SHAVING off her hair was the first step 44-year-old Lynda Theaker took on a journey which would take her a million miles from Otley.

It was also a statement marking a break with the old and heralding mammoth changes in her life.

During the next three years she was to plumb the depths and revel in the highs of travel in all its forms, from hitching into the Australian outback to rafting along rivers in North Thailand.

Unsurprisingly, friends and family of the mobile hairdresser were slightly shocked. She was, in her own words, someone who had been concerned with her looks and her hair, someone for whom 'matching duvet covers and curtains' were important.

"I was an ordinary woman, going to work from nine to five each day, with two kids, a semi-detached house and a mortgage," she says.

"Lots of people thought I was doing it for attention but in actual fact, I was doing it for people to see me as a person rather than as an exterior - an image which had been very important."

The head-shaving was also symbolic of another change. "I had attracted violence in my life and I felt I was at a point where I wanted to cut off and go within to find out why.

"My family was grown-up and I just felt the time was right. I was setting off on a journey of discovery in which I could be whoever I wanted to be and find myself."

If that sounds a bit heavy, Lynda, now 47, admits the prospect of travelling had always been attractive anyway, even when she was too nervous to take the plunge.

That plunge came however, after dipping her toe in the Canary Islands where she spent time with a community of people living in caves.

"Just being with the youngsters there, who had no money at all, and realising how I could survive very economically gave me the confidence for the big trip," says Lynda.

In 1993, after selling her house and her car, she set out for Thailand. "I said I was going for three years and I did."

Lynda, or 'Jade' as her travelling name became, spent six months in Thailand which saw her studying with tribespeople and rafting with children along the Mikon River.

After travelling with a friend for two-and-a-half months, she took a month out on her own to 'enjoy the silence'.

Lynda says: "That's one thing about travelling the way I did that people don't always appreciate. The highs are fantastic but the lows are very low - you're tired, cold and you don't know where you're going to sleep that night. That's why sometimes you just need to chill out."

In Indonesia she reached those highs again - literally. Climbing the Mount Merappi volcano in Java was an arduous challenge rewarded with views of glowing lava and the fantastic Indonesian sunrise.

"That was hard. We were climbing the most active volcano on the island from 4-8pm then resting on a shelf. We then climbed again from midnight to 4am. It is just one thing which shows the diversity of what can happen," she says.

That diversity saw Lynda taking on a number of jobs to finance her travels. Teaching aboriginal children was one, as was picking golf balls and selling sandwiches in Hong Kong.

"I learned so many new skills along the way. I busked to earn money - I had never sung in public before, I learned to play an instrument and I even crewed a boat - something I never thought I could do because it frightened me.

"Facing my fears was a major part of the experience and everyone can do it - that's what I really want to tell people. If I can do it, anyone can."

It also led Lynda to meet the Dalai Lama - 'a beautiful, down-to-earth and ordinary man' - and the Great Mother Amarchi in Australia - a Mother Teresa figure.

Attempting to actually live with the people of each different land gave her a unique insight into cultures rarely seen on package tours and all-inclusive holidays. "I really tried to travel using all modes of transport, including hitching, and to make the most of each place.

"I realised as a traveller that we are only observers to how people live their lives. The knowledge we can gain, especially through indigenous cultures, is invaluable."

And that experience has, Lynda believes, changed her for good. "For a former mobile hairdresser, my looks are now unimportant to me - and I haven't used shampoo since the day I shaved my hair. I've learned to live naturally.

"When I see what we complain about compared to what other people live with on a daily basis, it really brings things home. I've seen some wonderful things - I suppose you could say I've taken the blinkers off."

Despite the wanderlust, there are some things which Lynda admits made her hanker for home. "I missed my family and I really missed English Christmases - the warm fires and Christmas pudding.

"I also found there is nothing like a Yorkshire sense of humour anywhere in the world."

Now back in Otley for some rest, recuperation and vital immunisation jabs before setting off for India, Lynda is keen to let other people know just how easy it is to take the same step.

She is holding an evening of storytelling, music and song at the RAOB Club in Westgate, Otley, on Monday night to share her travels with a wider audience.

She says: "I'm not trying to lecture people, nor to boast about what I've done. It doesn't take a lot of money, it can be done. If it's your dream, just do it."

l Lynda's night at the RAOB club starts at 7.30pm. Admission is by donation and people are encouraged to take along musical instruments to join in a party afterwards.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.