The itinerary

We got the paperwork from Karl at Travel Nation on Saturday - tickets, route plan, little luggage tags and all. Here we go!

This should put an end to all those "So, where are you going?" questions people keep asking us... Also, we're visiting friends and family all the way round, so now you lucky people will have a better idea of when we'll be in your 'hood.

This is, of course, a provisional plan, details are subject to change without warning, investments can go down as well as up etc. If things change, we'll put it up in a new post.

Release the bats!

England - June 30th to August 2nd
Yarm - Sunday 1st
Skipton - Sunday 8th
Adel - Tuesday 10th
Farsley - Friday 13th
Ludlow - Sunday 15th
Birmingham - Friday 20th
Reading - Monday 23rd
London - Thursday 26th

Cuba - August 2nd to 9th
Havana all the way! Get the mojitos ready :-)

Mexico - August 9th to September 9th
Overland from Cancun to Los Angeles (USA). No real idea about what we're going to do, but it seems like the Yucatan bit is our best bet, so zooming around in that bit and ending up around Mexico City before zipping off to the States, possibly via Las Vegas/ the Grand Canyon, time and budget permitting.

Cook Islands - September 9th to 14th
Chilling in a desert island paradise.

[Cross the Date Line!]

Fiji - September 14th to 29th
Same as the Cook Islands. Probably do some diving and that. I want to touch a live fish.

New Zealand - September 29th to November 30th
Don't really know exact dates yet, but we're going North to South from Auckland to Christ Church over 2 months, stopping in Hamilton, Wellington and Wanaka along the way.

Australia - November 30th to January 30th
Similar to New Zealand. 2 months to go from Melbourne to Brisbane via Wangi (Xmas) and Sydney (New Year).

Lombok to Hanoi - January 31st to May 5th
This bit's also wide open. We arrive in Lombok (the island to the East of Bali) then head West and North through South East Asia. More than likely we'll take in the following: Bali, Mentawi Islands, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam.

India - Chennai to Mumbai - May 5th to July 30th ish
No idea! We land in Chennai (a.k.a. Madras) and leave from Mumbai. We'll probably head South into Kerala and come up the West coast through Goa... but maybe we'll do something completely different.

And that's all the travelling. If you're anywhere along our route at a suitable sort of time, do get in touch so we can meet up and you can buy us some drinks ;-)

Ben

The itinerary

So, plenty of people are asking - about time we let on where we're going.

1st of all we're spending a month in exotic England (malaria, rabies, chavs etc) - spending a decent amount of time with friends and family before we set off in August for a week or 2 in Havana (hopefully before Castro kicks the bucket). Then we nip over to Cancun, and overland through Mexico for about 3 weeks to LA.

From LA, we fly through the Pacific Islands, stopping off in the Cook Islands and Fiji for 2 weeks each before spending 2 months each in NZ and OZ. We'll be doing NZ North to South (Auckland to Christchurch), then Australia South to North (Melbourne to Cairns). Again, plenty of friends and family here, so hopefully we can save on accommodation, and spend instead on a camper van for cruising around.

After that, we really hit the backpacking trail - Lombok, Bali, Sumatra, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos and Vietnam (2 or 3 months overland), then we finish off in India (Chennai to Mumbai) before coming back to Amsterdam.

That at least is the plan. Of course, plans are elastic, and if we like somewhere, we'll definitely hang around a little longer and adapt our future itinerary to fit. It might also be that halfway round the world we find somewhere amazing/ some awesome opportunity to do some really cool work, and just have to stay there for longer, so maybe Amsterdam will have to wait...

We're looking at this trip in several ways. One is that we're reversing our time/ money continuum. We're currently cash rich but time poor. For the next 12 months it will be the other way round. We're really looking forward to this - it will force us to not just take the easy way out and buy our way out of problems; instead we'll have to live by our wits and actually think about our decisions a bit more.

Whatever happens, we know this is going to be a life-changing experience.

Ensign, set a course for the rest of the world...

Engage!