Resurrecting the blog

As our next trip fast approaches it's feeling more and more similar to the 'big' trip, than to any of the intervening holidays, so I thought it was time to resurrect the blog.  Welcome back!   In a time not so long ago we decided we could not go on another round the world adventure until we had finished the photo albums from the first one.  Well, you'll be pleased to know they were finished at the end of last year, and the contents of this blog were incredibly helpful in reminding ourselves not only what happened, but how we felt about it.  The notable lack of blog posts for the last 3 months of our trip led to many "do you remember where we went next?" discussions.  I must confess that the final photobook is slightly more fictional that the first two!

As the current trip will involve a rather diverse range of activities I have resolved to regularly write updates.  Over the next 2 and a bit months we will be:

• Dogsledding in the far north of Sweden (hopefully under the aurora borealis) 
• Canyoning in the middle east
• Marveling at the ancient city of Petra
• Sleeping under the stars in the dessert
• Attending the wedding of a dear friend
• Snorkeling in the Red Sea 
• Hiking along the Italian coast
• Catching up with friends and family who live in that part of the world and most likely meeting aunts and cousins I didn't know existed a month ago.

We are currently remarkably unprepared, and I'm not even sure what we need to do before we leave in less than two weeks.  Suspend internet connection, redirect mail, inform our banks of where we are going, do a practice pack, book the first night's accommodation in Jordan and a million other little details.  I have at least started to compile the clothes I'll need together.  The pile on the right is the clothes that are needed just for Sweden, the pile on the left is the rest of the clothes I'll be taking.  Sweden is really challenging my pack light philosophy!!  Any ideas for packing light when traveling to the Arctic in winter?!

The Joy of Outrage

Today has been a busy day, as it was our last day in Sydney. We cleaned the flat, got out some US dollars and went to the doctor for some malaria tablets. We had been assured by our good friend who happens to be a pharmacist that getting the 5 months supply we needed on a private script wouldn't be a problem and the cost would only be about $22 a month, so not too excessive. So like the trusting individuals we are we toddled off to the doctor and asked for a private script. We ducked in next door to the pharmacist and spent 30 minutes watching him enter things into the computer and label the 40 boxes of doxy! He then rang it up and asked us for $480......

our jaws dropped and the power of speech deserted us temporarily. As we stuttered our disbelief, we reached for our wallets (obviously we'd rather pay the money than risk malaria). The pharmacist obviously sensing our discomfort at parting with all this money voided the transaction and went back for another go. He came back with an offer of $240, and what might have started out sounding expensive all of a sudden sounded like a bargain. So we are now armed with 40 boxes of doxy and have two hours tomorrow morning to work out how it fits into the pack!!

Work is over the pack begins.

Having finally finished work, Giving in those four weeks notice was rather difficult, the real task of packing the household up and selling off the majority of our possessions entered full swing. Really the selling of furniture has been going for a while with the last of the "main" furniture auctions ending the day after completing work. Both my and Ellen's workplaces where wonderful in support and encouragement for our trip, with promises of places when we return (how that could be arranged is a problem for another day).

We now have obtained a much smaller backpack for Ellen to carry, a mere 40L, unfortunately the first pack we did afterwards showed that there is no chance of me carrying Ellen's old backpack, and even with my 70L backpack we will be taking the zip on bag so we can carry some consumables such as food as we travel.

With the pack up in full swing and our furniture disappearing out the door, panic and excitement compete continuously as dominant emotions. Checking, rewriting and rethinking packing lists is one pastime that is becoming more frequent as we try to trim down the amounts of gear we try taking, but the lists end up longer each time rather than shorter. The Internet is getting a workout as we look at what others have done before, but our real gain in bulk is due to our plans to camp in Africa, and possibly continue camping at times till we reach Asia on the second part of our trip. The tent, and the sleeping bag account for nearly a third of the storage space of my larger bag, with the majority of the remainder taken up by shoes. Fortunately two pairs of those shoes will be on our feet at all times.

As we deplete the fridge, and our home, I think our nerves will continue to increase, but I can't wait to start the trip in earnest.

Backpack sizes... or why I will not be using Jason's backpack

One of our aims on this trip is to travel light. To this end I would like to downsize from my old 55litre backpack to a 40 litre one. This weekend we did a practice pack and fitted everything into Jason's massive 70l macpac and a daypack, so we get to downsize!! So we went to the shops and tried on backpacks taking photos so we could better remember what they looked like and how they fitted. The plan is for Jason to take either his macpac or my old backpack (if we can downsize that far, and he can make it comfortable) and a new smaller backpack. The photo shows why whatever happens I will not be taking Jason's pack.

Injections

We went to the travel doctor today... which was an experience. We were expected someone with knowledge of the world, who would think our trip sounded exciting and then jab us in the arm a dozen times. Instead we saw a deaf, blind and rude doctor who couldn't fathom why we were leaving Australia. He had a magnifying glass which he used to read the computer screen to find out where we would need malaria tablets. He spent an hour looking up malarial areas, despite the fact that we said that we weren't going to be getting those yet. He was then incapable of answering any questions!! We left frustrated and will have to rely on our GP to answer travel questions as I'm not paying to see a specialist again after todays experience.

After this we were in need of cheering up, so went shopping for trip items! I realised I could happily spend half our budget on travel books and special travel clothes and gadgets.

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.

We have tickets!!

It’s been a long time coming, but we have purchased our first tickets. So we have our departure date – 16th April. It’s a mixture of excitement, anticipation and sheer terror! There has been years of dreaming and then we set a target date of April 08; but as happens in life temptation stood in the way. For me it came in the form of a job I would have loved to have, working where I want to work. We wavered and faltered. We said we would wait and go if I didn’t get the job, but postpone the trip a few years if I did. But now after 6 months of indecision we have decided that the opportunity to travel for an indefinite period of time may never come again. We may already be in jobs we can’t bear to part from, we may have other commitments that make it impossible to leave everything to go travelling. So the countdown starts from today.

Of course, we now regret the indecision. Time is upon us. Not to plan the trip, no that’s been developing for years and no doubt the actual trip will bear only a passing similarity to our carefully prepared plans. But preparing to leave Sydney, that isn’t something we’ve prepared as well. What do we do with our furniture? Do we sell it, or do we store it? How do we sell it? The debate is between having extra expenses whilst we are away or having huge set up costs and hassle once we return. Then there are those few things we own that can’t be sold and must be stored…. anyone got enough wall space to hang a puzzle the size of a double bed for a couple of years?

We are keeping our flat and renting it out, so we now have to deal with being landlords as well. How do we choose a real estate agent? How much rent do we ask for, and will it cover the expenses in keeping the flat – we hope so!