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| Simon and Erin at Cook Islands |
After an exciting one-year trip around the world, Simon and Erin of Never Ending Voyage returned to England, decided that long-term nomadic travel was the life for them, packed up / sold all their possessions and set out into the vast world as ‘digital nomads.’ I recently caught up with Simon in Central America to find out how they’re loving their new lives just one year into long-term world travel.
Q1: This month you celebrated one year of blogging / traveling life. Congratulations! One year into your new lives, are you still just as gung ho for nomadic living? Do you have any yearning to return to settled life? Is there anything you miss about life ‘back home’?
I miss Flamin’ Hot Monster Munch. And Galaxy Minstrels.
We do tend to get tired of the constant travel at some points, but whenever that happens we just find ourselves a nice apartment (often places that we’d never be able to afford in the UK) and stop for a month or two. We find that we can make these places feel like ‘home’ very quickly.
The idea of returning to settled life makes us choke on our pineapple. From Ben Franklin (reinterpreted by George Monbiot) “Whenever you are faced with a choice between liberty and security, choose liberty.”
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| Simon at Garganta Diablo Argentina |
Q2: Where have you traveled since you left England ? What are your 3 favorite places and why?
We’ve been to Brazil, Argentina, Paraguay, Bolivia, Peru, Colombia and we are currently in Panama.
The Southwest of Bolivia has landscapes like no other place on Earth with psychedelic mountains, multi-coloured lakes and giant salt flats.
The Northwest region of Argentina is the Wild West of South America and is covered with abstract rock formations and seas of cacti.
Buenos Aires is a lively city with some of the best restaurants in South America.
Q3: Why did you chose South America for the beginning of your nomadic life?
We took a year out travelling in 2007/2008 and visited Asia and the South Pacific so this time we wanted to visit a different region. We also wanted to learn Spanish and it’s great having such a vast area where we can use the same words over and over.
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| Laguna Colorada, Bolivia |
Q4: What are your overall impressions of South America, the people, their customs and the land?
Despite sharing a language, each country maintains its own unique identity with the style-concious Argentines giving way to the colourful, traditional dress of the Bolivians. The landscapes are vastly different and cover the gamut from white sandy beaches to some of the highest (and coldest) mountains in the world.
Q5: Within the first year of your travel blog’s life, you’ve managed to reach the coveted ‘Top 100 Travel Blogs’ list on Travelpod! How did you manage this impressive feat? What 3 most important factors do you attribute to this success?
When we first started out, we thought it was great to be included in such lists but now we don’t pay attention to them. I’ve come to realise that all they do is foster petty jealousy and rivalry within the travel community and that they are often dependent on the whims of those publishing them and/or are easily gamed (e.g. Alexa ranking). I have found a few things, though:
1) The posts you think are going to be popular never really take off
2) The posts that you hesitate to publish because you think they’re too weird/opinionated/badly written end up being the most popular
3) Checking your Analytics/Alexa/top 100 rankings every day is a waste of time (though I am guilty of checking Analytics from time to time)
4) Finally, if your hand’s still shaking, don’t hit Publish
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| Simon’s office at Ilha Grande |
Q5: Simon, your travel blog Never Ending Voyage is actually one of my all-time favorite travel blogs in terms of design, layout, color scheme. I love that full screen, monochromatic, minimalist and unique style! You’re the web designer behind this creative site. Tell us about your web design background. How you got started, what you’ve done, and where you’d like to take your design.
Thanks very much! I’ve been designing and building websites for over ten years but it was only in 2008 that I started pursuing it as a full time career (before that I was a musician and then a pretend lawyer). I started doing it professionally by building up my portfolio doing work for friends and family which then got me a job with a design agency designing and developing WordPress sites.
After we decided to leave, I went freelance and was fortunate enough to be hired back by the company that I’d quit which gave me a great boost. Since then I’ve been lucky just to get clients through our travel blog and through Google without actually marketing ourselves and often these clients return for additional work, which is always a good sign (and very flattering).
