A thrill seeking Irish mum decided to do something a little different with her maternity leave – and went backpacking across Asia with her new baby girl.
‘Travel Mad Mum’ Karen Edwards took her baby Esmé and husband Shaun on an incredible journey across south-east Asia.
Karen writes an online blog called travelmadmum in which she offers countless useful tips and tricks to make travelling with a little one that bit easier.
She explains that she was raised in Ireland, but has spent most of her adult life living in the UK and working as a nurse.
As she points out: “Little miss was born in London, has a mum from Ireland and a dad from New Zealand (literally the furthest possible place). The gal is destined to travel!”
Karen and Shaun are both experienced backpackers and decided that with careful planning and supplies, there is no need for them to end their adventurous trips.
They sold their car and put their London home up for rent, and decided to spend her maternity leave travelling.
Karen said: “Both Shaun and I were keen backpackers before I fell pregnant and everyone thought we were completely nuts when we said that we were going to take Esmé when she arrived.”
However, the new parents spent a few weeks in Shaun’s native New Zealand taking extra care to plan their journey and make sure they had all the necessary supplies that would need to look after Esmé.
The happy family visited Singapore, Indonesia, Australia, Malaysia, Vietnam, Taiwan and Hong Kong in the incredible trip-of-a-lifetime.
The ‘Travel Mad Mum’ explained: “She was really well behaved and because she was small it was easy enough to keep her in the harness when we were on the move. We have no regrets, she got to experience new sights, scenes and smells as she grew and that is incredible.”
Much of the trip was documented on Karen’s blog. She also has all sorts of great advice about travelling with babies, from which seat to sit on the plane to which pop-up cot offers the best value and functionality, it seems she has thought of everything.
To read more from Karen’s blog visit travelmadmum.com