– water bottles from Prambanan homestay. And a water ball– my sandals at the end of the rafting in Nepal– school books on the shink. T picked it up the next day–… Read more: Things we’ve left behind!

Last day or so in Stone Town…this is it, the end of the gap year! After we arrived, we did a food tour which was really cool. He was a local guy,… Read more: Tanzania: Stone Town

We got a surprising number of family pics. Always accompanied with a bribe. Saying that, we got about 2 in Tanzania, everyone was over it! We are dinosaurs when it comes to… Read more: Thoughts as we leave gap year

They put bog roll into the loo. Awkward learning a week in! Its a tourist place – safari trips are mainly older families with teens. And its nothing like real Tanzania. Don’t… Read more: Thoughts as we leave Tanzania

Sunday 13th August Our night in Dar was uneventful. We just hung out, the kids loved playing on their PS5, a dual fighter game. We all enjoyed it! Tokyo still comes up… Read more: Tanzania: Mafia island

We got a local bus from Moshi to Lushoto in the mountains. It is a coach, so not too bad. It went right up next to the Kenyan border. Of course it… Read more: Tanzania: Lushoto

We are staying in a remote homestay in the mountains. If we can’t climb Kili, we can at least stay next to it! It’s a lovely, simple homestay, right up our street.… Read more: Tanzania: Shimbwe (Moshi)/ foothills of Kilimanjaro

Sunday 30th July8am start for a 6 hour bumpy ride to Serengeti national park. Did a game drive on the way in and saw a lioness waaaay in the distance! Had lots… Read more: Tanzania Safari: Serengeti

Wednesday 2nd AugustTravelled from our camp towards Lake Eyasi which is about 6 hours drive. We went via central Serengeti which is super busy! Couldn’t believe how many trucks there are. It… Read more: Tanzania Safari: Lake Eyasi

Friday 4th AugustGod, there was a misunderstanding with Agustino. T and I are convinced he said 4.40. But we showed up and he wasnt there. When he came, he said no I… Read more: Tanzania Safari: Ngongoro crater

Friday 28th JulyAnother sunrise start. Cloudy this morning so not as beautiful. We were brought a hot choc/ coffee again which was a treat. I think this is my fave hotel of… Read more: Tanzania Safari: Lake Natron

Wednesday 26th July Overnight was interesting, H had D&V (again). His D was really really bad, poor guy and we had to have a shower in the middle of the night. Pretty… Read more: Tanzania safari: Maasai tribes

Sat 22nd & Sun 23rd JulyTravel day. 9 hour flight from Denpasar to Doha, then 6 hours to Kilimanjaro airport. The guy who checked in our bags had never even heard of… Read more: Tanzania: Arusha

My spirit felt like Indonesia would be amazing. And it really didn’t disappoint. Such natural beauty, culture. Bloody loved it. This is top of my list for T and my gap year… Read more: Thoughts as we leave Indonesia

https://www.instagram.com/s/aGlnaGxpZ2h0OjE4MDA4Mjc1NjMwODM5MTI2?story_media_id=3152287414089538569_209787013&igshid=M2MyMzgzODVlNw== Monday 17th July Travel day to Gili Trawangan aka Gili T. There are 3 small islands that are known for beautiful snorkelling, beaches and backpackers. Stressy start. Got to the ferry… Read more: Indonesia: Gili islands

Thurs 13th JulyTravel day. Chilled in the pool in the morning, did some home school. Flight to Flores island, Luhan Bajo (a town) which is the jump off point for Komodo trips.… Read more: Indonesia: Flores island

The video at the end of the sun dropping at sunset is 🥰 Sunday 9th July Drove to Munduk today, a place a little higher up to the central, Northern area of… Read more: Indonesia: Bali, Munduk

Monday 3rd JulyA lie in today at 8am! Kids were up earlier of course! Breakfast was from a warung (restaurant/ shack) next door to our homestay. Palm sugar dark rice with grated… Read more: Indonesia: Ijen

Our hotel is super nice, it has a small pool and a bunkbed for the kids (family room). The only weird thing about this town is there is a main road running… Read more: Indonesia: Permuteran, Bali

Sunday 2nd JulyWe all slept in our clothes because we were due to wake up at 3am to go in a jeep up Mount Bromo for sunrise…oof! We were taking a gamble… Read more: Indonesia: Mount Bromo

