why did the nomads travel

How Nomads Shaped Centuries of Civilization

A new book celebrates the achievements of wanderers, whose stories have long been overlooked

Anthony Sattin

Author,  Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World

A young man walks toward me with a stick slung across his back and a flock of sheep at his feet, which carry him down the path like a crowd of rowdy children. An older man follows, weatherworn but still strong, a rifle over his left shoulder. He clicks his tongue to encourage the flock. Behind him are two women on donkeys; I guess they are his wife and daughter. They look like strong women, but then it is a tough life beneath the peaks of the Zagros Mountains in western Iran. Other donkeys carry their belongings, bundled inside heavy rust-and-brown cloth that the women have woven and will soon repurpose as door flaps when their goat-hair tents are set up.

There are few trees at this altitude, but the snow has melted, and there is excellent grazing in the valley, which is blanketed with irises, dwarf tulips and other spring flowers. The family smiles as they lead their sheep and goats along the rock-strewn track toward me. I smile in return, swept up by the excitement of the Bakhtiari tribe ’s annual migration from the lowland plains into the mountains in search of summer pasture.

Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World

The remarkable story of how nomads have fostered and refreshed civilization throughout our history

Everywhere there is beauty. Slanting sunbeams tint the mountains pink and cast gold across the surface of the stream. The rumble of water is punctuated by the clunk of stones, the buzzing of bees, the whistling and whooping of men bringing the flocks in for the night. Barefoot and slightly sunstruck, I pull out a pencil to note the pure quality of light in the blue sky, the way yellow flowers pop in the green valley and the sudden chill that descends as soon as the sun drops behind the crest.

Over the next couple of days, the nomad family introduces me to their valley and their people. They talk about their lives, the tribal lands they know, the animals they raise, the children they worry about—should they send them to a state boarding school or raise them as nomads without formal education?—and the many other challenges of being a herder in the 21st century. They tell me about plants in the valley, what could grow there, what to encourage, what to fear. They talk about the journey they made from the hot lowlands into the mountains and how they would walk back again when the earth began to freeze beneath their feet, a journey their ancestors made long before anyone began keeping records.

I have heard similar stories from Bedouins and Berbers in North Africa and the Middle East, where I have spent much of my adult life; from Tuareg and Wodaabe beyond the mud houses and libraries of Timbuktu; from swift young Maasai , flashes of orange across the red East African bush; from nomads on the edge of the Thar Desert in India, on boats in the Andaman Sea, in the uplands of Kyrgyzstan and elsewhere in Asia . With all of them, conversation tends to settle on the same issue—of continuity, of pride in belonging, of being in harmony with their surroundings and respecting what nature offers. Also, of the difficulties of living a nomadic life when governments want you to settle .

These people remind me of a harmony that exists with the natural world. They know their environment in a way that can only be acquired through living on equal footing with the natural world, not in domination—through a recognition that humans are dependent on our surroundings, something those of us who live in towns and cities too easily forget. The Bakhtiari of Iran know the significance of each tone of their herds’ bleating—when the animals are content, or hungry, or threatened, whether a birth or death is near—just as they know how to read the clouds and the scents carried on the winds. The more I watch and listen, the more I’m reminded that we all lived this way once—and not so very long ago, in the greater scheme of human things.

Nomad . The word’s roots run through the human story back to an early Indo-European word, nomos , which can be translated as “a fixed or bounded area” or a “pasture.” Out of this root-word grew nomas , meaning “a member of a wandering pastoral tribe” and implying “someone looking for a place to graze their herds.” Later, the root split. After towns and cities were built, and more people settled permanently, the word nomad came to describe those who lived without walls and beyond boundaries. Nomad is now used by settled people in two very different ways. For some of us, the word is imbued with a sense of romantic nostalgia. But very often it carries an implicit judgment that such people are drifters, migrants, vagrants, people on the move or even on the run. They are people who are not known.

This sense that nomads are “not known” has long allowed settled people to dismiss the achievements of nomadic peoples . Although we tend to see their story as the shadow side of our own, the history of nomadic peoples is neither less wonderful nor less significant than our settled one. Their diverse and remarkable stories are set in some of the world’s most extreme landscapes, along a chronological line that stretches back to what we now believe was the beginning of monumental architecture, at Gobekli Tepe in Turkey around 9500 B.C.E.

And yet there is a prevailing sense, usefully crystalized in the neat observation by the French philosopher Gilles Deleuze, that “nomads have no history; they only have a geography.” But whether we acknowledge it or not, nomads have always been at least half of the human story. Their contributions have been essential to the march of what many historians have traditionally called civilization.

Take the Pars, a nomadic Indo-European tribe that rode off the great Eurasian steppes and settled on the upland plateau that is now Iran. Under a dynamic leader called Cyrus , in the sixth century B.C.E., the Pars established sovereignty from Macedonia to the Indus Valley, from what is now Oman up to the Black Sea. In the age when the Buddha was said to have found enlightenment, when the first Singhalese king ruled Sri Lanka and China was divided among numerous princes and kings, Cyrus was master of some 40 percent of the world’s population, befitting a man with titles such as the Great King, the King of Kings, and King of the Four Corners of the World,

Seventeen years after Cyrus’s death, one of his successors, Darius I , a man of nomadic stock whose kingdom had no cities, built a new kind of monument, which the ancient Greeks called Persepolis . The city of the Pars was not a city as we understand the word. Darius did not live there. Instead, Persepolis served as the sacred, ceremonial and diplomatic center of his empire, as well as its treasury. Raising the city’s great stone platform in front of a holy place called the Mountain of Mercy was a sacred act. Each year at Nowruz, the Persian New Year, the realm’s 27 subject tribes and nations sent representatives bearing gold, horses, linen and other tributes. But perhaps the most significant and revolutionary aspect of Persepolis lies in the way it fused art and architectural styles  drawn from Egypt to the Caspian Sea and across to the Fertile Crescent. Persepolis, in other words, was a celebration in stone of the racial and cultural diversity of the Persian Empire.

Four hundred years later, in the second century B.C.E., after the Roman Republic defeated Carthage and became masters of the Mediterranean, and as China flourished under the Han Emperor Wu, trade inched its way along the nascent Silk Roads across the vast nomadlands between the Yellow River and Europe. In the east, this territory was home to Xiongnu nomads ; in the west, to Scythians and other nomadic tribes with whom they found common cause, a huge confederation of people who herded, traded, and lived lightly and on the move.

From one end to the other, their territories stretched from the Black Sea across the Eurasian steppes and past Kazakhstan’s Altai Mountains all the way to Manchuria, an area larger and more powerful than the empires of both Rome and the Han Dynasty. These nomadic peoples shared in common a homeland that was alive with spirits, across which they roamed with slow, heavy-wheeled carts, driving horses, cattle and sheep in search of pasture. Challenging the familiar claim that early mobile people were primitive and isolated, we know from burials that their leaders dressed in Chinese silk robes trimmed with cheetah fur, sat on Persian carpets, used Roman glass, and fashioned exquisite jewelry from Greek gold to decorate themselves and their horses. All this raises the possibility that these nomads were the masters of a linked-up trading world that brought goods and cultural traditions from the East China Sea to the Atlantic Ocean.

More than 1,000 years later, high up on the Mongolian plateau, Genghis Khan established a camp of yurts that came to be known as Karakorum . The yurts were set up before his arrival and taken down when he moved on. Under his successors, solid structures were built and divided into neighborhoods, which were occupied by people from across the empire.

At a time when Europe was riven by fighting at home and swept up in the religious wars of the Crusades , Genghis Khan’s descendants opened their markets, lowered trade tariffs, and guaranteed protection for merchants moving goods along the Silk Roads and across their lands. From the Middle East came gold, pearls, spices, medical cures, musical instruments, damascened steel and gold-embroidered damask fabrics; from Russia came silver, amber, furs and fighters; from Korea, otter skins and paper; from Europe, wools, swords and glass; and from China, bolts of silk and crates of porcelain, among many other products.

A thousand years after the Scythians and their allies helped move Chinese silks to Rome, the Mongols created the largest trading zone the world had ever seen. It wasn’t unusual to find Venetians in Beijing, Mongolians in northern England, a French silversmith in Karakorum, or traders from Lucca and Siena driving hard bargains in Persia.

But trade goods were hardly the only assets that traveled. Across the great Asian mountain ranges drifted advances in technology, mathematics, medicine and religious traditions. Perhaps the most significant idea to travel west was the realization that in the East, which had stood for too long in the European imagination as a place of barbarism (an image that would, unfortunately, persist afterward ), there were nevertheless people of great skill and learning and leaders who were enlightened and ambitious.

This period of open exchange led to numerous world-shaping trends, including not insignificantly a freeing of the European imagination, which is perhaps most beautifully expressed in Europe’s great cathedrals of the age, from Chartres and Canterbury to Borgos in Spain and Budapest’s Matthias Church, commissioned to mark the end of a Mongol invasion. These architectural wonders expressed something of the new world order in their structures, their great spires pointing to the heavens, their interiors flooded with light; they demonstrated the inheritance of advanced mathematics from Persian and Arab scholars, which had made their construction possible, and the benefits of trade, which had funded them.

And yet, because nomads kept few records, raised few monuments and left scarce evidence of their passage through the world, much of what we know about them has been written by people who were not nomadic. Until archaeologists uncovered some of their burials in the 20th century, much of what was known about Scythians came from the Greek historian Herodotus . In East Asia, Sima Qian , the “Grand Historian” of Han China, remains a primary source for the Xiongnu. The 13th-century Flemish missionary William of Rubruck, who traveled to visit the Mongol khan, provided one of the most detailed accounts of remote central Asia at least until the 19th century. And the American naturalist Henry David Thoreau’s notebooks were the largest contemporary depository of 19th-century knowledge about Native Americans.

All of these are immensely valuable as historical records, but they are not always impartial nor objective. As a result, the nomads who frequently feature in Western histories—the Hun leader Attila , the Mongol emperors Genghis Khan and Timur, the ancient Scythians—are most often presented as barbarians. These prejudices run deep, as we know from a 3,500-year-old story in which a Sumerian princess considers marrying a nomadic pastoralist. “Their hands are destructive,” her friends tell her of nomads. “They never stop roaming about. … Their ideas are confused; they cause only disturbance.”

The dearth of records about nomadic history is compounded by the lack of presence and detail about women, which is perhaps unsurprising given that much of what we know about older nomad peoples comes from men. Yet we do know that nomadic women had great influence in their societies. This is borne out by the grandeur with which Scythians buried some of their women , and by the stature given to Attila’s senior wife, Kreka; a Roman emissary recorded that the only solid structure in the Hun capital was the empress’ bathhouse. We know of the anguish that the young Genghis Khan suffered when one of his brides, Börte, was kidnapped, and the central role she played after her safe return   in building and running the Mongol Empire. The Mughal Emperor Babur, for his part, relied on the brilliance of his grandmother, Aisan Daulat Begim, as a strategist in both military and social affairs. The fact that few of their voices reach us today is our loss, but we should not assume from their silence that they did not play a central role.

Most reports of nomadic peoples relate to times of conflict, as if war were the only instance settled chroniclers thought it worth mentioning these “other” people. These misrepresentations reflect neither the reality of nomadic life nor the totality of the relationship between nomadic and settled people, which has been both complimentary and interdependent for most of the past 10,000 years. Reevaluating our wandering “other half” allows us to see what we have learned from people who live on the move and shows us how much we have gained from cooperation. It also lets us glimpse another way of living, one that is nimble, flexible and in balance with the natural world—the way the “other” branch of humankind has chosen from the time that we all hunted in the gardens of the deep past.

Excerpted from Nomads: The Wanderers Who Shaped Our World by Anthony Sattin . Text copyright © 2022 by Anthony Sattin. With permission of the publisher, W. W. Norton & Company, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Anthony Sattin is the author of several acclaimed books of history and travel, including The Gates of Africa and Young Lawrence . An Anglo-American, he lives between London, England and Italy. anthonysattin.com  

The Silk Road

The area covered by the Silk Road is one of the largest landlocked regions of the world. It has deserts, mountains, few navigable waterways, and soil that does not lend itself to extensive crop agriculture. This is all we need to know to understand that for nomads in this region, migration with livestock is the only means of survival. It also helps us understand the importance of horses in nomads' lives. Horses were used for transportation and were also the mainstay of nomad commerce, as they were traded to the settled nations that bordered the area.

The relationship between nomads and the settled civilizations that surrounded this vast land was one of commerce as well as warfare. The nomads' trade was not based on gain but rather on providing themselves with goods they did not produce. In exchange for much-prized horses necessary for their internal and external defense, the settled civilizations provided textiles (silk and linen), tea, and quite often grain. But political alliances and empire building by various dynasties within the settled civilizations also led to conflict between the nomads and their neighbors. Nomads would forge shifting alliances with one another and engage in raids against settled civilizations, primarily to acquire goods and booty. It is a paradox that, in order to resist the attacks of the nomads, the settled civilizations needed the horses that only the nomads could provide.

Nomads form two distinct cultural groups: Turkic and Mongolian. Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, and Uzbeks, among others, are Turkic-language-speaking nomads. For centuries, they traveled the riverine valleys and grasslands with their animals: horses, Bactrian camels and dromedaries, yaks, oxen, mules, and donkeys. Certain Turkic nomadic groups moved into Anatolia and by the 15th century were strong enough to defeat the Byzantine Empire in Constantinople (Istanbul) and establish the powerful and long-lived Ottoman Empire.

The Mongols journeyed across Central Asia from their homeland in Mongolia with their herds of horses, horned cattle, camels, sheep, and goats. Under Genghis (Chinghis) Khan the Mongols built a nomadic empire that in the 13th and 14th centuries stretched from the Black Sea at the edge of Europe to the Pacific coast in China. Within this empire, the need to transport people, goods, and information resulted in a system of roads, rest houses for travelers, and a pony-express-like communication system. Genghis Khan's descendants later formed empires in South Asia, Iran, Central Asia, and China.

Besides the Turkic and Mongolian nomads, other nomadic groups have traveled along the Silk Road region and continue to do so. Romany (Gypsies), thought to have originated in India, have moved across Asia to Europe, with their distinctive language, music, and other traditions reflecting cultures they have encountered. Tibetan nomads moved among the highest Himalayan valleys and passes.

For the nomads, the redrawing of the maps of Europe and the Middle East following World War I and II, the independence of former British and French colonies, and the collapse of the Soviet Union meant that many of their migration routes were cut off by the creation of new national boundaries. Government policies of these new nations have encouraged nomadic communities to settle in fixed locales and to change their way of making a living. In addition, while natural disasters have always been a part of the nomads' world, ecological pressures of the 20th and 21st centuries have introduced new hazards. These include industrialization (leading to air pollution and water contamination), the encroachment of settled communities on formerly nomadic areas (soil erosion being one result), and global warming. These new hazards are forcing nomads to travel increasing distances with their herds in order to graze them successfully, to find alternate ways of supporting their nomadic existence, or even to abandon it altogether. Those nomads who have settled give new form to old practices: for example, their houses, although no longer portable, may be shaped like yurts.

Genghis (Chinghis) Khan and the Mongol Empire In the early 13th century the Mongol Genghis Khan consolidated most of the nomads on the steppe, put together an extraordinarily well-disciplined army, and created an empire greater than any that had existed before. His Mongolian empire encompassed north China, Central Asia, much of Russia, especially Siberia, and extended to today's Eastern Europe and parts of Iran.

Saying that an "empire is conquered on horseback but it cannot be governed on horseback," Genghis Khan used local officials of his conquered territories such as Uyghur Turks from Turpan and Chinese from north China to advise him on the governance of his new territories.

After Genghis Khan's death, Mongolian nobles met to elect his successor. They chose his son, who was not a universally popular choice and did not rule for long. After the son's death there was a struggle for the Great Khanate, and by the 1260s the empire broke into four autonomous, and powerful, Mongol empires: 1) the Golden Horde in Russia; 2) the Chaghadai Khanate in Central Asia; 3) the Ilkhanate in Iran; 4) the Yuan dynasty in China, whose first emperor, Kublai Khan, was Genghis Khan's grandson.

During the latter half of the 13th century and into the middle of the 14th century these four empires controlled the area covered by the Silk Road and brought stability to it, creating a period called Pax Mongolica (Mongolian Peace). The Mongols during this period were cosmopolitan in their outlook and tolerant of many religions, and they encouraged trade with Europe. It was to Kublai's court that Marco Polo traveled, as did the first papal envoys. And Rabban Sauma (a Chinese Assyrian Christian) traveled from the capital in Dadu (present-day Beijing) to Paris. During the Pax Mongolica the different parts of the empire were influenced by the religions of the regions they had conquered. The Mongols in China and Mongolia adopted Buddhism, while those in Central Asia and Iran adopted Islam.

The Silk Road defines an exchange of products, both material and intellectual, across Eurasia from China to the Mediterranean, traditionally from the 2nd century B.C.E. through the first twelve centuries of the Common Era. People who know something of the Silk Road think first of the transport of silk to Rome or the expansion of Buddhism from India to China, although certainly it is much more. But why silk, and why a road to describe this exchange? Silk provides the example of a mysterious luxury product for which people throughout the region were willing to pay high prices and even jeopardize lives. And the "road" refers to the exchange of those material products that traveled by land, although this literal meaning must be extended to include cultural and spiritual exchanges that would be part of a metaphorical Silk Road. Beyond these definitions the idea of the Silk Road is still available for new interpretations. And in the political environment prevailing in 2002, the idea was particularly evocative.

Visitors to the Festival were greeted by five "sentinels of arrival," landmarks along the ancient Silk Road: St. Mark's Square in Venice, Hagia Sophia (Ayasofya) mosque/church/museum in Istanbul, Registan Square in Samarkand, the Xi'an bell tower, and the great gate to Todaiji Temple in Nara. Each housed a stage that reflected a different performance tradition. The performing arts selected for the Festival were grouped into spiritual activities, courtly entertainment, local celebrations and entertainments, nomadic presentations, and new musics that draw from tradition. Spiritual music, for example, provided the program an opportunity to present the stories of the expansion of religion - Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity - along the Silk Road. Buddhist monks from Tibet and Sufi Muslim devotees from Turkey and Bangladesh highlighted the central role that religion played in Silk Road trade.

Existing examples of ancient silk, pottery, carpets, and glass all tell very specific stories of travel and exchange and remind us of the extent to which people across the region have been connected throughout history. What may be surprising to some, however, is how many such objects are still made today. The curatorial staff chose to feature ceramics, silk and cotton textiles, carpets, paper, and stone and metal products, including glass. Each was in a different compound - the Paper Garden, the Ceramics Courtyard, the Silk Grove, the Family Oasis, and the Jewel Garden - and told a story from a different period along the Silk Road, including, in some cases, a chapter from life in the United States. Paper, for example, was invented in China and remained a secret of the region for centuries; along with written language, writing materials were thought to possess magical qualities. Religious texts as well as commercial bills were written out and transported along a route that, through such communication, could more easily function. Each region added its own distinctive features of paper art including Turkish marbling and Italian watermarks. Similar elaborations have been made in the art of calligraphy, which, particularly in Islamic and Chinese cultures, has become highly refined and stylistically differentiated as to school and usage. Representatives of these schools still train new generations of artists along the Silk Road and in the United States.

The movement of religious traditions around the world has arguably been one of the most important forces throughout world history. Both Islam and Buddhism were introduced to millions of new adherents along the Silk Road, and these conversions continue to alter the face of our world. These religions, along with all of the above exchange goods, have also altered the face of the United States. Many Americans drink tea in fine china, buy "Oriental" carpets, and certainly wear garments of cotton, wool, and silk. They are likely familiar with Asian martial arts and may attend an Islamic mosque. The Silk Road has extended to the United States and, since the tragic events of September 11, 2001, understanding that connection clearly has become more important. The 2002 Festival offered its million visitors the opportunity to learn more about the roots of this vital connection and to celebrate the long-standing relationships that have existed between East and West and North and South. The Festival provided a rare opportunity to connect with other cultures as well as with one's own and in doing so, in a small way, to build trust between and within cultures of the global Silk Road.

Richard Kennedy and Theodore Levin were Co-Curators, assisted by a Curatorial Committee whose members included Milo Beach, Jean During, Henry Glassie, Tom Kessinger, Alma Kunanbay, and Yo- Yo Ma. Cristin Bagnall, Jean Davidson, Catherine Gevers, Richard Kennedy, Richard Kurin, Theodore Levin, Diana Parker, and Esther Won made up the Production Committee. Rajeev Sethi was Festival Scenographer, and James Deutsch, Stephen Kidd, Arlene Reiniger, and Shayna Silverstein were Program Coordinators. Betty Belanus was Family Activities Coordinator; Jane Farmer was Paper Garden Coordinator; Marjorie Hunt was Silk Grove Coordinator; and Diana Baird N'Diaye was Fashion Court Coordinator.

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Why Did Our Nomadic Ancestors Settle Down? They Wanted To Own Stuff

What caused nomadic people to settle down explore the key factors of mobility that contributed to this pivotal shift in history..

Most people will agree — moving is a pain. It’s exhausting to find boxes, pack up possessions, and haul them into a vehicle. Given the difficulty, most people stay put in their residences for years at a time.

But living in the same location is a relatively new human experience. For hundreds of thousands of years, people were nomadic. They sometimes stayed in a place for mere hours before moving on.

Eventually, most people gave up the nomadic lifestyle. Scientists are still learning about ancient nomads and why people stopped being nomadic.

When Did People Stop Being Nomadic?

Scholars don’t agree as to when people moved away from a hunter-gatherer nomadic lifestyle. It’s thought  that people widely stopped being nomadic around 12,000 years ago as agriculture became an alternative.

However, the end of the hunter-gatherer lifestyle didn’t happen immediately. In some parts of the world, it took thousands of years for people to learn how  to cultivate different crops . 

What Is a Nomad?

