‘We’re very grateful to be able to live this life’
Is the road the best classroom of all? Ethan (9) and Oliver (11) Wedding would probably agree. They’ve been travelling around Australia since September 2024 with their mum and dad, and a ‘three metre by three metre box’ has become their whole life.
‘I’d been begging to do this for years - to travel with the kids while they were young,’ says Meg, ‘But we didn't really have the seed money to do it straight away. So to pack up and leave would mean selling everything to go on the road, and it was a bit scary with two kids to think about. We were both pretty burnt out in our in our jobs and ready for a bit of a change, just wanting to do something different after COVID.’
‘Anyway, Andrew was made redundant from his role, which was a blessing, and I was on a contract. So we decided that we’d get a caravan. We did a little bit of research, found our caravan on marketplace and bought it the next day. Then it took us about 3 months to get everything sorted, pack everything up and head out on the road.’
Meg recognises that this is a once-in-a-liftime opportunity with the kids, ‘It's a pretty limited window to have them with us because it won't be long before they want to be out doing their own things or being with their friends. We feel very grateful to be able to make the most of that time.’
‘We’re very grateful to be able to live this life’
Is the road the best classroom of all? Ethan (9) and Oliver (11) Wedding would probably agree. They’ve been travelling around Australia since September 2024 with their mum and dad, and a ‘three metre by three metre box’ has become their whole life.
‘I’d been begging to do this for years - to travel with the kids while they were young,’ says Meg, ‘But we didn't really have the seed money to do it straight away. So to pack up and leave would mean selling everything to go on the road, and it was a bit scary with two kids to think about. We were both pretty burnt out in our in our jobs and ready for a bit of a change, just wanting to do something different after COVID.’
‘Anyway, Andrew was made redundant from his role, which was a blessing, and I was on a contract. So we decided that we’d get a caravan. We did a little bit of research, found our caravan on marketplace and bought it the next day. Then it took us about 3 months to get everything sorted, pack everything up and head out on the road.’
Meg recognises that this is a once-in-a-liftime opportunity with the kids, ‘It's a pretty limited window to have them with us because it won't be long before they want to be out doing their own things or being with their friends. We feel very grateful to be able to make the most of that time.’
Living with a lot less
Not every day is sunshine and lollipops, according to Meg. ‘Sometimes it buckets down outside or it's very windy, so it makes it very hard to keep everyone busy and out of each other's hair. There's nowhere to go, is there? And with an 11 year old who's going on 16, that's always a bit of a challenge.’
‘We’ve come to realise that we can live with a lot less and we don't need much. So for Christmas, for example, we made our own Christmas tree and collected all our decorations at op shops and and the kids painted a few gum nuts to put on the tree. You don't need all the stuff.’
Living with a lot less
Not every day is sunshine and lollipops, according to Meg. ‘Sometimes it buckets down outside or it's very windy, so it makes it very hard to keep everyone busy and out of each other's hair. There's nowhere to go, is there? And with an 11 year old who's going on 16, that's always a bit of a challenge.’
‘We’ve come to realise that we can live with a lot less and we don't need much. So for Christmas, for example, we made our own Christmas tree and collected all our decorations at op shops and and the kids painted a few gum nuts to put on the tree. You don't need all the stuff.’
Travel planner, logistics expert, chef, teacher, tour guide
Part of the challenge of travel in a caravan is that you can only carry so much.’ We have two growing boys who eat a lot of food. So we’ll provision up to two weeks, which is about as much as we can carry on board. I go a little bit further than that if we know we're going off road for a while.’
‘For the Gibb River Rd, we prepped 14 dinners while we were in Broome and I vacuum sealed everything and then had everything in the freezer ready to go. The main reason for that was I wanted to be out there enjoying the Gibb and so did my husband. We didn't want to be stressing about ‘What’s for dinner?’ every night.’
‘I meal plan everything we eat and then just try and make sure that we eat all the fresh stuff in the first week. But I always make sure I've got plenty of backups, plenty of noodles, it's a good filler for young boys. But yeah, it it is a challenge and space is always a huge problem.’
‘We carry an extra fridge in the Ranger, so that helps, and we turn that into a freezer when we're going to be off grid for a while. All the toys stay in the Ranger - bikes, fishing gear, the stand up paddle board. It's really important for us if we go out for the day, we aren't thinking, ‘Oh, we didn't bring this or we forgot that. And it carries a lot!’
