The captivating adventure of travel or a world journey has enchanted me since childhood. I sought and found adventures, not least during a Trans-Africa trip and other overlanding tours around the globe.

Interestingly, in doing so, I've sidestepped certain other adventures, not even recognizing them.

The principle "One rarely regrets the deeds accomplished, but mostly those left undone" is quoted in various vlogs and travel blogs in some form or another before embarking on a journey.

Life offers an almost boundless array of possibilities; consequently, we inevitably have to miss out on much.

The fact that with advancing age, we also reconsider, analyze, and potentially reevaluate fundamental decisions should also be kept in mind by us travelers, as I find in hindsight.

For many years, I never wanted to see what other adventures life had in store - and wouldn't have thought to find one of them in the role of a father.

For those who are interested - there's also an article about it:

Article:
https://vanlife.4x4tripping.com/2023...re-travel.html

For the more seasoned individuals here, perhaps this is old news, but it was at least "new" to me. Now, I'm even more curious about the future and excited about upcoming travel adventures, which surely include a significant portion of "everyday adventure"!

Please note that translations might not always capture the nuances perfectly.

The article is also available in my native german language

We had some discussions at hub, who are worth to read too. is Family the end of travel, borrow cash for travelling, ideal age for an sabbatical. Will age let my change my mind againg about travelling?! You will be able to read about!

Surfy

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About Overlanding, Travelogues, Equipment
Trans-Africa over the west coast

Yes, there's no doubt that what you want out of life, what you see as important, changes as the decades progress. Certainly for me, as a callow youth taking my first tentative steps out of the country in the late 60's, seeing what was out there, what was over the horizon, was a great motivator. Freed from my parent's purse strings I could follow my own agenda. And, in conjunction with a few like minded friends, that's what I did - explore. In some respects that's no more than a slightly more advanced version of toddling around the house as a two year old or going to the shops on your own a few years later. You do eventually come to realise though that travel is more a metaphor than a verb and the paths we choose don't all have to made of tarmac or dirt.

If your life is now taking you down a different path it's going to be as much a voyage of adventure as any overland expedition through Africa. Certainly as I've got older I find myself looking beyond the simply physical challenges. The passage of the years, parenthood, other interests, juggling other responsibilities, all of this impacts on how you'll view future travel plans. We don't really talk much about the philosophy of travel here, it's much more about the nuts and bolts and practical aspects, but metaphysics in some form or another underpins much of it, and increasingly so as other experiences plug into your planning. I think we all have our passions in there somewhere but how they manifest themselves often depends on our path through life. If fatherhood beckons just remember that what you do with them may well be the early influences that they'll look back on.

And the two aren't mutually exclusive. It may mean shorter trips, but kids can be great travellers - and travel can provide a great learning experience. Even before they "remember" places, they create sensory memories - so after you've been to a desert with your two-year-old, they'll remember the feeling of sand and dry and heat when you read them a book about deserts, even if they don't remember the trip itself. You have to adapt the *style* of travel (probably stuck with 4 wheels for the foreseeable future), but not abandon travel itself.

That's the thing with kids (or now grandkids in my case), everything is new. So you may be an old travel hand who sneers at anything under 1000 miles as 'a shopping trip', but for the kids, even getting in the car is an adventure (even if 5 mins later they're asking 'are we there yet' ). Years back on of the UK standup comedians, in one of his tv show's more serious moments, asked his guest 'what do you think your half life is'? By that he meant at what age do you think you've experienced half the things you'll ever experience for the first time. The comedian's answer was twelve. So kids pack a lot into those early years, with much, if not most of it, under parental direction. What you do with them stands a good chance of influencing what they in turn will do with their children in the distant future. Hard to believe really but decisions you make now(ish) may have an effect not only on the unborn but on their unborn. So think carefully now, the fate of some the dust of the universe depends on it. Not that I want to worry you or anything ...