It has been 5 years since we have done an epic multi week travel outside China. Thanks Covid! Travel restrictions were finally removed from China spring last year but because we were changing jobs we had to stay in China last summer.

Now don’t get me wrong we still did travel in those years. During the 4 years of restrictions we did manage some epic travels around China! Tiger leaping gorge and Xian to name a few. And we have also managed a couple of fantastic week or two’s holidaying outside China since last spring (Thailand & Vietnam for example). But this is the first time in a long time we have “long” traveled and by this I mean been on the road for serval weeks and moving on from place to place every couple of days or so.

For the boys they don’t really remember the 7 weeks traveling through Thailand–Cambodia–vietnam (2018) when they were 8,6 and 4! Nor the 7 weeks island hopping through Borneo and Indonesia (2019) at ages 7,5&3. They certainly do not remember the epic multi weeks road trips around Southern Africa (2015 & 2016) when they were all 5 and under.

Now “long” travel has some amazing benefits and is for sure my favourite way to travel. It allows you to really feel the place… to get into the way the place works. Experience the more off the beaten track place, the less tourist places. But it’s not always easy…. There are a lot of unknowns, a lot of going with the flow, there are delays, unexpected nuances and frustrations. Routines are out the window… food patterns, food types, sleep patterns, and exercise patterns. For the boys there are times they have to be quiet and still, times when the normal freedoms they have are restricted.

For us it also involves more budget accommodation and travel to make the money go further. The nice beach front villas and resorts of our last few holidays are not gonna happen on this trip!

Of course it’s totally worth it and the experiences well out weigh any difficulties. As adults we appreciate that we are so incredibly privileged to be able to explore the world the way we have and continue to do. But for the boys they are still learning some the incracies of long travel. They may not be babies that need space to learn to crawl (Boy Blue in the Namibian desert) or be toddlers who need a nap instead of washing an elephant (middle man in India) but they still need space to be kids. They need the reassurance of a safe place to sleep and food they can eat. They need the freedom to be kids, in long travel this is harder to guarantee and certainly not possible to be sure it will be available exactly when they need it.

For example Right now, as I type this we are on a long haul overnight bus from Nazca to Arequipa. Middle man is next to me struggling to sleep, we just had a long chat about school and how he misses the routines of knowing what comes next and what is expected of him. It does make me question if we are putting to much on them, if they are enjoying it. Conversations like this reminds me to take an extra breath when they are nosier than they probably should be or if they get hangry at an awkward time. They are still kids.

I know I have struggled with decision fatigue, with not getting my morning coffee, with having to make do on workouts and food choices. So is it really worth it?

Well yeah I think so…. After our conversation middle man rolls away and looks out at the now black sky… he taps me on the shoulder and says “look” letting my eyes adjust from the phone screen to the darkness outside I can see what he sees. A sky full of stars. As we look he mumbles “you can’t see this in Shanghai can you mum”.