The word nomad  is rooted  in the Greek word  nomads , meaning to graze or pasture flocks. The term is related to the experience of moving along with herded animals, but it’s largely used to describe any group of mobile people. 

Pastoral Nomads

Ancient nomads were mobile for a variety of reasons, and their stationary times ranged from mere hours to entire seasons, depending on the resources they were seeking. Pastoral nomads, for example, raised and cared for herded animals. They moved based on access to grazing land and drinkable water for their herd. Pastoral people were semi-nomadic, and the group sometimes settled by a particular resource for several months at a time.

Hunter-gatherers

Hunter-gatherers had different motivations to move. They based their mobility on access to food, water, and safe living conditions. For example, if they found themselves conveniently near an animal’s seasonal migration path, they might have stayed the entire season. But they might stay for years if they happened upon a lake teeming with fish and waterfowl. 

Read More: Nomads as Post-Hunter-gatherers

What Caused Nomadic People to Move Around?

We can understand why human communities settled and adapted using two distinct ideas: residential mobility and restricted mobility.

Residential Mobility

Researchers use the term “residential mobility” to describe nomadic situations in which an entire group of people packed up all their belongings and walked to a new location.

However, the distance a group was able to travel was determined by many factors, such as the ability to cross terrain or the possibility of territory disputes.                                              

Restricted Mobility 

Groups with limits on how far they could travel or restrictions on when they could travel experienced “restricted mobility.” Restricted mobility might have entailed a snowy mountain pass that prevented a group from crossing during the colder months. Or it could have involved a rival group that had access to a prized resource they had no intent in sharing.

Mobility restrictions sometimes meant there were times when only a segment of the population could move, and one group might have had multiple camps. 

Read More: Who Were the Ancient Scythians?

Why Did Humans Stop Being Nomadic?

People living in various regions of the world had distinct reasons for ending their once-nomadic lifestyles.  One theory  is that people began using different forms of food storage in times of abundance. These primitive pantries gave people an incentive not to wander far.

As groups stayed put, they found other benefits to stopping their wandering ways. As anyone who has traveled during the holidays with children can attest, it’s a lot to lug kids from one place to the next. Remaining in one location was less stressful on the family unit, and it increased the likelihood of a child’s survival.

How Agriculture Contributed to Settled Lifestyles

Scholars typically agree there was evidence that early nomadic groups were communal cultures that shared resources and didn’t have a sense of personal property. Part of this was because nomadic groups simply didn’t have a lot of personal possessions. Moving about meant people couldn’t own what they couldn’t carry.

The rise of agriculture ushered in  a sense of property  ownership. A settled lifestyle allowed people to build dwellings accrue items, and perhaps, if they felt like it, not share with others. Some scholars have argued that personal property or a sense of ownership of items significantly motivated people to stop being nomadic.

Read More: What Did the Transition From Hunter Gatherer to Farming Really Look Like?

Are There Any Nomadic Cultures Still?

Although most of the world transitioned from a nomadic lifestyle, there are cultures that are still mobile. An estimated  30 to 40 million  people globally live a nomadic lifestyle. Rather than being the hunter-gatherer type like the ancients, most move to herd animals (pastoral nomads) or sell goods and services (peripatetic nomads).   

Read More: What Is a Nomad, and Are There Any Nomadic Tribes That Still Exist?

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BecomeNomad

Long Term Travel and Digital Nomad Lifestyle.

Dan Rozenblum

Post Author

Date Posted

We’re may not be historians at Become Nomad, but today we’re taking a big-picture, historical look at the evolution of nomadism.

Because understanding where we are and where we’re going is hard without knowing where we’ve been.

Listen to the full pod here:

Wanna hear more? Subscribe on  Stitcher ,  iTunes ,  Spotify , or wherever!

In the beginning, nomadism was humanity’s norm

This itself is pretty interesting, that nomadism is our origin. Back in the period of hunters and gatherers, modern-day nomads would probably find a way to thrive.

Back then, at a time when humanity had a low global population closer to one million, people organized themselves into smaller, spread-out communities. Groups of up to 100 or so would depend on each other and live cohesively.

You would wake up, find food, hunt something, and eventually drift elsewhere. It was a great time for nomad freedom, but obviously it came with many disadvantages: The dangers of even the mildest infections, shorter life expectancy, minimal certainty of safety. And minimal certainty of anything, really.

But it was an interesting period to be alive all the same: This uncertainty and openness likely translated into lots of spirituality because there was no noise, no technology, and no other attachments to distract. All these people had was thinking and more thinking – to a degree that we don’t have today. Sure, we may have heightened intelligence and knowledge… But we likely don’t have their level of open thought and spirituality.

The evolution of nomadism is a transition towards security and comfort

So we have this concept of purely nomadic communities that moved together out of necessity. If food got scarce or weather became unfavorable, they all moved together to best handle those circumstances.

Hunters and gatherers had small communities that took more direct care of one another… And also had to deal with more sensitive internal politics. But they fulfilled a basic need of community on a higher level than what we have now.

Today, we’re still social animals but we’re relatively more alone. That sense of community has kinda been replaced by the nuclear family. And our original tribal nature has eroded and become replaced by other less personal forms of community: Sports teams, nationalities, etc…

What went wrong? Or, depending on how you look at it, what went right? Either way: What changed?

What happened was this: We started leaving this lifestyle because we had something to lose. The idea here is that basic technological advancements – creating fire, harvesting wheat, farming animals – created attachments. In turn, it enabled people to settle down in one location.

So we might have lost a lifestyle that was optimal for our happiness and well-being for a lifestyle that allows more certainty and safety with the caveat of more attachments and obligations.

Much like what we’ve discussed with modern nomadism, the minute these attachments pop up, you lose the flexibility of mobility. Whether our ancestors realized it or not, these attachments came with a big price. And it’s not clear that this was a purposeful decision; it seems that these attachments naturally crept into nomads’ lives to the point where the alternative cost and fear of losing certainty got too big.

This ties to the idea of loss aversion that Daniel Kahneman once popularized: The pain we experience when we lose something is much greater than the joy of receiving the equivalent out of the blue.

And maybe that’s actually why we’ve survived as a species. We’ve evolved to be risk-averse and to avoid losing things in an effort to keep us safe. Human psychology thus makes it inherently difficult to break free of attachments.

Another interesting way to look at it is that these attachments actually acted on and domesticated our species. In his book Sapiens , Yuval Noah Harari notes how wheat used us as a tool – it took away our freedom to make itself become the most important plant. In a way, it forced our attachment to it to benefit its own evolution. And we obliged.

The evolution of nomadism always featured some rebels with a cause

Even as people started to settle, there were a handful of rebels. Buddhists in particular made notable efforts to disconnect from this societal trend. (And, interestingly, they often did so in groups; the Buddha himself ended his nomadic life with hordes of followers at his side).

Tribes that kept a nomadic rhythm to their lives – the Irish Romani or the Arab Bedouins, for instance – quickly became outcasts. When you move around like they did, sedentary societies don’t trust you.

And now, a lot of these tribes have been domesticated. Partially due to valuable attachments but also due to the social price you pay as a nomadic group. And this price often comes with good reason – your efforts to preserve your lifestyle might clash with those building a sedentary lifestyle.

These implications of being nomadic when most people are non-nomadic are extensive. Most prominently: The waves that pulled us away from nomadism benefited those who emerged in charge. In a sedentary world, controlling nomads is harder because of both their free movement and spirit.

One interesting case study is the Zen monks of Japan. As Alan Watts has talked about extensively, these people’s primary motivation was moving around and asking questions of different people in an effort to reach greater answers about life. This isn’t exactly a group of people that sedentary leaders are going to have an easy time forcing to conform…

Avoiding the “outcast” label as a nomad throughout history

The nature of attachments is that the cage gets bigger and stronger the more technology progresses. This cage takes the form of large social structures – think cities, nation-states – that effectively keep you grounded.

Throughout the evolution of nomadism, people who were rebellious but didn’t want to be outcast found other ways to satisfy the nomadic urge (much like how many digital nomads do now). Yeah, they were adventurously moving around the world, but there were justifiable reasons backing them up. These sorts of people used to be the Marco Polo-esque diplomats, the well-traveled merchants, and even the ambitious missionaries of the world.

There were and still are a few ways to run away from the structured, isolated, urban, Netflix lifestyle and still look “sane,” like you’re still part of society. You can stay part of the game but maintain your under-the-radar beliefs and support a lifestyle that satisfies deeper spiritual desires. That’s digital nomadism in a nutshell.

So what’s killed the evolution of nomadism?

If you look at how tech has gotten better and nation-states have gotten more powerful, you’ll see that nomadic groups have become marginalized. And then they dwindle.

For these nomads, not playing the sedentary-lifestyle game proved to be unsustainable. But when they joined the game, they found themselves at a disadvantage of coming late. In a way, this vicious cycle has stamped out nomadism.

In today’s sedentary-heavy world, the guiding principle of the modern world with all of its attachments and higher standard of living is “You’re not there yet.” You’re not there yet as a kid since you need schooling. But after even higher education you still need a job. And then you still need to grow this career and build a family and buy a home. And even then you’re not there yet because you need more money for your retirement and for your children’s future. Etc… etc…

Our entire society is built on status games where the main rule is “You’re not there yet.” Alan Watts really articulates this point: When you finally are there, at age 80 or so, it’s too late to do most of the things you wanted to. It’s not a revolutionary idea anymore, but it’s simply the truth of how our modern society works.

And, as we’ve said before, this isn’t a bad thing! We’re not against the status quo; the status quo has emerged for a reason. And it’s probably the optimal lifestyle for 90 to 95 percent of humanity. But… Maybe it doesn’t have to be for you.

And just by reading this site and listening to our podcast, it means that in some sense you’re looking for something else. This thing might not exist or it might be too difficult to achieve, but at least you realize you might be on the edge of that 95 percent.

So here’s the question: What do we do? And we don’t necessarily have the answers. But maybe, forming and merging yourself into the status quo is not your best-case scenario.

The double-edged sword of technology

Let’s look at this next phase in the evolution of nomadism. While technology has boosted the attachments that have pushed people towards sedentary lifestyles, it has also given us some freedom to pursue a nomadic path. (To be clear – tech has definitely done more against nomadism, but we’re currently seeing that shift).

As for the subset of digital nomadism that has emerged, many don’t consider it real nomadism since we’re attached to our work and have similar attachments, only in the virtual world. It’s like we’re leading a double life, and we’ll actually talk about this more in a future episode.

But tech has allowed us to disconnect from our location. To be self-sustainable but also location independent. And now, interestingly, Covid-19 has further challenged this model by showing us the importance of our base countries.

But the big idea is that tech is now giving us new tools to enable nomadic living. How to do it in the best way possible – particularly post-Covid – is another story.

Where the future of nomadism might go beyond our lifetimes

Get ready for some big-time conjecture here

I see three futuristic paths that may emerge as the evolution of nomadism continues . And naturally, a fourth path we don’t see is likely to be what happens.

The first path: A “meta-verse.” Coined by writer of Snowcrash , an interesting cyber-punk book that we heavily recommend. And the idea behind it is that the virtual world will become much more powerful than it is today… To the point where subsets of nomads reject the overly-structured physical world and transition to the virtual world.

I think it’s safe to say we all hope this artificial, simulation-heavy reality doesn’t become our norm. But it’s already kinda happening. Either via RPG games or other online tribes, many people – especially in younger generations – are trending down this path. And it’s not crazy to envision that nomadism will overlap with it.

One has to wonder, by the way, why even the lowest-quality RPG games from the 80’s were so addictive. Some inner psychological bug or some outer societal bug seems to always push people towards escaping towards other realities.

The second path: Space. It surely won’t be in our lifetime, but future nomads who get bored with this commercialized world might have the chance to travel beyond our planet and continue mankind’s need for exploration.

It won’t be for us, and it may sound like Sci-Fi, but if current humanity gets its act together, it may be our grandchildren’s grandchildren’s reality.

A more reasonable third path, though, is one on Earth. If a more deadly pandemic or a catastrophic global war breaks our existing society down, we may just have to restart at nomadism to deal with the uncertainty and lack of structures (… probably in a much sadder reality than our hunter-gatherer ancestors did).

So there you have it: Some random thoughts the evolution of nomadism. Many things here are obviously subjective and conjectural, but we think it’s important to form some understanding to better plan for our future.

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Center for Literary Publishing

Colorado review, a college of liberal arts center.

Featured in Colorado Review

A History of Nomadism

About the Feature

Photo by Mark Bonica

It is not down in any map; true places never are. —Herman Melville, Moby Dick

1. Black-Tent

In the deserts near my home in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, Bedouin pitched their black-tents. This was the late-1970s, but the same style tent once housed Abraham and Moses according to the Old Testament and pre-dates those books by millennia. Out in the sands, I’d scan the horizon for the tents’ low-slung pentagram shapes, for the camels and cooking fires. My dad told me Bedouin are the most gracious of peoples, that hospitality is the cornerstone of nomadism. He said desert nomads will starve to give a visitor—even a visiting enemy—a meal. This was what interested him: insights into the varied social universes intrinsic to his career managing international contracts. But it was the black-tents that repeated in my seven- and eight-year-old mind like a favorite song.

Their stark premise exhilarated me, then as now: A primary residence that is portable. The tent-home is as intimate and nimble as room-sized clothing. It untethers the domestic world from address, lightens it to a freedom of movement. Its inhabitants must plant roots someplace other than a patch of earth, a hometown’s fixed proximities, instead reaching ambient, skyward. Maybe a nomadic child grows like an epiphyte, all nutrients critical for development absorbed from the traveled-through atmospheres—fabrics of light, language, scent, and sound, their inherited and intuited meanings.

2. Synaptic

I have a history of nomadism. Growing up, I moved on average once a year, lived in seventeen homes across four continents—very particular corners of North America, Asia, Europe, and South America—by the time I graduated from high school at age seventeen. Like traditional pastoral nomads, my sense of home was as temporary as a campsite. But unlike them, my family’s “campsites”—our homes—were never revisited. No seasonal structure directed my family’s movements; no terrain was deemed ours—our family’s, our ancestors’—to revolve around with grazing animals, whether goats or camels or sheep; no regular orbit of travel arranged the world into a geographic pattern my family might call, on the grandest scale, a home.

Yet nomads we were, twentieth-century people from the developed world moving far and wide to “develop” the rest of it. What directed our travel were my father’s white-collar jobs on massive engineering and building projects—the very construction that halts traditional ways of living, spreads postmodern clockworks, technologies, transit systems. The culture we brought miniaturized weeks of overland travel into five-hour flights and fused intricate synaptic cross-stitchings of cityscapes, histories, cuisines, topographies, religions, artworks, and languages—all as we’d found them in our own, constantly shifting backyard.

My family’s version of nomadism continues an original American tradition: to chase that setting sun. Going back just as far as “America,” nearly all my ancestors were typical colonial-era religious refugees who had to get out of the Old Country in a hurry. Three to four hundred years ago, these people boarded wooden ships from Atlantic Europe to North America and landed in a history lesson of the colonies—Plymouth, New Amsterdam, Massachusetts Bay Colony, Philadelphia, and dozens more. Then their descendants surged through one frontier after another, inexorably west, until all my great-grandparents were born west of the Mississippi; all my grandparents raised their kids in Washington, Oregon, or California. And my parents, not to be stymied by the continent’s Pacific coastline, leapt up like a sneaker wave and landed in Saudi Arabia.

Why did my parents do this? For the money, yes, but probably not any more money than had they stayed put. Their hunger for distance—and thus mine—seems inborn, intractable. My mother quotes her Tigris, Missouri-born father on his own family’s restlessness: “We are called to the next mountain.”

What are “we” trying to find there? What do we create from mobility, from the drive that transfuses the imagination and reroutes the intellect into maps we can’t help but follow?

My parents drifted over my brother and me like mostly sunny, sometimes unpredictable weather systems able to cyclone us suddenly around the planet—to the streets of Lahore, Rome, Cairo, Dublin, Panama City, and Bangkok; of Kathmandu, Edinburgh, Bogotá, Heidelberg, Jubail, Amsterdam, and Nairobi; of Hong Kong, Athens, Mombasa, Kuwait City, Frankfurt, London, and Abu Dhabi.

So like any nomadic child, I learned to apprehend places differently than settled people. During all the travel, as each of my homes was replaced by another, again, another, again, those seventeen times, the world loosened for me into flexible components: the view from another kitchen window, shadows cast by unfamiliar trees, my self refracted through more strangers in a new classroom. Patchwork, scraps, jumble—these fragments pieced into a perspective that lacked a solid middle distance; that place we take for granted to be “real life” kept disappearing on me. Over time, only the very near (inside my head) or the very vast (“London,” “astronomy,” “poetry”) felt tangible or trustworthy or discoverable. This ongoing abstraction was abetted by cardboard.

Because we lived mostly out of boxes. Boxes in various stages of being packed and unpacked, sealed up, sliced open; carted off to a moving van or storage; sitting in my new, strange-smelling bedroom. Boxes always ordered or rustled up by my mother, kept track of on yellow pads in voluminous detail by my mother, packed and unpacked with extraordinary speed and skill by my mother. My mother was a homemaker, both in the “did not work outside the home” sense and, far more concretely, as she settled and dismantled our multitude of homes. Meanwhile, my father was nearly always “at work”—that phrase a partial cover for his secret, deepening absence, one that will earn him the label “extremely high-functioning.” He, by contrast, rarely did any packing.

4. Architect

Bedouin call themselves “ahl el beit” or “people of the tent.” Their tribes once numbered in the hundreds, though all are said to share an ancient and highly reasonable bias against sedentary townspeople for being—in comparison to them—slow, soft, and materialistic. The word “Arab” itself has roots in nomadism; in ancient Hebrew, the term was often used to describe tent-dwelling desert people, just as Muhammed used it in the Quran centuries later. Bedouin trace their patrilineal ancestry all the way through Ishmael, son of Abraham, back to Adam. But only they live as Ishmael once did, in tents woven of hair from the black goats led from place to place for grazing, along routes followed since a continuously relevant antiquity.

The weaving of the tent fabric is done, not so surprisingly, by women. Women also design the tents. They fabricate them by hand, expand them as their family grows, replace pieces as they wear out. And it is women who pitch the tents. Women construct and settle the campsites—tasks usually accomplished in under an hour. When it’s time to go, they dismantle and pack up the tents and belongings in equally brief time.

Women have performed this form of home-building in every black-tent tribe—whether Bedouin or Berber, Kurdish or Tibetan. And they’ve done so in nearly every other traditional tent-dwelling culture across Asia, Europe, and North Africa: like the Tuareg, who weave animal skins into their goat-hair tents, or the indigenous peoples of Siberia and Lapland, whose conical, wool-and-animal-skin tents—like the Lapp kata —are primarily fabricated by and always pitched by women. In North America, the iconic tipi of nomadic Plains tribes were owned, designed, and constructed at each campsite by women.

The word “architect” contains this lightly buried cultural legacy. It derives from two Greek roots: archi, director, and tectos, weaving. To be an architect once meant to conceive and create a moveable housing of textiles or sewn skins—dwellings lightweight enough to be transported on a camel or donkey or horse, yet strong enough to withstand the elements. And among nearly all traditional tent-dwelling peoples, the idea was synonymous with being female.

Paper, as for any book lover, manifests “journey” for me: the horizon-like sweep of page, print’s ink trails leading the reader onward. But the moving boxes’ paper is ingeniously built for literal journeys, origamied into usefulness of the most practical kind: cardboard strong enough to hold almost anything.

Like covers to unwieldy books, each box was scrawled with a title that doubled as setting: LIVING ROOM, EVAN’S ROOM, KITCHEN, MEGAN’S ROOM. Sometimes subheadings followed: “Neal’s papers,” “Sherry’s sewing machine,” “Sherry’s books.” Most boxes featured the word “books”—my mother’s family value. Though we would never settle into a permanent home, we would always have enough books, shipped around the planet at considerable expense. Books mimic adrenaline to the narratively restless: nests of worlds in which the mind takes predestined flights from time and place.

The boxes were numbered 1-89 or 1-112 or 1-136, like too many chapters in a rambling, episodic novel. Together, they told a story, attempted a plot that defied any classical arc, featuring exactly no suspense, climax, or development. The characters they depicted—American family of mom and dad, daughter and son—were merely owners of some items that kept moving around, without explanation, cause or effect. Boxes got packed, unpacked, shuffled from home to home, storage unit to moving van to shipping container in an obsessive, nonlinear ritual. One box perpetually belonged in a well-stocked, country-style kitchen. One listed certain “Sports Equipment.” Another box, “Spode fine bone,” was stashed in our Houston two-car garage, then vanished from a truck heading west.

My mother grew up in houses filled with boxes, as her family moved to college towns up and down the West Coast for her father’s teaching and coaching jobs. These moves performed for her how “home” was never there for long, so how much did it really matter? Boxes enabled my brilliant father’s escape out of tiny Big Bear, California, away from his “broken” childhood home, and toward a world where his wits could take him—almost literally—anywhere. It’s as if he thought: Anyone can have a home, but not everyone can travel the world the way we can.

“When we get all our boxes out of storage . . .” opened my family’s favorite fairy tale. But our boxes never stayed out of storage for long. They protected our belongings, while also preventing them from being swept into the drenching continuum of life, the coherence—however messy—of a family home. The boxes were strong enough to compartmentalize even that.

They still do. Today, nearly all my parents’ possessions are housed in boxes in my mother’s storage unit in Seattle, not far from where she lives, a widow now for twenty years.

7. Belonging

Traditional camel-herding Bedouin live with the sparsest essential belongings. Even their tents are minimalist compared to hardier nomadic structures like the yurt or tipi, which possess heavy freestanding frameworks constructed of wood or wattle. By contrast, a black-tent may be pitched using a single pole, the fabric stretched into shape by a tensile network of long ropes, hooked from the fabric panels and pegged deep into the ground. The poles, fabric, rope, and pegs together compose the framework, each element interdependent in holding the structure in place. This is a mobile architecture so ingeniously sturdy yet lightweight that it’s been in use since the Stone Age.

