Sometimes you need a gimmick to make a journey into a story – like travelling from Perth to Perth, instead of Scotland to Australia.
And when Edinburgh backpacker Liam Cavanagh set out on his 20,000-mile journey across the world using only land and sea (no planes), the starting point was nothing more than a slightly encouraged coincidence.
“Edinburgh to Perth doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Perth to Perth, does it?” confesses Liam, 41, on a crackly call from his destination Down Under.
But he admits though it started “as a bit of a gimmick”, he thoroughly enjoyed his visit to Perth, Scotland, where provost Xander McDade made sure he was given a fitting send off, after a visit to the city chambers.
“Perth, Scotland was actually one of my most surprising destinations of all,” laughs Liam, who set off from the Scottish city on September 19.
“I really enjoyed it. And the young provost even gave me some memorabilia to take over to the mayor of Perth, Australia!”
Perth Provost vs Lord Mayor of Perth
This Liam duly did, when he met Lord Mayor of Perth, Basil Zempilas, in Australia’s namesake city on December 9.
“They are two very contrasting figures,” Liam adds, comparing the Scottish and Australian officials.
“The Perth mayor in Australia is very slick, very media-savvy! The meeting in Scotland was quite low key, and respectful of protocol with the provost wearing his gold chain.
“Both were really warm though, and generous with their time.”
This kind of thing – making a decision because it sounds kind of cool, and ending up with a fun anecdote – seems to be typical of Liam’s playful approach to travel.
He tells me he also made it a point to visit Glasgow (Montana), New Caledonia (Pacific Islands) and Glenelg (Australia) to keep up his game of Scottish namesake bingo.
Perth to Perth trip inspired by Jules Verne
It makes sense then, that rather than out of any ardent environmentalism or phobia of air travel, Liam says his earthbound trip across the globe was inspired by his childhood favourite book: Around The World In 80 Days by Jules Verne.
“I loved that book as a kid,” gushes Liam. “And I think Phileas Fogg would definitely agree that I’ve been on an adventure.”
Starting off in Perth, Liam made his way to Southampton by train.
From there, he boarded a cruise ship (The Sun Princess) just as his grandparents had done in the 20th century, and headed across the Atlantic, via Spain and the Canary Islands.
After landing in Florida, Liam made his way across North America in trains and cars, before boarding a Pacific cruise liner, The Westerdam, on the other side.
This would take him to Australia via the Pacific Islands. Finally, he landed in Oz, two months after his departure from Tayside, on November 17.
After hitting Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide, he travelled by train and coach across the ‘red centre’ of Australia and landed in Perth two more weeks later.
So although it wasn’t all the way around the world in 80 days, it was a good old chunk of the world in 74.
“I’ve been to over 30 destinations in 10 countries, and travelled 20,000 miles,” says Liam proudly. “It’s been an amazing adventure.”
Why pack it all in and go globetrotting at 41?
But even though he embarked on some world travel with friends in his early 20s, Liam’s not sure he would describe himself as “typically adventurous”.
And at 41, he acknowledges he’s not your usual backpacker.
So why take this trip of a lifetime now?
“I’ve been working for the National Records of Scotland for 15 years, so it really felt like it was time for a change,” explains Liam.
“Particularly after the pandemic, you just don’t know what’s around the corner.
“I want to move into the IT field. That’s why I’ve come to Perth, Australia – to study here,” he continues.
“Since I was coming here anyway, I felt I wanted to see a bit of the world beneath my feet.”
Facing flying food and Hurricane Milton
And Liam wasn’t disappointed by his decision to travel old school.
Highlights for him were getting to walk the beaches of Honolulu, Hawaii – “I grew up watching Hawaii 5-0, so it felt like being on a film set” – as well as “stepping back in time” in the untouched rainforests of Fiji, and visiting NASA’s Kennedy Space Centre.
But his voyage wasn’t without some mishaps.
Seasickness was a constant battle on the choppy waters of the Atlantic and the Pacific.
“Some of the waters were quite rough, to the extent that in the dining cabin of one of the ships, cups and glasses were flying off tables,” chuckles Liam.
