Planning Our Route

I've spent the weekend trying to get all the countries we want to see into an order that can be visited from west to east. We're not yet ready to book our flight tickets, but in general, we know that you can hop from country to country, as long as you don't backtrack on yourself. Easier said than done!

KT wants to be in Sydney for New Year, so we need to enter on the west coast, Perth maybe, and work our way across by New Year, and then we can fly on to New Zealand. That means covering Asia AND Australia in about 2-3 months!

It would therefore be better to start in Sydney for New Year (so we don't rush through Asia) and work up the east coast before moving on. That's going to mean a lot of internal flights within Australia to go back to Perth and Uluru. I'm thinking we should perhaps give the west coast a miss...

Then, what about the Americas? Say we manage to do everything we want in Asia, Australia and New Zealand by March/April - we will hit Latin America just before the rainy seasons start. I think we are going to get very wet in the middle of 2009...

Oh well, better than getting rained on in the UK! I've finally worked out a rough schedule and I'm meeting KT again later - I'll see what she thinks. All that remains now is seeing if there is a round-the-world ticket that will accommodate our grand plans!

Getting Started

Well, I've decided to finally stop dreaming about travelling and actually do it! Wow, how exciting! Except it's going to be hard work to get organised for such a big trip! I've got about 6 months to get ready for it, but there's so much to do.

First, me and KT (who is brave enough to spend a year traipsing around with me) have got to decide exactly where to go. I went to the library for the first time in years and got out as many Rough Guides as I could (thank goodness the library gave out free carrier bags!)

We have a rough idea of where to go (we know which continents) but where do you start? I overwhelmed myself a little bit - I got the Rough Guides to South India, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, Central America AND South America! I'm certainly thorough. I have to get as much read as possible before I meet KT tomorrow!