BAMLife Issue 1 | Page 11

Read more at bambooclothing.co.uk YES to new opportunities Dave Corthwaite’s ‘Say Yes More’ campaign, encouraging people to say yes to new opportunities inspired us to accept a challenge set by the Caravan Club and caravan manufacturer, Elddis in 2014. They loaned us a caravan and challenged us to do 100 mini challenges in 20 weeks, staying at 20 different Caravan Club sites. If we managed it, we would get to keep the caravan. We rose to the challenge, gave it our best shot and completed it! Not being caravanners (we used to camp and bivvy bag a lot) we thought we’d sell the caravan after we’d won it. However, winning the caravan gave us another idea for an adventure which led to a radical decision. There were just three barriers that we needed to overcome: The wider context This is particularly important when it is considered in a wider context: Today’s children are going to be the first in history to have a lower life expectancy than their parents. An RSPB report stated that only 20% of children aged between eight and 14 are considered to be connected with nature. The amount of time children now spend playing outdoors is reducing with each generation. Job. It is annoying that we spend the best part of the day working. SOLUTION: quit work. Location. It is very limiting being in the same location. SOLUTION: sell house and caravan around the UK. Kids schooling. SOLUTION: take them out of school and school them en route. It has been a tough but very rewarding challenge seeing us embark on nearly 40 different journeys ranging from the 100 miles Ayrshire coastal path and the Great Glen Canoe Trail to short, local journeys of between 2-15 miles as we explored the many places we visited on our year of EdVenture around the UK. 11