Most nomadic tents consist of a single room divided into distinct zones of living. In Bedouin black-tents, women and children sleep in a larger space on the left side, with men’s sleeping rolls confined to the right. A fabric flap divides the two sides, and it’s lowered when male visitors are greeted on the men’s side—also where the coffee pot resides. But nothing, including social convention, prevents women from joining in any conversation. Bedouin women may not be seen by male visitors, but they can very much be heard.

Bedouins traditionally make nearly every item they own, their caravan a self-sustaining transit system of food and shelter. Goat-wool yarn is hand-spun by girls as they walk; freestanding looms are kept near the open cooking fire, where women weave the fabric for their family’s clothing, bedding, and domicile; men sit outside to work the camel-skin leather saddles they use to ride their camels. Sleeping usually takes place inside the tent, but Bedouin prefer to live outdoors. They consider the desert—its vastness and desiccation and horizon—to be their true home.

The entire world—or at least where the most lucrative engineering projects might be occurring—opened up to my family as a potential future home. At one point, India was mentioned. At another, Indonesia. An unsettling discussion involving a transfer to Connecticut occurred. My family didn’t move to these places, but their shapes, their possible breaths, bumped against my own history, my immediate future, parallel universes that might suddenly rope around my present, palpitating self.

Meanwhile, on the ground, my feet rattled across another new hometown I’d come to know intimately. No one expected me to like it. I was expected to grasp it, get by in it, and I did. I learned to suss out everything meaningful I would ever feel about a place within about twenty seconds. It flashed inside me like a nuclear cloud, a revelation of the collective habits we call culture, the sensory gauze of terrain.

When people ask where I’m from, my answer is always in some way a lie, not that I mean it to be. I don’t know where I’m from, but who wants to hear that? The answer should be easy, should help supply a label, though I’ve always been struck by how geography seems the least questioned destiny. You can’t really know what your world determines about you: where it ends and you begin. It would require a map of all the places and times you said no to it, where and when you said yes, and how deeply you meant it.

The sky never leaves you—a fact so stunningly obvious it’s easy not to notice the experience of it. But when you live on the move, on the road, the sky’s presence magnifies, can solidify into something like your room, hung and framed with directional intimacies. In this way, its expanse opens your vision onto other, more proximal senses, like your sense of freedom, of exposure, of safety.

The sky offers a special promise to the nomad: that freedom is safety.

As a child, I decide there is nowhere I cannot handle with this gleaming room above me—one that, as I move around the world, collapses lower or vaults wider, shines a blue opaqued with gray or heat-distilled yellow, bristles or brightens or mists against my skin. But that it’s always the same place is a refuge.

This begins in the Arabian desert, where whatever in me—in any of us—that vibrates to the night sky’s indigos and fizzing tides of constellations learned to reach out in soul-like volumes to join with it, then rest beside it, as at a campfire.

The night sky inspires a genre in the Bedouin oral tradition called “stellar poetry.” Lyricism merges with logistics in its language, since desert nomads discern their lifetimes of journey from the constellations, which unfurl ever-changing maps of time and travel to the wettest places. Orion moving south with the months, rainfall during Pleiades or Ursa Major. These and other celestial signals tell the Bedouin when to get a move on. In his book Arabia of the Bedouins, Dutch diplomat Marcel Kurpershoek describes living with Bedouin tribes in the late 1980s and early 1990s so he could collect their poetry—none of which had ever been written down. “We have the clumsy term ‘oral poetry’ for this phenomenon,” Kurpershoek observes. “The Saudis simply call it ‘rhyme, invention, chant’ or ‘words.’” When Canopus returns, it sits low on the southern horizon, described in tribal verse as “red and beating like a wolf’s heart.”

10. Children

Most of us in the settled West know the Bedouins’ world—if we do at all—from the writings of such adventurers as T. E. Lawrence, Wilfred Thesiger, and Isabelle Eberhardt. I grew up around Lawrence’s and Thesiger’s books, and discovered Eberhardt’s just before traveling to the Sahara Desert in my twenties.

In The Seven Pillars of Wisdom, T. E. Lawrence, or Lawrence of Arabia, describes visiting a ruin with Syrian Bedouin: “We went into the main lodging, to the gaping window sockets of its eastern face, and there drank with open mouths of the effortless, empty, eddyless wind of the desert, throbbing past. . . . ‘This,’ they told me, ‘is the best: it has no taste.’”

Wilfred Thesiger, the English explorer and travel writer who first mapped the Rub al-Khali, Saudi Arabia’s Empty Quarter, wrote in Arabian Sands: “In the desert I had found a freedom unattainable in civilisation; a life unhampered by possessions, since everything that was not a necessity was an encumbrance.”

Born in Geneva in 1877, Isabelle Eberhardt moved at age twenty to Algeria’s Sahara Desert—where she lived as a Bedouin man, converted to Islam, married an Algerian soldier, and wrote prolifically until her death in a flash flood at twenty-seven. In The Oblivion Seekers, she wrote: “But the vagrant owns the whole vast earth that ends only at the nonexistent horizon, and his empire is a tangible one, for his domination and enjoyment of it are things of the spirit.”

Especially in contrast to the overstuffed, busily furnished West, no solitude is more buoyant, saturating, or crystalline than an open desert’s. But unlike these European-born writers, traditional nomads—like the very Bedouin whom these writers befriended and admired—are never escape artists, loners, vagrants, or iconoclastic adventurers. Or anything close.

Nothing kills the mood like a screaming baby, but the fact is nomadism is based on family life. Bedouins by definition live with their nuclear family and extended tribe in tight, temporary quarters that move with their herds—the colloquial “fields on the hoof.” Yet this central narrative of nomadism—the one in which the children are raised—is mostly omitted or diminished in their books.

In my own nomadic family, my parents viewed their children as the world that mattered most, and as long as we were all together, our location was mere detail. But “our family” was an ideology that sometimes lacked practical application, as if belief in its absolute good absolved any breaks in logic or common sense. Would moving our children three times in one school year and twice the next be detrimental in some way to their development? was not a question either of my parents asked. After all, we could take the kaleidoscopic beauties and riches and wonders of our travels with us anywhere. They could assemble around us like a fanciful wardrobe, invisible yet dramatic as the emperor’s clothes.

11. Chatwin

Bruce Chatwin goes deeper. In The Songlines, he weaves a quasi-fictionalized travel narrative about the Australian outback into a gorgeously speculative theory on nomadism and the origins of human language. He describes the “songlines” of the nomadic Australian Aborigines, a genre and culture dating back forty thousand years, as songs that map out the continent by landmark and associated ancestral mythology, from one “line” or node to the next, as sung by someone walking at a four-mile-per-hour gait. Language and movement through place thus cohere like an auditory map—and help prevent the singer from ever getting lost.

But this journey into lyrical ethnography is interrupted by Chatwin’s thoughts—raw, vital, searching thoughts—on his failed, ten-year project: a book on nomadism. This section of The Songlines is called “The Notebooks,” a globe-wandering composite memoir of Chatwin’s travels with nomads. One of its anecdotes stands out for me, involving a tent-dwelling Bedouin sheikh in Mauritania. The sheikh answers Chatwin’s question about why he continues to live in the Sahara with all its hardships, why it is “irresistible” to him.

This is the sheikh’s reply: “Bah! I’d like nothing better than to live in a house in town. Here in the desert you can’t keep clean. You can’t take a shower! It’s the women who make us live in the desert. They say the desert brings health and happiness, to them and to the children.”

As a woman, a mother, I’m fascinated that it is the women who—if Chatwin and that Mauritanian sheikh are telling the truth here—love the freedom of nomadic living more. Is this because, in so many societies, the settled life is harder on women, restricting their movements into a stifling domestic sphere? And perhaps no one can see that more clearly—can see it, indeed, at all —than a nomadic mother grown used to the shifting horizon as her family’s terrain. She may be responsible for tending the fire, but that fire is always on the move.

This ancient way of life appealed to my mother: all the arrivals in new homes she’d soon leave behind. She didn’t seem very interested in living in these homes, at least not for long. It was in their making, and unmaking, that she excelled, as if the homes themselves comprised an extreme, materially creative form of travel.

12. Dream House

As a girl, I often constructed my dream bedroom in my head. It usually overlooked a Swiss Alps lake. Besides the tall white bed, fireplace, books, and cats, flokatis featured prominently.

I was alone there, hidden away as long as I wanted to be.

But—I’m squinting my eyes here at the memory of myself as a girl imagining myself in that room—I was also not moving much.

I was safe, but motionless, in perfect suspension. Living never entered into it.

“Thus the dream house must possess every virtue. However spacious, it must also be a cottage, a dove-cote, a nest, a chrysalis. Intimacy needs the heart of a nest.” This is French philosopher Gaston Bachelard, from his ravishing treatise on domestic metaphysics, The Poetics of Space, in which he examines the classic château of a bourgeois Frenchperson’s childhood as a setting for phenomenology. He transforms rooms, major pieces of furniture, and personal effects—like an attic, a cupboard, a collection of seashells—into philosophical and psychological archetypes of language and identity.

Bachelard does not address freedom of mobility in relation to this dream house. Freedom is not a component beyond one crucial activity: the ability to daydream there. He’s transfixed by the settled person’s dilemma: how to extract from a singular home a universe’s meaning?

The nomad has different issues, an exact inversion: how to sculpt from rootlessness an identifiable, meaningful universe? Or, put more unnervingly: how do we attach meaning to constant change?

Even as a child, I understood we can’t “attach” anything to change, and that this can form a spiritual directive. During our travels, my father grew interested in Buddhism, started meditating twice daily, a practice he kept up for decades. He taught me how early on, and I’ve toyed with meditation ever since. It has beauty—like the sensation of pure, bright safety. But like my dream bedroom overlooking that alpine lake, it’s a retreat into stillness, the body left eerily motionless.

13. Privacy

In his book on human geography, Space and Place, Ti-Fu Yan makes this distinction: “Place is security, space is freedom; we are attached to the one and long for the other.”

Those contrasting definitions of space and place are exceptionally useful. But since nomads of whatever iteration are attached to space and its freedoms, how secure do we ever feel in a single place? I long to feel at home anywhere, without also getting squirrelly with claustrophobia over nothing more constricting than a normal house that is purportedly my own. It pins me down; they know where to find me. Mobility, by contrast, brings the supplest, most inventive of privacies.

Was this one reason my parents adored the rush of travel, the flexibility of never committing to any place? What they didn’t do was commit to these untethered, unbroken parts of themselves. They didn’t say: We are nomads; there is no getting around it. They kept pretending they could make permanent homes. They couldn’t. And their many failed attempts to settle down—to slow themselves into the sedentary—finally hollowed into vacancy, into loss.

My parents viewed address as an easily remedied accident; chased locational adventures like they were game; wielded an unshakeable curiosity in this world’s many forms; thought best on their feet. What they couldn’t do was stop, and stay healthy.

This is what a nomad is. What I am.

14. Looking Glass

In 1866, an eighteen-year-old Civil War veteran, after walking for two months with the Fisk Expedition—a thousand-mile trek from St. Cloud, Minnesota, to Montana’s then-rumored gold country—wrote to his mother:

I am in good health and am enjoying myself to the best of my abilities. I have not been sick a day or hour with the exception of sore feet. Some of the party are discouraged, homesick and consequently in the worst of humors, cursing the country, the Expedition, etc. I am glad it is not in my nature to get discouraged easily or to look on the dark side of every picture. We have six weeks yet to travel before we reach our destination. I can see the Missouri and Yellowstone Rivers from the door of my tent.

This teenager was my great-great-grandfather, Wilson Barber Harlan, and the door to that tent—the green and blue rivers it opens onto—is one I’ve imagined into a made-up memory. My father read me this letter when I was a kid, from an article written by his uncle for the Journal of the West. It created an inspiring legend of my family’s true nature.

Over the next decade, W. B. Harlan and other Montana settlers claimed lands long considered home by the Nez Perce tribes, who’d lived as nomads along the region’s rivers for centuries. W. B. Harlan cultivated the lush valley along the Bitterroot River with the vast apple orchards that would make him wealthy.

In July 1877, the Nez Perce leader Looking Glass passed through the Bitterroot with his tribe, fleeing us Army soldiers sent to force them to live on a small reservation in Idaho. W. B. Harlan and other local men were tasked with stopping them—but they let the tribe pass unscathed. Criticized for this pacifism, Harlan defended it in the local paper, writing: “When we overtook the Indians, Looking Glass . . . told us he would not harm any persons or property in the valley if allowed to pass in peace, and that we could pass through his camp to our homes. . . . We were not silly enough to uselessly incite the Indians to devastate our valley.”

Looking Glass and his tribe would suffer heavy casualties a few weeks later, during the battle at Big Hole, and by October, the Nez Perce would surrender to confinement on the Idaho reservation.

Great cities are proxies for nomadism. Cities are where most nomads—if only by nature—live these days.

I moved to Manhattan at twenty-one, walked for the next nine years whenever I could, walked to avoid the subway, walked to avoid the cost of a cab, walked because I love to, round and round and round that island. New York City was spacious enough, varied enough, shot through with thousands of miles of layered, coiling pathways. Stand still and everything around you changes. Its vastness mimicked, for me, the open desert’s—just crazily compressed. Instead of every star or color of heat, the sky is filled with people; windows; electricity; gossip; clanging, moving slices of architecture. In these multiplicities of closest proximity, you can wander, Escher around the place, for as long and as far as you want. And so I did, until I recovered from my dad’s death from alcoholism, and wondered where else on earth I could live.

I wanted “home”—so I went back to California, where I’d lived on and off, off and on, since infancy. But California, where I am today, doesn’t feel like my home. It is home for my son and my husband. And that, for now, is enough for me.

16. Stagecraft

Six months after having our son, my husband and I moved into the only house we’ve ever owned. This home is the “more” I wanted for my son that I, growing up, never had.

It is not a metaphor. It is not an emotion or a sense of family.

And home is not where the heart is—that cliché bearing all the catchy idiocy of propaganda. If you don’t have a home, you can still have a heart. You can still love and be loved. Your heart might be in any number of places, with any number of people.

Home is an actual place. It is a location. It has a roof. It can generally be expected to be there when you get back, filled with your stuff.

A home is simply and vastly the backstage of life. It makes private the grinding literality of daily needs: bed, food, bathroom, wardrobe. It doesn’t have to be pretty, but it does have to make sense to you. Too much drama backstage—will it be there? why have the stairs moved? who are all these new people?—sucks energy from your performance under the lights. You are left feeling restless, literally unable to fully rest, to recuperate anywhere. That can force you out onto the stage, into constant, free-form performance. Adults can often handle this, even enjoy it, embrace the adrenaline. But children need to learn how to belong somewhere or they may never figure it out.

I know this because if it weren’t for my son, I would still be rootless.

A racket starts, distant at first, like metal scraping metal. It plays up and down my nerves, atonal and grasping. The more I try to “breathe” it away, soothe it with cultural surrogates—concert, restaurant, museum, yoga class, play, more books—the more it scratches from inside my skin.

At a certain point I need to go wandering. My feet need to hit earth, again and again, that bone-filling drumbeat. I need the sky’s colored threads to tangle inside me, pull me somewhere new.

Just the smell of cardboard boxes—book, dust, intoxicating anonymity—still flexes my deepest pleasures and fears: of drift and disappearance, secrets of far and more, all the world ready to melt inward and sensory. I often fend off these desires like an addict, since I never want them to stop. I struggle to keep them in proportion, to a sedentary scale.

Like the sound of the boxes’ cardboard flaps scraping against each other, enough tension to hold together, to fight us off a little. The scrape and sweep and nick of the packing tape, whistling off its roll, sealing the boxes closed.

Then we get to slice the boxes open in the new place. Stacked in a garage, a storage unit, they wait for the next move, to anywhere at all. They are sturdy yet flexible, until they are used one too many times, begin to bend like heavy fabric, the outer fiberboard peeling off the corrugation, revealing a design composed largely of air.

About the Author

Megan Harlan is a nonfiction writer and poet. Her work has appeared in Agni, Alaska Quarterly Review, the New York Times, TriQuarterly, Hotel Amerika, Crazyhorse, PBS NewsHour, and elsewhere. She is the author of Mapmaking (BkMk Press/New Letters), awarded the John Ciardi Prize for Poetry.

The Origin of Nomadism | Evolving Nomads Through Time

Throughout history, humans have always been in motion. We have always been a migratory species. Our ancestors have always moved. There has never been any trace of settlement in human life. No permanent texture … we are always on a go. None of us is the native of our homes. In an article titled ‘In the 21 st century, we are all migrants’, Mohsin Hamid explains more. [1]

The Origin of Nomadism

One of the main questions raised about nomads and nomadic lifestyle is about the origin of nomadism. What were the leading causes of the creation of such a unique lifestyle? Before talking about the history and root causes of nomadism, some points need to be taken into consideration. First, ‘Nomadism’ is an old way of life, but it is not too old, and it goes back to 7000 or 8000 years ago. Second, one of the requirements of such lifestyle was domestication of the wild animals of the area, and not all primitive people around the world tamed their animals. And, according to archaeologists, just a few groups have tried it. So, not all countries have nomads & nomadic lifestyle. Read the article to know more about the nomads of the world. Third, there is a difference between the ancient nomadism and what we have today.

Early History

The first generation of primitive people did not make any city or house for a long time, and they made use of shades under trees or tents for a living. Little by little, some made cottages and houses (primitive ones), but the rest chose to stay in nature [2] . Till 12000 years ago, humans were living through hunting and gathering fruits and seeds. In this era, they used to live in small groups consisting of several families, and after they hunted in an area, they’d migrated to another area. In this era, it was not possible for primitive humans to live together in an area for a long time.

After about a hundred thousand years, around 12000 years ago, Neolithic Era began. The first development of farming and domestication of animals appeared in this era. These developments resulted in the establishment of nomadism, villages, and cities. Before this era, people had no active roles in their food production, and they used whatever they were provided by nature. 

After about a hundred thousand years, around 12000 years ago, Neolithic Era began. The first development of farming and domestication of animals appeared in this era. These developments resulted in the establishment of nomadism, villages, and cities. Before this era, people had no active roles in their food production, and they used whatever they could find in nature

The Start of Nomadism

Due to many reasons, such as population growth, climate changes, hunting, etc. some big changes have happened in the ecological relations among humans, plants and animals. The number of animals, such as deer and mammoth decreased considerably, and then they went extinct. Before their extinction, hunters used to hunt them and by doing this, they had access to a large amount of meat. These animals could be hunted easily due to their body size. Later, after the extinction of such animals, the hunters had to hunt smaller animals such as ewes, rabbits, goats and foxes, which were difficult to be hunted. Therefore, the hunters made some big changes in their lifestyles. They settled down and embarked on planting wheat and barley, and domestication of goats and ewes. This is when people began to live in villages around 9000 years ago in Iran.

According to many scientists, nomadism in Iran is an offshoot of this era, about 8000 years ago, but it does not mean that all nomads around the world have the same ancient history. Nomads of Saudi Arabia go back to 1200 years ago. So, the dates and causes of the rise of nomadism vary country to country. Read the  article  to know more about Iran nomads.

The Motives behind Nomadism

The motives are different among different groups. In some areas, it is the result of hunting. In Southwest of Asia, the Middle East and north of Africa it is mostly affected by farming. Mostly in arid areas, when humans did not have easy access to cultivable lands, they embarked on animal husbandry. So they made use of the lands as pastures and grasslands. Little by little, the number of their flock increased, and they opted to be shepherds rather than farmers, nomadic rather than settled; and finally, they began Nomadism. But it does not mean that Nomads became self-sufficient, and they have always needed farming one way or another.

In case the number of their flock decreased or they lost the animals, they chose to settle down again to farm.

An Example of the Remnant of an Ancient Nomad in Iran

Based on the researches in the southwest of Iran, they have estimated that most probably Nomadism began in Iran around 8000 years ago. In 1974, a group of researchers was working on an ancient hill in Andimeshk; they came across an ancient camp used by the Nomads around 8000 years ago. The camp was located about 100 m away from the hill. Finding the camp proved the fact that 8000 years ago when humans were raising goats, they used to have a temporary stay in this area. So, it shows that the Nomads left the farming villages and start nomadism longer before what archaeologists had estimated. Moreover, finding no farming tools such as sickle or grindstone confirms the theory more than the Nomads used to move in Zagros and used the oaks.  

[1] https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2019/08/we-all-are-migrants-in-the-21st-century/

[2] Ali-Ibn Masu’ di

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Tuareg nomads lead a caravan of camels in Mali.

A Historic Explorer Leads the Way on an Epic African Journey

Following the path of Leo Africanus to Timbuktu, a traveler encounters modern nomads.

In 1550, Leo Africanus , a Muslim-born diplomat and traveler who served Pope Leo X, produced the first geographical description of Africa to be published in Europe. More than 400 years later, Nicholas Jubber , a travel writer who has been enamored with the desert since he saw the movies Lawrence of Arabia and Star Wars as a boy, set out to retrace the great traveler’s steps. In The Timbuktu School for Nomads: Across the Sahara in the Shadow of Jihad , Jubber tells the story of his epic journey by camel, bus, and motorbike from Morocco to Mali.

Speaking from his home in London, Jubber explains how Leo Africanus got a few things wrong, why you need to learn how to ride a camel if you are thinking of traveling in the region, and why books are among the region’s most precious objects .

Your journey across the Sahara was especially inspired by Leo Africanus. Explain why you call him “the greatest travel writer of his age.”

He grew up in Fez, Morocco, the nephew of an important ambassador, and accompanied his uncle on a diplomatic mission to Timbuktu and the Songhai kings. During that journey he saw an enormous amount of Africa. Later he was kidnapped by pirates off the Mediterranean coast and ended up as a protégé of Pope Leo X , whose name he took when he was christened. In his day, he was regarded as one of the most well-traveled people in the world. If you compare him with some of the great travelers of medieval times, like Marco Polo or Ibn Battuta, he matches up pretty well.

