When Luke Damant was 18, he set off on his first solo adventure abroad, documenting his experiences and posting them on-line.
The younger Sydneysider had no thought his love for exploring new international locations and cultures would lead him to his present day success.
WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: The second Damant’s life modified.
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Now at 22, Damant is a travel vlogger who has garnered greater than 4 million followers throughout social mediaand attracts in six figures a 12 months.
“Very early on, I wished to be an AFL participant, and I performed till 17, and that is when it shifted,” Damant tells 7Life.
“I began doing YouTube and making movies, creating content material.
“It wasn’t till I began touring when it transitioned into journey content material.”
Damant started his adventures overseas in Might 2019, touring solo to Sri Lanka.
The then teenager had simply accomplished a six-month stint working at a removalist firm and had saved up sufficient cash to fund the journey.
“All I used to be doing was working six days per week,” he explains.
“After I left house, I had a funds for six to 12 months, relying on how strict I used to be.
“I had a listing of nations in Southeast Asia and South Asia that I wished to go to, and I did a spinning wheel on-line, and it selected Sri Lanka.”
Nevertheless, his first solo journey outdoors Australia wasn’t what he anticipated.
Just some days out from touchdown within the island nation, it was hit by a terrorist assault – the Sri Lanka Easter Bombings, which killed 269 individuals and wounded greater than 500.
“All of the vacationers had left,” Damant recollects.
“I did not actually truly see another vacationers or vacationers for per week.
“That was a novel journey – it was sort of like a ghost city.”
The traveler would go on to spend two to 3 weeks shifting out and in of hostels across the nation.
“General, the nation is wonderful, it has so many stunning seashores and locations you’ll be able to go to,” he says.
Scariest second
Following his keep in Sri Lanka, Damant traveled to Thailand the place he spent three weeks.
Then he flew to India, the place he traveled via the Himalayas, earlier than making his method to the south of the nation.
However his journey took a terrifying flip in October 2019, through the Hindu competition of Diwali.
A giant a part of this competition is setting off fireworks and Damant wished to hitch in on the enjoyable.
He lit a firework, unaware it was defective.
By the point he realized, it was too late – the firework exploded in his hand.
“On the final second, it sparkled, and I attempted to do away with it, however it blew up whereas I used to be within the movement of throwing,” he says.
“My first thought was the headlines that might probably occur, like ‘Silly Aussie traveler blows up his hand in India’.
“I did not know the complete extent of the harm on the time.”
The truth is, his hand had been cut up in two – his thumb hanging on by just some ligaments.
His mates saved him from bleeding out.
In a publish on Instagram marking the one-year anniversary of the occasion, Damant wrote that he “would not want it upon anybody”.
“I nonetheless bear in mind the phobia that went via my physique the second I spotted I f***** up,” he stated.
And tells 7Life he was “involved with what life was going to be like shifting ahead”.
Restoration and reunion
Damant spent two weeks in a hospital in India, the place surgeons labored to save lots of his hand.
“The docs did an unbelievable job in making it what it’s immediately,” he says.
“Actually, it is exceptional, it is loopy how good a job they did.
“After I got here again to Australia to do physiotherapy, I used to be at a hand clinic on the Royal North Shore.
“They stated, ‘We’d not have accomplished practically pretty much as good a job, you bought the perfect’.”
Three months after the incident, when Damant had totally recovered, he flew again to India – the place he was reunited with the surgeons and those that helped him that night time.
“I’ve made a 100 p.c restoration – That is because of Dr Manoj and his crew, who did these surgical procedures and put collectively a mangled piece of flesh into one thing presentable,” he wrote on Instagram.
Damant would keep in India for 2 months.
Then COVID-19 hit.
“I caught one of many final flights out of India again to Australia,” he says.
“I made it house earlier than they shut the borders.”
COVID
Previous to COVID, Damant was making a “first rate earnings” from social media, together with YouTube.
However when he returned house, his life was as soon as once more turned on its head.
“When COVID occurred, I moved into advertising and marketing companies on-line,” he says.
He stayed house for a 12 months, earlier than flying again out in early 2021, this time to Pakistan, earlier than making his method to the Center East.
“I used to be touring throughout COVID – the place not many individuals had been touring and creating content material,” he recollects.
“Lots of people had the journey bug from being locked down, so lots of people had been viewing (my work).
“And folks had been concerned about seeing what was occurring in these journey locations.”
Whereas Australia moved into strict lockdowns, different international locations had been opening up.
“Quite a lot of international locations throughout that interval (had) no restrictions. Folks had been simply dwelling their lives,” Damant says.
In December 2022, Damant mirrored again on the primary time he began his YouTube channel – lengthy earlier than his travels.
“After I was 10, I uploaded my first YouTube video… (however) I acquired bullied and would cry myself to sleep,” he stated in an Instagram publish.
“After I was 17, I uploaded once more and my lecturers stated I would by no means be capable to make it a profession. From that first video again in 2010, I had a dream to succeed in 1 million subscribers on YouTube.
“Loads of individuals have put me down alongside the way in which, saying it wasn’t attainable and that I ought to ‘get an actual job’. However a million individuals, plus my shut family and friends supported me on this dream.
“And immediately, I chased my dream.”
Message
Damant is now encouraging anybody who has the journey bug to pack up and head off – particularly “when you’re younger”.
“It is the interval the place you might have the least obligations and for those who go off the 12 years, you’ll be able to all the time come again to your own home nation and get a full-time job or go to college,” he tells 7Life.
“Within the grand scheme of issues, that is the perfect time to pursue your ardour and do issues that you simply need to obtain.”
He provides that touring could be extremely ‘helpful’.
“Travelling permits me to interrupt free from the norm and to immerse myself into the unknown,” he says.
“It provides me an opportunity to open my eyes and be taught from new cultures and views.
“Solo touring has allowed me to find so many issues about this world and much more about myself.
“Which is why I believe it is probably the most helpful factor any particular person can do.”
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