About Splashpacker – conscious solo female dive travel
Splashpacker is a travel blog focused on eco-friendly & conscious travel, female solo travel, sustainable tourism, and scuba dive travel. Here you can read more about my background as a female solo traveler and my journey of working around the world as a scuba diving instructor. This page also explains how Splashpacker came into existence.
(Don’t forget to hit the subscribe button!)
“I feel it is the duty of one who goes his own way to inform society of what he finds on his voyage of discovery.'”– Carl Jung
Born with travel fever
When I was 18 years old, I wanted to get a waitress job to save money to go backpacking and solo traveling in Australia. However, my mother told me that I must go to college, but that I could choose to study whatever I wanted. So I decided to study tourism and graduated four years later with a BBA in Management Tourism at BUas, or NHTV at the time, in the Netherlands.
Solo female dive travel to Egypt made me fall in love with the oceans
After graduating, I worked in the office of a scuba dive travel tour operator in the Netherlands. I went to Egypt to go on a diving holiday as a female solo traveler. Scuba diving in Egypt for a week all by myself opened me up for a new path in life. I totally fell in love with the ocean and the marine life of the Red Sea, but also loved the solo traveling.
Becoming a diving instructor to go female solo traveling and scuba diving around the world
Two years after graduating, and after having worked double jobs for a year, I left the Netherlands to do my Divemaster internship. I worked as a divemaster on Gran Canaria for one year. During this time I also worked as a waitress in the evenings. Because I needed to save up for my dive gear and for doing the Instructor Development Course. This year I was preparing myself to work around the world as a dive instructor and for much female solo traveling to come.
Worldwide solo female travels and working abroad as a diving instructor
Finally, I did my dive instructor course, or IDC, in the Dominican Republic where I worked as an OSWI (Open Water Scuba Instructor) for 6 months before starting a dive instructor job in Mexico. There I became an MSDT (Master Scuba Diver Trainer). Later I also worked as a dive instructor in the Maldives, Australia, and I did a bit of freelance work during solo traveling in South East Asia. You can read more about the journey to becoming a diving instructor here.
Other jobs during working abroad and solo female traveling
I also worked in New Zealand for a year. Besides working as a diving instructor, I also did many other kinds of jobs whilst I was female solo-traveling around the world. I’ve been working as a receptionist in the front office of resorts in Spain, worked as front of the house manager in a breakfast & lunch place in New Zealand, waitressed in restaurants, and cleaned hostels. In Australia, I worked in an office doing e-commerce so I could stay longer in the country on visa sponsorship.
Female solo dive travel in between working as a scuba diving instructor in different countries
I’ve always traveled as much as possible in between changing jobs and locations. From Mexico, I went on a little trip to Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras. I solo female traveled Sri Lanka after working in the Maldives (and returned to Sri Lanka three more times, years later).
I’ve done quite a lot of solo female dive traveling in Europe too. Especially in the Macaronesian islands such as the the Portuguese and Spanish islands in the Atlantic Ocean. I also went traveling as a female alone in Peru, Thailand, Malaysia, the Philippines, Indonesia (Bali), and did some scuba diving too. Friend visits also brought me to places such as Sweden, Singapore and Hungary.
How Splashpacker was born: sustainable tourism, environmentally conscious scuba dive travel & solo female travel
I saw so many destructive and mass tourism destinations whilst working & solo female traveling around the world. At some point, I became motivated to focus on sustainable tourism & eco-conscious scuba dive travel. Sometimes there are those (often smaller) companies that make a big difference for the environment and local population. I try to stay in eco-friendly accommodations and to scuba dive with responsible diving centers during my solo female dive travels as much as I can.
Sustainable tourism is more than eco-conscious travel
Sustainable tourism is more than environmentally conscious traveling by staying in eco-lodges. Or by minimizing your carbon footprint, like taking a boat or bus instead of a plane (if you can do so timewise). Sustainable traveling also means supporting the local communities. Or booking your accommodation, activity or diving package with companies that are involved with ocean conservation or participate in eco-friendly activities like recycling projects for example. I always try to maintain a conscious travel lifestyle during my solo female dive travels. Splashpacker stands for eco-friendly traveling, conscious scuba diving and sustainable tourism.
