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Why We Travel – How It All Started

What We’re Doing

On the 26th of February 2018, we left behind the familiar comforts of home in George, South Africa, to start a different more adventurous way of life.

But Why?

Good question! For us, it’s been a long time coming, but a whole host of factors worked together to make us finally take the big step. Here are a few reasons for you why we travel, or why we started in the first place.

One Day May Never Come

The cliche is true: Life is too short. And after a series of unfortunate events – the truth of it hit home. The time was ripe and we seized the moment to do what we were on the verge of doing more than ten years ago before we started our family: go on a six-month backpacking trip around the world.

We’re not backpacking now by any means because it’s impossible with three kids, but we’re travelling and we’re doing it the best way we know how.

The Stuff of Dreams

Our backpacking trip around the world was abandoned a long time ago, but not forgotten. We decided that instead of waiting for the chicks to leave the nest before we travel as pensioners, we needed to do it NOW while we still can.

That book B bought me, ‘101 Things To Do Before You Die‘, has been sitting on our shelf gathering dust for more than ten years!

White River Valley Overlook, Badlands

It’s Not As Expensive As You’d Think

Running a household in today’s economy with three active kids is expensive. We did the maths and realised that we could live a laid back life in different parts of the world for the same amount of money that we work so hard for only to spend on maintaining the stressful rat-race lifestyle we were leading. We still work part of the year and travel as much as we can.

How much you spend to travel is subjective and it is possible to travel frugally if you choose to. We try to strike a balance by skimping on many things and embracing minimalism – easier said than done – so that we can splash out when it matters.

I hate selfies, but it has to be done. Proof, right? Yes, I was there – at Yellowstone!!!

Spontaneous To The Bone

Yes, you may call us spontaneous. We took the exciting yet terrifying decision to uproot our young family to travel and explore the world. To top it off, we’re taking on the mammoth responsibility of homeschooling our children.  Ourselves! We’ll let you know how that works out. (Update: We are currently settled in the UK (2020) and the children are in school for the foreseeable future.)

In October 2017 we discussed the possibility of travelling full time for the first time as the stability of our country became a question mark more every day. By the end of November, we made up our minds and only three months later, our lives were packed up into too many suitcases for B’s comfort.  We boarded a plane to England and a new story began; the story we hope you will enjoy reading about here and that’s why we travel.

Our last day in George. At the Airport all packed up and ready to catch a one-way flight to the UK!

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