The Clark Family's Amazing Adventures

A week in the Falklands Part 1

14 Sep 2013 5 Comments

by Zoe in Family Gap Year, Kids Stuff, Photos, Top Experiences Tags: Falkland Islands, Flat Stanley, Port Stanley

or….Flat Stanley does Stanley:)

On our family gap year travels, one of the most exciting places we’ve been to is the Falklands.

Images of the Falklands – a running-backwards-race at the racetrack fun day which we joined in but didn’t win, king penguins at, Volunteer Point, Port Stanley houses decorated with Union Jacks and Falklands flags, landmine warnings at Surf Bay and fishing at the lake beneath Mount Tumbledown

It’s partly because it’s just so British! More British than being at home. Of course everyone speaks English, which was a real treat after speaking Spanish or Portuguese for our whole trip so far, it was exciting too because we got to stay in a lovely traditional B&B called Kay’s and she was amazing! It was really interesting to find out what a small island in the middle of the south Atlantic was like where there were only a few people but where they’d had a war in 1982 when Argentina invaded and tried to take the islands over. And it was also exciting because its close to Antarctica and we got to see king penguins and rockhopper penguins and that was really unbelievable!

The End of The World for Kids

05 Sep 2013 1 Comment

by Ben in Family Gap Year, Kids Stuff Tags: Argentina, Maritime Museum, Museo del Fin del Mundo, Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia, Yanama Museo

Visiting the end of the world was great fun and luckily not the end of the world for us!

We were in Ushuaia, in the far south of Argentina, Tierra del Fuego, not so far from Antarctica and where there is a lovely national park to explore and three excellent museums to visit. Museums aren’t always fun, but I really liked the ones we went to in Ushuaia.

Museo del Fin del Mundo

My five year old first family gap year!

03 Sep 2013 3 Comments

by Lara in Family Gap Year, Kids Stuff Tags: gap year for kids, gap year friends, Lara, Pacific Islands, South America, Travel

[Lara was four and a half when we started travelling – she’s spent a year on the road. When we get back to the UK next summer, she’ll be six and a half and will have been travelling for almost a third of her life. Will she remember home? How will she adjust back to a settled life? She’s an adaptable and resilient young lady who takes pretty much everything in her stride with the exception of trying too many new foods without a lot of bribery and corruption!

Lara’s travels

We decided it was high time for an interview with Lara so we could see what she thinks and share her views on our family gap year(s) ………]

We’re still alive after crossing the Pacific

30 Aug 2013 10 Comments

by Mo in Family Gap Year, Looking Back Tags: Cook Islands, Easter Island, Fiji, French Polynesia, New Zealand, Pacific Island, pacific island hopping, Pacific Ocean, Tonga, Vanuatu

Sorry we’ve been rather quiet for a few weeks and thanks for the check ups! We’re still alive, arrived safely in Sydney this week! We’ve spent 4 months crossing the Pacific. We’ve seen the tsunami warnings, dodged the earthquakes, survived the sharks and sea snakes, survived the 24 hour ferry crossings, even got by without much wi-fi(!) and now we’ve made it safely back from the summit of erupting Mt Yasur volcano. It’s been erupting almost continuously for over 800 years and we stood on its edge and watched it blow!

There she blows!

Family Gap Year One – Dad’s Reflection

17 Jul 2013 6 Comments

by Martin Clark in Family Gap Year, Looking Back, Top Experiences Tags: Stranger danger

1 year, 365 days, 8760 hours, 525,600 minutes or if you are Lara a fifth of your life travelling and quite a big chunk for the rest of us. I still can’t believe we did it, made it through a whole year and are still talking to each other after being 24/7 for so long.

A year of adventures, half way round the world!

11 Jul 2013 14 Comments

by Mo in Adventure, Family Gap Year, Looking Back Tags: agroventures, auckland, Cook Island, Kia Ora, New Zealand, Pacific Ocean, Shweeb, Southern Hemisphere, stardome, waitangi

Kia Ora! Hello, Greetings!

A year ago today we flew out of London, Heathrow on our way to Rio to begin our family gap year and round the world adventure! We’ve travelled for 365 days! We’re half way there, enjoying time in New Zealand.

Ready to fly – at Heathrow a year ago and in New Zealand today!

Naked at the end of the world!

27 Jun 2013 4 Comments

by Zoe in Adventure, Family Gap Year, Kids Stuff, Videos Tags: Argentina, Selknam people, The end of the world, Tierra del Fuego, Tierra del Fuego National Park, Yamana people

In Ushauia – we found out all about the Yamana people and the Selknam people. They lived at the bottom of the world in Tierra del Fuego in South America. The Selknam lived inland and hunted guanaco. The Yamana lived along the coast.

The Yanama with their canoes - where they kept a fire burning all the time and didn't wear clothes!

The Yamana with their canoe – where they kept a fire burning all the time and didn’t wear clothes! At the Maritime Museum, Ushuaia. This canoe was made trying to copy the traditional methods before they are forgotten and lost!

The Yamana lived further south than any other people in the world and although it was cold they didn’t wear clothes but always had a fire burning even in their canoes and put animal grease on their skin to help stay warm. More

Exploring the end of the world

24 Jun 2013 4 Comments

by Mo in Family Gap Year Tags: Argentina, Beagle Channel, Punta Arenas, Tiera del Fuego, Tiera del Fuego National Park, Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia

19-23 March 2013.

Ushuaia. The most southerly town in Argentina. The pretty port looks south over the Beagle channel and the West, North and East are surrounded by imposing snowy peaks and the Martial Glacier and ski runs can be seen looking back from the town.

Ushuaia and Tiera del Fuego, the end of the world, just a few hundred km from Antarctica and showing Malvinas as (Arg) owned

Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego, the end of the world, just a few hundred km from Antarctica and showing Malvinas as (Arg) owned with Pt Argentino as the capital instead of Stanley!

Tierra del Fuego is the most southerly inhabited land and closest place to Antarctica, with exception of South Orkney with its Argentine naval base, another territory claimed by both Argentina and the UK! Cruises to Antarctica leave from Ushuaia. The museums, shops, trips and restaurants are called Fin del Mundo This or End of the World That. Strictly speaking, the town of Puerto Williams is the most southerly town, across the Beagle channel in Chile but it’s expensive to get there! In Ushuaia, they don’t split hairs and are happy to claim end of the world fame so we decide that’s good enough for us too! More

Journey to the end of the world

21 Jun 2013 1 Comment

by Mo in Family Gap Year, Travelling Tags: Magellan Straits, Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, Ushuaia

Perito Moreno Glacier was our final stop on the road south to the end of the world! After spending the night in Rio Gallegos, we get up early for yet another long 11 hour bus, this time by day, down to Ushuaia.

Early start to leave Rio Gallegos....glued to the TV in reception at the hotel and waiting at the bus station

Early departure from Rio Gallegos….glued to the TV in reception at the hotel and waiting at the bus station

Luckily the kids are entertained by movies. Gotta wonder who selects the movies for these journeys? Today it is Abraham Lincoln and the Zombies! More

Perito Moreno Glacier, Argentina

19 Jun 2013 3 Comments

by Mo in Family Gap Year, Top Experiences, Videos Tags: Argentina, El Calafate, Patagonia, Perito Moreno Glacier

Nature served up another remarkable highlight in South America when she created the Perito Moreno Glacier in the south of Argentina, up there with Iguazu Falls and the Bolivian Salt Flats as one of the most spectacular places and is a must visit, worth every hour of the long journey to get there!