Ayurveda for a healthy diet & conscious travel lifestyle
After losing both of my parents to cancer, before I turned 30, I decided to study Ayurveda. I was always a big fan of healthy nutrition, conscious living, and meditation. So I completed a one-year full-time study to become an Ayurvedic therapist with the European Institute of Vedic Studies. Sometimes I write about Ayurveda or healthy nutrition on Splashpacker too.
Safety Stop Book: a memoir of my years as a diving instructor, solo female dive travel & the loss of my parents
Safety Stop is a memoir about more than 10 years of my life. I describe the loss of both my parents to cancer and the fulfillment of my dreams when I worked as a diving instructor all over the world. Besides the solo female travels and scuba diving I did, I also started a spiritual search and inner journey. It’s also a quest for happiness in life and how I discovered that there’s a possibility for a positive transformation in every drama. Click here for more information about the Safety Stop Book.
Splashpacker YouTube channel in addition to the conscious scuba dive travel blog
Next to blogging, I also created a YouTube channel a few years ago. It’s focused on the same topics as the Splashpacker website. I share about environmentally conscious scuba dive travel, tips for solo female travel, scuba dive destinations, working as an instructor abroad, and sustainable tourism. And I occasionally publish underwater scuba dive videos there.
Sometimes I also do product reviews or packing lists that can be useful for travelers with a similar travel style like solo female travel, working abroad, and scuba dive travel. I also write about all these topics on the Splashpacker website. Feel free to subscribe to my channel. Here’s the link: https://www.youtube.com/@splashpacker
The Scuba News guest writer & NameCheap sponsorship for female entrepreneurs
I’ve completed courses in travel writing & blogging with the Australian Writers Center in Sydney. Splashpacker is created from scratch and I’ve built the website myself in WordPress. I’ve been a guest blogger for the Scuba News and Splashpacker recently won a sponsorship by NameCheap for female entrepreneurs with a unique business idea. Back in the years, I kept a personal travel blog on waarbenjij.nu when I worked as a diving instructor and did a lot of solo female dive travel.
Why do I like to inspire others to work abroad or to go female solo traveling?
In my personal experience, all those years working abroad and doing so much traveling as a solo female traveler were life-changing. Taking off alone to work in yet another country, or even to go solo traveling in a new country, can be so helpful in our journey of self-discovery. It has helped me also on my road of personal transformation.
It has opened my mind a lot to becoming friends, live, or work with people from all over the world, with all kinds of backgrounds and cultures. I also overcame a lot of fear and got out of my comfort zone. Yes, I’ve been feeling lonely too and it was not always easy and fun. But it was all worth it.
Who is the person who founded Splashpacker, the eco-conscious, solo female travel & scuba diving website?
Please forgive me if I didn’t introduce myself at all. My name is Ellis Derkx and I think the above information gives you an idea about my background. It also explains why I became motivated to create a travel blog and website focused on eco-conscious scuba dive travel, sustainable tourism, and solo female dive travel. There’s also a little introduction video about Splashpacker on YouTube.
Next to traveling, scuba diving, writing, and creating videos for the Splashpacker YouTube channel, I have other hobbies too. I like reading, running, other watersports, meditation, hiking, Pilates & vegetarian cooking, I’m fluent in 4 languages: Dutch, English, German, and Spanish. Oh yes, and I like to paint too!
Inspired by the ocean: marine life & fish paintings on Splashpacker
For relaxation, I like to paint sometimes. But I am only inspired by the oceans. I make them for friends and family, as a gift or just to decorate my place! In my experience, painting is very relaxing and I also like it. I use my own scuba dive travel pictures or photos from Google for inspiration. Usually, I use acrylic paint and sometimes oil paint, and I paint on paper or canvas. For a collection of all my paintings, you can click on this link.
Feel free to sign up for my mailing list below, or to follow me on social media by scrolling a bit further down. Thank you for visiting Splashpacker! Happy bubbles & safe tavels to you <3
“I was born with travel fever.
After a decade of traveling all around the world, working abroad, and diving deep as a scuba diving instructor, I still didn’t find the answers I was looking for.
Then I started an inner journey, to find the truth we all own deep inside. I learned again to trust and follow that. It told me to go back on the road, trusting that every answer would come at the right time.
Traveling is my only medicine.”
– Ellis Derkx
