Cricket to Travel: James' Journey Around the World Pt. 1
Join James Hammond from the Winging It travel podcast as he shares his inspiring journey of becoming a globetrotter, ignited by a trip to Australia in 2010 to watch Cricket. With a heavy Norwich accent, he dives into the experiences that fueled his passion for travel, including the excitement of historic matches across multiple cities. After two years of saving diligently while completing his music degree, James took the plunge into worldwide adventures, ultimately leading him to start his podcast during the pandemic in 2021. He reflects on the challenges of quitting his day job as a cloud-based solutions architect to travel for a year, emphasizing that the decision was a long time in the making. With tales from his recent trip to Central America, James illustrates the thrill of exploring new cultures and the joy of reconnecting with friends made along the way.
Takeaways:
- James got the travel bug while watching cricket in Australia in 2010.
- After saving for two years, he traveled extensively, starting his journey in 2013.
- The podcast was launched during COVID-19 to discuss travel while being grounded at home.
- James quit his job as a Cloud-based Solutions Architect to travel for a year.
- He had carefully planned his travels and finances well in advance before leaving.
- The trip included a month in Europe and time spent in the Middle East.
Transcript
Pack your bags, let's take a ride. 5 minutes fly and we'll explore the wide with forest. Kelly, it's travel time. It's the best five minute travel podcast. Let's go.
James Hammond:Hi, I'm James from the Winging it travel podcast and I'm a travel expert.
Forrest Kelly:All right, James, as we can tell from your voice, a very heavy accent. From where?
James Hammond:Norwich in England slash uk. I don't know how to tell people which one it is. There's three ways. Right. So let's go England.
Forrest Kelly:When did you get the bug to start traveling worldwide?
James Hammond: That was: So I saved money. And then in: Forrest Kelly:You said cricket, so yeah. You're a big. You're a big fan. So you traveled all that way from England to Australia to just check out cricket?
James Hammond:Yeah. That's a 24 hour flight to sky watch cricket. Yeah. We went to Perth on the west coast and in Melbourne. So two cities, two test matches.
And I'm not sure if your listeners are familiar with the cricket history, but for England, that was a historic victory, that series.
Forrest Kelly: So that's good to be there in: James Hammond:Yeah.
Forrest Kelly:And this all took place in Perth?
James Hammond:Nope. There's five games, five cities. So Perth, Melbourne, Adelaide, Brisbane, Sydney. Wow.
Forrest Kelly:And you traveled to all of them?
James Hammond:No, just two. I'd love to do all five one day, but. Yeah, that would require probably eight weeks.
Forrest Kelly:Yeah.
James Hammond:Of travel in Australia. And that's expensive because Australia is expensive. So some people do do it, but that would be the dream in the future, I think. Yeah.
I worked in the southwest region, which is like a wine region, that's about three hours from Perth, but that really is small towns. So Perth is the only city for miles. I think the closest place is Bali, and that's three and a half hour flight.
Takes longer to get to Adelaide in the same country. It's pretty crazy.
Forrest Kelly:Gotcha. Okay. So then you saved up for the two years and then when did you start the podcast and you thought, okay, I'm meeting some interesting people here.
James Hammond:That podcast was almost 10 years later in Covid. Right. Because we couldn't travel. So I thought I'd start a podcast about travel so we can talk about it. Because we Couldn't do it. Unfortunately.
ht, I'd love to start this in: So the podcast started in:And a lot of them came on to talk about certain parts of my trips up to that point. And then I went for a year's travel last year. So I quit my job and I went for a year travel with the podcast on the road.
So that's quite an interesting experience last year and as speak today, I've just come back from a trip in Central America which I'll be do. I'll be producing a sort of podcast series for in February, March.
Forrest Kelly:Your job, you quit your job, which is what was your job.
James Hammond:It Cloud based solutions Architect. Yeah. It's probably best way to say it. It's pretty dreary. It's nothing exciting.
Forrest Kelly:Right. But you still. It's your career. And to sever the ties and go into traveling for a year, that had to be a little.
Little shaky, a little nervous about that.
James Hammond:No, probably that's definitely the right decision. No nerves.
Forrest Kelly:Yeah.
James Hammond:I think it's been working up to that point because of COVID There's nothing could have stopped me, I don't think. So I saved some money. Right. So I had some plan in place to do that. So it wasn't just like on the. On the cusp or on the whim.
was pretty much planned from: Forrest Kelly:When something you. You love starts to rise to the top, it's. Yeah. It's an easy decision to. Okay, I'm gonna gravitate to that.
James Hammond:Yeah. The difficult portion of it is coming back that probably the. Got to figure out where you're going to.
Where we're going to live, what job, how much money is left in the pot, that sort of stuff. Right. So I think the first two months of this year was quite tough just to figure that stuff out. But we got there in the end and what a trip it was.
Amazing trip.
Forrest Kelly:Where did you say you went? Southern on the trip.
James Hammond:I went to Europe for a month and then Middle East.
Forrest Kelly:We've touched down and landed the episode's done with five quick minutes of travel and fun.
Forrest Kelly:This is your captain speaking. We have touchdown. That completes this episode.
Forrest Kelly:Join Forest Kelly for the next big show, the best five minute travel podcast. Let's go.
