Have you ever wanted to travel the world, but don’t know how? And do you think that Gap Years are only for the young? Well, you’ll find out that they’re not!
Irish filmmaker Ann-Marie McCormack and her photographer husband Rod Gray, who are based in Bristol, having both had brushes with cancer set off on their trip of a lifetime to travel across the world, after 25 years together! Having taken a year off work when their kids are ‘almost’ left home and their parents all doing okay, they discover more than they bargained for in this ‘warts and all’ travel podcast series.
Not only do they have amazing travel experiences in beautiful places; from feeding elephants in Thailand, to scuba diving shipwrecks and whale sharks in the Philippines, to eating banquet breakfasts in kimonos at a traditional hot spring hotel in Japan, they also talk to incredible and diverse people along the way.
These podcast hosts also share some of their top travel tips to show how you too can do this; like a house swap on Philip Island in Australia, how to get from A to B in tricky places, what prized possessions they had to bring and what they should have left behind. Travel inspiration for older people and also the young, is guaranteed!
Travellers and local people from all cultures, ages and creeds, share truly inspiring, humorous and overwhelming human stories; like the Dutch couple who sold everything to start a new resort in Thailand, a Muslim businesswoman in Lombok who shares what it is like to be covered in 40 degree heat during Ramadan, two Dublin teachers who quit their jobs to travel and encounter the biggest pregnant spider in the Amazon, a hilarious lesbian kiwi couple who make travelling through Anchor Wat an unforgettable experience and camping stories from foodie foragers in Tasmania. Immersed with them throughout their journey, we hear the wildlife too.
Ann-Marie and Rod also encounter some real-life shocks too; a death in Ann-Marie’s family and a murder on the Mekong River in Laos! They also talk to tsunami survivors from 2004 on Phi Phi Island in Thailand, where one explains how he managed to survive, while his newborn son was never found, as well as a Cambodian tuk tuk driver whose foot was blown off in a landmine and a Filipino woman who lost three family members during Covid.
Continue the journey on Instagram: @parentsgapyear (31k+ views to date)
