Sixty before 60 - the New & Improved Bucket List

Welcome to my Sixty before 60 bucket list!

In 2020, just as Covid hit, I made myself a bucket list of things to do before I turned fifty. I had no idea at the time I would not be able to leave the country for almost two years, and occasionally not even be allowed to leave my house. Needless to say, I did not get to do everything on the list. It was ambitious anyway, to achieve all 50 things on the list in less than three years.

Now I have a whole ten years to get through this 60 before 60 list – so I’ve included all those things I didn’t get to on the old list and a whole pile of new things to make it up to sixty new travel experiences. Surely this time I will get through them all!

If you are wondering what this bucket list is all about, the short version is that I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2019. I went through treatment and came out the other side with a renewed sense of making the most out of life. It is no surprise I’m sure to hear that travel is my passion. It is what lights me up and brings me joy.

I have always had a (long!) list in my head of all those things I want to do next – now I also have it in writing. There is always more to see and do, but this gives me a list of things I can prioritise, rather than just waiting to see what comes along.

The first section below is carried over from my previous list. I have purposely left three spots blank so that I can add them if I come across something else. Ten years is a long time (yet not so long at all!)

Note: some links below (as I tick things off) go through to my other website, Exploring South Australia.

Current tally: 6/60

Trek in the Himalayas
Walk the Milford Track
Snorkel the Great Barrier Reef
Eat an insect
Walk on the Great Wall of China
See the Aurora Australis (sort of saw them in Tasmania, but not enough to say “done”!)
Watch sunrise at Mt Fuji
Fly first class (again)
Do a wine-blending class at the d’Arenberg Cube
Cycle the Riesling Trail
Swim with sea lions at Baird Bay
Start walking the Heysen Trail
Go to Womadelaide
Visit Darwin (and Kakadu National Park)
Go on a paddle steamer on the Murray River
Swim in an outback waterhole
Visit my last three South East Asian countries – Brunei, East Timor, Philippines
Ride in a Helicopter
See a Platypus in the wild
Cruise the Nile
Visit Yellowstone National Park (oldest)
See the Pyramids and Grand Egyptian Museum (planned, early 2024)
Visit the Museum of the Future in Dubai (planned, early 2024)
Attend Oberammergau (2030)
Visit continent #7 (Africa – planned, early 2024)
Do an African Safari
Trek to Macchu Picchu
Visit Saudi Arabia
Visit the remaining Great Wine Capitals of the World (Cape Town, Bilbao-Rioja, Lausanne, Verona, San Francisco-Napa Valley, Hawkes Bay – oh no, they keep adding to the list!)
Set foot on Antarctica
Stay in an underwater hotel (like Reefsuite on the GBR)
Cruise to the Galápagos Islands
See an erupting volcano
Go back to Agra and this time actually visit the Taj Mahal
See the Grand Canyon
Explore the Giant’s Causeway in the UK
Walk the Camino de Santiago
Visit the Coral Coast in WA
See the landscape of the Atacama Desert
And the Bolivia Salt Flats
Do a Sydney Harbour Cruise
Drive across the Nullarbor
See the Sydney NYE fireworks
Drive the Victorian silo art trail
Hike to the top of Mount Kosciusko
Get to Lord Howe Island
Actually speak in a foreign language (probably German)
Go skiing
Stay in an Agriturismo
Drink a Singapore Sling at Raffles
See how many of the remaining European countries (12 + 1 not officially recognised by the UN – Andorra, Belarus, Iceland, Ireland, Kosovo, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Spain, Ukraine) I can visit
Go to the Sydney Mardi Gras
Visit the Qantas museum at Longreach
Travel on the Ghan
See the stairway to the moon at Broome
Spend a few days in Robe
See the white beaches of the Whitsundays
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