“The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking
new landscapes, but in having new eyes.”

—Marcel Proust

“One’s destination is never a place,
but a new way of seeing things.”

—Henry Miller

Overlanders often experience anxiety at the thought of returning home from a big trip. Life on the road can turn an adventurer into a combination of an adrenaline junkie and a sponge for everything that’s new. And, it can be a hard fall to suddenly return from an ever-changing world of foreign cultures, border crossings, battles with road conditions, and the wonderful feeling of waking up every day with no idea what will happen next.

Hunger for the constant flow of new experiences means some will never head home. However, most of us do return home where reality hits hard. The sense of withdrawal can be massive, particularly following an extreme journey. It’s often accompanied by a feeling of loss and an inability to relate in any way to the land we once called “home.”

The call of the open road.

As I write this, I have a friend in mind who spent four years riding round the world; a dramatic and sometimes distressing trip, with much of it solo. Upon her return, all she wanted to do was hide away from a gloomy perception of life at home, seeing others only when absolutely necessary. She finally started coming around when she found an interesting job, though I gather her co-workers considered her to be decidedly weird. The mental break had allowed her to put things back into perspective. In her words, “I realized that I shouldn’t have feared the fall from the precipice, I should have been enjoying the view and valuing my new outlook.”

A bit of lateral thinking can change thoughts like these into something every overlander understands—trepidation usually foreshadows new discoveries. With the passing of time, nothing anywhere remains the same. Analyze the things within you that have changed, and use that new knowledge to view your home world afresh. There’s always something exciting or interesting going on; it is not so different from being on the move. You’ve been on the road for a long time and it has heightened your sense of smell and your awareness of sound, color and touch. Do you need to lose any of this when you get home? Far from it. Concentrate on putting your experiences to good use.

It’s the way of life….

Reverse culture shock is another potential problem. Let’s say that you’ve been out there for a long time, mostly in developing countries, and then are faced with all the glitz of a First World country. I actually feared riding into the U.S. After all, 30 different types of duct tape, 27 different shampoos… I worried that it was going to be too easy, or too bland, after all the twists and turns of my previous adventures. In fact, the ease of travel alone opened up all sorts of opportunities and fascinations; some brain teasers, too.

Fear can be mindboggling.

Not long after returning from my last trip, while walking in the sunshine of an autumn day, I spotted a tramp sitting on a bench on a cathedral’s grounds. At one time I might have carefully ignored him, but his smile as he soaked up the simple pleasures of the day pulled me straight to him.

Although he was dirty, scruffy and smelled a bit, I said “Hello!” and was pleasantly surprised when he invited me to sit with him. As we talked, this man’s story unfolded. He’d once been a businessman who had decided the rat race was somewhere he no longer wanted to be. An unexpected kindred spirit? We discussed life, the world, and all manner of random topics—and I learned from him. If I’d never traveled  I wouldn’t have allowed this experience. Instead, I’d have been so wrapped up in cultural norms that I wouldn’t have given his magical smile more than a glance. The simple joy he was taking from the sun’s rays would have slipped right by me, and so would his fascinating and radical view on what is important in life.

Returning home is a bit like re-reading a book that’s sat on the shelf a long time. It’s amazing what your fresh traveller’s eyes see that was missed, where so many things were taken for granted the first time around.

Seeing the world with traveler’s eyes.

As you head for home, be sure to have a new adventure already in mind. A shorter trip perhaps, but it has to be something to tickle your grey cells and feed your road hunger. It might be as simple as making a list of things to see in your homeland, places you haven’t yet explored. Take the analytical mind you’ve honed on the road and crack on with working out a route. Then using your traveller’s skills, soak up all the opportunities from that new mini-adventure.

Other kick-the-end-of-trip-blues tips include never ending a trip broke, and keeping fit. For the duration of your ride you’ve been flooding your body with endorphins that help control emotion. You’ll need that buffer zone of cash to give you the freedom to ride and see friends. Watch out, though, it’s easy to assume that the folks at home have been stuck in a rut (I prefer to think of them having remained in a more gently changing world). I’m always grateful to those who’ve remained, making life tick along so that I can return to a familiar world.

Home—the start of a new and potentially exciting journey.

What’s next? This is a door to which only you hold the key. Your return is a brilliant opportunity to make changes or even reinvent yourself. The road will already have molded you into another person. You’re now a round peg that won’t fit the square hole once occupied. Just knowing that and revelling in it can be the start of a new and potentially exciting journey. Who can you be now?

Regardless of how you may be coping, sometimes being with other travelers, other like-minded souls, is a needed comfort. This is where I hold Horizons Unlimited in high regard. The information on the HU website (HorizonsUnlimited.com) alone opens up the world. It’s a little like being part of a family where people like and understand each other. At their events I don’t have to explain who I am, or clarify my passions, dreams or questions. It’s an oasis of sanity.

Having lived on the road is an achievement that makes you one of the privileged few. Returning home is another adventure with new trails to ride, new people to meet, and the chance for overlanders to learn even more about themselves. It can be a ball as well as an opportunity to take stock, to notice and value all of the good things of our home lands. Make that plan and choose the next roads in life to ride. There’s a new journey just waiting to be enjoyed that will have many of the delights and challenges of the last set of adventures—they’ll just be wearing different disguises.

Of course, the reality could be that life has done a 180-degree turn, and the sooner you can hit the long road again, the better. That’s something guaranteed to really kick the end of trip blues, especially when you’re armed with the knowledge that although things may go wrong, they almost always turn for the better in the end.

“Once the travel bug bites there is no known antidote, and

I know that I shall be happily infected until the end of my life”
—Michael Palin

 Adventure traveler, Sam Manicom, spent eight years riding 55 countries and 200,000 miles around the world on his R80GS. He is the author of four acclaimed motorcycle travel books. Sam’s books are available in paperback, on Kindle, and his first book, Into Africa, is now available in audio format on iTunes. Sam-Manicom.com