What’s particularly unique about Leo Africanus is that for hundreds of years his book became the most influential source of knowledge and information about Africa. Even the mistakes in his book were absorbed by later explorers. One of the misunderstandings was about the direction of the Niger River, which Leo Africanus mistook. That was why Mungo Park, traveling at the end of the 18th century, had such a hard time reaching Timbuktu.

Timbuktu is a byword for the end of the world. But it was once a great, cultural crossroads, wasn’t it?

Absolutely. It was in this perfect position at the edge of the desert, so a lot of the caravans coming through from the south up to the Mediterranean stopped there, bringing all sorts of things: gold, ostrich feathers, slaves. When the gold mines of West Africa were at their peak, Timbuktu was also at the heart of that trade.

One of the exciting things about being there is the continuity of history. Even though it’s fallen on hard times recently, you’re still very aware of the past. You can still see many of the great monuments, like the Sankore and Djinguereber Mosques, which Leo Africanus saw.

The Tuareg, or “blue men,” are perhaps the most famous of those nomads. There’s even a German SUV named after them. Have they been romanticized?

Absolutely, and they’ve been very much misunderstood. They are called the “blue men” because of their veils, which were traditionally dyed with blue indigo, staining their skin blue. These days they tend to wear inexpensive, Chinese-made veils, which don’t do that.

Their origins are clouded in mystery. There are all sorts of theories that they are descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel, or from a troop of crusaders who got lost in the desert after coming out of the Middle East. Because their culture has traditionally been oral and only goes back a number of centuries, it’s been difficult for academics to tease out what the truth might be. But over the last millennium, there has been continuity in their presence in the Sahara.

Tuareg nomads celebrate the end of the Ramadan fast with prayer and dancing.

I met a lot of them around Timbuktu and northern Mali. The Tuareg were credited with having founded Timbuktu as a place where they left their baggage and booty when they set off across the Sahara. As Timbuktu grew and flourished, they would sometimes be part of that growth, and sometimes they would be seen as a problem by the settled people there. They have always had this difficult, complex relationship with the sedentary communities of northern Mali. This has continued to this day and is at the heart of some of the current political problems in Mali.

Say "nomads" and we think camels and sand. But there are waterborne nomads, aren’t there? Tell us about your trip down the Niger River—and the wonderfully named Bozo people .

I find them fascinating. It’s such a different kind of nomadism from the camel-, goat-, or cattle-herding cultures, with its own musical and spiritual traditions. You hear a lot about genies and djinns on the river. Among the Bozo, there’s a tradition of offering rice in the hope that the spirit of the river will bless your fishing trip.

They are proper river rats, who float down the river in long, wooden canoes called pirogues . They have a very intimate knowledge of the river system, like where the best places to find fish at any particular time of year are. But it’s a lifestyle that’s being complicated by environmental and political problems, like the reduction in fish numbers due to damming on part of the Niger and overfishing by people not traditionally from a fishing background. One of the things Ibrahim, a fisherman I traveled with, pointed out is that if you catch a baby fish, you should always put it back into the river and wait until it’s fully grown, which he said was something the newer fishing people weren’t doing.

Timbuktu was home to a priceless collection of manuscripts, which was threatened by jihadists until librarians smuggled the books out.

In recent years, Timbuktu has been in the crosshairs of history in a different way. Tell us about Mokhtar Belmokhtar , aka Mr. Marlboro, and the atmosphere in Timbuktu when you arrived in the city shortly after the jihadists were driven out.

I heard the name Mokhtar Belmokhtar, “the One-Eyed,” all over the region. He’s probably the most high-profile of the many bandit chiefs. He started out peddling bootlegged cigarettes, then discovered Western hostages were a much more lucrative form of contraband. He then spread his net a little wider and became one of the most powerful, and volatile, jihadists in the region. He seems to have been constantly falling out with his colleagues and various other jihadist groups, but he spreads a large shadow over the region. While I was traveling there, the jihadists took over Timbuktu. When I came back, after they had been pushed out by the French, there were all sorts of stories of people who’d been flogged or had their property incinerated for minor crimes, like smoking cigarettes.

Most of the world’s population lives in cities today or settled communities. Tell us about the lifestyle and culture of the Sahara nomads you spent time with—and whether they have a future.

It’s certainly a very different lifestyle from the Western urban lifestyles that you or I are used to. It’s very much connected to, and living with, the landscape. There’s a lot of doom-mongering at the moment about the nomadic way of life being on its last legs and the numbers falling away. At the same time, I met a lot of people who talked about the continuity of their lifestyles and how they felt that nomadism will never disappear.

In some ways, it can’t because it’s such a practical way of living in that particular landscape. And with desertification expanding in many parts of North Africa, being able to live in and around the desert is actually growing in its relevance. It’s important for security, too, because the more of a thriving community of nomads you have, the more they will be able to provide a kind of shield against banditry and jihadism .

The love of books seems at odds with the nomadic lifestyle. But there’s been a long tradition of bibliophilia in the Sahara, hasn’t there?

Books have always been some of the most precious objects in the region. Leo Africanus describes how, at the time he was traveling, books were considered to be worth more than a slave. So if you wanted to build up a bit of a fortune for yourself, having a big stock of books could be quite lucrative.

One of the places that encapsulates this is Chinguetti, in Mauritania, where there are magnificent family libraries, with heirlooms handed down for generations. Some families have hundreds of manuscripts—some in very tattered condition but still full of fascinating knowledge. When the jihadists took over Timbuktu, one of the first things they did was try to locate the private libraries. Luckily there was a very effective project to secretly remove many of the books before the jihadists could destroy them and to safeguard them in Mali’s capital, Bamako.

Tuareg nomads carry salt slabs to Timbuktu. Writer Nick Jubber recommends learning how to ride a camel before venturing into the desert.

Your journey took you to many remote and dangerous places. What were the low—and high—points of the trip?

There were a lot of moments when I was really anxious. Jihadism was in the headlines, and there was this constant fear of bumping into the wrong people. On one journey, riding with 20 other people in a van across the Sahara, we got stuck in the sand, so we all had to get out and push.

A few moments later we were suddenly encircled by motorbike lights. There had been a kidnapping in Timbuktu previously, and I thought, this is the moment the jihadists are going to come and take me away.

It was actually just some local farmers coming to guide us back onto the right track. But the next day, on the same route, another van was attacked by bandits.

There were lots of other threats, too, from getting sunstroke to being kicked by a camel. Traveling around the Sahara you are constantly aware of all the things that can go wrong.

The high point was staying in the camps with nomadic families. One that was particularly fun was a well keeper called Ishmael, who lived about 10 miles outside Timbuktu. He welcomed me into his tent and sat reciting verses from the Koran, telling me old tales about his tribe, the Berbers. When I left he sang a song of blessing to wish us well on the rest of our journey. He was in his 70s, but his voice was still wonderfully rich and resonant.

Sheep and goats follow their owner to his home on the outskirts of Timbuktu.

What advice would you give to anyone thinking of following in your footsteps across the Sahara?

One of the things I did was to travel a bit into the Sahara in Morocco. It’s not as rough as Mali, so it’s a good place to learn about camel riding and getting used to desert life. I also advise anybody thinking of traveling in the Sahara to research the history of the different communities, who lives where and who’s herding what kinds of animals. Try and learn the language, too. One of the things that helped me a lot was learning Arabic before going to Mauritania and Mali.

Equipment isn’t that necessary because once you’re traveling with nomads in the Sahara, you get used to doing things their way. One of the things I loved when traveling with the nomads was sitting around a campfire, waiting for an extremely long time for things to happen. You relax into that companionship—sitting around, drinking tea, letting the hours pass by. You lose that urban impatience and get used to just enjoying being with each other in the desert.

This interview was edited for length and clarity.

Simon Worrall curates Book Talk . Follow him on Twitter or at simonworrallauthor.com .

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Wonder of the Day #739

What Is a Nomad?

SOCIAL STUDIES — Cultures of the World

Have You Ever Wondered...

• What is a nomad?
• Why do nomads move around?
• Could you live a nomadic lifestyle?
• cultures of the world ,
• hunter-gatherer ,
• itinerants ,
• peripatetic ,
• permanent ,
• Cultures Of The World ,
• Hunter-Gatherer ,
• Itinerants ,
• Peripatetic ,
• Permanent ,

Today’s Wonder of the Day was inspired by craig. craig Wonders , “ What is a nomad ” Thanks for WONDERing with us, craig!

Do you like to stay at home? Or do you like to see new places all the time? If the latter sounds like you, maybe you could be a nomad.

Nomads are people with no fixed home. They travel from place to place. Many nomads move as the seasons change. They move in search of food, water, and places for their animals to eat.

The word “nomad” comes from a Greek word meaning “ roaming about for pasture .” Some cultures around the world have always been nomadic. In today’s industrialized countries, nomads are few and far between. However, there are still 30-40 million nomads around the world today!

Nomads are usually divided into three categories. There are hunter-gatherers, pastoral nomads, and peripatetic nomads. Hunter-gatherers are the oldest type of nomad. 

As their name suggests, hunter-gatherers move about frequently. They search for wild fruits, vegetables, and animals that change with the seasons. All human beings were hunter-gatherers until about 10,000 years ago.

As people began farming, there was less need to move about. Today, there are very few hunter-gatherer groups. Those that do exist also farm and raise animals.

Pastoral nomads raise large herds of animals. When the animals eat all of the food in one area, they move to a new one. This gives the pastures time to grow new food.

Pastoral nomads usually stick to a specific area. The area they roam can be hundreds of square miles. They choose one spot to live in for weeks or months. Then, they set up portable, wood-framed houses called yurts.

The only types of nomads you’re likely to find in industrialized nations are peripatetic nomads. These nomads travel frequently. They participate in businesses that move from place to place. One example of this is people who work for the circus .

Do you live a nomadic lifestyle? Or do you stay in a permanent home? Whatever your way of life, anyone can benefit from seeing more of the world. If you could move to live anywhere else in the world, where would it be?

Common Core , Next Generation Science Standards , and National Council for the Social Studies ."> Standards : C3.D2.His.2, C3.D2.Geo.7, C3.D2.Geo.8, CCRA.L.3, CCRA.L.6, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.4, CCRA.R.10, CCRA.W.1, CCRA.W.2, CCRA.W.9, CCRA.SL.1

Wonder What's Next?

We wanted to give you a “heads up” about tomorrow’s lucky Wonder of the Day!

Are you a wanderer? Or is there no place like home for you? Find a friend or family member who can help you with one or more of the following activities.

• Given the chance, most of us would seize the opportunity to wander around aimlessly for awhile. Where in the world would you most like to to? Make a list, then share your list with a friend or family member. Explain why you’d like to visit the places on your list, and ask them what they would add.
• Are you curious about modern nomadic cultures? Ready about modern nomads here. Then, write a letter to a friend or family member describing at least three of the nomadic groups you read about. What makes them similar or different? What interesting facts did you learn? 
• In our modern world, a new type of nomad is emerging. Read about what it means to be a digital nomad . Would you like to be a digital nomad? Write a paragraph explaining why or why not.

Did you get it?

Wonder contributors.

We’d like to thank:

Eshan , arjay , Bridget and alana for contributing questions about today’s Wonder topic!

Keep WONDERing with us!

Wonder Words

• industrialized
• peripatetic

What is your favorite thing about camels, Elisa? Have you seen THIS WONDER ?

We're glad you found this Wonder useful, bossboy! :)

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Wonderopolis

Thanks for sharing your SUPER comment, Ninja Girl! It's so much fun to hear that you and your classmates are WONDERing with us in school! Keep up the super work, and we hope to see you soon! :)

WOHOO, you are doing a great job of WONDERing today, Paola! We can't wait to Wonder with you again tomorrow, but we are so happy you learned something new about nomads today! See you soon, Wonder Friend! :)

Hello, Missy, we're glad you're here today! We LOVE that you and your classmates have been WONDERing about different cultures in social studies-- what a great connection to our nomad Wonder! We think tomorrow is going to be a water-filled splash, and we're excited to read your very original guess! Thanks for sharing today! :)

Thanks for sharing your comment about our Wonder today, Pie! We appreciate your thoughts and we're sorry to hear you didn't enjoy our nomadic Wonder. However, we have LOTS of past Wonders for you to browse... keep up the GREAT Wondering! :)

Nice work, Jules! We love that you have learned so much today-- we Wonder if there was something in particular about the nomad lifestyle that you would enjoy? :)

Hi there Olivia-- we are glad you're WONDERing about tomorrow! We don't know what tomorrow's Wonder will be, but we have a clue... "We seem to have lost tomorrow’s Wonder of the Day! Can you help us find it?" :)

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WOHOO, that's great news, Gabby! Thanks for sharing your comment-- we think you're pretty lucky to have a teacher that likes to Wonder as much as we do! We hope to see you again soon! :)

Hi there, Elle! We're happy you've joined the fun at Wonderopolis today! :)

Mr. Thompson's Class

Great work to our Wonder Friends in Mr. Thompson's class! We are glad to see that you have learned something new today! We Wonder if any of our Wonder Friends in class would enjoy living like a nomad, or taking a few of their characteristics (like traveling) and adding it to your lifestyle?! :)

Great job of WONDERing, Gina M! Some people enjoy the freedom and excitement of moving from place to place, while others enjoy staying put in one area. Sometimes, moving from place to place develops out of a necessity, rather than an urge to 'hit the road'! We think it could be a cool way to see new places on our own terms, but it would take a lot of getting used to, as well! We are glad you've got your creative juices flowing today! :)

Wonder writers

That sure sounds like a GREAT way to experience different places and cultures, Wonder Writers! We LOVE your creative ideas about visiting Target stores. We bet that the stores feature different items based on the locations. For example, the Seattle, Washington store might have sweaters and scarves in October, but the Houston, Texas store might have sunglasses and Cowboy hats. The seasons affect what the stores will sell! Keep up the SUPER WONDERing! :)

Thanks for sharing your kind comment about today's Wonder, Andreyanna! We are oh-so-glad to hear that you enjoyed learning about the nomadic lifestyle! We Wonder if you can continue to do some research of your own and share what you've learned about nomads! :)

SUPER guess, Jake L! We can't wait to "find out" what tomorrow's Wonder will be! Thanks for commenting today, Wonder Friend! :)

Great question, Marco! We think you might be familiar with an urban area-- it's one where there are lots of people. Often, urban areas are highly trafficked, and have lots of buildings, shops, businesses and such. The opposite of urban is "rural"-- a rural area is usually pictured as lots of farm land or countrysides, where there is more open land than people. Thanks for WONDERing with us today! :)

We're glad you liked WONDERing about nomads with us today, BreBre! We are glad you've learned something new about how other people enjoy their lives... moving from place to place! :)

Hi there, CKapps, we are so happy that you're WONDERing about nomads with us today! We appreciate your comment, it's important to understand where you would and wouldn't feel comfortable living, sleeping and spending your time! However, we think it's cool that you are imagining yourself as a nomad, traveling around the world and meeting lots of new people. We bet you'd find some places of your own that few people have discovered before you! Thanks for sharing! :)

Haley and Hannah

Hi there, Haley and Hannah! We are glad that you're WONDERing about nomads with us today- how fun! We think it's cool to imagine moving somewhere different as the seasons change! We hope you have a SUPER day, Wonder Friends! :)

Hi there, Joseph! We are glad you learned something new about how some people live (in their own version of a tent)! We think you're doing a SUPER job typing, too, Joseph! Thanks for being a great Wonder Friend! :)

How great that our Wonder Friends are saying hello to one another! Thanks for commenting, Mykayla! :)

WILL AND LOGAN

Hi and hello again, Wonder Friends Will and Logan! We are so happy that you enjoy Wonderopolis-- using your imagination is so much fun! We are also glad that you shared what you learned today-- we think you've done a great job, Wonder Friends! :)

Great work, Myaina! You've done a great job of pointing out the different types of nomads! Thanks for sharing your comment today, Wonder Friend! :)

Hey there, Will and Logan-- we're glad you're WONDERing with us! We appreciate your comment-- it's so much fun to Wonder and learn new, exciting things with great Wonder Friends like you! Have a SUPER day! :)

That's a great point, Diva! We have heard of a yogurt treat called "Nomad", too! Today's Wonder is about the origin of the word "nomad". You can learn more about it by checking out today's Wonder video and article! :)

Hey there, Wonder Friend Panthers3! We think it's very kind of you to want to offer nomadic people shelter, food and clothes! We bet there are many people in this world who would appreciate it! Just like you enjoy the comfort of your own home, we think that nomads enjoy traveling from town to town. Some people enjoy the freedom of moving and meeting new people along the way, while others enjoy staying in one place! We are SO glad you joined us at Wonderopolis today! Great work! :)

Mrs. Karr's Class

Hello, Wonder Friends in Mrs. Karr's class! :) We are so PROUD of all you have learned today-- we bet learning about a different culture can be interesting, surprising and fun! Thanks for sharing your COOL guesses for tomorrow's Wonder... we can't wait to dig up what it will be! :)

Third grade

Great point, Third Grade Wonder Friends! We are glad you learned about a nomadic lifestyle today-- we're so proud that you've learned a new word (or two or three), too! Thanks for sharing your WONDERful comment today! :)

Ms. Bayko class

Hey there, Wonder Friends in Mrs. Bayko's class! We would love to join you on your nomadic journey! We bet it would be a COOL and different way of life for many of us, but we bet it would be quite the adventure! :) We enjoyed your guess for tomorrow-- we always love your guesses! Thanks for sharing and we'll find out what tomorrow brings! :)

Hi there, Laserdudle! We are SUPER glad you're back, WONDERing with us today! :) We would LOVE if you and your Wonder Friends took a look at today's Wonder on your own. It would be SUPER great if you shared what you learned with all of us at Wonderopolis! We would really enjoy hearing what you have to say! Keep up the great work, Laserdudle! :)

This Is Great we are learning about this in school. Are class loves wonderopolis! ;)

Thanks for being a supportive WONDER friend, Brennan! We appreciate the KIND words. We're THRILLED you're class enjoys visiting Wonderopolis! We're EXCITED you're WONDERing with us! :)

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Question 1 of 3

Which of the following is NOT a type of nomad?

• a Hunter-gatherer Not Quite!
• b Pastoral Not Quite!
• c Wandering Correct!
• d Peripatetic Not Quite!

Question 2 of 3

All human beings were hunter-gatherers until about _____________ years ago.

• a 10,000 Correct!
• b 100 Not Quite!
• c 2 million Not Quite!
• d 500 Not Quite!

Question 3 of 3

This Wonder was mostly about...

• a where most nomads live today. Not Quite!
• b why most people have permanent homes today. Not Quite!
• c the benefits of a nomadic lifestyle. Not Quite!
• d what it means to be a nomad and why nomads move around. Correct!

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Nomadic Lifestyle: The How, What, When, and Why of My Nomad Travel

If you’d told me as a graduating high schooler that I was to spend 5 years of my life traveling the world, creating my own job, and living a life of luxury. I’d have thought you were insane. But it turns out, it was all true.

Ten years ago I started a journey that changed my life. Many people have joined since then and not everyone knows where the journey began. So to celebrate my 10th anniversary I thought I would share a post on burning questions I frequently get asked about our previous nomadic family lifestyle.

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What is a nomadic lifestyle?

2011 my kid’s father and I were sitting on the couch dreaming of two permanent residences. The further conversation moved to how it would feel to live a life where home is wherever you made it. It was no house, no van, no building, but wherever we were – all together.

The official nomadic lifestyle definition is “ a way of life of peoples who do not live continually in the same place but move cyclically or periodically. ” In Erin’s English nomad travel generally means ridding yourself of a home base and living a travel-centric life. It typically refers to travelers with no set plans who frequently move from place to place.

Why do nomads travel?

We had a good income at the time and were considering buying a more expensive home after we had just purchased a BMW convertible. Our thoughts wondered where does it stop? Once we have the more expensive home, what next? Wasn’t there more than this rat race existence?

At the time I thought a nomadic family lifestyle was insane, with two small children, but by 2012 I was convinced that a 6-month stint around the world would be a bit of an adventure. An exit from a rat race I never intended to be in. It was never intended to last more than 6 months, but it went on for 5 years.

Travel opens you up to more possibilities and expands your horizons, figuratively and literally. Whether you stick to a relatively small area like Cullen Fischel of Cleveland or go international, there is much more to discover around every corner.

How do you start a nomadic lifestyle?

I have a great post about what you need to do to start your nomad lifestyle here . From bank accounts to selling cars, renting houses, and planning your trip.

I love to be super organized without too many surprises so I planned our entire 6 months upfront. All in South East Asia. 2 months in Bali, a month in Kuala Lumpur , a month in Penang, a month in the Philippines, and a month in Bangkok, Thailand.

It wasn’t until after 6 months that I thought, “Hey, this is really working” and decided to ditch the return home plans and keep going, moving over to the other side of the planet landing in New York City for Christmas.

Where did you go?

You can find a complete list of places we traveled while nomadic here . In total across 5 years, I did 68 countries with 2 kids. Forbes labeled them some of the “world’s most well-traveled children.”

In a very short summary, our nomadic family lifestyle started with 6 months in South East Asia, before flying to the US and spending 2 months there. Then we went on a few months in the Middle East – Dubai, Turkey, Israel, Jordan.

After a quick visit back to Australia we then train traveled through Europe for 6 months, visiting the UK, Ireland, Luxembourg, German, Belgium, Croatia, Greece, Austria, Switzerland, Wales, Bulgaria , France, Italy, Spain, Poland, Romania, Malta, Turkey, and so on.

We missed Bali so we headed back to South East Asia and a quick visit home to Australia, before obtaining a US Visa . Then it was back to the US for 2 years with trips to Canada, Mexico , Guatemala to break up our visa options. Our final journey was a 15-day cruise around Hawaii, before flying home to Australia via where it all began – Bali .

