Nomad Women Stories: Meet Leslie Shaw, ‘Live life and go on the journey’

Nomad Women Stories is a new series honouring remarkable women from our community who are redefining what it means to live, travel, and dress authentically in this chapter of life.

In the previous posts, we introduced you to Stephanie, a quiet adventurer based in Sydney, Australia and Lauren, a New Zealand ‘barefoot and boundless’ homesteader and Sound & Movement Therapist. This week, we’ll meet Leslie Shaw, a retired Registered Nurse, a grandmother, a bucket list devotee, who has ticked off every continent on earth.

Leslie lives in the Hunter Valley with her husband, happily retired after a 43-year career as a registered nurse. Over those decades, she worked across Obstetrics, Operating Theatres PACU and Emergency Triage. At home, she and her husband raised their children while juggling the realities many working parents know well. 

At 39, she became seriously unwell and spent a year in and out of the hospital. It was then, with characteristic pragmatism, that she decided she wouldn’t wait for perfect health to live her life. She would take her body with her, exactly as it was, and go anyway.

And she has been going ever since.

Our children are grown and married with families of their own. Looking back, those early years were very busy. Nursing was shift work and childcare options around those hours were almost nonexistent. There were plenty of nights hanging washing or school bag prepping at midnight after a shift, plus dealing with my health. My childhood and teenage dreams got shelved. 

Now my husband and I are free to travel as desired. We hang out together a lot and our relationship when we travel is one of great friendship and deep love. We spend time with our family, getting together on a regular basis. I am so proud of them. For myself, I have revisited my love of oil painting and being a part of the art world. I can often be found painting or coffee dating with my many beautiful beloved friends.

My first big trip was a six-week trip to Egypt and Italy in 2004. This was the gift I gave myself after being sick. I left our kids in my husband’s care, and off I went. I had organised most of the trip myself on what was then the “new internet”. It was to be my just-in-case travel. I had chosen to see two of the three things I had always wanted to see since my teenage years. Michelangelo's Statue of David in Florence and The Great Pyramids of Egypt.

What this trip really did was turn on a light. I realised I could travel with my health challenges and I should start now. So I created a plan. I bought a hardcover notebook and wrote down every place, gallery and historical site I wanted to visit. Next to each one I wrote the year I wanted to achieve it. Each time I ticked something off the list I added another. I aimed high. I wanted to visit the great art galleries of the world and the ancient history sites I had read about. My husband has an interest in World War 2. This was factored into our travel plans, so together we have seen much of the worlds’ WW2 battlefields and memorial sites across Europe into the Pacific, USA and Asia along with pretty much everything I have wanted to see.

Fast forward to today and in the past twelve months alone, I’ve travelled to both Antarctica and the Arctic Circle. I also completed my goal of visiting every continent on the planet.

The way we travel has shifted over the years, a little slower now, although we still do some independent travel, we now do a few cruises, or organised shorter trips. We have returned to some countries multiple times and spent time exploring one area, enjoying each day at our own pace. I continue planning. China, New York and France revisits planned along with new places to see, Mongolia, Ireland and Iceland booked in.

Many have been wonderful, and some have been a real challenge.

Egypt and Italy, because it was the first and I figured out how to build a travel itinerary for independent travel from scratch. Peru and Machu Picchu because it was my third bucket list item and I got to the top even though it was genuinely tough.

We’ve been into villages across Papua New Guinea, the Pacific Islands, Vietnam, Cambodia, Peru, Chile, China, Tibet, and India. In many of these places, people live with very little, yet their generosity and kindness, extraordinary. Each time we’ve needed help, especially in non-English speaking countries, it has always graciously appeared. People of the world are the same. 

One particular highlight, whilst staying in a village in the Sacred Valley Ollantaytambo, Peru. Our hosts also had visitors from Israel. I sat with her in the kitchen whilst she cooked our dinner on her single pot stove in her kitchen room with clean well swept compressed dirt flooring. Pictured below, she was proudly showing me the doll she had made. I love this photo.

Around the dinner table that night we chatted via translation English to Hebrew. English to Spanish. Spanish to Quechua the Indigenous Amazonian language and all conversation translated back in reverse. The six of us laughed all night. To this day my husband still does not believe he ate Guinea Pig for dinner, which he proclaimed was delicious.

I could write a book answering this question. One minute I am stinking hot, the next minute freezing cold.

Before I found Nomad, clothes shopping for travel was a nightmare. I even bought fabric to sew my own linen pants in desperation. Five pieces of linen still sit in my cupboard because my sewing skills were not up to the task!

Now I simply pack my Nomad wardrobe.

In India, where the heat was intense, I felt tidy, comfortable and culturally respectful. And on the other end of the spectrum, a Nomad cotton top under my -20°C Arctic thermal jacket worked perfectly for heated indoor spaces. Nomad the Label clothing simply works wherever you are.

I was desperate for linen pants. We were heading to Thailand, and I was facing the prospect of my home-sewn, honestly awful, baggy pants. I came across Nomad the Label online and felt like I had found my style.

The pieces were comfortable, stylish, and I just felt nice wearing them. I feel well-dressed whether I’m at home, out with friends, on a cruise ship, or wandering around somewhere overseas. Everything is light to pack and endlessly mix-and-match.

I recently bought Nomad the Label beautiful cotton shrug as a Christmas present to myself. As I write this a blue dress I purchased last week arrived.

I’m still travelling and living my life despite my health history and chronic pain. My body still comes with me. I started travelling at age 39. I am now 63. If travelling is your dream and you are struggling with how you look in clothes or feeling too old, I would say to you travellers wear the same clothes in rotation and everyone is there to have their own experience. Be comfortable with your own choices. No one is looking. I promise.

Live your life, however that looks for you, and fill it with joy.

Live Life and Go on the Journey.

Because that’s exactly what it is. Life keeps moving, and challenges come along the way, but the journey continues.

Leslie’s story is for every woman who has ever told herself she’ll travel when her kids are older, or when her health improves, or when the timing is right.

Leslie didn’t wait for the timing to be right. She made a savings plan, bought a hardcover book, and wrote down her dreams with a year next to each one. 

To the younger woman reading this, the one with small children, a full plate, and dreams quietly shelved, Leslie sees you, she was you, and she wants you to know the dream and the courage are enough to start.

If Leslie’s story resonated with you, come and join us in the Comfort Club, our private Facebook community where women share travel stories, styling tips, and honest conversations you don’t often find online. We’d love to have you there.