Hostelling is fantastic. I’ve been hostelling for over 10 years. The previous blog tells how I started and got into it. I’ve never looked back and apart from camping, I would not use any other type of accommodation unless absolutely necessary.
I have used hotels-motels in America on my last trip March-July 2007 because many of the places and the States I wanted to visit do not possess hostels. I also discovered that many hostels in Malawi are not called hostels but guest houses.
Hostelling
I was born on 6th September 1978, in Weston-super-Mare, a southwest English seaside town about 20 miles (30 kilometres) from the large port of Bristol. My travel adventures really began when I was a teenager, when my best mate Will, who has sight in only one eye and an incapacitated hand, introduced me to hostelling. I was nineteen years old, full of enthusiasm, energy and foul language. We were off to Norwich of all places,
I’ve been travelling for the last seven years, in between studying. However, those days might slowly be coming to an end, or at least changing. I’ve been grunting the world; climbing mountains in Canada, hiking trails in South Africa, jumping off bridges in New Zealand, falling out of planes in Australia, and bussing all over America, to mention just a few things.
My blindness has not stopped me, my deafness has failed to prevent this and for the most part my kidney disease has caused no hindrance.
The story below, is the basic outline of an interview I did for the Sunday News paper The People. The full story comes out in print on Sunday September 30th 2007 in their inside magazine. Check this story out and do a search online for Tony Giles for similar stories and articles.
The Sunday People
Deborah Doherty, Features Editor, Take it Easy Magazine.
Original journalist, Catherine Jones. South West news Services,
I am a young, totally blind and partially deaf traveller. I have spent many years exploring the world alone with only the generosity of the public and my cane for guidance. This is my story of a few delightful days backpacking in Scotland.
I set off from my home in Erdington, Birmingham on the morning of Saturday 1st September and headed north. I walk everywhere and only take public transport when the distance is too far.
