Two girlfriends from Texas they had the experience of an adventure of a lifetime, traveling around the world in 80 days. Sandy Hazelip and Ellie Hubby, both 81, recently returned home after journey lasting 2.5 months that started in Antarctica and took them to the North Pole and Australia.
The adventure inspired by Jules Verne’s novel “Around the world in 80 days” started as an idea in 2020, when the two friends were working and Hazelip proposed the idea of traveling for as many days as their ages.
“Ellie and I love to travel, our health is good, we travel well together,” Hazelip said according to the blog.Around the World at 80» that they created. “We thought, “So wouldn’t it be fun to go around the world in 80 days when we’re 80 years old?“” he emphasized.
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It took nearly two more years for Sandy Hazelip, a doctor, and Ellie Hubby, a photographer, to begin their journey as travel restrictions related to COVID-19 were in place at most of their planned destinations.
“We put it off until 2023, so we could include Antarctica on our original itinerary,” said the two women, who met 23 years ago during a medical mission in Zambia and became good friends.
The trip started with a plane flight to Argentina on January 11th and then boarded a 60-person ferry to cross the Drake Passage to reach the less-visited continent and walk with penguins.

From there, their adventure took them to Easter Island to see “the mystical beauty in every corner” and the stone heads or Moai. The two-year postponement allowed for better budget planning and the ability to secure great deals for their hotels.
They even slept in airports to make their flights on time. In the past three months, Sandy Hazelip and Ellie Hubby rode camels in Egypt, met elephants in Bali, danced in Nepal and enjoyed the Northern Lights in Finland.

“We are both independent and stubborn. But it seems like we’re allowing each other space.” said Hubby for whom the best part of the trip was the people she met along the way. “We love all the sights we saw, but what we remember most are the people we met,” he said. “We met some of the most wonderful, kindest, friendliest people in the world. We just have friends now all over the world that we love very much,” he added.
During their adventure there were some last minute changes to the itinerary. “After leaving Easter Island, we planned to go to Peru and take the train to Machu Picchu” the friends wrote in a post on their blog. “Due to the political violence in Peru and especially in the Machu Picchu area, we had to cancel our trip there,” they said. The two friends passed through India and visited the Taj Mahal and continued the trip to see the amazing views of Mount Everest and Mount Fuji.

Australia and New Zealand were the final leg of their adventure, including traveling to Sydney and seeing the Great Barrier Reef in Queensland, before returning to Texas on April 1.
For those who think it was a once-in-a-lifetime trip, the two friends are already planning the new venture: “We are planning another trip when we turn 82 in 2024Hazelip revealed to TODAY.
Source: News Beast

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