Posted 28 Apr 2009

Although taking the plunge and settling down with a steady job, permanent home and even a family may make a lot of young travellers run for the hills, it need not be a hindrance to travelling the world.

This is the opinion of Frank Gardner, a BBC security correspondent, who recently wrote a book about his colourful adventures in 94 different countries.

Mr Gardner, who was paralysed after being shot by Al Qaeda sympathisers in Saudi Arabia in 2004, wrote Far Horizons: Unusual Journeys And Strange Encounters From A Travelling Life.

He states in his book that while his friends opted to spend their savings on cars and sensible investments, he spent his on a long-harboured passion for travel.

"Growing up and getting a salaried job need not constitute a barrier to travel, I decided as I persuaded my long-suffering girlfriend Carrie to come with me to obscure places such as Yemen and Transylvania," the Daily Mail quotes him as writing.

Some of his adventures, including drinking turtles’ blood in Tokyo and fleeing lions in Botswana, would no doubt inspire a gap year traveller with aspirations to see the world.

Mr Gardner retuned to work in 2005, just ten months after the shooting.

Category: General Travel