The dangers of travelling:

JRR Tolkien wrote “It’s a dangerous business, stepping out your front door. You never know where you’ll be swept off to.”

The road outside your door is not only the road to the supermarket or work; it is also the road to faraway and exotic places. If you don't watch where you are going, you might end up being swept away. So you see, you have to be very careful when you leave home.

Luckily, I was planning on being swept off to faraway places. I had ideas of where I'd go, but I didn't really know where the road would take me. All I knew was that it would be an adventure and a good one at that. But in my planning, I knew there would be dangers. It's our lot in life to try to avoid dangers; whisk them from our thoughts. But on your own, in the big wide world, these dangers must be addressed, heeded and some sort of defence prepared against them. There's a lot of craziness in the world and a lot of people willing to profit from a careless traveller.

Who knows what'll happen? Kidnapped. Mugged. Assaulted. Arrested. Killed by terrorists. It’s only a matter of ‘wrong place wrong time’. Being scammed out of money by a crooked cop or taxi driver. Being eyed by a gang as you walk down a dark street at midnight whilst drunk. Recipes for disaster lurk around every corner. The good traveller tries to make himself less of a target. You learn to guard your wallet, stash cash away for emergencies, have a decoy wallet, keep a whistle nearby to alarm others, not walking drunk at night, asking for identification from law enforcement officials. You learn to watch your back. You exude confidence and strength. You hope for the best but prepare for the worst. You convince your parents that nothing's going to happen!

These are the dangers we see: bodily harm, robbery, murder, and terrorism. But these aren't the biggest perils you come across whilst travelling. There's one danger that's unavoidable. You get to meet great people when you are travelling, they become a part of your life and you share every second with them for days, weeks or months. You become a team wading through the bullshit to experience the riches of where you are. You have a friend, a guardian, someone to lead when you're tired or sick, a confidant, and a dinner companion, someone to help make the taxis and hotel rooms cheaper. You become a duo, you and them versus the world. And you know what? In the end, you win. As a team you're unstoppable. All those dangers are thwarted. You bond. Become brothers, best friends, and partners. Thelma and Louise eat your hearts out!

But therein lies the danger. You become one. A relationship is formed. Inevitably, at some point in time, you have to split and follow your own particular path. I'd be lying if I said that it was easy to go separate ways. My latest partner left today and I'm feeling the results of that inevitable danger, the greatest danger from travelling: meeting people that become the closest of friends and finding out that parting is hard, sometimes permanent, and always unavoidable.

Jason Risley - March 2009.