At some time, if not for all our working lives, each and every one of us will dream of jumping ship stopping the world and leaping off and out of the Rat Race without so much as a by-your-leave to the nine to five routine. IT specialist Simon Jenkins, 30, and his partner Kerry Davis, 24, of Stratton St Margaret, are doing just that quitting their jobs, selling their house and setting off in search of a new life, a new career and a whale shark.

Here Simon explains why . . .

With 10 years of IT experience and as a specialist in my field, I can command earnings of up to £50-plus an hour. So why am I prepared to give it all up, sell the house and contents and travel around the world?

My career to date has been fairly ordinary; I went to college, decided university wasn't for me and got an uninspiring job working for Comet.

Money and independence was my main drive and, as far as I was concerned, the £125 per week was good enough to put fuel in my Volkswagen Beetle and party most nights (life at home was cheap).

However, after a few unrewarding years treading water, the promise of a career, training and more importantly to me then, more money, took me to work at Motorola.

I joined as a line operator on the factory floor and moved through the ranks to join the IT department where I was quickly promoted to a position of some responsibility.

Motorola took me from a relatively unskilled worker and trained me at a cost of many thousands to a level where I was performing a key role within its IT department.

I was lucky that I had managers along the way who saw my potential and helped me gain promotion. I was, and still am, grateful for the start Motorola gave me.

However, I realised I was highly skilled (thanks to the extensive training) and underpaid. I left Motorola on a salary of £24k in search of an increasing bank balance.

My time at Motorola allowed me to get on the property ladder in Swindon and I purchased a three-bed semi in Stratton St Margaret for £70k in 1998.

At a time when company loyalty meant relatively little and there was no such thing as a job for life, I jumped ship and joined Whitecross Systems in Bracknell for an additional £14k pa.

This is where I began the life of a commuter 70 minutes each way with an eight-hour working day sandwiched in between was a bit of a shock after a local drive to Motorola.

I learned new skills, made some new friends but ultimately the position was not challenging enough. So I left to work for a company called Cedar, in Surrey.

I travelled all over the country for the company training, troubleshooting and advising customers.

This meant more money, more hours, more travelling and less social life.

I lived out of hotels for the best part of six months, and then I was made redundant.

After seven years in one company, I had now been through two in 14 months.

At a time when companies like Motorola, Lucent, Vodafone and other large technology companies were trimming their workforces, the prospect of long-term employment looked bleak.

The IT contracting market had been buoyant for a couple of years and I decided that I was the best person to control my destiny. So I decided to sell my skills to the highest bidder.

I went through a agent in Swindon who found work for me in the West Midlands working for Jaguar/Land Rover.

When I was 20, I had a dream to be earning my age in thousands by the time I hit 30.

Today, I earn £40 per hour, I have a three-bed semi in Stratton St Margaret, I drive a nice car, and I'm in a four-year relationship with my partner Kerry.

It sounds like I have exactly what I wanted, yet somehow I feel I now want something completely different.

I know I'm not alone; there are many people in the office where I work who are re-training or have outside interests away from IT.

Everyone needs a change or the chance to re-evaluate what they want, and the idea of a career break appeals to me right now.

This is not a new concept; in the southern hemisphere career breaks are used as an incentive to employees to prevent burn out and allow people to broaden their horizons.

People in my office have been incredibly supportive of my plans to travel. Not one person has called me mad or questioned my reasons, although there have been comments of "you'll never get back on the property ladder" and "make sure you speak to a financial consultant before you go".

To some people that is most important, but to me the idea of being 40-plus, still tied to a computer desk and commuting three or more hours every day, as well as being a prime candidate for coronary heart disease, is far more frightening than the prospect of giving it all up.

I have spoken to strangers in bookshops while researching this trip and comments such as "you're only young once" and "do it now before you have a family" are not uncommon.

Kerry is less keen than me to undertake this challenge. She has her own mobile dog grooming business that is now 15 months old, but has yet to turn a profit.

Kerry supplements her business by working full-time as a fitness instructor and part-time in a nightclub. If anyone deserves a break from the hassles of work it's her.

She may not know it yet but I think the time out will benefit her as much as me.

We work more than we ever have done but don't seem to be getting any more from life, in fact quite the opposite. In the pursuit of wealth we spend our time working and sleeping.

I plan to re-train when I return. I want a career that will allow me to work from home. An option is to use my IT skills to set up an e-Business to help other people in my position achieve what I am setting out to do.

There is a lot of information out there for 18-year-olds on a gap year but not for mature workers looking for career breaks. I plan to approach local business for backing and provide consultancy and talks to help people live out their dreams.

Someone once said that it is not getting there that matters, it's the journey. We all have a journey that we go on in our lives with countless decisions to be made. This is one decision I know I will never regret.