I have an exciting announcement to make. The Play-based-parenting Tribe are going Rogue. Just kidding. We are taking these Aussie Kids travelling in a Lotus. I have opened a Facebook and Instagram account to document our adventures and called it Aussie Kids travel Australia in a Lotus. I’ll share these at the bottom of the post. Please follow along and see where the Lotus takes us.
We have been tossing up the idea of a caravan for a while. The idea of a caravan to us, meant that we would have to make a consistent effort to prioritise adventures and memory making with the kids. Will we be able to find time was the question…? We want to spend more quality time with the kids making memories but we are super busy people and getting away for holidays isn’t that easy.
Let me define busy… I am studying my Masters Of Professional Psychology. I am a mother, with two active kids who have afterschool activities every day. My husband has a roofing construction company with endless days of work. It is run by just us only; He is fulltime on the tools, then measures and quotes after hours, I do the book keeping and administration. We are renovating the house (very slowly). Have two farms with Angus cattle and other animals (165 acres and 200 acres) which means endless farm maintenance, building and animal care. I freelance write online and blog of course. And don’t forget domestic duties of a stay at home mum. We basically have two fulltime jobs each. So getting away for any more than a weekend has been challenging. Never a dull moment.
The decision to travel Australia.
We do travel a fair bit already. Just not very far. We love it. Another reason we have been considering this is because both myself and Col have never really been any where. I didn’t see much as a kid because my parents, like his, worked fulltime jobs and travelling was too hard, took too long and was too expensive. To travel Australia was not even a thought.
After making the decision to down size and recently selling some property, we bite the bullet. Lets do it. Lets travel Australia part time. Kids come first and they are growing up way too quick. Before we know it they’ll be leaving home and it wont be cool to be around mum and dad.
I want them to see more of our beautiful country. I want them to learn more about our land, history and culture. I want them to meet new people and experience different lifestyles. I want them to see fascinating things. I don’t want them to live a sheltered mundane life in the one spot, never knowing what diversity and amazing things are out there. I think travelling can influence you into being open and accepting, not judgmental, because you see and do more. Thus, challenging your assumption of “normal”.
There you go. My little rationale on why we want to travel. The decision was easy. The choice of van was not.
Travel Australia in a Lotus.
With much consideration we kept going back to the Lotus. We put a deposit on a lotus off grid dual axle 19 foot van because it ticked all our boxes. Off-road. Off grid. Shower/toilet. Outdoor kitchen. Bunks. heating and air con. Descent solar, batteries. Hardy exterior and under carriage protection. Lots of storage. All the bells and whistles. That’s due in November. This means were locked in.
To make buying a lotus worth it, we need to make a consistent effort to travel. With a real priority on making family memories and spending quality time together. We want to explore all of Australia.
When and for how long?
At the moment we aren’t able to travel fulltime. I wish we didn’t have so many commitments. We can’t sell up and we can’t make it a full time life style. We dont have a year up our sleeve. We have too many farm animals, property commitments, a company to run and my Psych registration to complete.
However, we will travel Australia more often while the kids are little and do it as often as we can. At this stage, that means extending every holiday and long weekend a little bit. Weekends away. Any time we can wrangle we will. We can’t do the big lap in one go. We will travel Australia bit by bit.
Our travels will be sporadic. They will be awesome and full of adventure and experiences. instead of the big lap, we will do it in bursts.
The kids are super excited. We are super excited. The Lotus arrives next month and we will have a few trial trips. Come mid December we will get the kids out of school early and take 6 weeks off. We will make our way along the South Coast of NSW, down to Victoria and over to Tassie. Our big lap will be Tasmania.
Join me.
I am planning to share our adventures on the road and also provide information on how we incorporate play based learning while travelling.
I hope you join us for many adventures to come. Find me on Facebook here & Instagram here.
Happy Adventures.
x Renee
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