TAWK Featured Family -
'Cruising Down Under'

1.  About you

We are a family of five Dad (Adam) Mum (Beck) Madison (8) Max (5) and Lucas (2). We have been travelling around Australia in our Leader Caravan and Landcuriser for 7 months.

After selling our family home in April this year most people thought we were a little crazy when we told them we were buying a caravan and not another house. They couldn't understand our spontaneous decision as we were breaking the mold and choosing a different path. As the months roll on and everyone can see what a fantastic opportunity this has been, everyone's now on board and loves seeing all the updates on what we have been up to.

2.   Why did you make your decision to TAWK?

After spending 8 years renovating our family home and putting it on the market we decided we didn't want to be tied down with another mortgage straight away. I (Beck) started doing some research on travelling Australia with kids and we all loved the idea. We knew if we purchased another house we probably wouldn't get this amazing opportunity again. As scary as it was we took a leap of faith and haven't looked back.

3.   How did you get organised and how did you prepare?

we didn't have a lot of time to prepare, as we only made the decision to travel at the end of last year. We also had never camped or caravan as a family so we had a lot of research to do in a few months. It was a very crazy stressful time getting organised as we had to prepare and sell our home, find and buy a caravan/car and find some where to store our stuff. In the end it all seemed to fall into place

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4.  What has been your biggest joy?

It would be the priceless time we have had together as a family. Before the trip we were so busy with work, school and renovating the house that it was so hard to find quality time together. It's been wonderful to watch the kids grown and find lots of new interests. Madison loves photography, Max has really taken a love to Australian wildlife especially birds and Lucas loves the water (he cried for the first 3 months when he went near the beach).

5. What has been your biggest challenge and how did you overcome it?

One of the biggest challenges was actually getting organised and prepared without any caravanning experience in such a short time. It was a relief when we got on the road. It's amazing how much you learn talking to other travellers.

The next biggest challenge is school on the road. We do Distance Education which is fantastic as the work is all supplied by the school but it's been a hard transition for my daughter to understand I'm her teacher now and she's not in a classroom. It does get easier though.

6.   Where have you enjoyed the most and Where disappointed you the most?

Wow that's a hard one as Australia has some amazing places to visit. One of our best days was a spontaneous day trip to Cape Leveque. It's absolutely beautiful and the water is so clear and calm with abundance of fish. We had the beach all to ourselves and spent the afternoon snorkelling, kayaking, shell hunting and just chilling out. We finished the day watching the sun go down.

There hasn't been any real disappointments. It's mainly when we visit somewhere and the weather is bad it can sometimes make the stay not so enjoyable. It also amazes us how expensive some caravan parks are and how much extra they charge for kids.

If you are thinking of Travelling Australia With Kids, then the TAWK Guide would be a great place to start.

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7.   How did you get organised with schooling, what did/do you do and how did you come to that decision?

This is one of the first questions people would ask when we told them we were travelling around Australia. We currently only have Madison in school. Max will start kindergarten next year and that was one of the reason we decided to travel straight after selling the house. After some research and phone calls I found that distance education was our best option. Once we contacted Sydney Distance Education the process took about 6 weeks from filling out enrolment forms to a visit to the school to meet Madison's teacher and collect her resources.

8.   What surprised you most about the trip?

I've also been surprised by how strong we are when we work together as a team. Adam's sense of adventure and motivation has provided us with some amazing and challenging experiences that have brought us so much joy as a family.

It's probably the way we have all adapted to living in such a small space together 24/7. Also how the kids can make best friends with other kids in a matter of minutes. They have now learnt how to say goodbye without getting upset.

9.   What would be three pieces of advice to give to future TAWKers?

1. Visit information centres - it's great finding out some of the local spots to see which aren't in the travel books or brochures.
2. Spend time trying out your car and van before leaving - we didn't get the opportunity to do this due to our circumstances and we have been pretty lucky as most things have run smoothly. If we had the opportunity we would of done a couple of weekend trips and made a few slight changes with things we packed and modifications we have made along the way.
3. Talk to other travellers - We have gotton a lot priceless information about caravans, cars and amazing camping locations.

10.   How do you think that this adventure has changed your family?

Our motto is 'live life don't let life live you!' It's definitely changed our out look on life and brought us all closer together. We now want to be able to do lots of small trips when we return and bigger ones if the opportunity arises. We also want to live a simpler life with less stuff consuming it. The kids are now much more aware of living animals and how to care and respect their environment.

Make the most of everyday as you never know what's around the corner. We invite you  to follow our journey further and like our FaceBook Cruising Down Under. Thanks for reading and see you over on our page. 

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