It's going to be extraordinary!
Our trip is in three parts:
- London to Sydney via the Silk Route through 'The Stans',
- Sydney to Sydney via lots of Australia and
- Sydney back to London by ship.
London to Sydney by bus:
From mid June 2012 to mid December the same year we're part of a group travelling in a big orange truck owned by a company called Madventure.Travel. They used to be called UK to Oz Overland, but they now do more than that name implies, so they changed it. You can read all about it on their website, but in summary, it's a "26 week overland journey from London to Sydney via Central Asia exploring highlights of 29 countries including Turkey, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia, China, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia and Australia!" For some reason, their summary skips over the countries of Europe we travel through, which are France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria. As it happens, the trip skips over them quite quickly too, in just a week and a half in fact. After that the pace settles down a bit and takes in some amazing sights and cities. Do visit their site if you're interested, or just follow our blog!
Sydney to Sydney by planes (singular), trains buses and automobiles:
For the next three months - mid December 2012 to Mid March 2013 - we'll be following our own route round Australia. Australia is really big. In fact it's vast. Even three months isn't enough to see all we would like to see and we've had to make a few difficult choices. We've also had to give in to the practical necessity of flying, not something we - in particular, Juli - wanted to do, but it does mean we get to spend more time in, around and in between Sydney, Brisbane, Perth, Adelaide and Melbourne.
After staying with Juli's 'rellies' near Brisbane for Christmas and New Years - thanks, guys - plus a trip up to Airlie Beach and the Whitsundays, we fly east to Perth for the first of a series of mini trips with Greyhound Australia. They'll take us north from Perth up the Coral Coast to Monkey Mia then south down to Albany and back to Perth again. Next, after staying with Nick's cousin in Fremantle - thanks very much to you too - we head west across the Nullarbor Plain to Adelaide. After a short stay (and a wine tour or two) we continue west via the Great Ocean Road to Melbourne. Finally, after more Aussie hospitality there - thanks Carole and Dennis - we'll be taking a regular Greyhound service back to Sydney ready for part three.
This is a revised itinerary. The original plan included a few days in Cairns, a week in Tasmania and nearly three weeks touring both islands of New Zealand. Also, we had planned to take trains (including the famous Indian Pacific from Perth to Adelaide) and to hire a series of campervans from Britz. Unfortunately, when we added it all up, it would have meant coming home to nothing at all in the bank, which, even for us, was a tad too precarious.
If you're interested in our old campervan plans, the following links will take you to Google maps of our original driving routes for Australia and New Zealand.
Sydney back to London via The Panama Canal:
How does three months at sea grab you? Okay, not everyone's cup of tea. How about three months of 5-star luxury? Better? What about the opportunity to cross two oceans; visit the picture perfect, palm-fringed, white-sandy beaches of Polynesia and the Caribbean; Easter Island with its extraordinary carved stone tiki heads; amazing Machu Picchu; The Panama Canal; three ports of the US eastern seaboard, five ports on Canada's Atlantic coast and much more besides. Tempted? See Oceania Cruises' Grand Voyages: Sydney to Papeete and Papeete to Southampton for more. That's what we'll be seeing between mid March to mid June 2013.
Can't wait.
Your trip sounds amazing guys and Im going to really enjoy it with you as I dip in and out of your site. Have fun :o) xx
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