Travel Inspiration from The Planet D

Again, I am astounded by the amazing and wonderful people I have found on Twitter. (I’m @andrewghayes – come say hello.)  This week’s interview is with a couple who need no introduction – their words speak for themselves.    Dave & Deb are the type of people who should be in charge of the world.

Could we start by a brief introduction?

We are Dave and Deb, a couple from Canada that always tries to incorporate an element of adventure into our travels. We met in college way back in the early 90’s and have been wandering nomads ever since.

A year after graduating, we set off for Western Canada to explore and live in Vancouver. It was there that we started working in the film business. It was just starting to boom out West at that time, so we caught the wave and worked on such productions as The X Files, Jumanji and Rumble in the Bronx.

Never being ones to settle down for long, we moved back to Toronto three years later and have been working in movies here ever since.

We have very short attention spans when it comes to our hobbies, so we are always taking up some new sport. We immerse ourselves completely into something and then once we feel that we have accomplished what we wanted to, we move on. I guess that explains why we are always wandering the earth.

We were serious rock climbers after a trip to Thailand. We joined our local climbing gym and learned how to lead climb. We eventually took it outdoors and we were climbing nearly every weekend out at the Niagara Escarpment and honing our skills in the gym during the week.

When we moved up north, we moved away from climbing for a while and took up Scuba Diving. We immersed ourselves into diving becoming certified rescue divers and we even started our dive masters.

But then Mountain Biking caught our attention. We loved hitting the trails in Ontario and enjoyed watching ourselves become more adept at jumping logs, riding narrow paths and maneuvering our way through obstacles. That is what eventually led us to cycling Africa.

We love having several skills under our belts; it makes adventure travel more fun. We feel confident climbing a mountain, kayaking or abseiling down a cliff because we have built up our skills and know what to expect in any situation.

You document your travels and travails on the website, The Planet D. What’s behind the name?

Our website is called the PlanetD. We agonized over the name before leaving on our cycling expedition through Africa. We wanted something easy to remember, but something that could also be readily identified as a travel website.

The PlanetD is represents the way we Dave and Deb, see the planet. We invite our reader to see the world through our eyes and experiences. Hence, ThePlanetD aka Dave and Deb’s Planet.

The Goal of our site is to inspire people to take a chance and follow through with that great adventure that they have always dreamed about. We want to show people that you don’t have to be a world-class athlete or extremely rich to fulfill your dreams. We represent the “Everyman” proving that if you really want to do something, you can.

We also want to inspire couples to do more activities together. Many people we know live separate lives, but we want to show the world that travel as a couple can be a lot of fun and can open each other up to new and exciting possibilities

The final goal of our site to open the world’s eyes to other cultures and destinations. When we travel through countries, we try to give back to the community whether it is writing about the problems that they face or raising money for a cause.

When we cycled through Africa we rode for a charity. Plan Canada is an international organization that develops projects at a grassroots level. We wrote newspaper articles, held fundraisers and collected donations to support Plan.

Our eyes were opened to what people are doing on the ground level to help struggling communities and how as a traveler, it is our responsibility to let people at home what is going on in the world.

How did you get started with your travels?

When we were young and impressionable, the older more established people in our profession influenced our travels heavily.

The movie business seems to attract people that don’t like to settle into routine and when we first started we were mesmerized by the stories of all of the places that everyone had been to. We wanted to be just like them.

The spark was ignited and we have been traveling regularly for the past 10 years.

Our jobs have offered us a lot of freedom to travel. Movies tend to film in Toronto during the warmer summer months, so when it slows down during the winter, we are free to take off.

What’s been the most inspirational experience you’ve had?

This may sound crazy, but our most inspirational experience was during our first visit to Thailand in 2000. Many people have asked us if certain other trips were life changing or an awakening, but we reply that we had our eureka moment nearly 10 years ago. Nothing has compared to the dramatic change that occurred then.

I don’t think that anything can compare to the one event that changes your entire life. This trip changed everything about our lives.

We were young, had only been on your typical vacations to Europe, the Caribbean, Mexico and we set off for Thailand for 5 weeks with no prior knowledge about the country. We were just following the recommendation of a co-worker.

