Troy Gavin – Misadventures of a Nomad

Did you read Choose Your Own Adventure books when you were a kid? Troy did and found that sometimes life imitates art.

Those books and a psychic prediction of meeting a girl whose name starts with the letter M enticed Troy to grab his bug out bag and go AWOL from the Airforce. Troy filed out visa forms – Occupation ‘Adventure Tour Guide’ but off the books he was also a paid bootlegger, party decorator for the King of Thailand, llama herder, island bartender, ghost hunter, overland truck driver, negotiator for a gang of Gypsies, strawberry farmer and loaned his body to medical research.

The infectious travel bug bit while gate crashing an Australian Embassy party in Fiji during the first few days of that initial backpacking adventure. The only remedy was repeated year-long escapades of global capers. Two decades on, still travelling with a ‘no worries’ attitude, there is a collection of dog-eared passports, face to face encounters dodging man eating sharks, killer whales, hungry bears, mountain lions, amateur Mexican kidnappers, drug dealing Hells Angel bikers, tripping Amazonian Shaman, police car chases, a cross-dressing truckie and sharing a 6 pack with the real Santa as paradigm shifting memories from over 45 countries.

There are stories that will amaze, shock, make you laugh and others that are probably best left for sharing around a campfire. All compiled with a passion for exploring beyond the horizon and a shared vision for those intrepid souls who desire to pack a bag and Just WING IT.