A trip like this

"Something hidden.  Go and find it.  Go and look behind the Ranges.
Something lost behind the Ranges.  Lost and waiting for you.  Go!"

- Rudyard Kipling, The Explorer

We'd always wanted to do a big trip like this, but somehow always found reasons not to. Always found some excuse. But the excuses have stopped, and we are definitely doing this now. We've rented out our newly renovated home in England, taken our 4 year old son out of reception, stored all our possessions and we're going, for 8 months of travel, with our two small children. We are giddy with excitement, and no doubt unprepared for what comes next, but we are going, and we are ecstatic!

There are lots of reasons why, but two big ones stick out. The first is time. The life we're putting on hold back home is a great life, but it lacks this one major thing. It often felt as though life was something that happened in order for work to exist, when really it should be the other way round. And by pausing that life, the deal was that we’d be rewarded with an abundance of time; time for each other, for fun, for seeing, for doing, and for tasting.

And the second reason - adventure. Arguably we could use all this extra time to relax at home, safe in the knowledge that everything is where it should be, and comfortable amidst the things that surround us. But we wanted adventure. We wanted to explore places together that we'd only read about previously. To taste uncertainty and excitement, pleasure and despair. Most of all, to experience life together.