Life is in session! There is no better couple to let us know than Hannah and Adam, a travel blogging couple, more commonly known in the industry as [highlight] Getting Stamped [/highlight]. They’ve been on the road for 608 days, visited 47 countries, toured 156 cities, and slept in over 200 beds. They know how to travel and how to share their stories well, an impressive feat when bopping along from place to place. At WildWeb, we know that “travel feeling” and love to hear about other’s experiences.
Before we turn green with travel envy, let’s meet the Getting Stamped duo and hear about their around the world travels and upcoming plans:
Q. When was the “ah-ha” that made you start taking your travel around the world dreams seriously?
Our “ah-ah” moment came on a trip to [highlight] Belize [/highlight] a few years back. We were on our annual December trip after a particularly busy and tough year at our jobs. We struck up a conversation with another couple around our age on the boat going to the small islands. After a few minutes of talking they told us that they were on a trip around the world. At the time that was a completely foreign concept to us. We didn’t know it at the time, but that conversation changed the entire direction of our lives. When we got home it was only a few months until our wedding and we both had one of those “it’s now or never” feelings. So we saved everything we could for nearly 2 years and made our dreams happen.
Q. “A full passport is a happy passport.” You have visited 47 countries to date. Quite a feat! Has the newness of life (from bopping along place to place) been both exhilarating and exhausting?
In [highlight] our first year of traveling [/highlight] we touched down on 6 continents and had a lifetime of amazing travel experiences. Taking the trip has been the best thing we’ve ever done, but it does become tiring always being on the move. At the start of the trip we traveled at break neck pace and cover a lot of ground quickly, but we learned that every three months or so we needed to slow down and recover a bit. There are a lot of unexpected things that you encounter on the road and we found ourselves needing a break and place to sit still for a week or more. The longer we travel the more breaks we find ourselves taking. We are enjoying the slower pace of travel that we have found ourselves in.
Q. We really do believe a trip around the world wouldn’t be complete without visiting Africa. What made you choose travel specialists, [highlight] Acacia Africa [/highlight], to take you on your 1st African journey?
It was never a question in our minds that Africa was one of our ‘musts’, plus I’m not sure you can even call it a round-the-world trip without visiting Africa. We had a long list of things we wanted to see in Africa which made overlanding our best option. We chose Acacia Africa for our [highlight] African adventures [/highlight] based on the recommendations of fellow travelers and Acacia’s reputation for being a quality group to travel with. We spent [highlight] 43 amazing days on our overland trip [/highlight] with Acacia Africa traveling from Nairobi all the way down to Cape Town. Our time in Africa were some of the best days we had on our entire 600+ day trip so far.
Q. What made you choose overlanding Africa as your form of transportation to experience the big continent?
We found that [highlight] overlanding [/highlight] was the best way to see a lot of Africa in a very in depth way. There is so much to see in Africa and most of the best stuff a ways outside of the big cities. Overlanding was an easy choice for us because that’s how we would normally prefer to travel anyway.
Q. A little birdie has told us you’re returning to Africa for round 2. Tell us about your next Acacia Africa adventure, where you will be hosting a photography safari departing May 2nd.
Yes, we loved Africa so much we had to come back. We didn’t make it to see the Mountain Gorillas last time, so this year we are going to be [highlight] leading a photo tour [/highlight] as part of the [highlight] Gorillas to the Mara overland tour [/highlight] this May. We will be overlanding with a group of photo and safari enthusiasts and working to improve wildlife photography along the way.
Q. There is something so special about photographs, whether its competition worthy or taken with a dusty polaroid. What do you hope to achieve during your Mountain Gorillas to the Mara Photo Safari?
Photos can be such a huge part of a safari for many people. They’re a way to keep those moments alive in your mind for a lifetime. Without photos, memories of your travels lose their sharpness over time. We will be along to help everyone on tour improve their shots and bring back a few that they can really be proud of. There is no doubt we will see some amazing things along the way and we’ll be there to make sure everyone captures it in the best light.
Q. Your bucket list must be getting quite small. What’s in the cards next for Getting Stamped?
You’d think our list would have shrunk by now, but the thing about traveling is the more people you meet on the road, the more places you want to go. Our list is still a couple of lifetimes long, but up next for us is a trip to India for the annual Holi festival of colors, and a few other trips in Thailand before heading to Africa. Once we leave Africa we are headed back to the US to see friends and family for an overdue trip back home. Then in the late summer we hit the road again, this time to travel our own country for a couple month long road trips across America. That’s about as far as we have planned, but after a busy few months we might be due for a beach trip.
Contact Getting Stamped:
Website: www.gettingstamped.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/Gettingstamped
Acacia Africa Photography Tour: http://bit.ly/1IoFKvc