New and innovative travel book from Clady man Patrick

With Christmas and New Year now out of the way, for many people, thoughts will be drifting towards holidays – whether it’s to escape the January blues or booking well in advance for summer.

However, with the hectic lifestyle we now lead, there may not be scope for getting away whenever we want, especially if there are important project needing delivered before deadline.

Now, with the professional lifestyle in mind, a new book written by Clady native Patrick Hamilton Walsh and his Swedish-born wife Johanna, aims to show us how it can be done.

Entitled, ‘The World’s Most Travelled Family: A Guide to Easy, Affordable, and Safe World Travels with a Child’ , the book not only details the various places Patrick, Johanna and daughter Elsie-Mae have been, but also aims to show that it isn’t impossible, even with a family.

Explaining how the book came to be, Patrick comments, “Personally I’ve been to 150 countries spread across seven continents. Earlier this year, I was lucky enough to spend time with one of the world’s most travelled men. Meeting him inspired Johanna and I to begin documenting our own adventures and began writing the book in April whilst on a family cruise.

“The aim of the book is not simply a travelogue of adventures, there’s much more to it. No doubt people who read this and see our social media will be thinking ‘does that man ever sit down and do some work?’ but, the fact is, Johanna and I are usually doing work whilst we’re away. We wrote this to show that despite the world looking big, its actually quite small in terms of communication meaning that, no matter where we are in the world, it’s possible to keep working as long as you have a laptop and a Wi-Fi connection; enjoy your holiday in the day and make time to deliver on work commitments in the evening. Plus, if you go away off-season, travelling can be neither expensive nor time-consuming. It’s about showing people in the professional world that it can be done.

“To give you an example, a few months ago Johanna went to Istanbul for work. Her flights and hotel were obviously paid for so it was just a matter of me booking flights for myself and my daughter and I worked from there also, without using up holidays. From there we were able to take flight to Yerevan in Armenia; expensive if you’re travelling from Ireland or Stockholm, only 50 euros from Istanbul virtually next door. Later that month I went to Oslo for work and my wife and daughter joined me for another ‘work-ation’.

“It’s about utilising what’s available to us in the modern world so we can deliver on work commitments whilst relaxing, especially when teams can be spread all over the globe.”

So what are Patrick’s best and worst destination?

“I have to ‘bests’ which are paradoxical; firstly the Amazon, a place teaming with so much life you can’t imagine and secondly Antarctica, a desolate, beautiful place. In terms of ‘worst’ there hasn’t been one. I’ve been in hairy situations for sure but everywhere I have been I show nothing but kindness and love to everyone I meet and it’s always been reciprocated.”

‘The World’s Most Travelled Family: A Guide to Easy, Affordable, and Safe World Travels with a Child’ is available now on Amazon in Kindle at £8.88 and in paperback at £12.50