Our eyes were open to a new culture and new way of thinking. We were in awe of the strong connection to spirituality in Thailand. We loved the customs and traditions of the country.

We suffered from culture shock to say the least, but then we settled in and came home enlightened and truthfully changed to the core of our beings. It was the start of a journey that we have been following ever since.

We vividly remember being overwhelmed with the constant noise. Beeping of horns, construction, traffic and sheer volume of population. We couldn’t get over how loud Thailand was in every aspect. Peace only seemed to come in a temple, the jungle or on a secluded beach. But we loved it.

We were struck by the amount of colour there. In Canada, people don’t dress in vivid colours as much. Maybe it is the long winters we tend to be more neutral in our choice of attire. But in Thailand bright oranges, yellows and reds could be seen everywhere. It instantly uplifts your spirit and you want to dress in bright, colourful clothing while you are there.

Smells were something else completely. Dave described it as a feast for the senses. Delicious smells of spices and food and incense mingling with sewage and a musty dampness. Yet crisp ocean breezes could take it all away.

We met people that had been traveling for a year, or 6 months. We didn’t even know that so many people actually did that. Our eyes were opened to a whole new way of living. We learned that there was a lot more to life than just working hard day in and day out to pay for that expensive mortgage or car.

We learned to work to live and not live to work.

This winter you’re headed to Asia for another long tour. What’s on the agenda and what are you looking forward to the most?

This is going to be our most exciting adventure yet. We plan on traveling through countries taking on tasks and adventures unique to the culture of each destination. We are going to travel through Central Asia a part of Asia that we have not been to yet.
We want to travel by traditional means and try activities that are deeply rooted in each country. We want to explore the effects of globalization. Are countries loosing their traditions or are they embracing the past and hanging on to the culture that they have left.

It is going to be a very intense and in depth look at all of the places we are going to be visiting.

Since you are “Canada’s adventure couple”, why not spare us a few insider secrets for the best off-the-beaten-path adventure treks, tours, and stops in Canada? It’s a big place!

We are lucky to live in such a vast country and to have visited several areas of Canada. We reside in Ontario at the moment and most people outside of the country only know of Toronto or Niagara falls when they think of this part of Canada.

What they don’t know is that this is a vast province with many eco-adventure activities to take part in.

Here are some of our favorite things to do right in our own backyard:

• Dive the St. Lawrence River. In Brockville, 4 hours East of Toronto, a diver’s paradise awaits you. Ship wrecks rest 100 feet below the surface in clear warm water. (for Canadian standards that is) Catch the strong current and drift over the keel of a ship examining history in the deep depths between the border of Canada and the U.S. It is a blast to sit under the water and look up to see a giant tanker cruise overhead.

• Go to Haliburton Forest. Three hours north of Toronto an adventure playground is Northern Ontario; head to Haliburton Forest in the winter for a dogsledding adventure. You can and snowshoe or cross country ski through the vast forest and trails as well.  There is a wolf sanctuary up there where you can watch a pack of wolves live in their natural habitat. They have acres to roam, and if you are lucky they will be relaxing right in front of the glass enclosure that you can observe them from without disrupting their way of life.

• Haliburton Forest is right beside its more popular neighbour, Algonquin Park. Famous for its excellent canoe routes, we have done multi day trips through the park paddling from lake to lake. We have spotted Moose, Herons, Otters and even had a bear wander into our camp late at night.

• The Bruce Trail is excellent for hiking. Spanning 800km from Niagara to the Bruce Peninsula, you can hike, rock climb, boulder and simply watch nature on this incredible trail system.

• We have amazing rock climbing all along the Niagara Escarpment and excellent mountain biking trails. A little known fact, we have a great mountain biking trail right in the heart of Toronto at The Don, You won’t even know that you are in the city.

Our province slogan for Ontario is Yours to Discover and I have only touched the tip of the iceburg of all that there is to do here for great adventures.

Dave and Deb are an adventure couple from Canada. Together they have traveled to over 30 countries on 5 continents. Follow their journeys at http://www.theplanetd.com as they hike, bike, dive, trek and climb their way around the globe.

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