How do nomads travel?

Our journey is so different to many. We traveled fairly fast in nomad travel terms. We were never in one place longer than 2 months. But if we had a long plane ride we tended to stay in that part of the world for a significant amount of time.

Hence we were in South East Asia for 6 months that first time.  We also spent 6 months in Europe. And 2 years exploring the US, Canada, and Central America.

I preferred hiring a car because I had two young kids with me on our nomadic family lifestyle journey and it was more cost-effective, easier & safer to get them around. However, I have taken trains, buses, chicken buses, helicopters, cruise ships, bicycles, tuk-tuks, taxis, husky sleds, reindeer sleighs , you name it.

How did you afford a nomadic lifestyle?

One burning question I am always asked is how did I afford it . Nomadic travel is cheaper than living in a suburb, at least it was compared to Western Australia , one of the most expensive cities in the world.

At the time my kid’s father was a web designer and I managed his accounts so we set off with the intent of him to continue working, which he could do as long as he had wifi and his laptop.

The very first day we arrived in Bali on our one-way ticket I wrote a blog post on my brand new website etbender.com. I had run a poll on my Facebook wondering if my friends and family would be interested in reading it and they said yes! So instead of retelling my stories over and over, I penned them down for everyone to enjoy.

It was less than 3 months later that I was in Malaysia, watching a Chinese Street Festival that a lady in the crowd called my name. She rushed up to me and said, “I can’t believe it’s you – I read your blog!”

I was gobsmacked. I thought only my friends read my blog?

I found a way to check my statistics and realized I had 6,000 people a month tuning in to read my online diary. I changed the name of my blog to travelwithbender.com and started writing more informative posts to all those that were enjoying my writing.

From that day I started to earn small bits of money here and there on my blog. And before long it was pulling in a very steady part-time income.

2 years later in 2014, my kid’s father decided he had enough of doing web design and sold his business. He wanted to work on the blog with me. I did warn him that it was my blog and I’d be the boss, and he said that was fine until he found something else to do. He never did. From 2014 with both of us working on the blog it grew and became our full-time income. I created my own job and formed a modern nomadic lifestyle.

In 2016 my blog made USD 150,000 without including all the free travel, and products I was given. It was a sad ending for Travel With Bender though, as in 2017 the blog was stolen. 5 years of an online diary taken from me. It hurt. But out of the ashes Explore with Erin was born and I have continued to blog for ten years, making an income for myself and my kids. Many thanks to you, whoever you are reading now.

Please do leave a comment below and let me know how long you’ve been reading my stories, whether you started with Travel With Bender or you’re a big fan of Explore With Erin.

Of course, not everyone is a web designer or a professional travel blogger so consider multiple other nomadic lifestyle jobs from working in hostels or bars as you travel, being a virtual assistant, teaching English , running singing classes or art classes online, lifestyle coaching, graphic design, marketing, and so on. I could keep going and if there is one thing the pandemic has taught us during the last few years is that there are many jobs that can be done remotely as a nomadic lifestyle job. 

How much does a nomadic lifestyle cost?

During our living in Perth we were needing almost AUD 12,000 a month to live comfortably. During our travels we found ourselves spending AUD 2,000 a month in most places. Or sometimes $4,000 if we were in a more expensive destination.

Our regular costs mainly consisted of:

Housing – I never planned to spend more than $2,000 a month. Most places were around $1,600 and included electricity, gas, Wi-Fi, even cleaning and breakfast in some places. Our first stop in Bali our place was $2,000 and included a full-time chef, cleaner, nanny, and security.

Transport – Our travel fund varied, but in most countries, we would hire a car for $400 a month or less. In some places, we didn’t need any transport. Flights were made during low seasons and sales, so we received maximum benefit of our money. For instance, when I was in the Philippines I found a 2 cent sale on one of their most beautiful islands!

Food – We ate at home inexpensive countries, and out in cheaper countries, like Bali or Turkey .

Sim cards – Getting data in a country is important, but never very expensive.

Insurance – I never travel without travel insurance and I always recommend you to do the same. SafetyWing is a great choice for nomads and is so cheap! Check your quote here.

What did you love about your nomadic lifestyle?

Living a nomadic lifestyle has its advantages. At the time dealing with a toddler having a screaming fit on a Caribbean island was so much more ideal than in the suburban town of the most isolated city in the world.

The freedom to go wherever whenever is so freeing. The tasting of new food, the smelling of new smells, the seeing of new sights, all so stimulating. Watching your kids see the world is like being a child again, with new eyes, new thoughts, giddy excitement.

Not being confined to a 9 to 5 job, or Keeping Up with The Jones, but to be free to have little belongings, but rich in a whole lot of experiences.

This could be a whole post in itself.

Were there any problems with a nomadic lifestyle?

Yes, there certainly was. And I have written several posts about it.

5 pitfalls of nomadic travel

Nomadic travel destroyed my commitment

7 startling realities of nomadic travel

Plus, I have a whole series on other people who have exited nomadic travel and the reasons why starting with the end of my 5-year journey .

Would you attempt a nomadic lifestyle again?

Yes and no! I think a slower more deliberate travel, between home periods, is my ideal world. I never want to be disconnected from a community again or miss loved ones for years at a time. But do I long for months of travel? Heck yes. It’s very addictive. And once you start you realize there is so much more to see.

Can I have a nomadic lifestyle too?

If you want to, you can. I believe anyone can. I wrote a post on the practical steps you need to start your nomadic lifestyle here . The mental part is up to you.

Some people go for a year, some for two, people like me go for 5. It is possible. Would you want to?

Did I miss any questions? Please ask below. I am more than happy to answer!

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Nomadic Lifestyle: The What, The Why, And The How

Are you looking for a way to live life on your own terms and to explore the world? Do you want to be able to travel freely and experience different cultures without being tied down by obligations or commitments?

If so, then living a nomadic lifestyle may be just the thing for you.

We took a closer look at just what we mean by a nomadic lifestyle, and the benefits it can bring.

What Is A Nomadic Lifestyle?

A nomadic lifestyle was traditionally a lifestyle in which an individual or group of people move from place to place in order to find more suitable living conditions.

This could be due to the lack of resources in their current location, or even just for the sake of exploration. 

These days, a nomadic lifestyle is a term used to describe an individual or group of people who are living a transient lifestyle, often for the purpose of travel.

This means that they have no permanent residence and instead choose to move from place to place to explore new cultures and experiences.

Digital nomads are a subset of nomads who work remotely through the use of technology and the internet.

This means they can work from anywhere with an internet connection, and this is a trend that has seen a huge boost in popularity in recent years.

The Benefits Of Living A Nomadic Lifestyle

Living a nomadic lifestyle brings several benefits, including:

As you are not tied down to any specific place, you have the freedom to move around as you please and to explore different cultures.

As you are constantly moving from place to place, you get to experience a range of new adventures.

Variety 

By not having a permanent residence, you can experience different climates, cultures, and lifestyles.

Flexibility

You can choose when and where you go, and what activities you take part in.

Financial Savings

As you are not tied down to a particular place, you have the flexibility to take advantage of cheaper accommodations and travel deals. This can help you save money in the long run.

New Perspectives 

Seeing the world from different angles can provide valuable insight into other cultures and ways of life, which can be incredibly enriching.

Networking Opportunities

By meeting people from all over the world, you can establish a network of contacts and friends that will last a lifetime.

How To Enjoy A Nomadic Lifestyle?

If you are looking to embark on a nomadic lifestyle, there are several things you should consider, and we put together everything you need to know below:

Have A Plan

Before embarking on your nomadic journey, it is important to have a plan. Research different countries and cities, determine the length of stay for each destination, and decide what type of accommodation you are looking for.

Be Prepared

Do some research about the places you are visiting, so you know what to expect. Learn about the local customs and culture, so you have an understanding of what is acceptable and what isn’t.

Planning a budget for your trip is essential, as this will help you to stick to it. Make sure you factor in all costs, including accommodation, food, transport, and activities.

Stay Connected

Make sure you have the necessary equipment and documentation to stay connected while on your travels. This includes a laptop, phone, and other electronic devices, as well as a passport or visa.

Be Flexible 

Things don’t always go to plan, so it is important to stay flexible in order to make the most of your journey.

How To Afford A Nomadic Lifestyle

Living a nomadic lifestyle can be expensive, but there are ways to make it more affordable. Here are some tips for reducing your costs:

Find Affordable Accommodation 

Research different accommodation options in the areas you plan to visit and look for deals or discounts. There are plenty of budget-friendly options out there, such as couchsurfing, Airbnb, and hostels.

Make Use Of Technology 

Utilize technology to save money on transport and activities. For example, you can use ride-hailing apps such as Uber or Lyft to get around, and book tickets for tourist attractions online in advance for a discounted price.

Take Advantage Of Discounts 

Look out for discounts when booking flights and accommodation, as well as when shopping at local markets and supermarkets.

Make Use Of Free Activities

Many cities have free or low-cost activities, such as walking tours, parks, museums, and galleries. Doing some research in advance can help you find more affordable ways to enjoy your nomadic lifestyle.

Be Open To Opportunities

Living a nomadic lifestyle can open up numerous opportunities, so it is important to be open to new adventures.

Consider taking on odd jobs such as freelance work or teaching English while you’re on the road, and don’t forget to take advantage of any special offers or discounts that come your way.

Embrace Minimalism

Living a nomadic lifestyle requires minimal possessions, so it is important to embrace minimalism. This means only taking the essentials with you and leaving behind anything that isn’t absolutely necessary.

This can help to reduce your costs, as well as make traveling easier.

Are There Any Downsides To A Nomadic Lifestyle?

Whilst the nomadic lifestyle can be incredibly rewarding, some downsides should be considered, the most significant of which is loneliness and isolation.

Although you may be surrounded by people in the places you visit, living a nomadic lifestyle can be incredibly lonely. It is important to stay connected with friends and family back home, so you don’t feel isolated.

In addition, depending on where you are, living a nomadic lifestyle can be expensive and it is important to budget accordingly.

Sticking to a healthy routine can be difficult when living a nomadic lifestyle, as you may not have access to the same facilities or conveniences as you would at home, and it can be hard to maintain a sense of stability when constantly on the move.

This can make it difficult to build relationships or pursue long-term goals.

Which Countries Best Suit A Nomadic Lifestyle?

The best countries to live a nomadic lifestyle depend on your individual preferences and budget. Some popular destinations include:

If the quality of life is your priority while working remotely, Portugal is hard to beat. From its year-round Mediterranean climate to its delicious local cuisine, Portugal offers many reasons to extend your stay.

The standard of living here is relatively high compared to other European countries, plus there are low taxes for digital nomads that can help you keep more of your salary.

The Czech Republic

The Czech Republic has an established legal framework in place that caters specifically to digital nomads, making it one of the most appealing destinations for digital travelers.

There are plenty of options for accommodation with short-term leases and nominal fees that make finding suitable living arrangements easy.

The cost of living in the Czech Republic is generally quite low which also makes it an attractive option for working away from home on a budget.

Mexico has long been a popular destination for travelers looking for warmer climates and exciting cultures without breaking the bank.

A growing number of young professionals have taken advantage of this and moved their offices outside with an extended stay in Mexico’s beach towns or major cities such as Mexico City, Guadalajara, or Monterrey.

For those who do not have a permanent job offer before arrival, Mexico offers visas specifically designed for remote work, allowing entry even if you have yet to secure full-time employment but intend on doing so while abroad.

Costa Rica offers both affordable standards of living and beautiful scenery – making it one of the most sought-after locations among digital nomads around the world.

This small Central American nation also provides excellent healthcare services, reasonably priced internet access, and many opportunities for an adventure such as hiking in the jungles or paddleboarding down one of the many rivers that traverse the country’s lush landscape.

Thailand is well known as a backpacker’s paradise with its famous islands like Koh Samui and Krabi drawing in people looking to explore Southeast Asia at an economical rate without sacrificing too much comfort along the way.

As an added bonus, the region also offers reliable internet connection speeds and modern amenities found within bigger metropolitan cities like Bangkok or Chiang Mai, allowing you to enjoy the best of both worlds.

Final Thoughts

Living a nomadic lifestyle can be an incredibly rewarding experience for those who are willing to take the leap. However, it does come with its own unique set of challenges that should be taken into consideration before taking off.

Researching potential destinations and ensuring you have enough funds to cover all your expenses is important when planning a nomadic adventure.

With careful planning and dedication, living a nomadic lifestyle can be an amazing way to expand your horizons, meet new people, and explore new cultures.

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Why Were People Of Central Asia Nomadic?

Published: January 6, 2024

by Valeda Baran

Introduction

The nomadic lifestyle of the people of Central Asia has been a subject of fascination and intrigue for centuries. Stretching from the Caspian Sea in the west to the borders of China in the east, and from the plains of Siberia in the north to the deserts of Iran in the south, Central Asia encompasses a vast and diverse expanse of land. The nomadic way of life has been an integral part of the region's history and culture, shaping the identity of its inhabitants and leaving a profound impact on the world.

The nomadic peoples of Central Asia, such as the Mongols, Turks, and Kazakhs, were known for their mobility and resilience, navigating the challenging terrain of the steppes, deserts, and mountains. Their nomadic lifestyle was characterized by the absence of permanent settlements, as they moved with their herds in search of fresh grazing pastures and water sources. This mobility allowed them to adapt to the ever-changing conditions of their environment and thrive in the face of adversity.

Central Asia's nomadic heritage is a testament to the ingenuity and adaptability of its people, offering valuable insights into the human capacity for survival and innovation. By delving into the factors that influenced the nomadic way of life in Central Asia, we can gain a deeper understanding of the historical, cultural, and environmental forces that shaped this unique civilization. Throughout this article, we will explore the geographic, cultural, economic, and political dimensions that contributed to the nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia , shedding light on the multifaceted reasons behind this enduring tradition.

Geographic and Environmental Factors

The geographic and environmental characteristics of Central Asia played a pivotal role in shaping the nomadic lifestyle of its inhabitants. The vast expanse of the region, encompassing diverse landscapes such as the Eurasian steppes, the rugged mountains of the Tian Shan and Pamir ranges, and the arid deserts of the Karakum and Kyzylkum, presented a formidable yet dynamic setting for the nomadic tribes.

The open steppes, with their expansive grasslands and sparse forests, provided ample grazing grounds for the nomads’ livestock, allowing them to sustain their herds and maintain their traditional pastoral economy. The seasonal variations in temperature and precipitation influenced the movement patterns of the nomadic tribes, compelling them to migrate in search of greener pastures and water sources. The harsh continental climate, characterized by hot summers and bitterly cold winters, necessitated a flexible and adaptive approach to survival, prompting the development of portable dwellings such as yurts, which could be easily assembled and disassembled as the need arose.

Furthermore, the rugged terrain of Central Asia, including its mountain ranges and deserts, served as natural barriers and refuges for the nomadic peoples, offering strategic advantages in defense and mobility. The nomads’ familiarity with the region’s topography, combined with their equestrian expertise, enabled them to navigate challenging landscapes and evade potential adversaries, contributing to their reputation as formidable horseback warriors.

Central Asia’s diverse and ever-changing environment thus shaped the nomadic lifestyle, fostering a deep connection between the people and the land. The nomads’ intimate knowledge of the region’s geography and ecology allowed them to harness its resources sustainably, while their mobility and adaptability were essential for thriving in the face of environmental unpredictability.

Cultural and Social Traditions

The nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia was deeply intertwined with rich cultural and social traditions that permeated every aspect of the nomads’ daily lives. Central to their identity was a profound reverence for nature and the environment, stemming from a deep spiritual connection to the land they traversed. The nomads’ belief systems and rituals were often centered around natural elements, reflecting their reliance on the earth’s resources for sustenance and survival.

The mobility of the nomadic tribes fostered a strong sense of community and kinship, as extended families and clans traveled together, sharing the responsibilities of herding, shelter construction, and defense. This communal way of life instilled a spirit of cooperation and mutual support, vital for navigating the challenges of the nomadic existence. Moreover, the oral traditions of storytelling, music, and dance served as a means of passing down historical narratives, cultural practices, and survival skills from one generation to the next, preserving the collective wisdom of the nomadic societies.

The nomadic cultures of Central Asia also boasted a rich tradition of craftsmanship, producing exquisite textiles, intricate jewelry, and ornate decorative arts that reflected their nomadic lifestyle and aesthetic sensibilities. The vibrant colors and intricate patterns of their textiles, such as the renowned Kazakh and Uzbek carpets, bore testament to the nomads’ artistic ingenuity and mastery of traditional techniques, serving as a tangible expression of their cultural heritage.

Furthermore, the nomadic societies of Central Asia were characterized by a code of honor and hospitality that governed their interactions with both kin and strangers. The concept of “ayil,” or the ethical principles of loyalty, courage, and hospitality, formed the cornerstone of their social fabric, fostering a culture of respect and reciprocity that transcended linguistic and tribal boundaries.

By delving into the cultural and social traditions of Central Asia’s nomadic peoples, we gain a profound appreciation for the depth of their heritage and the enduring legacy of their customs, which continue to resonate in the diverse cultures of the region today.

Economic and Resource Considerations

The nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia was intricately linked to economic and resource considerations that shaped the nomads’ strategies for survival and prosperity. Central to their economy was the practice of animal husbandry, particularly the rearing of horses, sheep, goats, and camels, which provided sustenance, transportation, and material resources for the nomadic communities. The mobility of the nomads allowed them to exploit the natural abundance of the region, as they followed seasonal patterns of vegetation and water sources to sustain their herds.

The nomads’ reliance on their livestock for sustenance and trade necessitated a deep understanding of animal husbandry, breeding, and herd management, which formed the cornerstone of their economic livelihood. The products derived from their livestock, including meat, milk, wool, and hides, served as valuable commodities for trade and barter, enabling the nomads to engage in economic exchanges with sedentary societies and neighboring regions.

Moreover, the nomadic tribes of Central Asia were adept at harnessing the resources of their environment in a sustainable manner, utilizing natural materials such as wood, felt, and leather to craft their portable dwellings, tools, and everyday necessities. The nomads’ resourcefulness and adaptability were evident in their ability to thrive in diverse ecological zones, from the grassy steppes to the arid deserts, where they utilized local flora and fauna to meet their material needs.

The nomadic economy was also shaped by a system of reciprocal exchange and mutual assistance among different tribes, fostering interdependence and cooperation in the face of environmental challenges and economic fluctuations. This network of trade and social ties facilitated the circulation of goods, information, and cultural practices, contributing to the resilience and dynamism of the nomadic societies.

By examining the economic and resource considerations that underpinned the nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia, we gain a deeper understanding of the ingenuity and resourcefulness of the nomadic peoples, whose economic strategies were finely attuned to the demands of their environment and the imperatives of survival.

Political and Military Strategies

The nomadic societies of Central Asia developed intricate political and military strategies that were tailored to their mobile way of life and the exigencies of their environment. The decentralized and tribal nature of their political organization allowed for a flexible and adaptive approach to governance, as chieftains and tribal leaders exercised authority based on consensus, kinship ties, and martial prowess.

Central to the nomadic political structure was the concept of charismatic leadership, where individuals who demonstrated exceptional skill in warfare, diplomacy, and resource management could garner influence and command the allegiance of their followers. This dynamic system of leadership enabled the nomads to swiftly mobilize for defensive or offensive purposes, responding to external threats or opportunities for expansion.

Military strategies were deeply ingrained in the nomadic way of life, as the tribes honed their equestrian and archery skills to perfection, becoming renowned for their swift and devastating cavalry tactics. The mobility of the nomadic warriors, coupled with their mastery of horseback combat, allowed them to launch lightning raids, encircle their foes, and traverse vast distances with unparalleled speed, confounding sedentary armies and empires.

Furthermore, the nomadic tribes of Central Asia were adept at exploiting the geography and climate of their homeland to their advantage, utilizing natural barriers, such as rivers and mountains, as well as inclement weather conditions, to outmaneuver and outwit their adversaries. The harsh and unforgiving terrain of Central Asia served as a crucible for the development of resilient and resourceful military tactics, as the nomads leveraged their intimate knowledge of the land to gain strategic superiority.

The nomadic military ethos was characterized by a culture of martial valor, discipline, and adaptability, as the warriors were conditioned to endure hardship, display courage in the face of adversity, and demonstrate unwavering loyalty to their leaders and comrades. This ethos, combined with their mastery of hit-and-run tactics and guerrilla warfare, rendered the nomadic armies a formidable force that left an indelible mark on the annals of military history.

By exploring the political and military strategies of Central Asia’s nomadic societies, we gain a profound appreciation for their strategic acumen, martial prowess, and enduring legacy as formidable agents of historical change.

The nomadic lifestyle of the people of Central Asia was shaped by a confluence of geographic, cultural, economic, and political factors, which collectively forged a civilization characterized by mobility, resilience, and adaptability. The vast and diverse landscapes of Central Asia, including the expansive steppes, rugged mountains, and arid deserts, provided the backdrop for the nomads’ way of life, influencing their movements, resource utilization, and strategic considerations.

Culturally, the nomadic societies of Central Asia fostered a deep reverence for nature, a strong sense of community, and a rich tradition of craftsmanship and hospitality, which permeated every facet of their existence. The economic foundations of the nomadic lifestyle rested on the sustainable exploitation of natural resources, particularly through animal husbandry and trade, while the political and military strategies of the nomads were characterized by decentralized leadership, swift mobility, and mastery of equestrian warfare.

The legacy of Central Asia’s nomadic peoples endures in the diverse cultures, traditions, and historical narratives of the region, leaving an indelible imprint on the world’s collective heritage. Their nomadic way of life, shaped by the imperatives of survival and the dynamics of their environment, offers valuable insights into the human capacity for adaptation, innovation, and enduring cultural expression.

