Our story starts on a cold, rainy evening in Hull, UK. The music at the classy (ahem) LAs nightclub on Thursday Student Night was booming out cheesy 80s tunes as a third year Computer Science student (Jason) and first year Geography student (Jenny) locked eyes in a starry drunken gaze. Little did they know, but this was the start of many epic adventures.
Our first summer together in the year 2000 we decided we would go travelling but had no idea where. So we made a pact: we would visit the travel corner of our local Waterstones bookstore, pick a random guidebook off the shelves and book flights to wherever that destination turned out to be. The random guidebook’s front cover had a picture of an eagle about to take flight and three words: Malawi Lonely Planet. We packed a tent, jumped on a British Airways flight to Lilongwe and after a month exploring this immensely friendly and beautiful country, we were confirmed lifelong travel buddies and got married two years later.
Travels pre-kids
We spent the next ten years exploring the globe at every available opportunity. When we weren’t actually travelling, we were saving and planning the next trip, be it a weekend exploring a new European city or a year long adventure to the other side of the world.
In 2007 we quit our corporate jobs and travelled over land and sea from the UK to Sydney, Australia, without a single flight, culminating in a two-week voyage on a freighter from Singapore to Brisbane.
After 5 years living down-under we embarked on another year long trip that took us via New Zealand, Thailand, Malaysia, Burma, India, Nepal and Southern Africa before returning to the UK just in time for our twelve-week pregnancy scan.
Positive in Kruger
It seemed apt that we’d found out we were expecting whilst travelling; we were in Kruger National Park at the time and as I tried to aim my pee away from my hands and onto the pregnancy test, we already knew that having kids wasn’t going to stop us travelling.
Waiting for the little line to appear which would confirm our hopes, we tried to take in the scene around us – the expansive grasslands, the elephants grazing below, the dusty African hues. We would bring our children back here one day (which we did in March 2018!)
Ten years on…
Ten years on, we’ve travelled as a family to more than 25 countries already and our dreams of continuing our travelling lifestyle with kids has become reality.
In 2018 we returned to the UK after spending a year living in India, where we took the many opportunities for further Asian travel, followed by a four month overland trip around Africa.
The rolling green hills of the Peak District, UK, is now our home, which gives us the opportunity to explore more of North Africa and Europe on our doorstep.
2020 was going to be another big year of travel for us, but COVID-19 stopped that in it’s tracks. It was a big blow, but instead we’ve transformed our travel plans and we bought a Mazda Bongo 4×4 camper on eBay and embraced vanlife adventures until the world was ready to be explored again.
Our 4 months living and travelling Morocco as digital nomads in 2022 felt the first step back to normality after the pandemic. For this adventure the boys were deregistered from school for the Summer Term.
2023 finally returned us to our favourite style of travel – backpacking – and we spent 10 weeks backpacking Southeast Asia with our boys, starting in Thailand. Jay took unpaid parental leave for this trip and we once again deregistered the boys from their UK village school.
And this won’t surprise you, but big plans are in motion for 2024.
Admittedly we’ve had to adapt the way we travel and ensure the boys’ needs and safety always come first, and we now have the added challenge of school and the boys’ need to pursue their own interests. But independent, adventure travel with kids is indeed possible and we can honestly say it’s more fulfilling, rewarding and enjoyable with them along for the ride.
Through our blog we hope to inspire other parents to travel with their kids by sharing our experiences and tips along the way. It’s certainly not without its challenges, but we’re creating family bonds and memories to last a lifetime and, just maybe, kick-starting their lust for global exploration.
Thanks for visiting us and happy reading,
Jenny, Jason, Arthur and Ezra xxxx