‘Look, I am a self confessed planner, but I have had to come to terms with I can't plan for everything. But before we left, each of us picked our bucket list item, one thing that we absolutely had to do. Mine was going to the Ningaloo and staying on the beach, so we booked. Ethan wanted to go to Dreamworld with his cousins, which we did, and Oliver wanted to see a saltwater crocodile in the wild, which he got to do in the Daintree. And my husband was going to the horizontal falls up in the Kimberley.’
Travel planner, logistics expert, chef, teacher, tour guide
Part of the challenge of travel in a caravan is that you can only carry so much.’ We have two growing boys who eat a lot of food. So we’ll provision up to two weeks, which is about as much as we can carry on board. I go a little bit further than that if we know we're going off road for a while.’
‘For the Gibb River Rd, we prepped 14 dinners while we were in Broome and I vacuum sealed everything and then had everything in the freezer ready to go. The main reason for that was I wanted to be out there enjoying the Gibb and so did my husband. We didn't want to be stressing about ‘What’s for dinner?’ every night.’
‘I meal plan everything we eat and then just try and make sure that we eat all the fresh stuff in the first week. But I always make sure I've got plenty of backups, plenty of noodles, it's a good filler for young boys. But yeah, it it is a challenge and space is always a huge problem.’
‘We carry an extra fridge in the Ranger, so that helps, and we turn that into a freezer when we're going to be off grid for a while. All the toys stay in the Ranger - bikes, fishing gear, the stand up paddle board. It's really important for us if we go out for the day, we aren't thinking, ‘Oh, we didn't bring this or we forgot that. And it carries a lot!’
‘Look, I am a self confessed planner, but I have had to come to terms with I can't plan for everything. But before we left, each of us picked our bucket list item, one thing that we absolutely had to do. Mine was going to the Ningaloo and staying on the beach, so we booked. Ethan wanted to go to Dreamworld with his cousins, which we did, and Oliver wanted to see a saltwater crocodile in the wild, which he got to do in the Daintree. And my husband was going to the horizontal falls up in the Kimberley.’
Learning from the real world
Of course, just because they’re travelling doesn’t mean the world stops for the kids. ‘The boys are enrolled in homeschooling, but we try and base their education around activity-based learning. We cover up a lot of their everyday math as part of the budgeting and forecasting. They’re very good at calculating fuel prices and distances.
‘And then on top of that, we do a lot of journal writing, reading and audio books. We cover a lot of geography. We cover a lot of k’s when we're travelling around so they have a lot of interest in where we are and who the traditional owners are. We go to museums and galleries and a lot of the tourist attractions we see. So, in Stanley, we watched the Penguin parade and then learnt about Penguins and how they how they live and how they mate and how they fish and hunt and all of that kind of thing.’
‘My eldest son can pretty much name any fish that he catches and pulls out of the sea. He’ll tell you exactly what it is and yeah, whether it's of size or not. And yeah, they’re little sponges and they remember things that even my husband and I don't remember.’
Learning from the real world
Of course, just because they’re travelling doesn’t mean the world stops for the kids. ‘The boys are enrolled in homeschooling, but we try and base their education around activity-based learning. We cover up a lot of their everyday math as part of the budgeting and forecasting. They’re very good at calculating fuel prices and distances.
‘And then on top of that, we do a lot of journal writing, reading and audio books. We cover a lot of geography. We cover a lot of k’s when we're travelling around so they have a lot of interest in where we are and who the traditional owners are. We go to museums and galleries and a lot of the tourist attractions we see. So, in Stanley, we watched the Penguin parade and then learnt about Penguins and how they how they live and how they mate and how they fish and hunt and all of that kind of thing.’
‘My eldest son can pretty much name any fish that he catches and pulls out of the sea. He’ll tell you exactly what it is and yeah, whether it's of size or not. And yeah, they’re little sponges and they remember things that even my husband and I don't remember.’
Thunderstorms, bushfires and 45 degree heat
There have been a lot of memorable days in the Wedding’s travels, and ‘the Ranger hasn’t been stopped by anywhere that we wanted to go. It’s really capable, really reliable and tows the van reall well.’
But maybe the most challenging was the day they visited Steep Point. ‘It was 45° outside and we'd left the van at a roadhouse for the day where we had power, trying to keep everything cool for the kids. Unfortunately, the roadhouse had a power outage. When we got back, the van was about 55° and it was hot and dusty and we decided that we'd get on the road, not realising that it would take us four hours to get to Carnarvon from there.’
