Lovelly Travels

Travelling with kids is one thing, but deciding to turn your life into an everlasting travel adventure is next level. For Chantal Patton and her wander loving family, this is the reality. Growing Up Without Borders is the website and Youtiube channels that follows the adventures of the Patton family. I had the pleasure of speaking with Chantal and swapping travel tales from our digital nomad lifestyles. From house swapping to home schooling, Chantal and her family have navigated it all. 100 countries down and they have no intention of slowing down anytime soon (well, bar the minor blip of the pandemic.) So many pearls of wisdom and wonderful travel stories in this episode, it's a must for any travel loving family!

It's time to for you to grab your funny hats and papal slippers, maybe a little tiny wafer and a goblet of red wine - and is that white smoke I see or a witch being burned? We're going to put some knights Templar on trial and punish people for thinking that the earth is round. So start crawling through your secret tunnels and REPENT YE SINNERS! We are going to the world's smallest country - The Vatican City! Emma visited the Vatican City in 2018 and got to tick off one of the two special territiories on the UN reocgnised list! This is one of the few countries Emma has visited which is acceptable to spend just 1 day in, because seriously, it's that small! Darius has not yet been but thoroughly enjoyed putting together the facts and the intro for this very special country on our list. All puns welcomed!

We’re off to the beautiful island of Vanuatu 🇻🇺 in the South Pacific. Emma and Darius have both visited and enjoy taking a walk down memory lane. Emma spent just a few days there - literally! One day in 2005, on Mystery Island as part of her Schoolies cruise. Something she only realised on her second trip to Vanuatu, again on a cruise, in 2019. She visited Port Vila and went out on a scuba diving day. Darius had a lot more to share after getting to experience more of the culture. We talk about his diving, cava, volcanoes and culinary experiences. Make sure to share your Vanuatu tips in the Lovelly Travels Community

It's hard to believe but we are STILL in this and it's going to be a while yet. At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Emma started having conversations with people from around the world about what was really happening in their home countries - and we are still having these conversations. It is now October 2021, and Melbourne is still in some form of lockdown. No way could we have ever imagined or predicted it would look like this still 18 months on. Danielle Phyland, a travel blogger and one of our regular podcast guests certainly could not imagine how it would have looked. And we know! Because we spoke back in April. Have a listen to what we thought would happen back in 2020 and what is the reality now in October 2021. I hope we're not checking in again in 2022, but I'm also quite enjoying getting this snapshot of this super challenging/interesting/ ever changing time in our lives and for the world.

Our final stop on the state tour of Australia, the last but definitely not least - Tasmania. Fun fact: you have to go OVERSEAS to visit this part of Australia, it's located on the bottom of Australia and this island state is a true gem!! A pearl in the ocean if you will. Actually, something you can do here is sample some of the amazing seafood - oysters, salmon, prawns and so much more. Tassie is famous for its fresh produce and incredible food and wine season. Salamanca Markets in Hobart is a must to sample a whole range of delicacies. We're joined on this episode by Emma's lovely friend and Tasmanian born and bred, Selina Bush. She shares with us so much of her gorgeous state. Emma had only been to Hobart and Launceston so now has a HUGE list of places to visit next time. From Cradle Mountain to Bruny Island, wineries to epic trails, this state is breathtaking and although it may seem small - deserves a solid amount of time to explore! Thank you for joining us on this fun 8 part series and please let us know if you enjoyed it! We'd love to do some more in the future. Thank you to all our Aussie guests for sharing their incredible states with us. I still call Australia home and after listening to this series, I'm sure you can see (well hear) why!

We’re off to the Heart of Australia, the red centre and the top end of Oz - The Northern Territory. We welcome Nannette Holliday - International Woman of Mystery for this episode! As a published author and freelance travel and lifestyle writer, Nannette has an incredible insight into her adopted home state of Northern Territory. Emma shares her experience of visiting the absolute essential stops of Uluru, The Olgas, Kings Canyon and Alice Springs in the Red Centre, and the capital of the state, Darwin. While Nannette takes us to some of the untapped gold in this captivating part of Australia. If you really want to learn about Indigenous Australia and the traditional land owners who carry the stories, the NT is a must. There’s so much story in the land itself and it mustn’t be missed. You never never know, if you never never go! So come travel vicariously with us and then go plan your next NT trip! I’m excited to have mine booked to the Larapinta in May 2021.

