The Route

The first question for an extended trip such as we are planning is where to go. If I'm ever really bored (maybe after we return and I'm looking for a job) I may post the evolution of our route... trust me it looks nothing like our current plan.

Bearing this in mind things may change drastically whilst we are travelling and this may be nothing but an inspiring sounding route for someone else's trip.

Stop 1 - Africa (4 months)
Ok, so this might not be everyone's ideal starting point but we have to come back to Australia in October so we will get a break from travel afterwards. Plus this is the top of the list, so if we only manage one continent I'm choosing Africa. The plan is to travel independently overland.

We will be travelling overland from Johannesburg to Kigali. This could take a number of routes but we expect it to be South Africa, Mozambique, Malawi, Tanzania, Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda.


Stop 2 - South East Asia (4-6 weeks)
The flight we have to Africa is via Kuala Lumpar, with a free stop allowed in KL... so that's what we're doing. This also gives us some flexibility with changing the dates of the tickets to extend or shorten Africa replacing it with Asia.


Stop 3 - Australia (2-3 weeks)
As mentioned above we will be coming home for my parents 60th birthday. It wouldn't have been worth ever coming home if we missed this, trust me. I have to do a speech... do you think they'll want to hear about Africa?

Stop 4 - South America (4 months)
This is also open to change, but currently we will start with some Spanish lessons before flying to the ends of the earth.
Argentina - maybe a detour to Antarctica if we can pick up a last minute deal
Chile - heading north
Bolivia
Peru - currently mainly for Macchu Picchu
Brazil - this is only a recent addition, we are thinking about coming from Bolivia into the Pantanal region, then travelling down to Iguasu Falls.

Stop 5 - Middle East (1 month)
Egypt
Jordan

Stop 6 - Europe (3 months?)
This is where things become really vague. We will definately spend time in England and Greece. Everything else is up for grabs. We may even end up travelling from Jordan overland through Syria and Turkey to Greece. We may also look for work in England as there are a lot more neuropsych jobs there and it would give us a chance to get to know my extended family.

Stop 7 - Asia (5 months?)
Russia - starting on the Trans-Mongolian
Mongolia - hopefully in time for the Naadam Festival
China
Vietnam
Laos
Cambodia
Thailand

So that's the current plan. We choose the direction as Asia is by far and away the easiest destination for us to get to so if we end up coming home early we can go there on shorter holidays.