What do you want to do when you are 80? A few years ago, Ellie Hamby and Sandy Hazelip, two best friends from the US, decided that they would traverse the world when they turn 80.
Taking a leaf out of the Jules Vernes classic adventure novel, they decided to travel ‘Around the World in 80 Days’. But the COVID-19 pandemic delayed their plans by a year.
This year, the duo was finally able to travel at the age of 81.
The two friends found social media fame after they started posting videos of their travels on their TikTok and Instagram accounts.
Hamby and Hazelip began their adventure on January 11.
According to an article on the American news website usatoday.com, they “flew from Dallas to Ushuaia, Argentina, the Launchpad to Antarctica. Hamby and Hazelip braved 20-foot waves crossing the Drake Passage on the way to the seventh continent and posed with penguins once they got there.
Since then, the widowed best friends from Texas have been to every other continent, ending the journey by exploring the Grand Canyon before returning home to Texas over the weekend.”
During nearly three months of travel, Hamby and Hazelip rode camels in Egypt, threw coins in Rome's Trevi Fountain, took a selfie with a long-tailed macaque in Bali, and travelled on a dogsled in the Arctic Circle.
And no, they aren’t tired. The octogenarians, who have been friends for about 20 years, told USA Today, in a video interview from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon: “Vacations are tiring. You get worn out on a vacation…. This is not a vacation, this is an adventure, and an adventure just revs you up to keep going more."
According to a previous interview with the news website cbsnews.com, the two met while traveling nearly two decades ago, finding each other on a trip in Zambia, where they just clicked.
Hamby and Hazelip became closer and started taking trips together after their husbands died, the USA Today report added.
One day when they were together, Hazelip suggested that the two should take a trip around the world when they turn 80. Hamby agreed.
They started making plans, talking to friends and family, and shortlisting places they wanted to visit. The duo posts videos of their adventures, which have more than hundreds of thousands of likes on TikTok. They also share videos answering questions from fans about how they planned their trips.
Hazelip hopes their story can inspire people of all ages. "Don't sit in that chair and waste away… If you don't use it, you lose it," Hazelip told CBS News.
Would you travel the world at 80? Tell us at readers@gulfnews.com.
