We started this adventure 147 days ago, we have visited 12 countries in that time, travelled over 45,000 miles, slept in 50 different beds, shed a few tears, but had so many more laughs along the way to compensate, and created a lifetime of memories. We can’t quite believe where the time has gone.

It has been truly amazing. We have visited places that have opened up our eyes to a world we didn’t really know existed. We have seen animals in their natural habitat that we had previously only ever seen brought to life through Sir David Attenborough. We have seen first hand the inequalities of the haves and the have nots to levels way beyond the UK. We have experienced climatic extremes and seen the adverse impact we humans are having on the environment. We have seen some of the most breathtaking wonders of the world nature has to offer. We have had meaningful interactions with people from all over the world and all walks of life. And we have had the opportunity to experience all of that with the most important people in our lives. We feel very privileged right now to have been able to do all that.

We are actually feeling a whole host of emotions right now. We have definitely been experiencing a little travel fatigue, a new bed every 2.9 nights can take its toll.  We are excited to be going home and seeing our friends and family, and of course our beloved Scrabble. And picking up Cluedo, our latest addition to the family. The girls are super excited to see their school friends and to go back to school, hopefully not a reflection on our occasional attempts at being teachers. We are definitely a little sad that this adventure has come to an end, something we have been planning for a considerable time. We are also already planning the next places we want to go and experience, maybe not on this scale (for a while) but the list is ever growing. Surprisingly, the more places you travel to and experience, the bigger the world seems to get. We feel very lucky for the life we have, and the opportunities that are afforded to us, which in turns makes us ever more motivated to continue working hard to enable more of these opportunities in the future.

For those that have followed our adventures, even fleetingly, thank you. And a big thank you to those of you that have taken the time to interact with us along the way, I know the girls in particular have loved having questions and comments on their blogs. Hopefully their record of events has been a much more entertaining and unfiltered version than our ramblings, you will at least know what we have eaten for every meal during those 147 days. There have been many highlights along the way, too many to do them justice, and we will spare you from hearing about them all again in great length, but we did want to capture a few of them below:

• Snorkelling with Sealions in the Galapagos
• Traditional Asado on an Argentinian farm
• Hiking and exploring the Glaciers in Patagonia
• Osa Peninsula coast and back garden Sloths in Costa Rica
• The Cloud Forest and meeting indigenous tribe in Panama
• Swimming with turtles in the Gili Islands
• Experiencing Iguazu Falls from all sides including the air
• Rocking Rodeo in Sonoma County
• Driving through Quebrada de las Conches and wine tasting in Cafayate
• Climbing Mount Rinjani and surfing in Kuta
• Exploring Kyoto in traditional Kimonos
• Mount Fuji and the tranquility of Hakone
• Tokyo night tour and Red Tokyo Tower
• Sunset Yahtzee and Pizza on Gili Air
• Observing Orangutans in the Sumatran Jungle
• Independence Day firework display in Singapore
• Food tour and Water puppet show in Hanoi

And for any of you thinking about embarking on a similar adventure, do it, just do it. Do not hesitate. You will not regret it. There may be times when you are in certain situations, like freezing your nether regions off when you are tired and hungry 16hrs into a 19hr bus journey, when you ask yourself why am I doing this, but very quickly that passes and it actually becomes one of the highlights. The journey, we have found, is very often the good stuff. The interactions are richer, they are more real, they provide a more meaningful experience and they are often personal to you. The destination and sights are of course amazing too, but they are often shared with hundreds, if not thousands of other people, and with most of them interested in getting the perfect Insta shot, with very few appearing to be genuinely interested in what they have come to see. If you want any practical advice or tips for travelling, then we wrote a post not so long ago which, upon reflection now we have finished this trip, absolutely holds true and we wouldn’t really makes any changes.

Our final thoughts and comments however have to be about the people you travel with. We have said it numerous times throughout this trip, travelling with children can seem daunting, however they do make the most wonderful travel companions. They simply see the world through different eyes. They bring humour to situations when you least expect it. Their creativity and imagination knows no bounds. They are far more resilient than we give them credit for, and far more capable than they necessarily believe. Hopefully this adventure, and the experience we have shared, will stand them in good stead going forward to be brave, to be empathetic, to be inquisitive, to be resilient and to be adventurous.

Teamwork is the final point to touch on. Taking on a trip like this requires a level of teamwork like no other. Spending 24hrs a day for 147 days together is in itself pretty challenging, then throw in all of the other challenges and considerations that crop up along the way, and you have a potential melting pot. Especially when you are tired and hungry. The pot has indeed boiled over a few times, but surprisingly not that often, and when it has, it has been pretty short lived. Quick to forgive and forget is key, not just on a trip like this, but for life in general we find. We have had to divide and conquer, we have had to rely on one another, we have had to have complete trust in each other’s ability, and we have had to remind one another just how special this time has been. All too easy to take these amazing experiences, which have come thick and fast on this trip, for granted.

In closing, the only objective we set for the trip was family unit survival. We wanted everyone to stay safe and well, for everyone to still be talking to one another by the end of the trip, and for us to have strengthened our family bond, so that together we are all better equipped to take on the world as a team. Mission accomplished. Until next time. Over and out.

S, K, L, & H x