Since I was in high school, I always planned on taking a trip around the world. But then my plans got crossed by Covid, leading to me directly continuing with my bachelor's in biology after high school. Now having completed my bachelor's and having spent the last ten months in the military, it’s finally time for my big dream of mine. On the 30th of April, my trip around the world begins. My goal for the trip was generally visiting places, that I dreamed of since I was young. As some of you already know, the ocean and everything relating to it is of great interest to me. Therefore my goal when planning the trip was to explore environments and cultures around the world that were greatly affected by the ocean.
I’ll start my trip by flying to Lisbon to visit my girlfriend, as she’s currently spending her exchange semester in Lisbon. Then I’ll continue my trip by flying to Cancun. This is part of the Yucatan peninsula, which is well-known for its cenotes and cave-diving sites. As caves are a special kind of environment to dive in, extensive instruction is required to mitigate the risks associated with cave diving. But if the right training and mindset are adopted, it’s a very rewarding environment to dive in. Therefore I will be doing my first cave course with Daniel Riordan which will take place in Puerto Aventuras.
After completing the course, I plan to further deepen my skills by just cave diving from Tulum with Protec. As the Yucatan Peninsula isn’t just known for its diving sites, I’ll be also exploring some ancient sites on the topside.
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After spending the first two and a half weeks on the main land, I’ll be taking the ferry to Cozumel for my last one and a half weeks in Mexico. This is then the time where I’ll take another diving class, which will allow me to dive deeper for longer periods. As Cozumel is known for its grand walls and drift dives, it’s the perfect site to start exploring deeper waters.
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After spending the first two and a half weeks on the main land, I’ll be taking the ferry to Cozumel for my last one and a half weeks in Mexico. This is then the time where I’ll take another diving class, which will allow me to dive deeper for longer periods. As Cozumel is known for its grand walls and drift dives, it’s the perfect site to start exploring deeper waters.
At the end of May, my trip continues by flying to Papeete, French Polynesia. Getting there takes quite the time and two stopovers in the US. French Polynesia is to many known as a honeymoon site, but when having a closer look, it’s just a beautiful place where the culture has great connection to the ocean. This can be found in the traditional culture, diving or surfing. For surfing, there’s especially one spot which is known worldwide: Teahupo’o. This is the spot where the World Surf Tour has a stop right before my trip, and also where the discipline of surfing for the olympics off 2024 takes place.
After a week staying 5 minutes from Teahupoo, I’ll be taking the ferry to Moorea. Moorea is the home of Coral Gardeners. They are committed to keeping the reef healthy by planting corals. This is where I will add the Coral Gardeners by planting corals.
My final week in French Polynesia, I’ll be spending in Rangiroa. Rangiroa is an atoll in French Polynesia which is around a 60-minute flight from the main island. As it’s known for the pelagic animal encounters underwater, it was a must-visit for me.
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Then I’ll be continuing my trip by flying to Fiji via Auckland, where I’ll be doing a 3-night stopover. Arriving in Nadi, I’ll be renting a car to drive towards Pacific Harbour. Pacific Harbour is where Beqa Adventures is located. They are a dive shop that redefined ecotourism for sharks by offering their well-known Bull shark dive. Finding a solution for location where sharks and humans closely interact is often difficult, as the attacks are often not supportive to find a peaceful solution for both parties. This then often leads to shark nets etc. which can have devastating effects on the ecosystem. Fini on the other hand took a different approach, which turns out to be quite successful.
Furthermore, Fijian locals have a close connection to the ocean. Therefore I’m very interested in its culture.
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After Fiji, I’ll take a flight to Perth in Australia. I’ll be staying in the month of July in Australia. I’ll start in Perth, and then continue to Adelaide, where I was also born. Then I’ll fly to Sydney to reunite with my girlfriend. After Sydney, we’ll be flying to Cairns. We’ll first start by staying in Airlie Beach, where we’ll be also diving on the Great Barrier Reef. Then we’ll travel further north to the Cape Tribulation.
At the beginning of August, I’ll be flying with my girlfriend to Bali. From there, we’ll continue to Nusa Lembongan and Lombok for diving and surfing, respectively. After that, we will be taking a boat which takes 4 days to go from Lombok to Labuan Bajo, which passes through the Komodo National Park.
After having spent two and a half weeks in Indonesia, we will be flying to Cambodia with a 3 day stopover in Singapore. Therefore we then have 3 weeks to explore Cambodia and Vietnam, where we’ll be going where it takes us. The only thing that’s definitive is our flight home which will depart on September 11th at 07.30 PM from Hanoi.