Lawyer to Tour Leader

by Valery
(Herfordshire)

As a child apart from the usual flirtation with careers such as trapeze artist and show jumper I never had any idea regarding a career. But I always said I would never teach.

I did my A levels and then went to University and stayed there doing one degree after another because the sports facilities were so good and that was my real interest. However I could not earn a living bouncing up and down on a trampoline or whacking tennis balls although I did manage to do it for one year.

Finally i ran out of subjects to study and it was time to get a 'proper' job. I applied to the local polytechnic and was employed as a lecturer in law. A temporary position until I found something else. Fifteen years later I was still looking for that something else and beginning to feel trapped.

I spent a lot of money on careers advice organisation but they all recommended that I become a teacher! I attended several interviews but it was the same job just a different venue.
Finally I decided to qualify as a solicitor so I enrolled in a course on a part time basis and spent the next two years working and studying. To reward myself I decided to take a year when I had finished my exams.

The course itself, the LPC, was very enjoyable and taught me many new skills such as negotiation and team work for the projects we had to complete. During this period my partner decided he was not 'happy' so we parted company and I took myself off on a holiday with a company that specialised in single travellers.

The holiday was just what I needed and also gave me an idea of what to do during my year out. I wrote to the company to see if they had any vacanies for a free lance tour leader. Four days later I was being interviewed and two days after that I was on my way to Bournemouth for my training weekend. Next stop Crete for five weeks.

Fourteen years and sixty countries later I am just as captivated as ever by the adventure and discovery of travel. The security of the legal profession has long been abandoned for a more precarious life as a freelance tour manager. But as new opportunities opened up so ambitions were soon to be fulfilled. I began to spend more and more time in Italy and, with the help of friends I had made there I learnt to speak Italian.

I had been keeping diary of my experiences and this became the basis of my first book. This book, Spirit of the Dolomites, is based in the beautiful resort of Madonna di Campiglio and includes the humorous confessions of a tour guide dealing with often disparate and sometimes challenging groups of travellers. Most of all, however, it recounts my own adventures while walking amid the stunning scenery of the Dolomites accompanied by Tabata the hotel dog, an endearing rascal who led me into endless escapades.

Other trips that I have led have taken me to Africa, where I achieved my ambition to go up in a hot air balloon, South Africa where I rode an ostrich and India where I saw a tiger in the wild. I have developed an interest in photography that has enabled me to use my own pictures for my books. The second one, about India is to be published next year.

I have never regretted making the change but it has not been easy. The phrase throwing away a good education was bandied about a lot when I first decided not to take up my Training Contract to become a solicitor but the skills I had learnt on the course I did have been useful when negotiating with hotels on behalf of angry client. Not having a fixed income can also be a concern but it is surprising what you can manage without – I did not really need a new car every two years after all. Working on a free lance basis has meant a lot of self-promotion that is something I have never been good at. But if you want something badly enough you can do anything – believe me. The real problem is first establishing exactly what it is that you want to do and then working hard to get it.

To follow me on my travels, see my photographs and get news about my books check out my website: www.valery-collins.co.uk