Hello World!

My first discovery on starting this blog is it that it seems I'm not much of a writer. I must have typed about 17 versions of this first post and still I'm sat staring at an empty webpage… So here it finally goes without much thought!

I've been wanting to do a round the world trip since I looked like this:

Fast forward over 10+ years of dreaming, 7 years of saving, 6 months of planning and finally the trip of a lifetime is booked and confirmed. 

There is no plan as such, the only things booked at the moment are:

13-Feb-13: London-Rio

01-Apr-13: 1 week Inca Trail tour

10-Apr-13: Lima-London

15-Apr-13: London-Delhi

15-Aug-13: Beijing-London

Which may end up looking something like this:

South America (2 months):

 Asia* (4 months):

*Note that the Indonesian part of the journey is missing on this map but we do plan to go there also. If you are interested in seeing the whole map, you can find it on the following link:
South America and Asia 2013: The plan

All seems simple enough but it's been a bit of a bloody nightmare to plan at times and still have some stuff to go… So far it's looking like this:

Travel buddy: Check
Battle with inept travel agents at STA to book appropriate flights (and avoid drowning in monsoons): Check
Travel insurance (just in case monsoon season comes early): Check
Macchu Picchu trek booking: Check
Voluntary unemployment in the middle of a global recession: Check (as of the 15th January)
Backpack: Check
Friend requiring a room to rent for a few months: Check
A good healthy mix of terror and excitement in equal parts: Check

Still to arrange:
Vaccinations: Mostly done but rabies and malaria pills still to go
Visas for India and China: Still to arrange (including booking of a flight into China)
6 months worth of stuff to pack...

Watch this space!