Meet Our Facebook Fan of the Month: Laurence Norah!

Every Month we choose our “Facebook Fan of the Month” from our fanpage, and September’s winner is Laurence Norah. This is the person who has been contributing the most on discussions, posting relevant questions, sharing travel tips and photos etc. And in appreciation, we feature them in a blog post through an interview type format, with promotion to their own travel blog if they have one.

So, Who is Laurence?…

Hi! Here’s thirty years in a nutshell: I’m Laurence. I have dual nationality, half English, half Seychellois. I spent my childhood growing up partly in various locations around the UK (including a year in VW camper), and partly on a small desert island in the Seychelles. That was certainly pretty cool. After that I went to Uni in the UK, studied computer science, then graduated and got a job doing computery type stuff.

I did that for a few years, which took me to various cities all around the UK, and in my vacation time I tried to get to as many far away places as I could. However after seven years of career building, two of which were as a management consultant, I figured that the desk based life wasn’t really working for me, so decided to try something new. That was February 2009, and I’ve not looked back since.

Me having lunch at Cape Raoul, Tasmania

Where Have You Visited So Far?…

Growing up in the Seychelles meant that Africa was the handiest destination for holidays, so I’ve visited a few of the African countries, including Namibia, Botswana, Zimbabwe and South Africa. From the UK I was able to pop across to Europe, so I’ve covered quite a bit there, although there is still a lot to go. I was lucky enough to go to Russia briefly just after the end of the Cold War and went through Moscow and St. Petersburg where for some reason our tour guide was an ex-KGB colonel.

I’ve also visited California on a fairly extensive road trip, as well as New York and Chicago. Plus I spent a few weeks in Costa Rica. I backpacked around China for twelve weeks and I managed to squeeze Tokyo in once too. My most recent adventure was a year in Australia on a 60,000km road trip.

Overall I think I’ve been lucky enough to visit around 25 countries across five continents. So still a long way to go, but I realise that it’s been an amazing time so far!

y Do You travel?…

It’s a cliché, but life seems so short. I feared waking up at sixty, or seventy, or at some arbitrary age, and realising that it had all passed me by and I had never done all the things I wanted to do because I was too busy building some mythical idea of a ”future”. Life is whatever you want it to be, and at the moment for me it is about the new experiences and adventures I get from travelling.

My theory is that we could die at any moment, so we need to be happy with the lives we have led up to that point, not with the lives we are building for the future. I’m hoping this pans out…

Favorite Place to date?…

Ah. I have a bit of a problem with favourites. I believe that if we lodge an idea of something as being the “best” then we risk comparing everything else to that experience, and thus tarnishing other experiences. So I try to experience what I can with an open mind. Naturally, having said that, there are moments from my travels that will always be memorable.

Catching a fish eagle on the Zambezi for example, instead of a fish, was pretty amazing (no damage done to fish eagle I am happy to report!). Climbing the desert dunes in Namibia to watch the sunrise. Walking across an empty St. Marks Square in Venice in the pouring rain. Falling asleep under the stars in the desert of the Joshua Tree National Park. I love these experiences that we are able to get on our travels, that will always be with us, no matter where we go.

Which Country Has the Friendliest People?…

I think every country has a mix.. You always find the folk who are happy to help you in whatever way they can, and then the ones who.. Well.. Don’t. But Australia certainly is up there in the listings. I think it was the mechanics that did it for me, I visited a fair number of them on the road trip (things go wrong over a 60,000km journey!), and they were never anything but honest and helpful, a far cry from the standard mechanic stereotype which usually involves a lot of teeth whistling and charging for various obscure parts.

I remember in particular going to a garage to get our handbrake cable fixed, which involved dissembling the entire rear wheel brake system. As they were already going into the area, we asked them to change the rear drum brakes as we figured they were probably due. Despite ordering the parts, and being ready to change them, we were informed that the work hadn’t been necessary as our brakes were in great condition. Well, I was impressed anyway.

Me at Cape Raoul, Tasmania, Australia

Your Scariest Travel Moment?…

Last time I was asked this I mentioned being trapped under a windsurfer sail. That was pretty scary. However I think the public transport system in China was certainly as scary, largely because it was so out of my control. The bus drivers really believed they were immortal, despite the massive posters in all the bus depots depicting horrific crashes. Twelve hours with a madman at the wheel is not my idea of fun, however many re-runs of True Lies you get to sit through.

What Place Has Surprised You the Most?…

Australia, without a doubt. The sheer scale of the country, and the immense variety that it holds, from deserts to rainforests, beaches to mountains, really blew my mind. It’s the sort of country I could spend a lot more time travelling around, a year just wasn’t enough. A really staggering place.

Your Future Travel Plans?…

I’m taking it very slowly at the moment, with the idea that living in a place really lets me immerse myself into the culture and the way of life more. So having just spent four months living in Germany, I’m flying over to New Zealand on the fifth of October (also my parents wedding anniversary, kudos to them for all the years together!) for a year to see what that is like. I absolutely can’t wait! I’ve had some great recommendations and advice from various travel bloggers as to what to see and do, and I’m really looking forward to it.

Me on the beach at Byron Bay, Australia

Tell Us About Your Travel Blog?…

My Travel Blog Finding the Universe is where I record my various thoughts on my life and travels as I go. I don’t really have a specific theme as yet, sometimes I write about travel and tips on that, my thoughts on where to go and what to do. Sometimes I write more about the idea of travelling, and how that makes me feel. I love to take pictures, so I will often put a lot of photos up on the site, and from time to time I talk a bit about photography.

I take things pretty easy and I try to have fun, so occasionally there may even be humour in there. All in all, it’s a bit of a mix! I really enjoy writing and sharing with the world, here’s hoping people enjoy it too. I am also very active on Twitter and you can check me out on Facebook too!