I didn't slow down at 50.

I changed direction.

ABOUT LEIGH.

I spent 30 years in corporate marketing, managing other people’s priorities, then one day I looked at my calendar and thought enough. I stepped down from the biggest job I’d ever had, went remote, and started doing the thing I’d been putting off: actually living.

That was the start of Journey Beyond 40.

I enrolled in a Master’s degree in Digital Marketing during Covid thinking it would accelerate my corporate career. It did the opposite. Watching my classmates chase bigger titles and corner offices, I realised I didn’t want more boardrooms. I wanted more boarding passes.

So I stepped away. Moved into a remote role. And somewhere between the freedom of working from a terrace in Cyprus and watching a lion walk past my game drive vehicle in South Africa, Journey Beyond 40 stopped being a passion project and became a life.

WHO I AM NOW

These days

I’m based in Johannesburg but work from wherever makes sense. I travel with my partner, who is as addicted to passport stamps as I am to finding a perfect cocktail. Between us we have four adult children, three grandchildren, and a very serious disagreement about who finds the better Airbnbs.

We ski in April. We escape South African winter for the Mediterranean. We spend December somewhere warm with all of the kids and grandchildren, because nobody turns down a holiday when mum and dad are paying, and that’s just honesty.

MY TRAVEL STYLE

What it look like

A flat bed to London and a great local burger when we land. A plunge pool in Cyprus and a ski run in Livigno that almost ended me. Four Airbnbs across six weeks and an honest review of every single one.

What it doesn’t look like: budget hostels, sharing bathrooms with strangers, or a hotel where the WiFi drops on a Monday morning Zoom call. I have standards. They are not negotiable. Neither are the blackout curtains.

There’s a lot of travel content out there. Most of it is aimed at 25-year-olds with a backpack and a gap year, or retirees with nothing but time. Then there’s the rest of us, the in-betweeners.

We’ve spent years paying for school fees and building careers. We’ve earned the right to travel properly. But we’re not retired. We still work. We still have responsibilities. We just refuse to let them be excuses anymore.

If you’re in your 40s or 50s and you’re done waiting for the right time, this is your place. I write about comfort travel, honest reviews, and the reality of midlife adventure. No sponsored fluff. No pretending things are better than they are. Just what it’s actually like, from someone who is actually doing it.