Keith Jenkins AKA @velvetescape was one of my earliest connections on Twitter. He talked #travel, I talked #dream #travel and so the conversation started! I’ve thoroughly enjoyed watching Keith’s blog grow from strength to strength and the fabulous opportunities it brings him. Jealous much!

Background: Keith Jenkins is the Founder and Publisher of the Velvet Escape luxury travel blog. Based in Amsterdam, Keith left his ten-year investment banking career to travel the world and carve out a new career as a travel blogger and social media advocate.

Back in 2012 Keith delivered this TEDx Talk: Passion, Empowerment, Social Media. Enjoy!

What Has Jessica Watson Achieved?

Arriving in Sydney

Sixteen year old Australian sailor, Jessica Watson has achieved something this land-lover can only marvel at. The thought of circum-navigating the world on a travel adventure is surely present but to undertake this by sea and alone, there is absolutely no appeal in it at all! Consequently, when I stop to think of the 210 days Jessica spent aboard the small, pink boat named ‘Ella’s Pink Lady’, I can’t help but imagine what she has encountered. Large swells, storms, isolation, darkness, mechanical issues and all to be toughed out alone – what an amazing young women she is!

Jessica sailed into Sydney Harbour on Saturday 15th May to a hero’s welcome home. A huge supportive crowd had gathered to share in her achievement. Jessica later spoke humbly and articulately to the crowds and media cameras, of not being a hero but simply an ordinary girl who had a dream and her (brave) parents, allowing and supporting her to do this. For more of Jessica’s story READ HERE.

Jessica Watson returns to Sydney, Australia after Sailing Solo around the World

Links of Interest to Jessica Watson

A Collection of My Favourite Travel Quotes

Many of the following quotes I’ve collected and tweeted during the time I have been on Twitter in conjunction with my daily dream, travel destinations. Most of the quotes attract a number of valuable RTs (Retweets for those that aren’t on Twitter!). It was time to gather them up and share them. I find them very inspirational!

“Life is not about the breaths you take, but the moments that take your breath away”
Unknown

“If you go only once around the room, you are wiser than he who stands still”
Estonian Proverb

“A journey is a person in itself; no two are alike”
John Steinbeck

“There are two ways of getting home, and one of
them is to stay there”
G.K. Chesterton

“Remember that happiness is a way of travel, not a destination”
Roy Goodman

“The reason most people never reach their goals is that they don’t define them, learn about them, or ever seriously consider them as believable or achievable”
Denis Waitley

“The real voyage of discovery is not in discovering
new lands, but in seeing with new eyes”
Marcel Proust

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the
ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover”
Mark Twain

“Though we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we find it not”
Ralph Waldo Emerson

“He who returns from a journey is not the same as he who left”
Chinese proverb

and, finally…

“Since life is short and the world is wide, the sooner you start exploring it, the better”Simon Raven