“Fresh food that had just been served was flung to the floor. People were staggering about all over the place!”
And Hurricane Milton, which devastated parts of Florida this past autumn, was in full force when Liam’s cruise ship was supposed to dock in the US.
This meant the ship had to divert, which delayed its landing for a full two days.
“That was a problem, because I was scheduled to leave from the other side of America on my next cruise ship just a few days later.
“So I only had a small window to get across the continent,” Liam recalls.
From digital back to analogue travel…
Driving out of Florida, Liam was flabbergasted at his inability to find a paper map to buy.
He ended up having to stop at a mall to get a US sim card for his phone, just so he could connect to a sat-nav.
“We’re so plugged into technology, it’s not ideal,” he says. “And I was driving on the other side of the road, as well as having no idea where I was going. So it was a real baptism of fire!”
However, Liam soon found, to his amusement, that not every transport system in the US was digital-friendly.
“When I got on the cross-country Amtrak train in New Orleans, the conductor made an announcement,” he says.
“He said: ‘There is no wifi. The train is 40 years old and wifi wasn’t invented back then’.”
No #Amtrak selfies for Liam.
How did Liam afford Perth to Perth trip?
Indeed, in a world flooded by aspirational influencers encouraging folk to fold their lives into a suitcase at the drop of a hat and board a flight to their wildest dreams (all the while funding their social media highlight reels with fat sponsorship deals and lucrative brand partnerships), Liam is down-to-earth about the financial realities of his adventure.
His journey was funded mainly by his own savings, made over the last 15 years of his working life.
And he admits that the Scottish Government’s “generous” career break option, which allows employees to take breaks of up to five years and still return to their jobs, was a huge motivator.
The trip overall, he estimates, cost him less than £10,000.
He’s careful to take into account that the periods spent on cruise liners included room and board in the cost of travel.
Whereas in some of the hostels he stayed in, “you had to rent the cutlery to eat with”.
And though he acknowledges his was “not the most economical way of getting from Scotland to Australia”, he insists he “certainly got value for money” in terms of everything he experienced in his 74 days.
“I’d tell anyone who can, and who wants to travel, to go for it,” he says. “Life’s too short to live with regrets.”
Doing trip alone was double-edged sword
One unmissable factor in this Perth to Perth adventure story is that Liam took on this monumental journey alone.
Although he admits that thanks to a fortune teller in Gibraltar, he kept his eyes peeled for the “Virgo girlfriend of his dreams”.
“I never felt lonely exactly,” he muses. “But there were problems, which was hard.”
However, his travel blog, aptly named Perth2Perth, allowed Liam to keep family and friends updated on his travels and even receive tips from his followers.
What did Liam learn from older travellers?
And he says that long-term, communal travel such as cruise ships and the Amtrak make it easy to meet likeminded, adventurous souls.
“People are friendly, and they’re looking for conversation,” he says. “You’ll be sat together in the dining car or on deck, and it’s easy to say hello.”
Two Vancouver Island women, Anne and Pat, made a particular impression on Liam and took him under their wings.
“They were two lovely older ladies, and we’d eat dinner and breakfast together,” smiles Liam.
And one octogenarian gentleman Liam met on a cruise liner cemented his belief that he’d never regret seizing the day.
“I met a guy from Chicago who was in his 80s and his wife had had a stroke,” he recalls quietly.
“He said to me he was so jealous of me doing this at a younger age.
“He told me he would have loved to have done it at a younger age. But he was working and everything, you know how it goes.
“I think that certainly motivates me as well to do a bit more traveling while I’m younger.”
Will Liam put down roots in Perth?
Now, Liam’s settled with his host family in Perth, Australia, and ready to take on two years of IT training.
But he’s been well and truly bitten by the travel bug, and confesses this won’t be his final destination.
“The reason I want to study IT is so I can get a location-independent job. Then I can work while travelling,” he explains.
“I actually enjoyed the travel more than I expected to,” he adds. “It started off as a means to get here, and see the world on the way.
“When I got here, I was really disappointed the travel had ended. I feel like getting on another boat!”
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