Carol Vanderwilp

ABOUT CAROL

Carol is a university-educated (to Masters level) Clinical Social Worker who currently lives in Toronto, Canada with her husband, Al. But…she is about to become a global nomad! They bought a house in 2007 and have just sold it, after spending five years and most of their disposable income renovating it. Why? To pursue their dreams and travel the world indefinitely. They have decided that no, this 9 to 5 day-in-and-day-out is not all there is!

She and Al met in college in the early ’90s, both poor students paying their own way with student loans and part-time jobs. They fell in love and got married during the worst years of the 90’s recession, living frugally on part-time employment because fulltime jobs were very scarce. They were happy but always financially stressed. A decade later found Carol graduating with a Masters degree and they both had good jobs.

They went from years of being poor students and underpaid / underemployed young adults with huge student loans to DINKs (Double Income No Kids) living in a urban life and developing their taste for travel. But always, they asked: Is this all there is to life?

They have decided that there is more to life and they are now off in pursuit of it! They have decided to make travelling their life’s work and have given themselves a relatively short deadline to get on the road, giving birth to their new joint travelling identity of the Travelling Mudskippers!

What about this interesting name? Mudskippers spend most of their lives as “fish out of water.” An evolutionary marvel, these creatures have adapted both physically and behaviourally to thrive in a completely foreign environment. What compelled that first mudskipper to leap out of the safe and familiar sea, slither onto land and decide to make a go of it? Who knows! But, as travellers and adventure-seekers, they feel a kinship. They are this unusual, evolutionary creature.

CAROL HAS SHARED