On The Road...With Kids: One Family's Inspiring Gap Year

John Ahern had a good job, a big house, a loving wife and two great kids. But he felt he was somehow failing as a father. Craving a great adventure to bring his family closer together, he sabotages his high-flying career, rents out the house and buys a battered old campervan online. The plan is to spend a year on the road...with kids.

As they roll through 30 countries, from the North Pole to Africa's deserts, John and his family find themselves mugged by monkeys, charmed by snake hamdlers and inspired by their fellow wanderers to create a life less ordinary. It's a life-changing trip. Take it!

John was born in Brisbane, Queensland and grew up in Redcliffe, roaming the beaches and playing backyard cricket with his mates. His career spanned from mowing lawns and packing groceries to being one of six in the global leadership team for travel giant Flight Centre.In between serious bouts of work, John has 'escaped' on multiple career sabbaticals, travelling through over 90 countries. Along the way, he has been shot at, poisoned, robbed at gunpoint, jailed, been a stow-away on a Columbian cargo plane and a passenger in, not one, but two train derailments. You'd think he'd learn.John's debut travel memoir, On the Road...With Kids, won the Queensland Literary Award's People's Choice book of the Year 2015. It tells of the year he blew his career apart, bought an old campervan online in the Netherlands, and took off with his wife and two young kids across 30 countries on a quest to create a life less ordinary. His second travel memoir, The Last Bus to Lamu, describes his harrowing wild ride through Africa in the pre-Wi-Fi era of 1995. John has been featured in an array of media including the ABC Conversation Hour, BBC Radio 4 Saturday Live, National Geographic UK, Channel 9 Mornings and the Australian Financial review's Great Leap series. His TEDx presentation was titled 'The Rejuvenating Power of Time out.'John currently lives with his family in the comparative safety of the Currumbin Valley on Australia's Gold Coast and considers it their base camp for new adventures.www.johnahern.co