IN Travel

Travel broadens your horizons, no matter what your age and Mary Moody believes challenging yourself keeps everything in working order.

Sitting about knitting is not the kind of life Mary Moody has ever had in mind for herself. Keeping still and not pushing herself has never been an option.

As well as publishing four best-selling travel memoirs, Mary, 62, is also well known for presenting Gardening Australia on the ABC. She lives in Katoomba, near the Blue Mountains on a farm with ducks, sheep and a good-sized veggie patch. Travel is a regular part of her year whether it’s visiting Asia or staying at her second home in southern France.

In the early 1990’s adventure travel company World Expeditions approached Mary to guide a group to the Himalayan valley of Har-ki-dun to revel in the extraordinary local plant species.

Since then Mary has lent her expertise in plants, a love for yoga and exploring to guide numerous trips into Europe and Asia for the group. This year she will do four different trips, all of which link with a personal passion and an area of knowledge: exploring the food and wine of south-west France, the flowers and festivals of Mongolia, enjoying yoga and trekking in India plus a special trip to Nepal designed for grandparents and their grandkids.

“I’ve totally fallen in love with this kind of travelling,” Mary says of World Expedition’s brand of small group travel. “I’ve found them to be the most life changing of experiences as you get a chance to absorb history, culture and modern day life.”

Mary has taken two of her 10 grandchildren on the nana-grandkids Nepal trip and loves the idea of getting them away from their everyday urban lives.

“It’s one thing to see it on television, but it’s not the same to be there and see how other people live. I think it’s a bit of a reality jolt and a little challenging, but what a great way to learn about the world. I also had seven of them for two weeks in the school holidays and they can’t just sit there and watch movies. They have to get out, explore and swing over the creek.”

If Mary’s own grandchildren are anything to go by, she says their experiences have not only created a love for travel but an attitude of philanthropy and wanting to give back. “The trip really made them think a lot about things other than their small circle of friends and turn their eyes to a bigger place.”

Mary loves the fact that a large part of the trips she takes involve walking, so you get to see life from the ground, rather than through the windows of a car or bus. That’s when you can’t miss the baby in the hammock on the porch or the newly tended flowers in someone’s garden.

“I think you feel an enormous connection that way and people do like to feel part of the place they go to. For example, during the French trip we have picnics and have drinks in the homes of people I know.

“People who have been on these trips 10 or 15 years ago are still in touch and others keep coming on new tours, which is brilliant. There’s a familiarity there and it has bred some really strong relationships as a result of these adventures.”