Everyday at the hostel you meet new people who say they are “off to see the world”. Tony is one such traveller whom we met here about three years ago. He taught all of us an important lesson when we first met him. And he’s back!
What lesson did he teach us, you might ask? He taught us that you don’t really “see” the world, so much as you “live” it. Tony is from England and presently resides in Birmingham. He’s a traveller to be sure; but, it would be far more accurate to call him an adventurer.
So many people travel the world yet are limited by their lack of imagination. They journey to another country and city then spend months (literally) going from one bar to another, existing in a cultural wasteland, learning little and experiencing even less.Tony has travelled Europe, Austrralia, New Zealand, Southeast Asia, North and South America and Africa.? But he has never seen the inside of a bar. He has a seemingly limitless hunger for excitiment and to “live” what’s beyond the next hill. Tony is a very young 29 and since his first solo trip eight years ago has traveled the world at every opportunity.
He has never passed up the opportunity to bungee jump, skydive, drive jet boats or? hike wild lands of Africa armed only with a stick. He has bungee jumped into the 450′ deep Zambezi Gorge beside the magnificent Victoria Falls; he has hiked Africa’s forbidding Chimanimani foothills; and driven jet boats? over? the Tasman Sea. He lives life large!
What is so special about this adventurous traveller, you might ask? Well, the “stick” I mentioned that Tony? carries is white and red.
Tony is blind.
Still, he has experienced so much more than virtually any other traveller we have hosted; he is a profile? of courage and an shining example of unflagging will.
He? is leaving us today heading for Detroit on an overnight bus. To date, he has? visited all but 14 of America’s 50 states and he is on his way to “knock those bastards off” as he might say.? Stay tuned to this blog and I’ll try to keep you abreast of his next adventure. Go hard Tony! Go well!
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Tony (in the middle)? would make fun of me if he heard me say this? but he is a real hero.? He is the personification of the latin phrase “carpe diem” which? means? seize the day? for life is short and time is fleeting. What did I learn from him? Well,? if Tony has got the balls to bungy jump off Victoria Falls then? we? should all? take more risks. As a character in The Shawshank Redemtion says, “you either get busy living or you get busy dying, it’s your choice”.? Thanks again Tony for? the lesson, your the best.
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