THEY say the world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.

And that is exactly why one Dorset family stopped dreaming and started planning an adventure of a lifetime.

Steve and Gilly Snaith left their life behind to travel the world for four years - in a truck.

And dispelling the myth that travelling is not possible with children, they took their two young daughters Alisha, now eight, and Lucy, 12, out of school. Instead the world became their classroom.

Now back in Verwood, they have spoken about their adventures taking in 58 countries and seven continents including Antarctica covering more than 100,000 miles and have urged others to dream big.

Steve said: “There are sacrifices you may have to make to go on adventures like this but we haven’t met anyone who regrets it.”

Gilly added: “It’s hard to talk about it because it has been totally amazing. To see so much of the world in a relative short time period and be able to contrast and compare, it’s been fantastic. Absolutely no regrets at all.”

The adventure was 18 years in the making after Gilly and Steve first met driving across Africa.

Gilly explained: “We started working and it just went on and on and on. When the girls came along, we said if we don’t do it now, we’ll never do it, life does get in the way!”

The adventure aboard a custom-built vehicle affectionately known as Trucky, began in Canada in 2013. A tour of Canada was followed by a trip through the USA, Mexico, through Central America before 13 months around South America - their highlight watching a jaguar hunt a crocodile in the Pantanal. The next stop was a stop in Antarctica where they slept on the ice in specialist bags surrounded by penguins and seals.

They then went on a ship to South Africa touring the wildlife reserves. The trip then took them to Australia, before heading to Singapore, and through South East Asia taking in India, China and even Mount Everest base camp before heading to Turkey and Istanbul through Europe.

Gilly said: “It’s hard to say a highlight but we love being out in the wild. We love being where the environment is pristine where there are mountains and wild open spaces, a true wilderness.

“You feel so small and you feel the world is so big."

Steve, 52, explained the trip was made possible due to his retirement from a large accountancy firm which involved being posted across eastern Europe.

He said: “I travelled extensively for work so when I got home on Friday, I’d collapse at the weekend so I didn’t see as much of the children as I’d like.

"The trip was all about being together as a family and enjoying what you could see. It was about seeing some incredible natural places in the world but also realising how much we may not have them for too much longer if we don’t look after them.”

Lessons were not a problem for the children, who were just four and eight when they left, because each place became a living classroom.

Gilly, 43, who is a former secondary school science teacher, spent hours a day home-schooling the girls with customised lessons relevant to their surroundings.

Now Alisha has started school and the family are settling into life in Dorset but they hope others can be inspired by their adventures.

Gilly said: “You have to realise that 99.9 per cent of the people in the world are good so when you are reading or listening or watching the news talking about various problems, it’s actually not true most of the time.

“You don’t need to be worried about the world’s people because they are good.

“We have always been very international thinking but we really hope the girls will be truly global citizens and see the world as much bigger than their neighbourhood.”