By delving into the multifaceted reasons behind the nomadic lifestyle of Central Asia, we unravel a tapestry of human ingenuity, resilience, and creativity, underscoring the profound impact of environmental and historical forces on the evolution of civilizations. The nomadic legacy of Central Asia stands as a testament to the enduring spirit of exploration, the quest for sustainability, and the timeless allure of the open road.

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29 Things I’ve Learned from a Year of Nomadic Travel

February 18, 2024 July 5, 2022

When you’ve been on the road for a year, you learn some things. You learn things about yourself , you learn things about your partner, and you learn things about your priorities.

Before I launch into all of that and more from our year of nomadic travel, it makes sense to get into how we got here. For a bit of background, we closed on our house in San Diego in August 2021. We always knew we’d put the house up for sale when the numbers hit life-altering figures.

The pandemic spurred us into action, too. I had already quit my job teaching by then and was pursuing full-time remote work. Brian did the same with his insurance gig when we put the house up on the market. It was the epitome of a YOLO moment, a spark of, “If we can do what we’re doing anywhere, why not…do that?”

That’s how it happened. The house didn’t sit for long, we sold most of our stuff, and we hit the road . We stuck with the United States as an easy entry into our nomad trip, despite our desires to see the world. It was just easier to do that with a big dog and no home base.

Here we are, a year later, and I have all kinds of stuff to share about the rewarding bits about nomadic travel and the not-so-great things. I’ll keep things honest with you in case you’re thinking about hitting the road long-term yourself, including whether it’s been worth it in the end.

Disclosure: Please note that some of the links below may be affiliate links, including links through the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases .  At no additional cost to you, I earn a commission if you make a purchase. I won’t recommend something I have not used/would not use myself, and any income earned supports the upkeep of this site.

RV life isn’t for me.

We considered an RV or #vanlife as an option for a hot minute as we were planning our escape. We booked accommodations in standalone RVs during a few trips coming up on our nomadic adventures to see what it would feel like, and quickly learned that it just wasn’t going to work. We already knew we weren’t tiny house people. Now we knew we weren’t RV people, either.

First of all, living in an RV doesn’t really save you any money. We’ve been a little more insulated from gas prices driving around in a hybrid, but you won’t get that when filling up your RV. Add maintenance costs and I’m really not paying much more for a long-term rental or night at a budget-friendly hotel.

It’s also monotonous looking at the same space day in and day out, without any separation from the driving to your sleeping to your relaxing. There’s zero privacy, which is pretty clutch when you’re doing the digital nomad travel thing and trying to maintain a positive relationship with another adult. Depending on the size of your vehicle, you may not be as mobile as you think, either.

Our RAV4 can pretty much go anywhere, from the bumpiest roads to winding mountain highways.

That all said, I envy people that embrace the nomadic RV life. These are likely super flex people who get their kicks out on the open road. You do you, RVers.

You need to be a good planner.

I’ve always been a Type A person when it comes to travel planning . I get down into the nitty gritty details with dates and times and attractions I want to hit by neighborhood in my multiple Google docs. As a nomadic traveler, I’ve had to become an even better planner, but that doesn’t mean planning with more detail.

It’s meant more flexbility. It’s about contigency plans if something falls through or the destination you were planning to hit is way over budget. It’s building in time for weather delays or the real life obligations you need to get to before you can go out and do the touristy things. It’s figuring out which pet stores carry the hard-to-find dog food your anxiety-ridden pup loves.

It’s planning on steroids.

It’s actually harder to plan ahead, not easier.

The world is your oyster when you’re a nomadic traveler in the sense that you can change your route on a dime if it suits you. That’s not always the easiest or most cost-effective course of action, though. It’s expensive to book accommodations last minute in most places. If you hit the Midwest during high season as we’ve been doing in our travels, you’re shut out of most of the best options well before your visit.

We’ve finally started planning some travel abroad the last few months after our COVID slump, which means making sure we’re in a location with dog sitters.

That often means family in our case. We never gave my mother grandchildren, so she treats Kimmy like a baby.

It can also be a challenge figuring out where to fly out of if you’re perpetually on the road.

We’ve taken to calling Chicago , my hometown, a travel base. Flights out of O’Hare are easy to find and often much less expensive than smaller regionals. That doesn’t mean it’s breezy to figure out how to drive back to Chicago whenever we need to if we’re on the West Coast . That’s a lot of driving.

Things WILL go wrong.

We’ve dealt with ants in the bed, dead mice in the kitchen, and last-minute cancellations on bookings. We’ve narrowly avoided tornadoes and driven through blinding storms. We’ve had to crawl through windows to get into our units. We’ve absolutely hated certain stops and felt sad leaving others. We’ve gotten COVID in the middle of multiple moves over the course of a week. Things will go wrong in your nomadic travels. You can’t control that. You can control how you react.

Take a deep breathe and don’t make any rash decisions when things go wrong. Your initial instincts on what to do next may not be the best based on your emotions. Just be cool, travelers, and keep things in perspective.

You can save money as nomadic travelers.

We lived in San Diego before hitting the road. We gladly paid what’s affectionately known as the “sun tax” to live in America’s finest city, but once we left, it really became quite apparent how expensive Southern California really is. We’d left Chicago, another fairly pricey city , to live in San Diego. Much of the country just isn’t that expensive in comparison, especially if you’re willing to sacrifice a bit to be outside of the thick of things.

Thanks to Brian’s financial prowess, we have more money saved today than we did when we sold our house. We’re certainly lucky enough to be able to make money from our savings through risk-averse decision-making on stocks and such — I say it that way because that’s not my arena — but living on the road has turned out to be cost-effective for us.

You can certainly blow your budget quickly as a nomad, but for many, it’s less expensive than a home base.

Cheaper is not always best.

My husband and I say this one out loud all the time: CHEAPER IS NOT ALWAYS BEST.

It took us a few disastrous stays to realize that cheaper isn’t better every time when it comes to where you lay your head at the end of the day. We spent a week in New Haven, Connecticut , in a space so small that I’d knock my knee into something every time I had to adjust my body. The aforementioned mouse in the sink was a fun find upon arrival at a place in the middle of the desert in Crestone, Colorado.

We’re not luxe travelers by any means. We want to see as much of the world as we can, which means traveling on a mid-range budget. Sometimes paying a little more pays dividends in terms of your comfort, safety, and sanity. Pore through reviews before booking apartments and hotels. Look for those red flags. Analyze those photos. Oftentimes, if the price sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Sometimes the middle of nowhere is fun. Sometimes it isn’t.

The pandemic changed the way people travel. More and more people started looking for places to visit that were off the grid vs. the more popular spots around the United States. I love that people are getting out there more, but that means those off-the-beaten-path destinations have become more expensive for everyone else.

It also means the experience you were looking for — hyper-local, quiet, quaint — may no longer feel that way once you get there. It may look like Instagram influencers and crowded cafes and heavy foot traffic at outdoorsy destinations, instead.

That’s fine if you know what you’re getting yourself into. Browse through social media on destinations you’re interested in. If it’s blown up recently, it may not be as off-the-grid as you were hoping for.

The middle of nowhere can also mean:

• Limited Internet access
• Limited access to groceries
• Long drives from Point A to Point B

Just do your research, especially if you want to linger a while.

Your mother will worry about your nomadic travel.

Every time I talk to my mother, she asks the same thing: “Are you bored of this life yet?” My response is always the same: “How could I be bored of all things?!?” (Nevermind she’s gotten a trip to Nashville out of it.)

I’ve found sending regular photos helps, with a weekly phone call to allow her to hear my voice in real time. If your nearest and dearest are similarly anxious, make sure to keep in touch. They want to know you’re not only alive and well but thriving. If you’re not thriving because you just found a dead mouse in the sink, leave that part out. That’s a funny story for later.

Someone needs to get your mail.

You’d think in the digital world we live in, mail wouldn’t be that big a deal. It has to go somewhere, though. My mother receives all of the important stuff, and she couldn’t be more pleased about it. It means we have to come back at some point to sift through all of the junk mail she refuses to toss. “It’s up to a full drawer,” she likes to say.

It also gives her an excuse to call when something quasi-important comes through, like a warning from the Chicago Police Department about my speeding during our last visit.

You’ll see things you likely wouldn’t have otherwise.

Driving around the United States has exposed us to places that would never have been on our radar otherwise. We’ve stayed long-term in places like Augusta, Georgia , and Fairplay, Colorado. These weren’t on my American bucket list, and yet we’ve had some great experiences there.

We’ve stayed in all kinds of small towns along the East Coast, a reason why I’ve fallen in love with that part of the country.

Does it get better than fall in New England , by the way? No, it does not.

You need a home base.

I’m not saying you need a base to return to every few months. Your home base is the address you’ll use for things like your car registration, your license, your health insurance, and your taxes. For us, you already know that’s my mom. We also have a virtual mailbox through iPostal1 for blog purposes. It’s easy enough to set up if you don’t have a nosy mother of your own.

Here’s why we chose iPostal1:

• It gives you a real street address instead of a PO Box. This is important for some banking institutions and travel insurance carriers.
• They’re all over the United States. You’ll need to choose a base, but that can just be a place that you wouldn’t mind returning to once in a while.
• You don’t need to go there in person. They’ll forward your mail or scan it for digital access if you don’t need the physical letters.
• It’s budget-friendly. They have several plans that vary in price to suit your needs. We went with the most basic.
• They offer free storage. They’ll hold your mail or packages for up to 30 days, depending on the size.

Moving around every few days gets old.

Since we haven’t adopted the RV life, we have to unload and load the car every time we move from one place to the next. I don’t think we have an exorbitant amount of stuff, but we have enough that it can become a pain…especially if there are steep stairs or long elevator rides involved.

We’ve found a sweet spot of choosing destinations to settle into for up to a month at a time, but it doesn’t always work out that way. If we have our heart set on a destination because I’ve never been — I’m looking at you, overpriced Rapid City — we may only stay a couple days or up to a week if it’s too expensive for longer.

If we find somewhere inexpensive that we think we’d like within a short drive of more things we’d like, we may book a longer stay.

Flexibility is key.

We had the first six months of our travel planned out before we even hit the road. We didn’t look at prices at our chosen destinations much. We just felt like things would kinda fall into place as we went along on our journey and let our good fortune be our guide.

Well, things didn’t work out that way. Our goal of spending a full month in Savannah, Georgia , went sideways when we looked at what that kind of goal would cost us. We spent a few days outside of the city, instead, rather than a full month. Even the outskirts were beyond the reach of our budget.

It’s been a fine balance of planning ahead but not planning so far ahead that you’ll bum yourself out with constant adjustments.

Your relationships become more important than ever. 

Nomadic travel can get lonely. It’s certainly nice to have a partner and a dog to share it all with, but you still feel a lack of community and a lack of connection when you’re not in one place for long. The relationships you have back at home, wherever that is, become so much more important.

I try to keep in touch with my close friends as much as I can, whether that’s simple texts, social media connections, or FaceTime with the select few who get that privilege.

We had some practice with this during the pandemic. We hadn’t seen much of our friends and family outside of our bubbles in California for quite some time when we decided to become digital nomads. Working remotely has also been a good trial run. That still doesn’t mean you don’t miss the ones you love when you’re out on the road.

Your friends and family will ask where you are every time you chat.

Don’t get weird about this. It’s hard enough for me to keep track and know exactly where we’ll be next week. I can’t expect the same from my friends and family. At least they’re asking. If they’re not, they probably don’t care.

What? People have a lot going on, and your galavanting around the country is probably not at the top of their minds. If they don’t ask at all, like ever, that’s really not cool, though.

You will see things that surprise you.

There are places in this country where moose walk right into the town’s coffee shops and stay a while. There are hippie towns in the middle of very red states and culinary delights in places you really didn’t consider before. In some places, pirates ride down the street on their scooters.

You’ll make all kinds of weird and unplanned stops as a travel nomad just because there’s no way to know about every little thing you’ll come upon while on the road. Embrace those little moments of magic, as you won’t always see things that delight you.

You will see things that frustrate you.

Our country is politically divided in a way I haven’t seen up to this point. That division presents itself in offensive bumper stickers and flags outside of people’s homes. Hey, freedom of speech is cool. A waving flag proclaiming “F*CK BIDEN!” without that asterisk isn’t cool, as these same people likely have quite a few thoughts about things their kids shouldn’t be exposed to.

Gun culture is all the more apparent if you’ve been on the road for a while, too.

Fun fact: There are towns in this country where bullets and guns are more accessible than affordable produce.

Food deserts are a huge problem. If the closest real grocery store is 45 minutes away from your house, you’re probably eating canned beans and Pringles from the Dollar General down the street, instead.

You’ll get treated like a local.

I always get a kick out of tourists asking me for directions when we’re in a place for a longer period of time. I usually have Kimmy with me, which is a good indicator for most that I’m a local. Unfortunately, I’m also terrible with directions, so I’m not usually much help in those situations.

Note: We’ve certainly been to a few places around the country where we just don’t fit in at all, and that’s OK. I’m fine with being just a visitor in those towns.

Prioritizing self-care will make you feel better.

It’s not just about trying the local pizza wherever you land and chugging beers on couches near and far. Nomadic travel is also about making time for the things that make you feel good. I’m talking about eating your veggies, exercising, and taking care of your mental health.

If we’re staying anywhere for more than a few days, we need kitchen access to make home-cooked meals. I’m not as young as I used to be and just can’t bounce back from eating out all the time anymore. Exercising is easy to do when you have plentiful access to hiking trails where you are. If that’s not where you are, get outside anyway. Put on a YouTube yoga session. Do a round on the in-house elliptical.

This isn’t me being nonsensical, by the way. We stayed in a place that was once a physical therapy office and the ellipitical was left behind.

Self-care is also about scheduling those appointments you’ve been putting off. We always know how to have a good time at our “home base.” That means dentist appointments, annual physicals, and whatever else needs to happen to keep us in tip-top shape and traveling as long as possible.

Less is more.

We sold quite a bit of our stuff after we left San Diego and put the things we’d want in a forever home in storage. That includes our bedroom set — my mom got that for us as a wedding gift per Polish custom — my childhood piano, and some other sentimental items we couldn’t part with at the time. 

You’ve already heard about how annoying it can be to move stuff in and out of your car every few days, but you can certainly make that less annoying if you embrace the mantra that less is more.

This can become challenging when you have a bin of kitchen supplies for long stays and a large dog that isn’t the most low-maintenance creature on the planet, but we do our best.  

Beware of toxic positivity.

One of my friends taught me about toxic positivity when we started out on this nomadic experience. That’s when you feel like you have to be super happy and optimistic all the time even when you’re not feeling that way. I felt like because we were doing this amazing thing, we weren’t ever able to talk about things that bothered us, or things that didn’t feel so great.

When you feel like the sky is falling, it can be hard to articulate that to others when you’re out there posting about all the cool things you’re doing. That’s why I try to be honest not only on social media but with our friends and family. It’s not all sunshine and ponies. We have a lot of fun, but we also feel things that aren’t always fun. We doomscroll just like you all. We have to take care of our mental health just like anyone else.

We’re just doing it from the road.

Sometimes you will feel very, very tired.

Travel can be exhausting. Even when it feels very rewarding and you see all kinds of amazing things , it can still feel like a lot. It’s like when you say you need a vacation from your vacation, which I know is a super annoying thing to say. Nomadic travel can be like that, but all the time…if you’re not careful.

Staying in destinations for longer stints has alleviated this somewhat, but we still go weeks where we’re just on the road constantly. That can mean working on less sleep than you’d like to fit in everything that you need (and want) to do. I know, poor me.

The work doesn’t disappear because you did something fun today.

Along those lines, when you’re in one of those busy periods where you’re moving from place to place every couple days, that perfect balance can be hard to achieve. I’m a freelance content writer. There are weeks where I have more to do than others, and days when I’m not on deadline.

That doesn’t include my blog. That also doesn’t include actually seeing the places we visit in any detail, or giving myself some downtime.

If I take a morning hike on a day with a looming deadline, that deadline doesn’t go away. Sometimes I’m at the mercy of my editors, too. I may not know something is coming in until the day it does.

Yes, the flexibility with nomadic travel is great, but it can also be stressful if you’re not great at time management. Thankfully, I’d worked as a freelancer before and got a taste of the hustle, but traveling while freelancing is another level.

Building in buffer time is a smart thing to do.

If I have any indication that I’ll have a busy week ahead, I try not to plan too much in the way of travel to account for that. That’s why staying places for a little longer is so great. That buffer time is built in to give me time to work and time to play.

We used to take very aggressive road trips where we’d stay in spots for a day, do all the things, and move on. We don’t do that anymore. If I know it’ll take us four days to see everything I want to see in a destination, I’ll request that we build in an extra couple days to account for work, blogging, and travel time.

Note: Not every attraction I want to visit wants my dog there, either. Buffer time is good for building in time to see things that aren’t pet-friendly, too.

Traveling with a dog is the best.

Kimmy has become quite the adventure dog and we’ve really watched her confidence grow over the last year. She loves to hike and hang out underneath tables at breweries. She still doesn’t love car rides unless she’s able to stick her head out the window. Her smile seriously lights up my life, so it’s great to have her around. Traveling with a dog can be so much fun, until it isn’t.

Traveling with a dog makes things more challenging.

Finding accommodations that take pets isn’t all that challenging, but you will end up paying more for that hotel room or apartment if you’re traveling with a dog. Pet fees are commonplace. I try to avoid them when they’re exorbitant enough, but if you have your heart set on a place, there may be no way around it.

If your pet has any special needs, nomadic travel becomes even harder. Luckily, Kimmy Kibbler is a healthy girl. She did have her first encounter with fleas in New Orleans, but thankfully her flea preventative meant we were able to nip those bugs in the bud after a medicated bath or two.

I’ve already mentioned scheduling all of your personal appointments to keep yourself healthy. You have to do the same for your pet. Kimmy got her last round of shots back in San Diego, but that’s likely the last time she’ll see that vet. I didn’t like how they were always trying to drug her, anyway.

You’ll only think of more places to visit.

Nomadic lifestyles mean you’ll see more than you would otherwise, but you’ll never see it all. I have a running list of places I’d like to see around the country. Many of those places are in states we’ve already explored. Every time we leave somewhere I’m left with a couple wish list items we just didn’t get to for whatever reason, whether that’s weather or time or expense.

For example, there’s a place in New Jersey that serves up a 1-pound mozarella stick. Obviously, that’s on the list. I want to return to the Finger Lakes because of crappy weather we got on our brief visit last time around. There are places all over New England I’d love to see that just require a little more pre-planning than we expected our first go-around.

Don’t worry, I have a global bucket list, too. I just can’t drive to those places. There are always new corners to explore no matter where you are, and I’m OK with that. It keeps the road exciting.

You’ll feel pretty dang lucky.

We still feel very lucky on a daily basis. We were able to do this thing at a relatively young age, and know that many people hope to do something similar once they retire. We understand our privilege and have no regrets.

Fun fact: If you’d like to follow in our footsteps, avoiding the kid trap helps. Seriously, kids are expensive. We wouldn’t be out here doing what we’re doing with a baby on board. Kimmy is enough.

It’s great for today, but maybe not for tomorrow.

There are still enough positives with nomadic travel that we aren’t going out and setting down roots anytime soon. A move abroad to France is as close as we’ve come and we have no regrets.

Initially, this experience was about finding a new place to live at some point. There was so much of the country we hadn’t yet seen. It’s become so much more since. It’s become about finding the hidden gems in cities and towns that aren’t on any shortlist for a more permanent move and finding places that are good for today if not for tomorrow.

I’m not sure where we’ll be a year from now, but it’s been quite the adventure so far. And it’s all been worth it.

Nomadic Travel: FAQs

You’ve likely had enough of my pontificating for now, but I wanted to get to a few frequently asked questions about nomadic travel. Off we go!

What is a nomadic journey? A nomadic journey is a journey that’s based on travel from place to place. You may have a set destination in mind, or you may only know about your movements a few weeks out.

It’s all about what you need and want from nomadic travel, and it’s certainly not for everyone.

Why do nomads travel? Nomads travel for a variety of reasons. Some want to see the world. Others have reached a certain age where they feel like now is the time get out of their comfort zone. Some nomads travel because of economic reasons. It can be quite cost-effective to avoid putting down roots for any period of time, especially if you choose budget-friendly destinations.

For us, the pandemic broke our brains a little bit. We just had to get out. We had to see more.

Where do nomads travel? Nomads travel wherever they like, with certain limitations in mind. If you’re traveling with a pet, you want to target more pet-friendly destinations. If you’re a solo female traveler, you may consider safety over anything else when choosing where to go next.

In our case, we stuck to the United States during our nomadic journey, but you can certainly take your nomadic journey abroad if you have the time, the means, and the desire to travel the world, instead. We hope to make that happen, too!

Are you a digital nomad? Have you been exploring your home country from the road? Are you a former nomadic traveler who said, “To heck with this!” after some time on the road?

I want to hear all about it! Share your stories with me in the comments.

Ready to Hit the Road?

Your Rental Car:  If you’re not using your own car, you’ll need a vehicle to get from Point A to Point B. I usually use an aggregator like Hotwire or Priceline  to find the best deal on rental cars, as I don’t feel a loyalty to any one car rental company. If you have to fly in from somewhere first, it’ll be most efficient to just rent a car right from the airport.

Flights : On that note, I use a variety of tools to find cheap airfare, but if you’re looking to book flights during a particular period of time, especially during busy times (e.g. school breaks), you should use  Skyscanner . Whether you’re seeking flights in India or the United States, South Africa or Canada, it’s a great tool for when you’re more flexible, too. It allows you to compare travel based on length of travel, departure date, etc.

Your Accommodations:  I usually recommend accommodations services like  Booking.com  and  Hotels.com  for your accommodation needs. Both offer loyalty programs, and now offer listings that are more of the home or condo rental variety.

Vrbo  has become my go-to Airbnb alternative. Seeking even more wallet-friendly accommodations? Try  Hostelworld . Their picks are heavily vetted and reviewed to offer you a safe experience on a budget.

