Our gap year journey
Family Gap Year, Familymoon or Sabbatical – the concept of taking time away to travel and explore new destinations as a family goes by many names and is certainly not new. What is unique, however, are the families that undertake them, their expectations, and experiences on the journey.
In planning and researching our sabbatical, we came across a number of resources that was of great help. There was no need to figure everything out from scratch, but what we did find in our research was that a lot of the advice was from American, Australian or British families. As South Africans, we tend to have our own perspective. We are spoilt with the natural beauty, culinary and cultural experiences right on our doorstep, and we measure the rest of the world against that! As Saffas we also have a number of challenges, not least our geographical remoteness and the cost of getting off the southern-most tip of Africa, traveling on Rands and a SA passport and an Afrikaans accent others tend to get lost in.
We have a brilliant life, with family and friends all within shouting distance for a braai. Uprooting our family and leaving our comfortable beds behind had to be worth it. We made a list of what we wanted to ‘get out of it’ and kept it simple:
· Be travelers, not tourists. Take the opportunity to discover places and have experiences that we would not have if we were pressed for time.
· Mental and physical well-being. Wherever we went, has to lend itself to positive experiences, with the focus on outdoors activities such as hiking, diving and snorkeling.
· Food. We’re Saffas, and we love good food and wine.
· Fun, especially for the kids.
· Have our kids experience (and learn about) about different cultures
About Us
family of travelers
My wife and I have always looked for opportunities to travel. Both of us worked abroad after completing our studies and as a married couple we tried to take time off from work to tick off bucket list items as and when possible, usually in the form of one or two week-long trips per year. As a working couple with two young boys making their way from pre-school into primary school, these opportunities seemed to be harder to come by.
We want to instill our love of exploring in our kids. The experiences and challenges from the COVID-19 pandemic both strengthened our desire to do so as well as changed our, and others', thinking on what was possible. While the clues were there before the pandemic struck, the pandemic has changed the nature of work, and the way work gets done. This could mean changing how you perceive a ‘work week’ or where your office is. For us, this shift in thinking meant that we could change where we worked from and how our kids received their education, whilst spending more time traveling now as a family.
Our decision to keep a blog is driven mainly by the desire for us and the kids to have a record of our travels, but also to help others plan their own journeys and to keep family and friends abreast of our whereabouts. I suspect that this blog will also serve to remind us, as we constantly revise and update it, that some of our ideas and plans when setting out was naïve or just plain stupid. Buy hey, isn't that part of the fun when traveling? Let's go!
upcoming posts
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Watch this space!
At SaffaTraveler, we are always looking for feedback, recommendations or to collaborate with like-minded travelers. Let us know what's on your must-do list of destinations
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Get in Touch
Please contact us should you want more information on any of the places or areas that we have visited, budgets and costs or just want to say hi. We also appreciate any suggestions from your own travels that can guide us on where to go next.
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