Sports Graduate is on the Right Track
Although many Northumbria graduates decide to teach English as a foreign language, few will travel to their chosen destination the way Greg Davies is… |
On returning to England, Greg set up his own mobile car valeting business, but the travelling bug had bitten hard and he sold his business in January 2009 and it was then he decided to get things back ‘on track’.
“I've always been interested in teaching and am currently applying to do my Primary School PGCE, starting in September, so I thought that teaching abroad would be a great experience, both for my career and personally.”, says Greg.
With this in mind, Greg completed his TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) Course at the Life Centre (Newcastle), a qualification which is recognised by schools all over the world.
He then set about finding a school to teach in, “A friend gave me an e-mail address of someone who built a school high in the Himalayas in Nepal, in a very remote local community and I thought this was perfect.”
With his destination confirmed, Greg started to organise his travel. “I heard about the Trans-Siberian Railway from a friend, and thought it sounded amazing. So I researched the feasibility of getting to Nepal overland and found that it was possible.” And so it began.
Greg set off from his local village of Brockholes, in Yorkshire, by train, on 16th March. His route will take him to Sheffield, London, Brussels, Cologne, Moscow, Ullaan Bataar in Mongolia, and finally Beijing! “It’ll take 9 non-stop days of travel to get to Ulaan Bataar, where I will stay for 5 days, before the final 30 hour stretch. If all goes to plan I’ll arrive in Beijing on 30th March.”
Greg will then travel across China, to Lhasa in Tibet followed by a 3 day bus ride on The Friendship Highway, to Kathmandu, and then a further 1 day bus trip to a village called Dhenche, and finally a one day trek to the school!
Greg says he’s not a train-enthusiast, “Doing it this way”, he explained, “instead of a £370, 9 hour flight, will give me a greater understanding of the changing cultures as I travel, hour by hour, day by day, instead of being transported from one airport to another, like a time machine! I find travelling is more fun than arriving!”
Research and planning for the trip has taken Greg some months. As Greg set off on his trip earlier this month I asked him which bit he was looking forward to most, “In total I shall pass over 11,000 km of track before reaching Kathmandu and I'm looking forward to every one of them!”
We wish Greg all the best on his journey and we hope to catch up with him soon to hear how his journey went. If you would like to plan a trip like this Greg told us that the website www.seat61.com, was a great help as it has information about the rail network all over the world, with timetables, fares, pictures and reviews of almost every train journey on earth.
Date posted: March 27, 2009