Thursday 29th June Travel day! Going to Malang, which is a bit of a pain. People tend to get a driver, but it takes around 6/7 hours, which is just too long… Read more: Indonesia: Malang & Tempak Sewu waterfall

Our Indonesia itinerary Friday 23rd June Travel day from KL to Yogykarta. The only thing of note was the sniffer dogs at the airport. You forget how strict they are with drugs… Read more: Indonesia: Yogyakarta & itinerary

We’ve noticed that some of the places we visit are for tourists, and some places cater for backpackers too. Like Japan was a tourist place. India felt like a mix. Nepal more… Read more: Thoughts as we leave Borneo

Wednesday 21st June Date day with the kids! My turn with C, Ts turn with H. We looked up all the fun things to do in KL so they could choose.  C… Read more: Malaysia: Kuala Lumpur

Saturday 17th June Lazy, relaxing morning sleeping, kids watching TV.  Eventually got ourselves up to head to the beach. We are staying in a nice hotel with 2 interconnected rooms, air con… Read more: Borneo: the tip of Borneo

Some videos of our volunteering, and lots of monkeys! 👆 Sunday 11th June We started our volunteering. T and I are a bit worried it could be random but sure it will… Read more: Borneo: volunteering Kinabantangan river

So behind on the blog – internet has been terrible for pics! Thursday 8th June We arrived in Sandakan last night. We are staying in a totally new apartment block that is… Read more: Borneo: Sandakan

Monday 5th June Early 5am start and tiny plane to Luhad Datu. Kids managed to wangle a Maccers out of us so they were winning! It was raining so on our walk… Read more: Borneo: Danum Valley

Friday 3rd June Today we started a little road trip! Hired a car and headed for the mountains to Kundesang…it was nice to go a few thousand metres up as its a… Read more: Borneo: Kundesang

Tuesday 30th May Travel onwards to Kota Kinabalu, the capital of Borneo. Another small flight. A v relaxing day in our lovely apartment with beautiful views over the water. Much cooler here… Read more: Borneo: Kota Kinabalu

Sat 27th MayFlight to Mulu this morning, a national park right up near Brunei. A small plane but not as small as i expected, phew! Its funny we had checked in online… Read more: Borneo: Mulu National Park

Here’s our itinerary for Borneo…one month in total Sunday 21st MayBoys got home 1am, we had to wake up for the airport at 5.30am. Oof. Edit – H is TOTALLY fine, the… Read more: Borneo: Kuching & around

So, 19th May was our halfway house for the trip – can’t quite believe we still have the same time to go! It has gone both super fast and slowly at the… Read more: Halfway house: how *are* we doing?!

EDIT – Henry is just A-Okay after his bite, nothing to report at all, finished antibiotics and it has healed nicely 🙂 Thursday 18th May Full day in Hakone today on all… Read more: Japan: Hakone

Here was our itinerary…https://www.google.com/maps/d/u/0/edit?mid=1kgojVskc7NjfJeZVJeX5A2V5aYg4jYA&usp=sharing Kitchens are hilarious. No worktops. No oven. Teeny tiny grill. It must be so hard to cook here – it was the same when I lived here, almost… Read more: Thoughts as we leave Japan

Friday 12th May – So many trains & buses to Kyoto! Finally arrived to our old samurai house. Which, TBH just means it a bit sh*t and old, haha! It was billed… Read more: Japan: Kyoto

Weds 10th May We got a slightly later train so we could squeeze in some 10am karaoke! The kids are really enjoying it now as we’re all finding the songs they love. … Read more: Japan: Koyasan

What I remember of Osaka when we were last here was it is a city where people live. There isn’t a huge amount to do here but its known for being a… Read more: Japan: Osaka

Our travel day really showed up the travel fatigue – the kids were grumpy and fighty. To be expected, to be fair, our trip to Shiz involved reeeeally long days. We try… Read more: Japan: Okayama & Kurashiki

Here’s a summary of some of the festival bits…there’s a cute video of Henry doing a video for his classmates explaining about the festival. Tuesday 2nd May Travel day to Hamamatsu and… Read more: Japan: Shizuoka-ken

Sunday 30th April Travel day – first shink of the trip. Gawd I forgot how amazing the shinkansen is! Then a local train and a bus. Took about 4 hours or so.… Read more: Japan: Magome & Tsumago

Be warned, Japan will be one long post cos I want to remember everything the second time around! Sunday 23rd April Travel day! Got to our apartment around 2am – oof! It’s… Read more: Japan: Tokyo

