Welcome to Exit45 Travels
Welcome to Exit45 Travels – Our Website And Blog!
We are Peta (Australian) and Jonas (Swedish/Australian), a couple in our mid 40’s / early 50’s who sold our house and most of our belongings, and have been travelling the world fulltime since January 2018.
Jonas and I met and lived on the Gold Coast, Australia. We both worked full time (Peta in the Education Department as a Head of Middle School, and Jonas initially in the steel industry and later with his own business in the aquarium industry). Both of our jobs were demanding which allowed little time for overseas travel, especially longer-term travels.
“Don’t live the same year 75 times and call it a life.” – Robin Sharma
We spent many evenings watching YouTube vlogs about travel and dreaming of the day we would retire and be able to enjoy a lot more travel ourselves.
Jonas and I wanted to travel abroad extensively, as it’s something we really love doing together. We’d often wish we could stay on our vacations for an extended period of time, and so we began to formulate a way to actually do it.
Over the years, we watched numerous friends and family get sick and never have the opportunity to realise their travel dreams. We are too young to retire, but we really wanted a life of travel, of adventure and not to just work until we die or get too old to travel the way we want.
However, this lifestyle isn’t for everyone, and it we knew it wouldn’t happen by accident. It would take some planning, sacrifice, and intentional steps to change our lifestyle. But realising our dreams far outweighed the sacrifices we had to make. It is attainable. It’s not something that has to happen only after you have enough money. Will you ever? We devised an exit strategy and stuck to it. Exit 45…
| WHY IS THE BLOG NAMED EXIT45 TRAVELS? This is a question we have been asked many times and the answer is quite simple….. 1. Exit 45 was the number of the exit we took on the M1 highway when driving to get home. 2. Jonas had 45 fish tanks in his aquarium business. 3. 45 is the mean of our ages when we started our travel adventures. |
“What if I fall? Oh but my darling- what if you fly?” – Erin Hanson
We started to simplify our lives, began to sell our things, save and became more minimalistic. We financed all airfares for the first year, just by selling down household items we no longer needed. It’s easier to do without than you might think. Experiences are more precious to us than things we have to take care of. We now have very few belongings— just a few boxes at Peta’s mums’ house and a couple at Jonas’ dads’ boatshed. Jonas and I have very little to worry about in a material sense, and it’s very freeing. We found a balance that works for us, and it lets us live our dream.
We are very fortunate to have two great, but opposing bases for our travels; Queensland, Australia in the South where we used to live and where Peta’s family still live. This has been our December/Christmas stop. Then we have Västerås, Sweden in the North where Jonas’ grew up and his family still lives. Sweden has been our perfect June-July stop.
At the moment, we plan to continue our roving lifestyle for the next five years. But anything is possible. That is part of the beauty of our plan; it is open to tweaking as we see fit. It’s a big world out there, and we want to see it all. Well, at least all the destinations that interest us.
Our blog will cover topics such as:
- Destination / city guides
- Our top travel tips and hacks i.e. how to get a discount on accommodation
- Motorhoming
- Cruising
- Product reviews of gear we love and personally recommend
- Personal information about us and how we made our dreams come true
If you want to know more about us or any of these topics, visit our page exit45travels.com and follow our adventures by subscribing below to see how you can do it too.
Thanks, and Welcome to Exit45 Travels!
Peta and Jonas
Personal Reflections: Related Blog Posts
Would you like to get to know us a little better? Check out all the articles we’ve written on our personal reflections on our travels each year including our future travel plans and dream destinations.
