I’ve decided to go on Safari with my daughter! Yay!  and it sounds so easy when I say it like that.  In many ways it was, because the circumstances seem to match, like this was the perfect window in life to do this with my daughter.

The first major travel experience I gave my daughter was earlier this year.   It was a cruise, which was an ideal environment for her to safely explore her independence.  It was a huge success.   She not only discovered her independence, but, with a little encouragement, opened herself up to new experiences with out any resistance at all.  It was amazing to watch.  Even a boring coach tour for several hours was ok.  I discovered a whole new aspect of possibilities and experiences that we could now do together.

The wonder lust first seriously bit me about a month to six weeks ago when seening an art exhibit that had documented the journey two artists took to Uzbekistan.  As I watched the images on the 6 enormous screens I was seeing every thing I loved about travelling.   The mundane, yet it is in the mundane that we can experience the most magic popping out to surprise us.

At that point, I decided that yes, I would definitely take my daughter on a road trip next summer.  A journey to some where, any where.  This felt good and whilst I didn’t labour on the idea, I did mention it on occasion that I might be doing this.

Around the same time, my daughter’s educational statement review happened.   Currently she is in a resourced unit in a mainstream school where she gets the opportunity to spend most of her time in the mainstream, but with lots of extra support.  It is clear, however, that when she gets to high school that, much of that support will be gone.  So much of the last couple of years has been focused on easing her into the mainstream environment.  This review was the discussion of moving her to a more local junior school with reduced support next September, to prep her for high school the following year.

All was good and really I wasn’t thinking about anything much, working on my fine art course, just trying to discover what it was that I wanted to express in my art so I could then discover how I wanted to express it.   I went back to the art exhibit and watched the films and meditated.  It was like being hit by a thunderbolt.  What I wanted was to travel.   I love travel, and I hate it too, but I have the need to see the world.  In my relationship with my daughter, Sofia, all was well, though I was irked that she would not walk the dog with me even at weekends.  It would require me to get stroppy with her just to go out side if it wasn’t to the car to go somewhere she wanted – in this respect a journey where she is no longer looking at a screen but looking at the birds is just what she needs on so many levels as to make it perfect.   And as I considered the most important factor in this is her education and future, I realise, that actually, this year 2015/16, before high school, was the perfect moment and home schooling would ensure she didn’t fall behind.  This was possibly the one moment she will be able to do this before she is an adult and her sense of life is fully formed.

Reasons not to do this?  I can’t thing of any.   I am sure that other perspectives can think of a million, but for me, there are none that can out weigh the possibilities.

Next – the where and how