I’m still exploring both design and development—there’s a lot to learn—and right now my interests lie with typography and illustration. I love fonts and I think we’re entering a new era of web design where web typography will start to rival the possibilities currently available with print design, which will be great. I’d also like to develop a more unique illustrative style but I think that will take a lot of time.
Specializing in designing and building top quality WordPress Sites with a focus on Traffic Building and Conversion Rates.
Q6: Lately you’ve started making videos. Where would you like to take this new venture?
I really have no idea! Mostly, I started doing it simply because I wanted to experiment with new tools like Premiere Pro and After Effects. After seeing the power of these tools I got very excited about what’s possible with the format.
I’d like to see exactly how much I can do with very little — my only equipment is a Canon IXUS 100 stills camera that happens to have HD video and an iPod touch with a clip mic that plugs into it for audio (I didn’t even have that for my first video, which is why the audio is so sketchy) — and I know I definitely want to stay away from straight location videos. I like messing around and telling stories and I’d perhaps like to use our locations as a background or inspiration for those experiments.
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| Simon and Erin in Columbia |
Q7: How do you and Erin manage to travel smoothly together 24/7 ?
( Personally, I find it difficult to travel with someone long term because of so many compatibility factors, including preferred schedules, pace of daily life and travel, messiness/ tidiness, interests, eating times, energy levels, required comfort levels, etc.)
So, how do you manage? Are any of these factors issues for you? Or are you really just perfectly matched?! How do you allow for differences in pace, scheduling, interests? Do you block in ‘solo’ time, make sure you spend regular time apart, or can you really do everything together?
We’ve been together since we were 18 (it would have been since we were 16 if I’d had my way, but that’s another story) so we’ve had the chance to really grow together. Often we forget that we’re actually different people. That’s not to say that conflicts don’t arise now and again, but 98% of the time we’re on the same wavelength about everything.
I think we both bring different things to the table (as can probably be seen by the schizophrenic nature of our blog) but these things generally compliment each other.
Q8: Where do you plan to travel this year?
Keep heading North through Central America. We’re heading to Vancouver for the TBEX travel bloggers conference in June then we have a friend’s wedding to attend in the UK and we want to visit Italy too. I’m hopefully going to the Penny Arcade Expo (a super-geeky video game conference) in Seattle in August. After that, we’ll either head back to Central America and pick up where we left off or stay in San Francisco for a while (if we can afford it/Google offers me a job =) )
Q9: What are your more long-term goals for travels, nomadic life, web design and earning a living nomadically?
Mostly keep doing it! We’re just about breaking even thanks to the web design work but I’d like us to grow the business a little more so that we’re both financially stable and able to put a little away for future.
I’d like to explore other projects that aren’t just client work but that could still provide us with a more regular income. I have a few ideas floating around that I’m hoping to kick off this year.
Finally, we’d like to be able to find the balance a little more between working and travelling. At the moment, it’s a little too in favour of working (I’ve left the 9-5 to join the 8-midnight)!
Q10: Are there any places you’re just ‘dying’ to visit in the world? If so, what’s the draw?
I’d really like to spend a season in a ski resort. I love snowboarding and being able to do it every day for three months would be a blast. My plan is to form a covers band: jam for dollars in the evening and snowboard during the day. I just need to find some other muses who would be up for it!
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Thanks very much Simon for telling us about your nomadic lives. Best luck to all your web design, video and travel ventures. cheers, Lash
Hi! I'm Lash, an American nomadic world traveler who's been traveling solo since 1998. I’m passionate about traveling the world nomadically and then sharing it all with you. I hope to inspire you to travel the world, to entertain you with tales from the road, and to help you reach your travel dreams. Welcome! 
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TRAVEL INTERVIEW ROUND UP: ONE YEAR OF WEEKLY TRAVELERS' INTERVIEWS - LashWorldTour » LashWorldTour
2012/06/22 at 3:43 pm (UTC 8) Link to this comment
[…] Or are location independent from other online work such as website design or website maintenance.Simon Fairbairn of Never Ending Voyage and Shannon O’Donnell of A Little Adrift * Some ventured out for a 1-2 year RTW trip, […]