Saturday Showcase – Reclaiming My Future

Who are you and what’s your story?!

I’m Toni and I’m a 20-something sarcastic chocolate biscuit lover (though I’m never sarcastic about biscuits…it’s too serious a subject) and solo traveller. I’m your typical quarterlife crisis sufferer trying to dig herself out of it using travel, biscuits and a little bit of naughty honesty on the side!

Your blog is a pretty no holes bar affair – could you some it up in a single sentence?

In one sentence? I guess it depends how long you can exhale for without passing out but here goes…(deep breath people)

A blog about a blonde (but not stupid) 20-something biscuit lover who likes nothing more than to share honest stories of nakedness and euphoric happiness (take note fellas; the two things didn’t happen at the same time!) as I backpack around the world helping other female solo travellers find their ‘inner ROAR!’

Have you picked up any bad travel habits!?

I get naked a little too easy. To clarify that, I tend to wander around hostels in just my underwear when changing etc; what’s the point of covering up when you’ve been in a bikini all day? Besides, maybe if the world was a little more relaxed and easy about things like this we’d all get along much better. Wait, how did I go from flashing to world peace in one sentence? Amazing!

Got some top tips on travel, travel planning or general girl realted stuff for any females looking to travel solo?

Listen to your gut (the metaphorical one anyway…come to think of it, if you’ve had too much to drink, you should listen to your actual gut too and get to a toilet!). You may not realise it straight away but if you’re in a situation that you feel uncomfortable in, DON’T FIGHT IT, LEAVE! I had a couple of near misses and one in particular I realised, looking back, that I knew within seconds it was going to go bad but tried to ignore what I was feeling; don’t ignore it, listen!

If you had to pick one item from your bucket list to inspire some travel what would it be?

Diving. It’s changed my entire outlook on travel. Everytime I check out a destination I HAVE to make sure that there are diving, or at the very least, snorkelling opportunities. Why people wouldn’t want to explore what the ocean has to offer is beyond me…wouldn’t you like to swim with 5 magnificent manta rays for an hour or say that you came within metres of a shark (an actual biting shark?!)? It’s pure spiritual ecstasy!

A bit of vanity…what’s your favourite post and why?

Road romance or one night stand? It’s deliciously naughty with a dash of sentimentalism attached. Oh who am I kidding?! I talk about the guys I slept with on the road and the memories make me happy; people seem to love my honesty about it too!

What’s the dream destination, activity or subject that you really want to write about?

Anything that involves diving so I’m going to say doing marine/coral conservation around a tropical island such as the Maldives or the Seychelles etc (as a lot of it is dying out) where I get to dive all day and look after the best place in the world; the ocean.

Have a dig through the archives and try to pick out your favourite travel photo – what’s the story behind it?

The fire red sunset of Koh Tao is definitely on my favourites list. I was staying with a couchsurfer and we bought a take-away Thai meal, sat on the beach and waited, for what we thought, would be an average sunset; how wrong we were. I spent just over 2 weeks on that tiny island and had some of the best times of my life!

Any travel plans in the pipeline that you want to spill?

Any travel plans? Oh hell yeah! In just over a month I’m heading to…..Africa for 6 weeks of backpacking through 7 countries! Now how many people can say THAT?!

And finally who do you want to nominate for next week, any particular reason you chose them?!

I nominate Sheryll of The Wanderlust Project because she and I are twin sisters when it comes to fashion and she’s sickeningly sweet!

So there you have it – a slightly crazy and obviously biscuit obsessed Devonian girl. Her posts are sure to lighten up your day and I can’t wait to see the carnage she cause running semi naked around the African continent! Follow her twitter feed @toniwonitravels, head over to her Facebook Page or simply hit up her blog.

And I shall be on the case with Sheryll right away!