We're heading South now on our vicarious tour of Australia to the very aptly named, South Australia! It is in fact the state in the middle of Australia at the Southern end. World famous for its spectacular wines, this state has so much more to offer than just its delicious range of grape juice. Joined by former local Naomi Robinson, Emma revisits some of her 6 (or more) trips to this lovely region. From Adelaide, the city of churches which also has a rocking festival scene, to the coast for some shark diving and farmland to see some friends, we explore as much as we can in this episode. Highlights include the wine, the wine and the wine! Jokes, we also talk about the incredible food scene, some epics walks such as the Heysen Trail and of course, the much loved footy! Travel vicariously with us as we continue our Australia series! Join in the conversation on Facebook in the Lovelly Travels Community too! Links in the show notes.

How to cover our home state in just one episode!! Well, we can't! And we will be back to deep dives into the regions. But continuing for now on our virtual tour of Australia, this week we are in Darius and Emma's childhood home state of NSW. Emma was born in the Eastern suburbs of Sydney, and Darius moved to the Sutherland Shire as a young child from Germany. They met in High School in the Sutherland Shire, at Caringbah High, and have many great memories of Sydney. As we got older, and could explore more on our own, we've had the pleasure of exploring a lot of the famous East Coast of Australia. Many tourists come from around the world and roadtrip North from Sydney. And for good reason! It's stunning! From the wine country of Orange in the West, to the stunning surf spots near Nowra in the South, Cosmopolitan life in Sydney's east and epicly stunning hinterland in the Northern rivers region - we try to cover as much of this glorious state as possible. Make sure to jump in the Lovelly Travels Community and join in the conversation - sharing your favourite travel spots in NSW.

I come from a land Down Under!! And we're going to deep dive in and explore it. Considering the fact that I won't be leaving my island home for some time, and these past 2 years have given me more time to explore this great land, I thought we could all go on the journey to visit all the states and territories together. This is our first series and we are so excited to kick off with Australia!! There are 8 states and territories so over the next two months, we'll visit them all. We're still looking for guests and stories, so make sure to email us if you'd like to share something or even join us on the podcast - info@lovellytravels.com. As always there'll be lots of chat in the group around this topic so please head on over and join us on Facebook in the Lovelly Travels Community. I'm so excited to travel vicariously around my home country with all of you!

We’re continuing our COVID conversations series by revisiting interviews with people from around the world in 2020 and hearing what’s happening now in 2021. This episode we go back to a conversation in April 2020 between Emma and Darius. Before the podcast started! They discuss what’s happening in Germany and Australia and how COVID-19 was impacting their lives. In this time capsule style episode, we then Tak about what’s happening in 2021. We didn’t know then that we’d be in a similar position and nor do we know what the world will look like next year. But it’s pretty interesting documenting this very bizarre time in our lives - and we look forward to reflecting on this in future! More countries, more updates to come in this series too! Share with us what your world is like - then and now! See how to connect with us in the show notes.

The episode you never asked for but you never knew you needed! This long awaited (ok, mostly by us) episode will take us to some of the tallest towers in the world, some epic monuments and talk about height stats in general. Despite having a fear of heights, our co-host Darius loves going up tall buildings. After a friendship of 20 years, Emma only learned this while on the viewing platform of the Palace of Culture and Science in Warsaw, Poland 🇵🇱! It was in fact Darius’ idea to go up - but he then stood nervously looking at the view, much to Emma’s surprise and delight. Since then, the quest for tall buildings and the chance to plug them in every possible episode has been on! From Dubai to China, France to even Cambodia - come visit the highest of the highs! Where have you been? Share with us in the Lovelly Travels community.

This was a pretty fun one to record and ticked a big bucket list for our show. We talked about visiting the sheep farm of Trav and Millie Carter in Episode 24 - A real life farmer's wife, and in May 2021 - Emma did just that. Listen to excerpts from Emma's visit to the massive 5000 acre sheep farm and Trav the farmer who works the land. There's so much more to farming than many of us think, and these people really need to be a bit of a jack of all trades. There's also a lot of technology now involved - which we got to experience on a real life tractor ride! Shout out to all our fans in Kaniva, Victoria and thank you for listening! It was such a joy to get to experience some of that country hospitality at a local fundraiser and to meet some of the wonderful people Millie had spoken about. It was also so wonderful for Emma to get experience a whole new side of her own country! Make sure to get out and do the same!

This is another deeply personal one for Emma and this week she's flying solo as she talks about a journey of a different kind. Emma shares her birth story and her family's own struggle with mental health before and after the birth of their first child. Of course it is Finn (Emma's son's) birth story that we will hear. But actually when a woman has her first baby, it's also the birth of a mother. It's this journey through matresence and navigating motherhood that Emma shares so openly and intimately about in this episode. Emma had always prepared herself for mental health challenges after the birth of her son, but she never expected it to impact her darling husband. With his permission, Emma tells the story of those challenging early weeks and months as a new family. If you're struggling at all during the pregnancy or early parenting journey, please seek support and help - there are some wonderful links in the show notes to guide you. With love, kindness and gratitude.