By the time they turn one next week, intrepid twins Fionn and Fern will have totted up 31,000 air miles, taken nine long-haul flights and lived in five different countries.
Yet the pair are a long way behind big sister Esme, eight, who’s been to 53 countries on six continents, while brother Quinn, five, has already racked up 40 countries on six.
The kids’ mum Karen Edwards, 38, and dad Shaun Bayes, 37, quit the rat race to travel and teach their children about the world first-hand.
Former NHS nurse Karen says: “I can’t deny it’s a pretty charmed existence for the kids. We couldn’t have wished for a better lifestyle for them.”
The pair caught the travel bug during Karen’s maternity leave in 2015/16, when they took baby Esme backpacking in South East Asia for a year.
They returned to Crystal Palace, South East London – but when Quinn came along, they did the same thing.
After their second return to the UK, Covid halted the idea of travelling any further.
But working for the NHS during the pandemic gave Karen the final push to follow her and Shaun’s dream of bringing up their children around the world.
They set off for Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates in June 2021, where Karen secured a director-level nursing role in a private hospital.
A few weeks into their adventure, she discovered she was pregnant with twins.
Non-identical girls Fionn and Fern were born last January in Danat Al Emerat hospital, in the UAE capital.
Once again, Karen used her three months’ paid maternity leave to travel, visiting Switzerland and Oman and spending a month back in the UK introducing the new arrivals to friends and family.
Then the family of six jetted to Sri Lanka, where they have lived for the past month.
Karen says: “It’s been wonderful introducing the children to new experiences.
“They are very accepting of everyone we meet. They made a lot of Muslim friends. Now they’re learning about living in a Buddhist country.
“There are wild animals everywhere. They won’t just learn about them in books, they will see that with their own eyes.”
The lucky kids have paddled in the Indian Ocean, Persian Gulf... and English Channel.
Their mum says: “From learning Arabic to camping on the beach, to sailing and taking adventurous zip lines across canyons, their memories are so vivid. I really feel that these experiences are shaping their personalities.”
The family lived in relative opulence in the UAE, renting a three-bed apartment for £33,000 a year and enrolling the children in private school.
Karen says: “Everything in Abu Dhabi felt super luxe.
“It was often cheaper to eat out than buy food in because everything is imported, so we dined out a lot.
“We’d often find ourselves eating a family brunch at the weekend in a five-star hotel.”
South Asia is so cheap, Karen can take a break from working.
She says: “Sri Lanka is so different. Rent for a very large four-bed house with an infinity pool and a jungle backyard is £1,000 a month.
“You can get a massive shop for £70 that lasts ages because it’s all grown locally.
“Eating out costs no more than £20 to £30 for all six of us.”
Life today is a huge contrast to Karen’s 18 years in the NHS, where she managed A&E wards.
Becoming burned out after returning to her hospital job during the pandemic, she knew she wanted to live her travelling dream.
The pair use the rent from their London home, plus three properties builder Shaun renovated, to fund their trips, as well as cash they earn through their travel blog, travelmadmum.com.
The rest of their income comes from Karen’s nursing shifts, while Shaun looks after the kids.
As any parent knows, there have been tough moments.
The mum says: “There have been plenty of times when Shaun and I have struggled – mostly wishing for an extra pair of hands. When my eldest two were babies I knew they’d be fine on a flight because I would breastfeed them and cuddle them.
“That’s more difficult with two babies and two other children.
“But it’s worth it to be able to live this amazing lifestyle.” Although it’s not all idyllic in paradise. Twice Karen has had to run for her and her kids’ lives away from dangerous wild animals – once from bears in the Canadian Rockies, and also from monkeys in Bali.
She recalls: “They were huge things, and they’re well known for attacking humans.
“They circled us. My three-year-old was screaming in terror. I was absolutely petrified.
“Men on motorbikes made me climb on the bikes with my two children and they drove us away, up the road to my husband.
“It was definitely the scariest moment of my life.”
But these times of terror were still not enough to persuade Karen to return to the UK. She says: “When I first had the twins, I did get a bit of a nesting instinct and wanted to come back home.
“But it didn’t last long, and now Fionn and Fern have no real connection to the UK, so there’s nothing that makes me particularly want to go back.
“We’ll keep travelling as the children grow up.
“We’ve been to quite a lot of hot places, so I think somewhere cold with lots of snow might be good to go to next.
“The twins are only one but they’ve kayaked through mangroves, explored tropical beaches and desert dunes.”
“Who knows how many places they will have lived in by the time they turn two?”
