Travel off the beaten track and experience

Sure, the life of a backpacker is a sociable one. Within minutes of stepping off the plane you’ll no doubt have new friends that’ll last a lifetime.  You’ll forge friendships that can withstand a 42-hour coach trip, with a goat’s breath in your face, no air-con, and a driver whose blatant disregard for road safety awareness is somewhat less than amusing.  You’ll encounter thrilling adrenaline junkie experiences you’ll look back on with pride.  You’ll probably even share secrets that you wouldn’t ever dream of telling your best friend back home. But what if one of those friends asked you to, oh, I dunno… Get naked? You’d be a little surprised, right? Well what if that person wasn’t actually a friend at all? What if that person were a total stranger? Hmm. Go on, strip off For most, the thought of being naked in front of a complete stranger is a terrifying prospect. Especially if this isn’t one of those romantic situations. To get to that level of intimacy with someone, there’s u...

There are so many life-changing experiences available for gappers that I had great fun researching options for my gap year. I wanted not only to travel, but to adapt and live in a totally different culture. Having always played sports, I thought the football coaching placement in Ghana organised by Sporting Opportunities sounded different and amazing. Being outdoors in the sunshine all day, interacting with another culture through sports, was my idea of a gap year. Initially I had minor worries that a girl football coach would not be respected, but as soon as I got there, this illusion was proven very wrong. I was based in the United Through Sport Ghana academy along with other gap year volunteers. I worked with the Young Schweppes Football Club, in Nungua, a poor area in the city of Accra. Waste, sewage and wooden huts I coached under-12, under-14 and under-17 boys from poor and rural backgrounds. The training pitch was a dusty, bumpy patch of land surrounded by waste, sewage and ...