You are stuck in a rat race: work, home, sleep, repeat. You don’t have time for yourself. You are dependent on the system so much that you don’t even know how to survive by yourself anymore. You get your food at the supermarket. How did it get there? No clue. All the supplies you need to live come from somebody else. You work, work, work, but for what? To do more shopping? You are empty, frustrated, and demotivated.

You want to change something, to get in touch with yourself, to go on an adventure in the wilderness. But you overthink — it’s too crazy, and you would never manage to do it. Or you are just afraid.

We all sometimes need a little push, and this book will give you a breath of fresh air and motivate you to take the first step towards change, since the events in this book are so epic.

The Art of Free Travel: A Frugal Family Adventure is a travelogue about the magnificent adventure of Artist as Family, the family consisting of Patrick Jones, Meg Ulman, their sons Zephyr (11) and Woody (1), and their dog Zero. You see, they were living a happy, low-carbon life on their quarter-acre permaculture plot in Victoria, but they needed an adventure to get in touch even more with their inner selves.

In November 2013, they embarked on an epic 6,000km year-long cycling adventure along Australia’s east coast, from Daylesford to Cape York and back. Wow! But this was not a vacation; they didn’t sleep in hotels or eat in restaurants. Instead, they were living a frugal life: they were hunting and foraging for food, guerrilla camping in beautiful nature, living their lives on bush tucker, fresh roadkill, and fishing. They met many people who opened their doors and their hearts to them, allowing the spirit of learning, understanding, and tolerance to follow this expedition all the way to the end.

Artist as Family are eco-activists and are living the values of real respect for nature and humans, and the best way to do so, it seems, is to be independent and know yourself. During their trip, they visited various Aboriginal communities, each time asking for permission to stay on their land and use resources only as needed. No exploitation of the land — just to feed, wash themselves, and sleep. As permaculturists and homesteaders, they wanted to document edible plants and other bush tuckers that are available in nature. It’s amazing how much food you can get from nature, but only if you know how to recognize it. Unfortunately, many of us lost those skills since we live in cities and get our food mostly from supermarkets.

During their trip, they contemplated the ecological situation of Australia and the whole capitalist system and realized how the whole Australian country depends on fossil fuels, the exploitation of natural resources, and, as a result, people. Dodging the cars and trucks on the dangerous roads didn’t help either.

What I loved about this book was its honesty. The trip was not easy. There were bike malfunctions. Sometimes no water was available. The family was tired. Sometimes lost, they would fight, and they were just unsure of their choices. I mean, they were traveling with a one-year-old, Woody. I would never imagine it, and they actually did it. Speak about motivation and strength! Bravo! Meg and Jones present in this book the good and the bad. And I loved it, because that’s how we grow — we get into a challenge, and we do the best we can. If we are mindful, we talk about what happened and how we did it. If there is something to change in the future, we note it down and do the best we can next time. There were many good moments in this trip, and they celebrated it with huge smiles and gratitude towards the land and people.

Artist as Family are inspiring people. Spearfishing, foraging plants, meeting people, respecting their environment, and various skills that allow them to harvest and prepare the resources are just mind-blowing, and they awakened the spirit of change in me. The biggest lesson of the book is that we need to change ourselves in order to make this world a better place and to stop the catastrophe that we are bringing to ourselves. The whole system is organized in a way that is hurting nature and people. But we, as humans, don’t need much. Artist as Family prove it with their daily lives. They inspire me to create, not to consume. On my side, I will start with fixing my pants. The button broke, and I bought another, but I don’t know how to install it. I wanted to ask my mother-in-law to do it for me. After reading this book, I will try to do it myself.