Boldly Go Solo

Jane Wooldridge, travel editor and writer for the Miami Herald, didn't plan her first solo trip. She was less than a week into a month-long backpacking adventure with a friend when he bailed on her. She stayed.

In front of a hostel in Munich that had no beds for the night, she soon met four other college kids from Britain, Germany and Italy, also needing a place for the night. Together they found cheap lodgings. And then went out for beers.

For years after, Wooldridge traveled alone. All over the world. On Sunday she wrote a piece about the adventures she's had during decades of travel and 25 years at the Miami Herald. And 30 years of travel abroad. And 10 years as travel editor at the paper.

She concedes she was lonely at times. And still is. And sometimes panicked. But she's also met people that became long-time friends or others who provided "cherished memories." She's willing to take the risks and meet her fears and loneliness head on for the chance to travel, a passion she rates just behind "breathing and love."

As Wooldridge puts it:

Stay at home, and you'll never unearth protoceratops skeletons in
the Gobi Desert with paleontologist Jack Horner (who happened to be
staying in our same yurt camp), tour a traditional African village with
one its dozen queens, see the sun rise over the Outback and set over
Rome's Tiber River, witness an ox-pull contest in rural Nova Scotia,
feel the spray of Iguazu Falls, taste the unmatched sweetness of pesto
made from Genoa's distinctive basil, see Ian McKellen storm in
Chekhov's Wild Honey, slide down the Great Wall in the snow
with a troop of Chinese soldiers, fall in love in Hong Kong, be honored
at a basi ceremony in Laos, hear Wagner in Vienna, sleep in the shadow
of South Dakota's Black Hills.

Mostly, I think, I travel because I'm reminded of how little I know and how much there is to learn.

Read the full story for the flavor of some of her adventures, both good and bad. And read highlights from some of the places she's been. And ponder where your next solo adventure will take you.