Our latest transformative travel story features Alex, Founder and CEO of Travel Sisters. We asked Alex about the life-changing gap year journey which led her to create Travel Sisters – the world’s first female only travel app.
Expert Travel Tip
Download offline maps before any journey – especially if access to the internet may be limited. If you find yourself lost if unable to locate essential supplies, access to an offline map is a life-saver!
Let’s check out Alex’s story and find out how her expert travel tip got her out of a sticky situation in the Australian wilderness…
Trekking Australia’s East Coast
Alex playfully describes her choice of gap-year travel destination as “cliche”, but the reality of her experience trekking Australia’s East Coast is anything but…
Driven by a deep-rooted thirst for adventure and self-discovery, Alex made the courageous decision to tackle her Australian adventure alone – and though she was sometimes pushed to her limits – she has absolutely no regrets.
Following a three-month stay with a host family working as an au pair, Alex took the ultimate deep dive into her foreign adventure by hitting the road on a month-long journey to travel the east coast, solo. She recalls the unparalleled sense of freedom and excitement at renting a car for the first time, and the breathless exhilaration of setting out into the great unknown.
Australia is, at every turn, a paradox – home to desert planes and lush rainforests, dynamic metropolises and remote forgotten townships. It is a country and continent frozen in time, yet poised at the pinnacle of human advancement. It teases the traveller’s heart with something humanity’s sprawl has almost entirely eradicated – the opportunity for true discovery, and real, unadulterated adventure (not the kind you read about in travel brochures).
Alex’s road trip took her to Cape Tribulation on Queensland’s north east coast, known the world over as a magical place “where the jungle meets the ocean”. At Rainbow Beach, tropical rainforests thrumming with life broke against the crystalline dunes. Alex remembers the beaches’ unique technicolour hue awakening in the light of the setting sun.
Journeying south from Queensland, Alex carved a path through hundreds of miles of wilderness, small towns, and dusty, forgotten settlements. When asked what sticks in her mind most about the trip, Alex was quick to say it’s often the simplest experiences that form the strongest memories. She recalls the sparkling song of Australian Magpies, and the ambient twitter of . She remembers stopping outside Joada – a once thriving mining town long since returned to nature’s care – to let a solitary wombat cross the scrub-lined road.
True adventure is never entirely risk-free, and though Alex’s Australian road trip was largely positive, she also recalls being pushed to the edge of her comfort zone. Nearly running out of fuel hundreds of miles from civilization was one such occasion. This simple oversight landed her in real trouble – but fortunately, she’d had the presence of mind to download an offline map of the route before setting out. Without internet access, mobile phone reception, or any way of calling for help, Alex was able to navigate her way to a remote filling station and out of danger.
We asked Alex if she felt the trip changed her in any way, and she answered enthusiastically that it had:
“Definitely! The whole experience not only showed me where some of my limits lie, but also what I’m capable of as a person.”
Alex, Travel Sisters CEO
Travel Sisters
Travel sisters is the only female only travel app with the mission to empower women to travel the world safely and sustainably by providing them with a global support network.
Find out more about them here!
