ON THE ROAD (+ RAILS + WAVES)
An ongoing project documenting slow travel with kids by road (in our electric van with modest range), ferry, train and bikes.
A selection of these images won the Silver Award in the Lifestyle category at the 38th AOP Awards. Some images were also printed alongside an article I co-wrote for Positive News (see here).
Travelling and trying to understand the world (all aspects of it) has always been one of my favourite things. 60 countries so far and quite a lot of adventures (good and scary) to recount to no-one one day, thanks to COVID and Brexit going beyond the UK has obviously been restricted over the past couple of years. Our parenting is a bit hit-and-miss at the best of times but, if we achieve anything beyond teaching our kids to be kind (a few other things thrown in might be handy too), I’d like them to feel confident to travel. That feeling that you could probably get by almost anywhere is like the golden key to the world. As flying isn’t really an option for us having four kids under 8, and we don’t personally feel we can justify it, we’ve been doing it our own way.
Our journeys usually involve very early morning starts, long drives, ferries of all shapes, sizes, crossing durations, swims in the sea, a lot of charging and the occasional pit stop for a croissant or pizza (because the kids are sick of apples and digestive biscuits). Our kids are pretty game. Strangely, they settle in and we (mostly) love our expeditions together.
We got a Nissan Leaf six years ago, navigating charging points up and down Britain. Most thought we were mad but we liked the challenge (600 miles to Scotland - no problem!). We’ve since had twins so had to upgrade to a Nissan ENV200.
Journeys so far include (numerous) trips between Essex and the Highlands (600 miles), Madrid, Asturias and Galicia, Inner and Outer Hebrides, Devon...