Etc.:  For general travel goodies, visit my  Favorite Things  page. For more information on planning your travel, visit my  Travel Tools  page.

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WHY DO NOMADS MIGRATE?

Why do nomads move or migrate.

You might have a question: Why do nomads in Mongolia migrate or move all the time?

Depending on areas where they live or camp, nomads migrate three or four times in a year. Anyway, they wouldn’t be a nomad if they will not migrate every time.

In reality, there are four completely different seasons in Mongolia. Those four seasons are cold winter, hot summer, spring, and autumn.

Meaning of Mongolian nomadic migration

Migration of Mongolian nomads have a special meanings that you may not know. Here you can find the best answers to your questions. Migration of Mongolian nomads and why do nomads migrate?

1) They choose the east side of the mountain or large rock as a shelter from the wind. Mongolian winter is cold, so they need to keep away their livestock from the whole night blowing cold wind.

2) They choose the area with less snow where not covers all the grass on the steppe. Otherwise, small animals wouldn’t reach the grass-covered by deep snow.

3) While their livestock is enjoying the less snowed area and the grass over there, the other areas with deep snow are preserved the grass under their white-deep snow.

4) By the time when it comes spring around, livestock has finished the grass around their winter area.

5) They choose high colder mountain areas in the summer that will be covered by snow in the winter. They need to finish all the grass on the mountains as they are going to be covered by the snow in the winter, and stay unreachable the whole winter anyway.

6) While livestock enjoying the grass on the mountain, the winter area is getting refreshed.

I hope this information was helpful to understand nomads!

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Ex-new yorkers reveal why they joined thousands of others leaving big apple last year.

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New Yorkers who joined in an exodus from the city last year say they were driven out by a palpable change that has overtaken the streets — with many blaming crime and soaring prices for it.

“I think everybody’s noticed a little bit of a shift in the city over the last year or so in terms of safety and cleanliness,” said Samantha Pillsbury, 31, who left the city for a stay in Los Angeles in February after nine years in the Big Apple.

“I’m a single woman, and it started to get less safe, which then affects your entire life,” she said.

Pillsbury — who plans to visit Europe and other cities before settling down somewhere — was just one of tens of thousands of people who fled New York City in recent months.

About 78,000 people left the city in 2023, according to new US Census data, marking a slowdown in the Big Apple’s population decline since the pandemic but still the third year in a row that the numbers have dropped.

“The short answer is that I stopped loving it as much,” Pillsbury acknowledged to The Post of Gotham. “In the last couple of years, the tide sort of turned for how I felt about the city.

“I really started to struggle with the sort of New York culture around work. This sort of like workaholic, work-obsessed culture,” she said, explaining that her online work as a content creator and marketing consultant in the field has allowed her to work from anywhere and get out of the hustle of the city.

A sense of menace from crime growing on the streets since the pandemic pushed her toward making up her mind to leave in the last year.

“I think those factors certainly nudge me along, maybe a little bit faster,” she said.

Pillsbury was far from alone among those feeling things have changed in the city they love.

Stephanie Heintz, 37, first moved to New York 14 years ago to join the fashion industry and found a community that looked out for its members even in the midst of sometimes chaos in the streets.

“I really did believe all the cliche sayings of that, if you can make it in New York, you can make it anywhere. I still believe that,” she said. “I believed that it was a city that never sleeps.

“And that allowed for, for me, for single women, to have a greater sense of safety on the street later at night. There were power numbers, there were more people out. And that just it gave me a certain freedom.”

But she said that feeling evaporated during the pandemic, with safety fears driving her first from her Hell’s Kitchen apartment to a doorman building in NoMad — and finally out of the city altogether.

“Those are all the things that I loved about New York initially, and then things really did change for me in the pandemic,” she said.

“It became an area where I was carrying pepper spray. I was physically attacked on the street a few times,” she said. “I felt myself changing, I felt my energy changing. I felt like I was not engaging at all. And if anything, I was jumpy.

“I had this ‘the world was my oyster’ kind of feeling. And then it suddenly flipped to where I was confined to this small tiny apartment. I could barely even walk my dog.”

Despite living a block away from the posh Ritz-Carlton hotel, Heintz said, she regularly saw people defecating or shooting up heroin steps from her door.

When she finally made up her mind to leave, she was spat on by a stranger as she walked to her office to resign.

Helping her along was the fact that she was slammed with a massive spike in rent since the pandemic, an increase she suddenly found herself struggling to afford despite having worked her way up to a vice president position in the fashion world.

She decided to pack up and head to Fort Lauderdale, Fla., in October.

“I thought during the pandemic everyone in Florida was crazy. But you know, moving to a place with sunshine and different taxes and the beach and smiling past your neighbors and engaging and saying ‘Hello,’ it’s been really nice,” she said.

Heintz joined more than 58,000 New York residents who moved to Florida last year, according to Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles obtained by The Post.

“I think everyone needs to live in a city like New York that will humble them like that,” Heintz said philosophically. “But 14 years ran its course for me. And those those big two elements of safety and money were the deciding factors.”

About half of New Yorkers plan to join the exodus from the city within five years, according to a poll from Citizens Budget Commission, with only 30% saying they’re happy in the city and blaming a significant decline since the pandemic.

Sophie Alvi, 30, quit her job as a Manhattan lawyer in September and headed to Austin, Texas, after she felt herself being stifled by the pace and mindset of New York.

“Looking back, I feel like the overall culture of Manhattan and New York City felt pretty cold,” Alvi said. “It wasn’t really somewhere where I wanted to continue the next chapter of my life, really.

“It’s too hectic, I feel like everyone’s there trying to make money, trying to chase something and not really just trying to live life.”

Once she decided she didn’t want to be a lawyer, she decided there was little reason to remain in the city, and now she pays a fraction of the cost in rent for a better apartment in Austin, where she is mulling starting a mindfulness brand.

“I can wake up and hear the birds chirping or just like, I hear a rooster from my apartment,” she said.

“I feel like Austin is somewhere there’s just a lot more space to just be yourself,” Alvi said. “It’s not too rigid. I’ve been trying to unlearn that very rigid, rigid way of thinking from Manhattan.”

Others described wanting see new places after spending so much time restricted by the pandemic lockdowns, and many said the remote work they’d settled into since left them with few reasons to put up with the difficulties of city living.

But everybody who The Post spoke with still had nostalgia for their old home — and encouragement for others looking to take their spots.

“There is a lot of doomsday talk about the city,” Pillsbury said “And while I do think there’s certainly been some problematic things going on in the city, it doesn’t change the fact that it is an amazing city to live in and has so much to offer people.”

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The Way Home Reveals What Led to Kat and Del’s Falling Out — Plus, Does a Grim Fate Await [Spoiler]?

Vlada gelman, west coast editor.

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After much teasing and speculation, we finally know why The Way Home ‘ s Kat and Del didn’t speak for 17 years — and really, it had nothing to do with what went down at Lingermore.

“Our life together, it’s right. It’s what I choose,” Kat says to Brady, then asks if they can name the baby Alice.

When Kat and Brady return to the Landry farm, they run into Elliot, but Kat doesn’t want to talk to him about what happened and says sorry in a way that conveys nothing is going to happen between them after all. When it comes time to tell Del about the pregnancy, Kat first gives her a check from Brady’s parents to help save the farm. Del refuses to accept it since Kat isn’t moving back home. Kat calls Del too difficult, and Del insinuates that Jacob should be here instead of Kat. Ouch. So Kat picks up Colton’s guitar and declares that she’s taking “a piece of dad and never coming back here. Because it should have been him” instead of Del. Double ouch.

Outside, Brady asks Kat if she told Del about the pregnancy. Kat responds that her mother doesn’t deserve to know the baby. Oof.

As for Lingermore’s role in the mother-daughter falling out, it turns out that Del begged Evelyn not to press charges, thereby keeping their names out of the paper. Back in the present, Del signs the paperwork to sell the farm to the Goodwins and tells Alice that she didn’t mean what she told Kat in 2007.

Meanwhile, Nick is all of us and wonders how nobody recognized that Kat’s daughter Alice is the same Alice who was Kat’s friend in the past. “Memories are fickle. They fit the story that we tell ourselves about life,” is Elliot’s squishy explanation.

In the 1814 timeline, Kat discovers that Jacob is no longer in hiding because Thomas brokered a deal with Cyrus Goodwin to spare his life. She also learns why Jacob isn’t in the almanac: Elijah thought he deserved more than one line and wrote a whole page about how Jacob came into their lives. Elijah’s wife Rebecca lost a baby and wanted to leave Port Haven. But then she went to the pond and a little boy with their same last name appeared. She thought the pond granted her wish and kept his origins secret even from Elijah until she was near death. Jacob was sent to heal what was broken, and he’s why the Landrys remained in Port Haven, Elijah tells Kat. Jacob overhears the conversation, and in a fit of anger about being kept in the dark, he rips out the page from the almanac.

Even still, Jacob doesn’t want to come home with Kat, much to her dismay. For him, this time and these people are his home and family. He worries he might break apart if he returns to the present. He promises Kat that he’ll make sure that Del understands and writes the message about the stars in the almanac.

Back in her time, Kat tells Elliot that she wanted to go to London, and that night on the staircase, she saw him and “fell a bit in love.” But like their kiss the other night, whatever was happening between them in 2007 was over before it started. For his part, Elliot says he very much meant that kiss, and to uphold his promise of no more secrets, he gives Kat his time travel journal. Kat wonders what the point is when she already knows how the story ends, then reveals that she tried to bring Susanna with her. (That detail seems to raise Elliot’s eyebrow.)

The two of them begin lamenting about Rita’s ghost tour and the spirit of the escaped smuggler who supposedly haunts the lighthouse when Kat has an epiphany: What if the convict, who was executed by British soldiers, wasn’t rattling his chains, but coins? She rushes to look in the ledger and sees Thomas’ name there. Elliot says she can’t prevent this, but Kat insists that she has to go back to at least say goodbye.

The Way Home fans, what did you think of this season’s penultimate episode? Were all your almanac questions answered? And what burning Qs do you still have ahead of the finale?

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I think its beyond time they told Del about the pond. Maybe that would’ve prevented her from selling it. Suppose its like an episode of Ruby and the Well, where the new owners want to fill in the pond or something.

If Susanna is an Augustine, she’s Elliot’s ancestor, if she came to 2023 maybe he would’ve disappeared, also since she seems to be swearing off men, what does that mean for El? At first I thought that Jacob would’ve been Elliot’s Great Great Grandfather or something like that. So timey whimey, but I love it!

Awesome episode! Can’t wait for next week.

Jacob being related to Elliott would never happen on Hallmark…

I think Kat should end up loving Thomas. I think he can Time travel to Kat’s Time.

I don’t get the significance of rattling chains versus rattling coins.

Thomas had a habit of rattling coins in his hands. They didn’t draw that much attention in the 1814 timeline, but go back and notice he was usually holding something.

I’m absolutely obsessed with The Way Home. After each show I need to take deep breaths and come back to reality. This is my can’t miss story each week, I never want it to end. Waiting for this season felt like an eternity,and so will the next. I’m so glad there is a season 3 coming. Best show ever ! Love the cast and story line, Absolutely Amazing!

I think Susanna is the one to paint Kat, since the picture has Kat painted in front of the fireplace. We still need to know who the person is in the bushes in 1999, dont think it is Jacob now, Elliot perhaps. He did have that line about it is getting hard to hold onto the memories and conversations with Colton. Maybe he finally takes his first trip into the pond. We can see the pond is starting to freeze, so nobody better get stuck in the past. Also enjoyed the scenes in this episode of present day Elliot and Kat talking, they seem to be coming to an understanding with each other.

We were reminded yet again that it was a Landry rule to stay away from the pond. Was that Colton’s rule or a rule passed down through generations? Makes me wonder if Colton knew about the pond’s gifts first hand. I also wonder if Colton had some other secrets. For example when Dell asked for leniency for Kat and Elliot, why did Evelyn Gooodwin bend and “do it for Colton” and then make the comment about Del living with Colton’a memories? ?? Evelyn and Colton ??

Absolutely agree about Colton and Evelyn. Did anyone else notice the striking resemblance of Evelyn and the young Kat? Think Evelyn might be Kats real mom.

This episode was all over the place.

Elliott had a stunned reaction to Kat saying that she unsuccessfully tried to bring Susanna back with her…he knows so much more than he lets on.

Why did Kat say in a previous episode that Alice would hate her when Alice found out what happened at Lingermore’? Was it because she only stayed with Alice’s father because she got pregnant? Was it because she was going to go to London with Elliot and therefore not have Alice? Neither seems a big enough reason for Kat to think Alice would hate her. Now if Kat had gotten pregnant by Elliot and for whatever reason they decided to lie and say Brady was the father, then I could see Alice being angry enough to say she hated Kat. Same with Del and Kat not speaking for 17 years because in a moment of anger each told the other they wished another family member had lived instead of them. People say things in anger and apologize once they calm down. To me the big reveals didn’t justify the build up. Not sure what kind of case Evelyn Goodwin would have against Kat if she did press charges. Even if Kat had been the one to make the invitation public on Facebook, it was not a deliberate act. Maybe a case against Elliot but Ms Goodwin asked Elliot to look after her place. She bears some responsibility for asking a teenager or near teenager to take on that task. Now if the kids decided to break into Ns. Goodwin’s house because they knew she was out of town, that would be a different story and a stronger case.

They’re not teenagers in 2007…

I will be devastated if Rho as dies in 1814. Rhos show is the absolute Best!! Only 1 more episode left of season 2! What will I do until 2025!! Season 3 will be just as amazing 🤩

Who is Rho as? What is Rhos??? I’m thinking this is a typo because it makes no sense.

She means “Thomas.”

I want Jacob to come back, atleast long enough to see his mom. I really hope the land sale doesn’t go thru, where will they go then? The Goodwins are not a good family. I hope Elliot and Kat end up together even though I think she’s in love with Thomas and vice versa. So where would that even go. So many unanswered questions. But I really hope jacob changes his mind.

what am i going to do between season 2 and 3? i just love the storyline and the amazing casts. can’t wait for the season 2 cliffhanger. thank you for season 3……etc.

From what book did Susanna quote to Kat in last night’s episode?

Did Del sell the house or just the land? What do you all think? I think the whole Nick and Del not seeing that current Alice looks just like the past Alice is a little too hokey. But it is what it is. LOL. Still love this series.

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Ohio mother who left toddler alone when she went on vacation is sentenced in child’s murder

An Ohio woman whose toddler died after she left her alone for more than a week while she went on vacation was sentenced to life in prison without parole Monday, the Cuyahoga County prosecutor said.

Kristel Candelario, 32, pleaded guilty last month t o aggravated murder and endangering children in connection with the death of her 16-month-old daughter, Jailyn, last year.

Candelario left for vacation June 6 and left Jailyn alone. She visited Detroit and Puerto Rico, the prosecutor’s office said.

When she returned on June 16, she found Jailyn dead and called police, authorities said.

Jailyn died of starvation and severe dehydration due to pediatric neglect, Dr. Elizabeth Mooney, the deputy Cuyahoga County medical examiner, said in court Monday. The manner was ruled homicide.

The child was extremely dehydrated and emaciated, weighing 13 pounds, 7 pounds less than in her last doctor's visit less than two months before, Mooney said.

Mooney, who conducted the autopsy, called Jailyn's death "one of the most tragic and unfortunate cases I’ve had in my career thus far." She said the child could have suffered for possibly a week.

In a statement Monday, prosecutor Michael C. O’Malley called Jailyn “a beautiful baby girl who was taken from this world due to her mother’s unimaginable selfishness.”

Candelario told the court Monday that “every day I ask forgiveness from God and from my daughter Jailyn.”

She also asked forgiveness from her other daughter and from her parents.

Candelario’s attorney, Derek Smith, said that no one was trying to excuse her behavior but that Candelario was struggling emotionally and was overwhelmed as a single mother of two children.

Candelario had tried to harm herself earlier in 2023 and she had been placed on antidepressants, which she stopped taking without tapering down in dosage as required, which can cause side effects, Smith told the court. Candelario was "not thinking clearly," he said.

“I am not trying to justify my actions, but nobody knew how much I was suffering and what I was going through,” Candelario said through an interpreter.

Assistant Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Anna Faraglia told the court Monday that Candelario had left Jailyn alone for two days immediately before she left on vacation.

"The thought of this child dying every day while she's having fun — humanity can't stomach that," Faraglia said. "And those are the actions that need to be punished. She abandoned her daughter and left her for dead."

In sentencing Candelario, Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Judge Brendan Sheehan noted that the police and the medical professionals involved called it one of the most horrific cases they’d ever seen.

“It stunned people across this world, because it defies one of the basic human responsibilities,” Sheehan said. He called it “the ultimate act of betrayal.” 

Phil Helsel is a reporter for NBC News.

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Far Right’s Success Is a Measure of a Changing Portugal

Memories of dictatorship are fading. Dissatisfaction is mounting. It was a ripe moment for the Chega party to appeal to voter frustrations.

By Emma Bubola

Emma Bubola reported from Faro, Portugal, and several other towns across the Algarve, speaking to party officials, tourism workers, farmers and fishermen.

The sun-soaked Algarve region on Portugal’s Southern coast is a place where guitar-strumming backpackers gather by fragrant orange trees and digital nomads hunt for laid-back vibes. It is not exactly what comes to mind when one envisions a stronghold of far-right political sentiment.

But it is in the Algarve region where the anti-establishment Chega party finished first in national elections this month , both unsettling Portuguese politics and injecting new anxiety throughout the European establishment. Nationwide, Chega received 18 percent of the vote.

“It’s a strong signal for Europe and for the world,” said João Paulo da Silva Graça, a freshly elected Chega lawmaker, sitting at the party’s new Algarve headquarters as tourists asked for vegan custard tarts at a bakery downstairs. “Our values must prevail.”

Chega, which means “enough” in Portuguese, is the first hard-right party to gain ground in the political scene in Portugal since 1974 and the end of the nationalist dictatorship of António de Oliveira Salazar. Its formula for success mixed promises of greater law and order with tougher immigration measures and an appeal to economic resentments.

Chega’s breakthrough has presented Portugal as the latest version of a now familiar quandary for Europe , where the inroads of hard-right parties have made it increasingly difficult for mainstream competitors to avoid them .

The leader of Portugal’s center-right coalition, which won the election, has refused to ally with Chega, but experts say the result is likely to be an unstable minority government that may not last long.

Chega showed once again that taboos that had kept hard-right parties out of power, foremost the long shadow of a right-wing dictatorship from last century, were falling. Today the hard right has made gains in Italy, Spain and Germany, among other places.

Portugal had been considered the exception. It emerged from the Salazar dictatorship as a progressive society that supported liberal drug laws and showed little appetite for the far right. In recent years it became a booming tourist destination, flush with foreign investment , expatriates and a growing economy.

Even so, this month more than a million Portuguese cast what many saw as a protest vote for Chega.

The Socialist and the mainstream conservative Social Democratic party in recent decades have presided over a painful financial crisis and tough austerity period. But even in the country’s recent economic upturn , many have felt left out, anxious and forgotten.

Huge numbers of young Portuguese are leaving the country. Many of those who stay work for low salaries that have not kept up with inflation and left them priced out of an unaffordable housing market. Public services are under stress.

Chega campaigned promising higher salaries and better conditions for workers, who the party said had been impoverished by a greedy elite. It fought against mixed-gender bathrooms in schools and restitutions for former colonies.

A corruption investigation into the handling of clean energy projects, which brought down the Socialist government last year, handed Chega another talking point with which to attack the ruling class.

The party’s message struck a chord with many Portuguese who did not vote before and attracted young voters through powerful social media outreach. It also resonated with voters in Algarve who had voted reliably for the Socialist Party in the past.

“Here we have to work, work, work and we get nothing,” said Pedro Bonanca, a Chega voter who drives tourists on a boat to the fishing island of Culatra, off the Algarve coast.

“When I ask old people why they vote the Socialist Party, the only thing they can say is that they took us out of the dictatorship,” said Mr. Bonanca, 25. “But I don’t know about that. It was a long time ago.”

The top of his Instagram search bar featured André Ventura, the charismatic former soccer commentator who once trained as a priest before founding Chega in 2019.

In earlier campaigns, Chega used the slogan “God, Homeland, Family, Work,” similar to the Salazar dictatorship’s “God, Homeland, Family.” Before the recent election, Chega promised a mix of social policies that experts described as unrealistic, including plans to increase the minimum wage and pensions while also cutting taxes.

“Chega became a sort of catchall party of all anxieties,” said António Costa Pinto, a political scientist with the Institute of Social Sciences at the University of Lisbon.

In the Algarve region, Chega appealed to underpaid waiters with unstable jobs, priced out of their hometowns or forced to emigrate. The party’s message resonated with aging fishermen who had to keep working to make a living. It spoke to farmers who said that they felt forsaken and that the government had prioritized watering golf courses despite looming drought.

“If we die, it’s because of them,” Pedro Cabrita, a farmer, said of the government. “My vote for Chega is a protest vote,” he said as he gazed anxiously at his orange grove, which he feared might dry out this summer.

In Olhão, an impoverished tourist town where Chega won nearly 30 percent of the vote, José Manuel Fernandes, a fishmonger, wondered why, despite the fact that Portugal is in the European Union, he could not aspire to the lifestyle of the German or French tourists around him.

“In the summer I see couples having a good time here, living in camper vans,” said Mr. Fernandes, who voted for Chega, as he cleaned a giant cuttlefish. “I have wanted to go on vacation abroad for 30 years,” he added, “but that moment never came.”

Economists say Portugal, which started from a lower economic point when it joined the European Union in 1986, has made progress but not the kind of productivity gains needed to catch up to its wealthier European partners. Instead it remains a relative bargain for European tourists and retirees, while many Portuguese feel increasingly plundered.

