So in less than 4 months I will be away on my gap year, the biggest adventure of my life (so far!)

I plan to try and keep this blog updated as I go, so you can follow my Travel Plan (once I figure out how to work this...) and see what I get up to.

A bit about me; my name is Elin Cunningham, I'm 17 at the moment (18 in July) and I live in North Wales. I've travelled a lot in my life, but more about that later! I love horse riding, yoga, skiing, surfing, mountain biking and pretty much anything involving the great outdoors- just not cold water! I'm studying Biology, Chemistry and Geography A Levels, and will hopefully study Bioveterinary Science in university after my gap year (if I get the grades in these exams, which I should probably be revising for instead of making this blog, oh well)

I've worked as a waitress in a cute little French restaurant (check it out! http://www.paysannedeganwy.co.uk/) for the past 18 months to raise the money for my gap year, I will also be fundraising as much as I can after these exams are over to try and get the money, and loving the feeling of pride from saving and planning it all myself.

My life has been pretty fun so far- I lived in Potugal, Cardiff, Qatar and Italy for the first 10 years of my life before moving back to Wales 8 years ago, and I think I've got permenantly itchy feet, I want to travel!

'The world is a book, and those who don't travel only read one page.' — St Augustine

(I think I live by that quote)

Anyway, on my gap year I will travel to Australia where I will stay with friends for a bit, and work with rescue organisations around the country (turtles are my fave!) before going to Borneo to work in the Orangutan Sanctuary for about 2 weeks. I will then travel to Africa, where I will stay with my dad (who lives in Pemba, Mozambique) and see my four-legged pals, one of which stars in the photo of this blog post! I will also be working at the Niassa Lion Reserve, and travel more around Africa.

So, I think that's enough rambling for now, I need to crack on with Chemistry revision (boo). I'll keep this updated before I go, as my excitement will almost be too much to contain, and I will bore my friends with talk of travelling (sorry in advance!)

I think I'll try and end these blog posts with the cheesiest travel quotes I can find too- here goes!!

"Travel far enough, you meet yourself."
― David Mitchell, Cloud Atlas