Ex-Voice news editor Nigel Chapman and his wife Louise – a former freelance reporter for us – took a family gap period and went on a seven-month round the world trip with their son Kian (8). Here, Nigel tells of their experiences.
If we’d made a wish list ahead of our trip, some of the things we did and saw would have gone in the “fanciful” column.
But now, and hopefully forever more, we will have masses of wonderful memories such as swimming with wild dolphins, standing on the edge of The Grand Canyon at sunset, mud bathing a pair of elephants, toasting Christmas Day on a sunny beach and more.
Six months ago we were wilting under the weight of bags as we stood on the platform at Spalding railway station – perhaps an unlikely first point en route to San Francisco.
There followed Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Tokyo, Kyoto, Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch, Sydney, Melbourne, Perth, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Bangkok.
Some of those cities were absolutely stunning (take a bow Sydney, Tokyo, Singapore) and some not so memorable for us (Bangkok, Christchurch, LA) but many of our top times happened away from the urban sprawls.
That swim with a dolphin mother and calf was so special, and having an adult elephant trudge by us close enough for us to breathe on him were unbeatable experiences. Hanging out with kangaroos in their natural environment was pretty special too and, away from the animal kingdom, the awesome beauty of Milford Sound fjord in New Zealand, the sheer vastness of Hoover Dam and abseiling down a waterfall will stay with me.
There were simple pleasures too: toasting marshmallows on a campfire at a chilly 8,000ft above sea level in Yosemite National Park, USA; comparing incredible sunsets and sunrises in each country; clambering through caves in the Malaysian rainforest; and market-stall fruits in Thailand.
For Kian it meant a total of eight months away from school (I can still hear him cheering) but we
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never looked on this as an extended holiday and learning was an important aspect.
Besides the many sights and cultural experiences, we had curriculum books and worksheets based on where we were headed. We also managed to arrange for him to experience what life was like in primary school classrooms in Australia (twice) and New Zealand.
At eight years old we figured he’d gain plenty of understanding about the world and other cultures while not materially harming his own education.
Like Louise and I, he found the trip challenging at times. For us adults the confines of a campervan and constant planning of the next stopping-off points were a bind we hadn’t fully appreciated; for him the difficulty was the extended time away from friends and peers.
That said, there’s very little we would have changed. The countries were a great diversity of landscapes and cultures and we managed to skip a protracted English winter.
And just before we went abroad, we even managed to visit fantastic places in England and Wales during the school summer holidays by volunteering at family activity centres.
We were fortunate to have been in the position to make a family gap period possible. But there is nothing special about our status. We earn average wages, we’ve not come into money and we weren’t given sabbaticals from our jobs.
We took the plunge to go on the trip because we thought it would be a fantastic (probably) once-in-a-lifetime experience and the point in our lives felt right. We could have done it when we retired but, if circumstances allow, why wait until then in the hope that your health and finances will allow it then?
Something this special was worth not waiting for.
