Two ladies in their 80s who just finished traveling around the world in 80 days have become social media famous in the process.
Ellie Hamby and Sandy Hazelip began their adventure on Jan. 11, flying from Dallas to Ushuaia, Argentina, the launchpad to Antarctica. Hamby and Hazelip braved 20-foot waves crossing the Drake Passage on the way to the seventh continent and posed with penguins once they got there.
Since then, the widowed best friends from Texas have been to every other continent, ending the journey by exploring the Grand Canyon before returning home to Texas over the weekend.
During nearly three months of travel, Hamby and Hazelip have ridden camels in Egypt, thrown coins in Rome’s Trevi Fountain, taken a selfie with a long-tailed macaque in Bali and ridden a dogsled in the Arctic Circle.
And they’re not even tired, they told USA TODAY in a video interview from the South Rim of the Grand Canyon.
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“Vacations are tiring. You get worn out on a vacation,” Hazelip said. “This is not a vacation, this is an adventure, and an adventure just revs you up to keep going more.”
The beginning
Hamby and Hazelip have been friends for about 20 years. When both their husbands died several years ago, they became even closer and started taking trips together.
The two were sitting around one night when the idea for a grander adventure came to Hazelip.
“Ellie, why don’t we take a trip around the world in 80 days when we are 80?” Hazelip recalled. Hamby was shocked for a few seconds, thought about it for a few seconds and then blurted out: “Why not?!”
The two started planning but the pandemic briefly got in their way and forced them to shift their goal of traveling the world at 80 years old and make it 81, instead.
They even created a new catchphrase for themselves: “Now it’s around the world in 80 days at 81 and still on the run!” they said in unison.
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When they started telling friends and family about their travel plans, Hamby estimates that roughly 20 percent of people really believed they would do it.
“Most people smiled at the beginning thinking that we wouldn’t really do this,” she said.
Social media fame
Not only have Hamby and Hazelip accomplished the trip they set out to plan, they have gained a healthy number of fans along the way.
Videos of their adventures have more than 800,000 likes on TikTok and they have about 43,000 followers.
“You both are amazing!!” one user wrote. “Have fun and take care of each other!”
Another wrote that their “husbands are watching you full hearts and open arms and can’t wait to listen to all the adventures you have had.”
The pair said all the love from people around the world has been a pleasant surprise.
“It has been so wonderful to us to get comment after comment that we are bringing joy to other people’s lives, that we are encouraging them to get up and do the some of the same things, and that we are inspiring them,” Hazelip said. “That just gives us great joy that we have been a joy to other people. And they feel like they are on our adventure with us.”
Flexibility, optimism fuel adventure
Of all their adventures, the women say Bali stands out for how beautiful and budget-friendly it is. They thought Antarctica was a remarkable experience and they felt lucky to catch the Northern Lights when they were in Lapland, Finland.
During their whole trip, they said they never had one piece of lost luggage or even get into a single fight.
There have been a couple minor hiccups, though.
Three days before they were supposed to start their trip in Peru, it had to be canceled because of the political unrest. So they went to Argentina, instead.
“Sandy did the tango and I went horseback riding and we had a blast,” Hamby said.
Flexibility and optimism has been the key to all the smooth sailing, they said.
For instance, they accidentally got on the wrong train in Japan.
“We didn’t just freak out,” Hamby said. “We just said, ‘Ok, well, let’s figure out plan B, how are we going to make this work?’ And that’s basically our attitude. ‘OK, this isn’t working, and we just go to plan B. We sometimes go to C, D and E and several other plans.”
They also take liquid antacids every morning. “And we don’t get sick,” Hamby said.
‘Get up out of that easy chair’
Among the most exciting experiences was the time the women went on dogsled ride and got more than they bargained for.
“We just take off and we went several miles,” Hamby said. “And we were turning corners, it was minus 4 so it was so cold. And we just didn’t know it was gonna be that adventuresome … We were holding on for dear life.”
Now that the pair are back home safe, they’re hoping others are inspired to go on their own adventures.
“My advice is, get up out of that easy chair, step out of your comfort zone, make some plans and live,” Hazelip said. “Your age is only a number.”
So what’s next for the globetrotting octogenarians?
Humby said: “85 and still alive!”
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