Landed in fabulous Bangkok – again, it’s been 20 years! Looks totally different. Went to the Grand Palace which was always v. impressive. T and I bumped into each other there when… Read more: Thailand: Bangkok

Tuesday 11th & Wednesday 12th April Travel days! Flights, early starts etc etc. Got on the world’s smallest aeroplane! Landed in paradise, the most amazing hotel – clean sheets, good lighting, AIR… Read more: Thailand: Koh Samui

It was a beautiful, and spiritual country. The mountain scenery is like nothing we’ve ever (and probably will ever!) seen before. Despite being a city lover, I actually love mountains, beaches, sunrises… Read more: Thoughts as leave Nepal

Saturday 8th & Sunday 9th April Our Lower Seti rafting trip for two days. It was amazing. So amazing, and the kids LOVED it. Super early 6am start, bus for a few… Read more: Nepal: Lower Seti rafting & Bhaktapur

We spent a few days here before/ after the trek. It’s very much a tourist town. But actually more like a ghost town at the moment because it’s not really picking up… Read more: Nepal: Pokhara

Massive highlight of our trip so a bit TLDR, scroll scroll! Saturday 1st April – Kilu to Ghandruk April Fools Day, we are going to climb lots of hills! haha. We took… Read more: Nepal: Poon Hill trek

Monday 27th March Travel day to Bandipur which is a small village in the mountains between Kathmandu and Pokhara. Got a fancy tourist bus which was luxury compared to the usual local… Read more: Nepal: Bandipur

Thursday 23rd March Travel day from Delhi to Kathmandu – it only takes 1hr40. It has a time difference of 15 minutes – RANDOM! Got in, settled in our hotel room. Stop… Read more: Let’s go to Nepal! Kathmandu

Monday 20th March Train to Agra today – around 4 hours which is perfect. A bit of a nap, homeschool and some food! Tuesday 21st March In it to win it today… Read more: Agra: Taj Mahal

We bloody love it – the sounds, the ‘busy’, the colours, the heat, the people, the food. It was exactly what we were hoping for. Other thoughts in no particular order

Friday 17th March Travel day – another day, another train. Only a couple of hours. Some very explosive home schooling – it was ordering fractions to be fair, which no-one likes! We… Read more: Ranthambore: tiger safari

Saturday 11th March Another 4am start for a train – there’s a theme, haha! So the night before I managed to leave our prized pasta dinner in the taxi. This meant T… Read more: Jaipur: the pink city

Well, we are all still standing, haven’t killed each other yet! What we are learning…

Udaipur was all about Holi – good times! The further East we travel, we also notice how much more touristy it becomes, but with that, food the kids can eat! Monday 6th… Read more: Udaipur – the white city

For us, this area was all about the homestay – it was awesome! Jodhpur is knows as “Sun City” aka it’s reeeeeally hot, as well as the “Blue City” due to it’s… Read more: Jodhpur – the blue city

Sunday 26th February Travel day — flight to Jaisalmer from a very civilised Delhi airport! Poor Henry woke up SO green about the gills and vomited in the taxi (thank goodness my… Read more: Jaisalmer – the golden city

Tuesday 21st February Today was travel day from Hell… which we always knew it would be. Get woken up by the alarm clock, hot foot it to Cairo airport, eat horrible airport… Read more: Let’s go to India: Delhi

About Egypt I’ve been blown away by how beautiful the history is. At up to 5,000 years old, it’s very impressive what’s survived. The colours that have withstood the test of time… Read more: Thoughts as we leave Egypt…

Wednesday 15th February This trip has been breakneck so far. So it was lovely to get to Aswan and have some chill time. We went to Elephantine Island which is a Nubian… Read more: Lower Egypt: Aswan, The Nile and Luxor

First up, forgive the lack of updates, we are generally working on dial up internet, haha! Also, we are keeping this as our personal daily diary so it is fairly detailed. TLDR!… Read more: The adventure begins… in Cairo

Well, here goes it’s finally here, the family gap (half) yaaar! Thought I’d kick off with a little FAQ about us… We are a family living in Ballyhamas in South London. We’ve… Read more: Team Mossy hit the road!

UPDATE — the house is packed up and it’s weird. It feels a little bit and all a bit REAL! No going back now… I’ve been the packing witch for the trip and quite… Read more: Packy Mc Packy! How to pack for a family gap year!