POSTED: 23 JUNE 2010

A father and son reap the rewards of a risky investment

Jon & Jack Faine, From Here to There: A Father and Son Roadtrip from Melbourne to London

ABC Books | 352pp paperback | $39.99 | Published August 2010

In June 2008, ABC Radio host Jon Faine and his son Jack left their jobs, studies, family and friends, took six months and fulfilled a long-held dream to drive overland from Melbourne to London.

From Here to There is their intelligent and funny account of a father and son odyssey: 39,321 kilometres in their 4x4 across 20 countries, including some of the least-visited places on Earth.

From their front gate in inner-city Melbourne to Piccadilly Circus, they drove as much of the overland route as can be driven — only Darwin to Dili was by ship.

Together they island-hopped through Indonesia into Southeast Asia, across China and into the Gobi Desert in Mongolia in a snowstorm. They negotiated the Silk Road through Kashgar, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, wove around the shores of the Caspian Sea and headed into Europe through Turkey.

They learned to say thank you in 30 languages, ate bark and ox blood and dog and worms and pig’s ears and eel and curries so hot they nearly fell off their chairs.

They bribed police in five countries, ignored parking tickets in another six and got lost pretty much everywhere.

“So many of us wish we could take time out, but not often do we take the plunge. And could you survive six months travelling with your offspring? Twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, eating, sleeping, arguing and laughing?” asked Jon.

Walking away from a daily radio show breaks all the rules of working in the media, but Jon did just that and survived not only the dangers on the road but the career risk as well.

“Somehow, I convinced myself it was a good idea. Somehow, I convinced myself it was do-able. It was total folly and it was the best thing you can ever do,” he said.

“I wouldn’t do it again but I would recommend it to anyone. Travel with your kids is the best thing you can do together. The return on that risky investment is incalculable."