‘So we kept driving and a thunderstorm hit us on the right hand side and we watched forked lightning spark a bush fire on one of the stations. So we have the sunset in the background, the moon rising on the other side, and there's an incredible bush fire on the other other side of us. It was one of those iconic Australian moments that I couldn't even photograph to get everything in.’
‘And then we we got to Carnarvon very late at night and I hadn't had the foresight to think nothing would be open. I posted on one of the groups and I had all these people offer for us to stay with them that night, which showed me that there's just such a sense of community. But we managed to get into a caravan park and settled in for the night after a 14 hour day. It was a jam-packed day. It's not something we do all the time, but it was one of those things that I think we'll all remember.’
Thunderstorms, bushfires and 45 degree heat
There have been a lot of memorable days in the Wedding’s travels, and ‘the Ranger hasn’t been stopped by anywhere that we wanted to go. It’s really capable, really reliable and tows the van reall well.’
But maybe the most challenging was the day they visited Steep Point. ‘It was 45° outside and we'd left the van at a roadhouse for the day where we had power, trying to keep everything cool for the kids. Unfortunately, the roadhouse had a power outage. When we got back, the van was about 55° and it was hot and dusty and we decided that we'd get on the road, not realising that it would take us four hours to get to Carnarvon from there.’
‘So we kept driving and a thunderstorm hit us on the right hand side and we watched forked lightning spark a bush fire on one of the stations. So we have the sunset in the background, the moon rising on the other side, and there's an incredible bush fire on the other other side of us. It was one of those iconic Australian moments that I couldn't even photograph to get everything in.’
‘And then we we got to Carnarvon very late at night and I hadn't had the foresight to think nothing would be open. I posted on one of the groups and I had all these people offer for us to stay with them that night, which showed me that there's just such a sense of community. But we managed to get into a caravan park and settled in for the night after a 14 hour day. It was a jam-packed day. It's not something we do all the time, but it was one of those things that I think we'll all remember.’
No social media, lots of sociabilty
Meg admits it took a little while for their days to take on a structure. ‘When we first left, we all felt like we were on holidays. I think we let that go a little bit too long. Right now, they know that this is their life and we can't always look like we're on holidays. They still have chores and they have to do some formal school work.’
‘I think one of the benefits of being on the road is that you can insulate your kids to a degree from the world of social media because they're not going to school and it’s not around at all. They do still get pick up slang like 6-7, which I'll never understand. But they’re more than happy to go and talk to most people. They make friends with other kids as soon as they see them - they'll spot a triple or a double bunker from a mile off and go running up to that caravan. They've got along with everyone, which is really nice.’
And is their journey nearly over? ‘We'd always planned that it would be 12 months and that we would head back home. It was only ever meant to be September to September. But, then the tenants in our house wanted to renew their lease. And so we thought that was the universe's way of telling us to keep going. We didn't take much convincing!’
‘We feel like our first lap has all been coastal, mostly hugging the coast as we went around. So our next adventures, we'll explore a little bit more inland as well. A lot of people have done their 12 months now and they're kind of on the home run, but we're the crazy ones that are continuing.’
If you've got a story where your Ranger plays a part, please let us know. Every submission will be vetted and could feature on our socials or in future Ford Ranger advertisements. Simply click the button below.
No social media, lots of sociabilty
Meg admits it took a little while for their days to take on a structure. ‘When we first left, we all felt like we were on holidays. I think we let that go a little bit too long. Right now, they know that this is their life and we can't always look like we're on holidays. They still have chores and they have to do some formal school work.’
‘I think one of the benefits of being on the road is that you can insulate your kids to a degree from the world of social media because they're not going to school and it’s not around at all. They do still get pick up slang like 6-7, which I'll never understand. But they’re more than happy to go and talk to most people. They make friends with other kids as soon as they see them - they'll spot a triple or a double bunker from a mile off and go running up to that caravan. They've got along with everyone, which is really nice.’
And is their journey nearly over? ‘We'd always planned that it would be 12 months and that we would head back home. It was only ever meant to be September to September. But, then the tenants in our house wanted to renew their lease. And so we thought that was the universe's way of telling us to keep going. We didn't take much convincing!’
‘We feel like our first lap has all been coastal, mostly hugging the coast as we went around. So our next adventures, we'll explore a little bit more inland as well. A lot of people have done their 12 months now and they're kind of on the home run, but we're the crazy ones that are continuing.’
If you've got a story where your Ranger plays a part, please let us know. Every submission will be vetted and could feature on our socials or in future Ford Ranger advertisements. Simply click the button below.