Diabetic Backpacking

So, you are a Diabetic and thinking of going away for an extended amount of time backpacking in parts of the world where the medical advice is - get out asap. Are you crazy!?
Yes? Good, then you are about to have an adventure of a life time and your medical condition is no excuses not to enjoy it to the fullest.
And so it begins
In Dec 2012 Kinga my now wife to be and I decided we had enough of the London grind, to quit our reasonably paid jobs, leave our lovely house, ditch all of our western comforts and stick a finger up to society and travel around Asia for a year.
But, one thing I could not ditch was my Type 1 Diabetes.
How I can help?
Well, I would never call myself an expert in anything, but after travelling for a year you can say I know more than most about the planning needed, the challenges and experiences of backpacking with Type 1 Diabetes.
Quick advice:
Do you reasonably manage your condition now?
Yes: Go | No: Don't go
More advice:
As I travelled I posted articles on this site that I thought would be helpful for other would be Diabetic Backpackers, you can read them all under the tag type1traveller, to get you started here are some posts I recommend:
- The Grand Plan is out - the beginning
- Insurance, for the diabetic backpacker - kinda important and more difficult than you would think
- What to pack: the Diabetic backpacker - don't forget you need to carry all of this on your back!
- Diabetic backpacker: making it a reality - 6 month update
- 5 bottles of frozen insulin and 72 hours to live - Part 1 - I new things where going to well!
- So, 11 months backpacking as a diabetic - end of trip summary
There are more articles that cover the ups and downs (pun intended) of our trip and the challenges with backpacking with Type 1 Diabetes, you can see them all here: type1traveller
Also I have created documents that can help you calculate how long your medication will last, travel letter translated into mutiple languages, our costs as we travelled and anything else I can think of that will help you plan your trip. You can get access to these by signing up to my newsletter. No more than two posts a week, who has time to write more!?
Get in contact
This site was designed to share my experiences with travelling with Type 1 Diabetes to help and inform others. If you have any comments or questions please feel free to contact me using the comment form below on all posts.
Happy travels, Tim & Kinga