In the seaside town of Albufeira, as British bachelorette squads in blinking bunny ears cruised the streets, Tiago Capela Rito, a 30-year-old waiter, closed the cocktail bar where he worked. Despite working since he was 15, he still lives with his mother because he cannot afford his own apartment, he said.

He had never voted before, but he voted for Chega. “Ventura is telling us that we don’t have to leave the country to survive,” said Mr. Rito, who in the off season juggles construction and kitchen jobs, “that we can stay here and have a life.”

Down the road, Luís Araújo, 61, a waiter who also voted for Chega, said his son, 25, made more than triple his salary at a restaurant in Dublin.

“Our young people leave and these guys stay here,” he said of the influx of workers from Nepal and India who have arrived to fill low-paying jobs.

Though the numbers of immigrants arriving in Portugal has been smaller than in Italy or Spain, Mr. Ventura has cast a recent influx of South Asian immigrants as a threat.

“The European Union is being demographically replaced by the children of immigrants,” he said in Parliament in 2022, evoking the “great replacement” conspiracy theory. “Nobody wants that in 20 years Europe will be mostly made up by individuals from other continents.”

For some, Chega’s rise has brought back old fears, especially for members of the Roma community, one of Mr. Ventura’s early targets.

For some older Portuguese, too, the specter of the hard right’s revival has been unsettling.

As he cleaned his nets from small crabs and cuttlefish, Vitór Silvestre, 67, a fisherman on Culatra, said he still remembered being fearful to talk to the cobbler or even friends during the dictatorship years, never knowing who could be an informant.

“And now we are voting for the far right again?” he asked.

Tiago Carrasco contributed reporting from Faro, Portugal.

Emma Bubola is a Times reporter based in London, covering news across Europe and around the world. More about Emma Bubola

Are Digital Nomads Actually Good for the Places They Inhabit?

P rior to the pandemic, the working life of a digital nomad was reserved for a select group of people, generally of the freelance variety. But the sudden and unanimous rise of remote work at the onset of 2020 invited a rare opportunity for salaried workers to pack their bags and set up shop in an exotic locale for an extended period of time. Recognizing said opportunity, tourism authorities set about doing away with any red tape that would make it difficult for workers to do so, and eventually “Digital Nomad Visas” came into play.

It proved a smart move. Per a report from MBO Partners , nearly 17 million Americans identified as digital nomads in 2022 — up 131% from 2019 — and destinations that offered visa programs like Brazil, Mexico, Barbados, Thailand, Germany, Norway and Spain became hotbeds. At the end of 2022, Airbnb went on to launch a new  digital nomad policy , allowing employees to work temporarily in more than 170 countries, signaling that the trend wasn’t — and isn’t — in jeopardy of fizzling out, either.

And why would it? Back in January, Forbes reported that  81% of digital nomads are highly satisfied  with their work and lifestyle compared to 68% of nondigital nomads, even in spite of generally low levels of employee engagement in 2023. But we don’t need more research to support the idea that time out of office, and traveling, are good for mental health.

Instead, perhaps we should be shining a light on the implications the uptick in digital nomads has had on the places they’ve put down their temporary roots. Has it been a mutually beneficial relationship?

The Truth About Working Remotely on a Tropical Island

With tourism struggling, a number of Caribbean countries are enticing Americans with tax-free short-term visas

According to Gilbert Ott of travel blog God Save the Points , the answer is yes. And also no. Obviously, remote workers have consistently contributed to economies that may have otherwise suffered, or at least suffered more, in the wake of a COVID-related tourism drop off. Visa fees have also helped stem the bleeding. Additionally, digital nomads are also more likely to immerse themselves in local culture — purchasing local goods and patronizing local businesses — than other tourist types.

The nature of short term rentals, however, is such that they tend to put a strain on hotels and, more importantly, residential communities (read: they impact the availability of affordable housing). In fact, Mexico City residents and housing activists have likened it to “ modern day colonization ,” and it’s the exact reason why New York City is currently in the process of cracking down on short term rentals. And while many digital nomads are flocking to places where the cost of living doesn’t emulate New York, it’s all relative. Where the cost of living is lesser, earnings tend to be lesser, too.

“When larger influxes of digital nomads push into a market without price sensitivity, prices go up and many local people who could previously afford a certain way of life in a desired neighborhood find themselves pushed further and further out, or in,” Ott posits. Further, it puts those destinations at a higher risk of gentrification and erasure of local customs. Thailand, for example, is one of the largest hubs for digital nomads. That said, very few digital nomads are taking the time to learn Thai.

One could argue that it’s the lesser of two evils — a price worth paying. Ott believes that, for many countries, the positives greatly outweigh the negatives. All of that said, based on the current trajectory, it would be surprising if destinations where digital nomads are especially prevalent didn’t start to implement certain measures to protect locals. Mexico City, for its part, has tossed around the idea of regulating rent “ in accordance with the salaries of inhabitant s.” In other words, the nomadic lifestyle may not be going away, but the financial responsibility of maintaining it may soon fall more to the nomads than the local communities in which they reside. And, frankly, it should.

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Why Did Kensington Palace Say Kate Middleton's Condition Was "Non-Cancerous" in January?

At the time of Kate's surgery, her condition was thought to be non-cancerous, but post-operative tests found cancer.

What changed?

T&C understands tha t at the time of Kate's surgery, her condition was thought to be non-cancerous, and reportedly, no tests had confirmed the presence of cancer. However, post-operative tests subsequently found that cancer had been present. A Kensington Palace spokesperson said the Princess learned she had cancer once "post-operative tests had been completed and results reviewed."

She began preventative chemotherapy in late February, but the Palace will not be providing further details about her treatment, or her initial surgery. "We will not be sharing any further private medical information," a Palace spokesperson said. "The Princess has a right to medical privacy as we all do."

In tandem with the announcement of Kate's cancer diagnosis, she released a video in which she spoke about her health and her family, and also shared what it has been like learning she has cancer.

"In January, I underwent major abdominal surgery in London and at the time, it was thought that my condition was non-cancerous," the Princess said in the video , which was recorded in Windsor earlier this week. "The surgery was successful. However, tests after the operation found cancer had been present. My medical team therefore advised that I should undergo a course of preventative chemotherapy and I am now in the early stages of that treatment. This of course came as a huge shock, and William and I have been doing everything we can to process and manage this privately for the sake of our young family."

Emily Burack (she/her) is the Senior News Editor for Town & Country, where she covers entertainment, culture, the royals, and a range of other subjects. Before joining T&C, she was the deputy managing editor at Hey Alma , a Jewish culture site. Follow her @emburack on Twitter and Instagram .

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What Type of Cancer Does Kate Have?

Harry & Meghan Send Well Wishes to Kate

Kate's Cancer Diagnosis: Everything to Know

James Middleton Posts in Support of Kate

King Charles Is "So Proud" of Kate

What Is Going on with Kate Middleton?

Timeline of Kate Middleton's Health News

When Will Kate Return to Royal Duties?

Will Has Been a "Great Source of Comfort" to Kate

What Kate Told Her Kids About Her Cancer Diagnosis

Kate Middleton Speaks About Her Cancer Diagnosis

WA's integrity watchdog Chris Field spent much of the past two years travelling the world, but did it help WA?

For a man tasked with sorting out complaints about the Western Australian public service, the state's 137 local governments and its five universities, Ombudsman Chris Field has been spending a lot of time out of the country.

The Office of the Ombudsman in WA receives thousands of inquiries and complaints a year from members of the public – about 14,000 of them in the 2022-23 financial year alone.

It also deals with highly sensitive issues such as reviewing child deaths and family violence fatalities, and makes recommendations about how to prevent these.

What the job does not entail however, at least according to the 1971 legislation that established the position, is international diplomacy.

Museums and hot springs

There's no mention in the Parliamentary Commissioner Act of any requirement for the Ombudsman to promote WA's interests on the international stage or to uphold global peace and democracy.

No requirement to undertake cultural exchanges with Uzbekistan or Bahrain or Canada.

Which presumably means liaising with the Mediator of the Kingdom of Morocco, meeting the president of the OECD in Paris and inspecting captured Russian military equipment on the streets of Kyiv are also outside the remit.

Yet these are all activities Mr Field has engaged in over the past couple of years.

He's also planted trees in Hungary and Pakistan, visited a Slovenian day care centre and a firefighting museum in Austria, and admired the hot springs of Beitou, Taiwan.

Hundreds of dollars were also spent on two chauffer-driven trips in Paris that totalled less than two kilometres.

The thing is, not only is he WA Ombudsman but he was, until very recently, also president of the International Ombudsman's Institute.

This little-known body bills itself as a global organisation that focuses on "good governance" and represents ombudsmen in more than 150 countries.

He was the first ever Australian appointed to lead the Vienna-based body — which at the time drew a letter of congratulations by then-premier Mark McGowan.

But even when he's not travelling the globe, Mr Field isn't present in the WA Ombudsman office very much – just 36 days in 2023 – although he maintains he's in "constant contact by phone and email with all of my staff" while absent.

No conflict in dual roles

Asked about his posts as both WA Ombudsman and International Ombudsman's Institute (IOI) president, Mr Field told a corruption hearing this week he saw no conflict between the dual roles.

"I see them as one and the same thing," he said. "I saw them as utterly complementary and never saw them in conflict."

Mr McGowan seemed to think so too.

“I am sure you will bring a breadth of expertise to the role, while continuing to deliver excellent outcomes to the State of Western Australia,” he wrote in the congratulations letters.

This issue of wearing two hats is at the nub of why the Corruption and Crime Commission (CCC) is looking into Mr Field in the first place.

It wants to find out if the Ombudsman acted corruptly in using his position to benefit himself and his chief of staff, who frequently accompanied him on his overseas missions.

It's also looking at whether Mr Field's use of taxpayer funds to pay for the trips — to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars a year – was for the benefit of WA.

Mr Field insisted it is.

He's told the hearings he believed being president of the IOI went hand in hand with his duties as WA Ombudsman, a post he was appointed to 17 years ago.

Mr Field also stressed to the anti-corruption body the IOI's own role in exposing corruption, describing it "supporting the rule of law through work on anti-corruption measures, integrity, transparency and good governance."

This week the IOI confirmed Mr Field had quit his post as president, and a new president would be elected.

But its email to the ABC also contained a bombshell.

"In the interests of its members, the IOI feels compelled to clarify that Mr Field's travel activities in question were neither initiated, expected, commissioned nor financed by the IOI," the organisation said.

In other words, the IOI did not ask him to go on all those overseas trips in question and he wasn't required to do so as president.

Yet in defending a tripling of his travel bill last financial year, Mr Field told the hearings: "The 2022-23 visits actually represents what would normally have been undertaken over two years, as there is a certain amount of visits that each Ombudsman is asked, and expected, to undertake during their term as president," he said.

Mr Field had no comment when the ABC sent him the IOI statement.

Government knew of travel

The CCC hearings are not over yet, and Mr Field's high-profile lawyer, former Attorney General Christian Porter, is expected to take the commission through more evidence.

Mr Field has so far based his defence on the fact that the Ombudsman is independent of government, telling the hearings this means he doesn't need to seek the premier's approval for travel.

But at the crux of his argument is that the government was well aware of his travel bill, which has been tabled in Parliament.

Mr Field said it was only after media reports surfaced late last year, revealing the extent of his international travel, that anyone in government or parliament raised concern about the IOI role detracting from his duties as ombudsman.

Like Mr McGowan had said in the letter Mr Porter tabled before the CCC, becoming president of the IOI was a "great achievement".

The CCC was shown evidence that other ministers and high-ranking public servants knew of and supported Mr Field's IOI role.

The hearings are set to resume in April, with the commission's report due later in the year.

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Kate cancer latest: Video statement was 'unprecedented'; celebrities apologise and share words of support

The Princess of Wales's revelation she is undergoing treatment for cancer has sparked an outpouring of support and well-wishes from around the world. Read the latest, with analysis from royal correspondents Rhiannon Mills and Laura Bundock, below.

Monday 25 March 2024 00:41, UK

• Princess of Wales
• Royal Family

Please use Chrome browser for a more accessible video player

• Kate reveals cancer diagnosis
• World leaders send messages of support for Kate
• Kate's public message about health 'almost unprecedented'
• Celebrities deleting posts after princess reveals 'sobering truth' | Blake Lively sorry for 'silly post'
• 'Unbelievably upsetting': Public react in Windsor
• Explainer : What is preventative chemotherapy and when is it used?
• Rhiannon Mills analysis : This is not a knee-jerk reaction to media coverage
• Thomas Moore analysis : Chemo can be brutal - but outlook is better than ever
• Live reporting by Emily Mee and, earlier,  Katie Williams and  Bhvishya Patel

We will be back with more updates tomorrow. In the meantime, you can scroll back to read today's coverage. 

By Rhiannon Mills, royal correspondent

As a family they've been used to having to step into the spotlight. This is a moment when all the Princess of Wales wants to do is protect her children from it. 

As the world processes the news of her cancer diagnosis, her message about the importance of family couldn't have been stronger. And is why we're all being asked to stop speculating about where they now are and leave them alone.

It can't have been easy for her to record it but the more you watch her message and other parts stand out, showing a different, more self assured side of Kate - who usually loathes public speaking. 

Talking directly to others with cancer, she says: "Everyone facing this disease, in whatever form, please do not lose faith or hope. You are not alone."

There is a strength and poignancy to that final phrase that draws comparison with Queen Elizabeth II's rallying words to the nation during COVID, where she said "We'll meet again".

From this future Queen there is no sense of resentment after what must have been a gruelling few weeks. Since her announcement, the social media speculation of #kategate has been replaced by an outpouring of love and sympathy.

With messages from around the globe from some of the world's most famous and influential individuals, this is an acknowledgement of her incredible international status and how highly respected she is.

Throughout her surgery, diagnosis and further treatment, Prince William has been by Kate's side. And his wife is clearly in his thoughts as he's tried to keep going with his public engagements, regularly talking about her whether it was at a homelessness event in Sheffield or decorating biscuits at a youth club in London. 

Going solo is something he's going to have to get used to for some time to come, with no clear idea of when we'll see the princess back on royal duties. 

Tessy Ojo was with William for the Diana Award event less than a couple of weeks ago. The charity's chief executive, she's known him for the past 24 years and says his resilience is remarkable. 

"I suppose we, with the benefit of hindsight, now knowing what was going on, it's huge, you know. It gives you a sense of how much they continue to honour service, what it means to them," she says. 

"How he shows up, how they show up, despite all of the stuff that's happening.

She added: "I cannot emphasise enough how much we need to take a step back and allow this family to recover in peace."

He may be heir to the throne but like any partner trying to help their loved one through something like this, he will no doubt feel slightly helpless. A lot of what lies ahead is in the hands of the doctors, but from what I understand he does feel what he can do is really double down on his deep desire to protect his family's privacy.

It is Kate's response and her decision to tell us herself that has been particularly striking. She is a devoted mother, wanting to do the best for her family, and her inner strength is really coming to the fore.

The King is hoping to make an appearance at the traditional Easter Matins service next weekend, according to The Telegraph. 

A Buckingham Palace source told the paper he would attend the annual service at St George's Chapel in Windsor if his health allows. 

The monarch stepped back from public duties following his cancer diagnosis. 

It's thought he was given medical advice to avoid the risks associated with large crowds. 

"The King and Queen are hoping to attend some form of Easter service in Windsor," a palace source reportedly said. 

"However, it will not be the large family gathering that we might expect to see in different circumstances."

By Jason Farrell, home editor

At Windsor this morning crowds lined the streets to watch the Irish Guards pipe and drum their way into the castle grounds to change duties with the Welsh guards. It was business as usual. The palace says constitutionally the same is true for the senior royals, even if there is a temporary changing of the guard.

The King is still holding audiences with dignitaries, but he has stepped back from public facing engagements and there is a sense of frailty in the royal household.

Former press secretary to the late Queen, Ailsa Anderson, says: "This is not a crisis, it's a bump in the road."

But she added: "It's very, very difficult obviously, and unsettling, because this is an institution based on stability and continuity, and you have two key players who are going to be out of action for some time."

The late Queen had to step up her duties when her father got cancer in the late 1940s. The disease accelerated her accession to the throne when he died aged just 56.

Queen Elizabeth II famously said: "I need to be seen to be believed."

How true that was of the Princess of Wales - whose disappearance from the public eye sparked a frenzy of conspiracy theories. Although she's addressed those with her sobering reality, she won't be back in the public gaze until medics say she's fit to go.

For now, she can expect public curiosity has been replaced with sympathy but clearly there is a lot on Prince William's shoulders.

He will want to spend as much time as possible with Kate and his three children, and will be with them at least for the Easter break. But with his brother abroad and to some degree estranged, and his uncle Prince Andrew relieved of duties, there's a dwindling pool of royal big-hitters available to hold the fort.

Constitutional expert Craig Prescott said: "There has been a sliming down. There has been more emphasis on a small number of royals. So when two are out of action that is perhaps a bigger issue."

Queen Camilla has become a key player. She delivered a speech written by the King on his behalf, on the Isle of Man this week, and next week she'll play his role at the Maunday Easter service in Worcester; a key royal fixture.

The remaining support team, Princess Anne and the Duke and Duchess of Edinburgh, are likely to have more focus on them too. Even Prince Andrew was leading the family at a recent memorial service in Windsor when William needed to be with Catherine.

This isn't quite a crisis, but it is a test of resilience for the royals. They hope this is only a temporary situation, but what we've learned in recent weeks is that while they crave privacy in illness, the public craves information. Finding that balance is just one of many challenges ahead.

News of the Princess of Wales's cancer treatment came after weeks of speculation about her whereabouts. In her video message yesterday, she explained she had been taking the time to explain her diagnosis to her children.

If you're going through something similar, Macmillan Cancer Support offers this advice on how to talk to children about it... 

The charity says while it can feel like telling your children will "bring home the reality of the situation", not explaining what is happening to them "may make them feel more vulnerable". 

"Children often know when something serious is affecting the family and people they are close to. It is important to give them the chance to talk openly about their fears and worries," it said. 

The benefits of letting them know can also include showing you trust them, helping you all to feel closer, and helping them cope better with difficult situations in life. 

Macmillan says you will likely need time to cope with your own feelings first, so it can be helpful to speak to a nurse specialist, psychologist or counsellor.

When you are going to have the talk, it says to be as prepared as you can and make sure you have all the information you need. 

"You may want to think about the questions a child might ask and the words you will use to explain things," it says.

Macmillan also encourages to think about where you will have the conversation - it should be somewhere your children are able to express their feelings. 

"If you have more than one child, it is best to tell them together if you can," it says. 

"This prevents them feeling like their siblings know more than them. If you are telling them separately, do it as close together as possible. Some children may wonder why they were told last."

It also advises to avoid only telling the older children as this can place a burden on them. 

As a parent, you will likely know best how to approach and talk to your child, but it can be helpful to think about these things:

• See the first conversation as a starting point – it is the beginning of an ongoing process of gradually giving your children small, relevant pieces of information and reassurance.
• Allow the conversation to be directed by your children’s reactions and the questions they ask.
• Listen and keep it as open as you can.
• Try asking questions that encourage them to express what they are thinking, rather than a one word or two-word reply.

Macmillan says it is better to be honest and not to make things sound less serious than they are. 

It is also fine to say if you don't know the answer to all of their questions. 

Our correspondent Rachael Venables is in Windsor, which she describes as being a "beacon for royal watchers".

Although it's expected Windsor would have had a high level of support for the Princess of Wales, she says it has been "staggering" to see the amount of empathy for Kate. 

Venables says she's heard well-wishes for the princess from "every single person I have spoken to", some of whom had gathered for the Changing of the Guard but others who came holding bunches of flowers for Kate. 

Many say it has been a "real shame" how she was treated online. 

Fellow mothers have commented on how they can understand the difficulty of explaining her cancer diagnosis to her children, Venables says.

Kate's message to the public about her surgery and cancer diagnosis was "almost unprecedented", a former press secretary to Queen Elizabeth II has said.

Ailsa Anderson said it was a "great idea" by whoever was advising the princess for her to film the statement.

"I do think that the princess actually delivering the message herself... you could see all her vulnerability, but also her strength in doing that. It was almost unprecedented I think," she told Sky News.

Asked if she believed Kate's cancer diagnosis, as well as that of her father-in-law the King, was a crisis for the Royal Family, Ms Anderson replied: "I think it is a bump the road rather than an earthquake. 

"We have seen crises - we've seen abdications, we've seen executions, we've seen a civil war... this is not a crisis in my view."

Supporters of the Princess of Wales have been leaving flowers outside the gates of Windsor Castle today.

Sky News has been speaking to well-wishers at the castle today.

One woman told us she was "very shocked" but thought Kate "spoke brilliantly" about her situation.

Another said the princess has been "terribly open" and deserves privacy to recover.

We are a "long way" from a constitutional crisis in the UK despite the monarch and a senior royal figure both taking time off for health reasons, an expert has said.

Dr Craig Prescott, a specialist in UK constitutional law, said the King is still managing to carry out some of his duties "without any sort of delay or hazard".

The Princess of Wales, meanwhile, has less of a constitutional role and represents the King "more broadly through her work", he explained.

Her husband is a counsellor of state who could step in for the King to fulfil his functions if needed, he added.

Dr Prescott said: "If Prince William wasn't around, then maybe Princess Anne or Prince Edward could do it themselves. So I think we're a very long way from a constitutional crisis... a very long way from that indeed."

Following weeks of intense speculation, not just on social media but by some news outlets, too, there has been a change in tone from the US in its coverage of the Princess of Wales's health.

As in the UK, Kate's cancer diagnosis dominated the major broadcasters and newspapers on Friday.

It is a definite shift from the coverage that has played out in recent weeks, as jokes were made - some by major celebrities - and conspiracy theories spread following the release of the now infamous doctored Mother's Day photo from Kensington Palace.

The tone in America has now changed, with an outpouring of support and well-wishes being shared from around the world.

Read more here ...

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