LOVE diving the Great Barrier Reef and visiting Bali.
Thanks Claire. We have enjoyed your blog and we will be looking for expertise from other travellers like you as we plan our destinations.
Thanks for the follow. I love love love your name… we need to start a Mudskipper club with membership cards and stuff. 🙂
Thanks, Travelling Crone. We’re thinking we might need t-shirts too! We appreciate you stopping by and we’re enjoying your blog also.
Hi, I’ll be following along to get tips for when our own adventure starts so don’t spare the detail! Have a fab time.
Thanks for your comment Lesley. Hopefully the info you find here will be helpful in planning your own travel adventure. What are you travel plans? Do you have a blog? We would enjoy reading how you’re managing the the planning process as it can feel quite daunting at times. Thanks for reading and following.
This is a huge step and all of the best of luck, hope it all works out for you!! Looking forward to following you and seeing what you get up to!
Thank you for your kind words and following us Janaline. We are getting excited to get on our way and we will continue to follow your adventures too.
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Hi Carol and Al,
Thanks for following our blog. I love the name Travelling Mudskippers – it’s brilliant. Good luck with the downsizing and extracting from life, and on choosing a first destination. In the interests of doing things as cheaply as possible at all times, we picked the country next door (Australia) and then countries fairly close to that so all the flights are little puddle jumpers, rather than big expensive (and long) trips.
Thanks for your comment, Jo. Good advice on short-haul flights. If we lived in your corner of the world, we’d do the same! You have so many interesting countries that are a puddle jump away. Canada is separated by oceans and large land masses on all sides and we’ve been to USA/Caribbean too many times to feel exotic. We’re drawn to the low cost of living in Southeast Asia so we’re seriously considering one painful long-haul, expensive flight to Bali and then puddle jumping/overland from there. And thanks for the compliment on our name – it (and our logo) was the brainchild of our talented graphic artist nephew, Benjamin Andringa. Happy travels – we’ll be following along!
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wonderful choice – I wish you guys all the very best. You live only once and why not live it the way you want to live it !
Thanks, Abu Zar. It’s great to hear from like-minded people! All the best to you too!
Hi Carol and Al, Just wanted to stop by and let you know that I have nominated you for the Versatile Blogger Award. I’ve really enjoyed reading about your journey so far and really look forward to following you along on this new adventure!
You can check out the rough guidelines and my other nominations here http://an-american-abroad.com/
Thank you sooo much, An American Abroad. We definitely appreciate the nomination! It’s a wonderful nod and a great way to introduce more people to all the great bloggers out there. Thanks for thinking of us! We are enjoying following along on your adventure too.
Thanks so much for the follow. Keep up the great work and have an awesome day.
Hi Carol and Al – thanks for taking a look at my fledgling blog – I’ll be following yours with great interest as I’m just going through the same thought process as you did!
Hi Ian, Thanks for reading and following. We will enjoy following your blog as you begin your adventure. Its a scary leap of faith but so far for us, well worth it. Best of luck!
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Hi Mudskippers! I really enjoy your posts and love your site, so I’ve nominated your for the Liebster award. http://parrotsonthepowerline.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/blog-lovin/
Thank you very much for the nomination of the Liebster Award! We are honoured that you thought to nominate us. And thanks for reading! We were actually nominated for this award about a year ago. It is soooo nice to receive this honour twice!! We hope you will read our response to the previous award (see awards section at the top of our homepage) and check out the blogs we nominated. They are all great reads too! Love sharing the good blog work that’s out there and appreciate the nod from you!!