Ian, I solute your dedication and unwavering love for your family. It took me quite some time to truly dedicate myself in such a way and although I am older now I have yet to bite the children bullet. I do not believe children would be a mundane existence but it does keep your head down to the grind stone a bit more I suppose. In any case, if you found purpose this way no one can or should argue that it is wrong or a safe path I think?

Lionel, my thoughts on the subject are simple. If you have a feeling at this point in time you should examine it. I for one have found that when I look into the mirror in the morning and ask myself am I still happy with what I am doing and the answer is "no" to long in a row, then it is time for a change. To put things into perspective, my wish to travel around the world is a very old one. I have always been an explorer from a very young age. With my granddad who lived in rotterdam, he settled there just after ww2 in a brand new rebuild house since the gerries had flattened it for him..., I walked all around that city and beyond it's borders. Later in life as a teenager I used to take my bike to and from him whilst I lived 90km away. The old man joined me on one of those trips and I had to slow him down to take lunch. He was 82 at the time. In any case I digress. Later when I started studying I found out that I really did not like it in college. So I would take the train from home to college and my last transfer would become a looming dread that I sometimes just could not bear. I would stare out the window knowing full well that I had to start moving or else it would be... KAKLUNK... to late. The train would move to the next station (amsterdam) and whilst it rolled gleefully out of the train station, the light coming back into the windows hitting my face I would feel a relief, a happiness! Since I had a so called student product which gave me free public transport I would then simply travel to any city or small town that I had not seen before and just... look around. Later when I started my career I found myself doing the same thing sort of every now and then. This was usually a sign I had overstayed my time at a certain job and it was time to move on.

Having said that, the desire to see more of the world was not just the above little story but I of course saw things like the camel trophy, David Attenborough and many more incl. the 8mm film of my parents when I was a baby living in the UAE as expats. In other words, my "desire" has been an old one and I have finally acted on it and am basically taking an early retirement, well before retirement age I will need to return to work eventually since I am way to young but I found it better to do it this way since indeed you do not know if you are going to make it!

Back to your situation, it seems to me that you have flirted with self employment now and then and that it still has a pull. Try to identify what it is that charms you about it and see if you can achieve that! I for myself have been self employed since 2015 and am still doing what I did the 15+ years before that, I just cut out my employer. I find that it is much more pleasant to the exact same work (well I have grown up in "rank"/seniority of course) for myself personally but you have to remind yourself that you still have a client that is almost the same as a boss. It's just that you are on a much more equal playing field

Regarding this:
Some of the opportunities I can pursue involve embarking to different third world countries. Then once stepping of the commercial flight being greeted by a less than roadworthy for wheel drive and going off on roads less travelled. Travelling to places located well off the tourist routes. Places where if things go wrong you find yourself a very - very long way from home.
This is of course always part of the charm of traveling and working abroad. It is also one of the things I am looking forward to but the reality is that except for some central african countries like the congo, chad or the central african republic the chinese have pretty much paved africa and "civilization" has reached nearly everywhere. What you seek is becoming exceedingly rare to find. True, in the amazon area there you might find it as well.

Indeed, frequency bias is most likely at work here but lets not forget that you notice it because you want to or at least are actively looking for it. My dad at the end of his career was often too expensive to hire as an employee (he was C suite level at the time) but he was wanted for his knowledge and experience so I did suggest him to go about it on his own, this way potential clients did not have the risks but did have the benefits. I do not know if that would be the same in oz and in your case though.

In any case, I wish you wisdom and luck in making your decision mate! Should you still be down under when we hopefully travel around there, perhaps we can drink one and spin a yarn

Cheers,
-P