Friday 11 March 2011

ALMOST THERE!

Not long now until departure of my trip to circumnavigate of the world by land and sea. That sounds grand doesn't it? Maybe not quite so grand when you take into account that we will be travelling mainly on coaches and trains and staying for the most part in hostels, campsites and a sleeper bus.

Rob, our excellent Oz-Bus co-ordinator, has done a great job in pulling this whole trip together, culminating in the production of this detailed map of our journey. This map has suddenly bought the whole adventure to life. We are all now beyond being nervous and excited. Just scrape us off of ceiling.

On a more worrying note, I see this morning that there has been a catastrophic tsumani in the Pacific Rim, an area that we will be travelling across enroute from Russia to Alaska. There has also been talk of unrest in China because of crop failures due to bad weather, causing food prices and inflation to rise. They are not happy bunnies. But I guess if we worried about what could happen we would never do anything would we?

So, with house sitters arranged, visas granted and bag packed (notice I said bag, not bags"!) we launch ourselves into the unknown, meeting up at Cleopatra's Needle on the Thames Embankment at 0700 Sunday, 27th March. Don't forget to keep up with the travel blog by clicking on the sidebar logo.

13 comments:

Jay at The Depp Effect said...

I can well understand the 'scrape me off the ceiling' thing! You must all be getting near to fever pitch and you have a couple more weeks to go yet.

It's true that you'd never do anything if you though 'what if?' all the time. I travelled to the US for the first time about a month after the Trade Towers were hit. I still don't know how I did that, being a bit of a nervous nellie when it comes to things like that, but I did. You have to take into account the risks etc, but you will be self contained and mobile and if anything happens near to your time in China I'm sure Phil will make alternative arrangements for you all.

I hadn't heard about the Tsunami. How awful. Going to check the news now.

Sueann said...

Oh my gosh! I would be so excited too!! I bet your stomach is doing flip flops?! You are going to have so much fun!!
Hugs
SueAnn

Eliza said...

So exciting for you, even with all the world dramas going on. Have a great time :-)

Unknown said...

I can't imagine making this trip; what an advanture.

aims said...

Oh Anne! How absolutely marvelous!!
What a fantastic journey to decide to take.

You will be only an hour and a half drive from me when you reach Banff. Any idea of how long you will be staying there?

I'm so excited for you!

Fran Caldwell said...

Congratulations, you! Have to say that the best part of this for me would be the QM11 bit. I did that run once on QE11, and totally relaxed for the 5 days. After all that ant-farm travel, you'll be ready for some luxury.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

I can be a bit of a nervous nellie too Jay, but things never seem a bad as I sometime project so I just keep "buggering on" as Churchill would have said.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

BTW Jay, I just paid you a visit and I think the ShelterBox Charity you talk about is abslutely bang on the money.

Anyone who's concerned for the people of Japan (or for that matter any other area that suffers a catastrophic tragedy) should visit their site and donate.

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Ah! that reminds me SueAnne, mustn't forget to take my flip flops

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

Thanks Eliza, I will be thinking of you handing out all the TLC. Your blog is so enlightening!

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

From my itinerary it seems that we are camping in Banff overnight on
6th June aims, but I don't know what time we arrive or what time we depart on 7th.

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to you getting started so that I can keep up with your travels through your blog. I'm sure if untoward things happen, there will be other options. You'll have a great time. Flagmaker

www.retiredandcrazy.com said...

I sincerely hope that "untoward" happenings don't happen flagmaker!