A travel-mad British couple have spent 16 years travelling around the world and have visited a whopping 86 countries and six continents.<br /><br />Lauren Winslow-Llewellyn, 34, and Craig Hubbard, 40, have funded all their trips themselves by picking up work in the countries they explore.<br /><br />They have picked up all kinds of jobs such as sweet potato farmers and even volunteered as lumberjacks in return for accommodation.<br /><br />The couple - originally from Brighton - are currently in China, a country they fell in love with when they previously visited in 2016.<br /><br />Lauren said: "We’re having a fantastic time. The people are really friendly and the scenery is spectacular. It’s great to be back.<br /><br />"This time we’re visiting some new areas of China that we haven’t been to before.<br /><br />"We love variety. We get bored in one place so travelling fills us with joy because we’re constantly seeing and experiencing new things.<br /><br />"Being out in nature is the best part for us, seeing different landscapes from the desert to the mountains and searching for different wildlife along the way.<br /><br />"We also love the freedom to go where we want. If we’re enjoying an area we can stay longer or if it’s not what we expected then we can catch a bus to a new place."<br /><br />The couple met in 2007 when Craig had just returned from his travels and Lauren was working as a pot wash to save money she could to go on a gap year.<br /><br />The pair soon started dating and managed to club enough money together to set off on a one-way trip to Australia in the summer of 2008.<br /><br />But what first started as a year and half for travel in Australia and South East Asia has turned into a 16-year-long trip around the world.<br /><br />And in that time, they've ticked off far-flung countries such as Nicaragua, Mauritius and Oman.<br /><br />Lauren added: "We were volunteer lumberjacks in Germany in return for food and accommodation which wasn't great.<br /><br />"The hosts were unfriendly and we spent every day chain-sawing and splitting logs, often in the rain or below zero temperatures.<br /><br />"We were also politely fired as sweet potato farmers in Australia.<br /><br />"It only lasted a week when the boss said work had dried up but it was the start of the farming season, so I guess we just weren’t very good at it."<br /><br />With working visas being generally aimed at younger people, the couple recently had to return to the UK for up to 12 months at a time to save money to travel.<br /><br />Lauren says it's hard to to pick a favourite moment in particular, but she says the many nature encounters are hard to beat.<br /><br />She added: "Snorkeling with sea lions in the freezing waters off the coast of Argentina where they were play-biting us was definitely a highlight.<br /><br />"Our time spent in North America watching wild bears and wolves was amazing too.<br /><br />"Whilst in Florida, we were snorkeling in horrible, murky water and this manatee just kept holding onto my arm.<br /><br />"We think it knew I was scared in the murky water and was trying to comfort me because it wasn’t interested in Craig at all."<br /><br />Like anything, the good has to come with the bad and there have been some challenges and scary moments that Lauren and Craig have had to put up with.<br /><br />She said: "Travel days mixed with language barriers, unfriendly people and being hungry. That’s a bad recipe.<br /><br />"I always bring snacks to avoid one of those issues but It’s also tough when you’ve had a long day travelling and check into a dirty hotel.<br /><br />"If you have a few days in a row like that then it can bring down the moral quite a bit.<br /><br />"We also had a few scary situations. In Utah someone threatened to slash our tyres unless we came out the car.<br /><br />"In Guatemala, a guy was looking for his girlfriend and tried to kick down the hotel door next to ours as he thought she was hiding in the room.<br /><br />"Luckily those bad days are few and far between and the good ones outweigh them."<br /><br />After 16 years of travelling, Lauren admits that her and Craig would like to slow down and have a home they can return to.<br /><br />She said: "I think we’re getting to the point where we’d like a home-base.<br /><br />"We don’t know where yet but it would be nice to have some land in the wilderness somewhere to come back to and maybe do shorter trips like three months travel a year."
