BLOG : Meet our Hero Dad & Son, Ryan & Ziggy

Meet Ryan, the Dad from one of our favourite travelling families, Life on the Open Road. Together with wife Alex and son Ziggy, this nature loving trio are currently way up north in the top end of Australia, mid-way through an adventurous road trip around this vast country of ours. Ryan and Ziggy loved the chance to be the first Dad & Son to wear our inaugural ‘I Have a Hero, I Call Him Dad’ hero shorts, spending time on the unspoiled beaches of Far North Queensland, climbing palm trees and swimming in the big blue Pacific ocean.

With Father’s Day just around the corner Ryan shared a little with us about fatherhood, travelling with a toddler and the dreams he has for his little man.

Little Ziggy is living one adventurous life with you guys on the ultimate road-trip around Australia. Can you tell us one of the most treasured moments you have shared with him whilst travelling? 

We’ve been to a lot of great places including National Parks, waterfalls and historical World War II sites and Ziggy has had the chance to interact with a bunch of wildlife, reptiles and marine life but a stand out for me would have to be taking Ziggy and Alex to a seal colony in South Australia. We went out on the water in the tinny and Ziggy was swimming around with the me in the water whilst the seals were swimming all around us.

What has surprised you most about becoming a Dad? 

Whilst Alex was pregnant I had a lot of people tell me how much they love their children and how the love they feel for them is like no other. At the time it was kind of hard to comprehend what they were saying but now that Ziggy is here with us I totally understand :) 

And what’s been the most challenging part so far?

I guess the most challenging part for me has been missing the time Alex and I used to spend together alone, be it fishing together or enjoying a movie after our lunch date, even just a quiet walk on the beach in the morning. 

Above all else, what is your one dream for Ziggy?

That he grows up to be a good person with a gentle nature and gets to live a long life filled with love and happiness, where ever he finds it. 

Follow this travelling family’s adventures over at https://www.instagram.com/life_on_the_open_road_au/

Shop the Hero shorts now here