A Budleigh Salterton couple have published a book detailing their ‘life changing’ year travelling around South America.

Simon and Rebecca Levi have co-written the book South America for Starters based on the diaries they kept of their adventures nearly 25 years later.

The coronavirus lockdown’s have allowed the couple to reminisce and dream of a time when people will be allowed to travel abroad again, inspiring them to revisit their diaries.

They have now transformed the first leg of their adventures into a book.

Simon said: “We learned so much about each other and about different cultures.

“We had extreme emotions of ecstasy and despair. We were healthy and we were ill.

“We were adventurous and learned a lot of resilience.”

According to Simon, his interest in travelling was sparked by his older brother who was ‘a bit of an adventurer’, travelling to different places either for work or to explore.

Years later he met Rebecca at university who shared his passion for exploration.

They dreamt up their own adventure of taking a year out and exploring as much of the worked as they could.

They saved up ‘every penny’ and planned a trip covering three continents and 12 countries – the first stop was Argentina.

Both of them kept diaries which have now formed the basis for this book.

Simon added: “We hadn't planned it but we both independently decided to keep diaries of our experiences and our reflections.

“These diaries have lived with us in a cupboard in the intervening 24 years.

“The fact that they are so out of date makes them interesting in my mind.

“Our only communication from family and friends was when we visited a few local post offices in the hope that they had correctly guessed when we might have been passing by. When we received letters it was amazing.”

After finding a publisher, they got their first book written, Simon described become published authors as ‘amazing’ and ‘surreal’.

He added: “We hope the book inspires others to dare to dream.

“We had our own dreams and we managed to live them. If we can do it, I hope others feel inspired to follow their own passions.”

The book is available via popular book outlets