These UK folk musicians travelled to Australia using trains, buses, ferries

Shannon Coggins and Theo Simon, of the award-winning folk band Seize The Day, spent months "on the go" via trains, buses and ferries to get to their sister's wedding and said it had been the most "incredible experience".

The couple, along with their adult daughter Rosa, left their home in Somerset in late 2023 and spent four months hopping between continents and islands on a 16,000-kilometre adventure.

"The main bulk of the journey was by train, and sometimes we had to get a bus - we had to get a bus into China," Theo said.

By land, they ventured through Kazakhstan, China, Laos, Thailand, and Malaysia before using ferries to navigate Indonesia and arrive in East Timor.

"We've had the experience of a lifetime and we're about to do it all again heading home," Shannon said.

The couple consciously decided to ditch air travel in 2002 after discovering the exorbitant amount of their carbon footprint after a concert tour to India.

"It was hard because I love flying, I really enjoyed flying and I loved holidays, but you can find other ways," Shannon said.

"It hasn't stopped us going around the world it's just slowed us down a bit, which has actually been quite lovely."

In Dili, the family had hoped to get a lift on a boat to Darwin but the cyclone season was upon the area making boat travel for them unsafe, forcing them to take a short flight for that leg of the trip.

It was a difficult decision after 20 years of no air travel, but Shannon immediately worked out the journey's carbon footprint to NT and was surprised to learn it was "five times less" than what they would have used if they had been in England during that time.

If they were to retrace their steps without stopping and enjoying the scenery, Shannon estimated the exhausting journey could take between seven to eight weeks, "but it wouldn't be fun in any shape or form".

From the top end, they used Greyhound buses to travel through the Northern Territory, Queensland and eventually made it to NSW to meet their relatives.

The UK family's highlights of spending several months performing and enjoying Australian life have been "sweeping views" in the Blue Mountains in NSW, the Tasmanian Devil rescue centre on the way to Barrington Tops (near South Coast NSW) plus spotting wombats and sugar gliders on their travels and seeing "majestic" Blackbutt trees.

The other major highlight was the kindness of others they experienced in every country they visited.

"We would be stuck in a queue or trying to navigate our way through a station or just not understanding what someone was saying, and someone would come and translate or help us or offer us something," Shannon said.

"It was unbelievable how kind strangers can be, and the same has been for Australians - although we can understand the language here."

Theo said it was wonderful to see, especially as their morals - and their music - is centred around caring for the environment.

"To have opportunities to sing to people [on our journey] then to come here and find in Australia people who are campaigning on the same things [like climate change] that we've been campaigning on in Britain [is fantastic]," Theo said.

"It's a different landscape and different environment but it's the same cause everywhere."

They're hoping to hitch a ride with a cargo ship to Indonesia and make their way back to southwest England to perform at the Glastonbury Festival.

Check out their online blog at: www.Buckleupdorothy.co.uk.

1) arrive really early for every train/bus/ferry - it takes the stress out of not knowing where you are and where you are going

2) allow some flexibility into your over all plan for unforeseen things (like Covid or an unexpectedly beautiful place you want to stay in)

3) the app maps.me is incredibly useful for knowing exactly where you are even offline.