One month today

This time next month we will have just landed in New York, on the start of what promises to be a pretty incredible journey. On August 19th, with three kids aged 8, 6 and 4, we leave the UK, and we won’t be back for a year. In 12 months, we’ll go to 20+ countries and travel almost pole to pole, crossing and recrossing the equator, over four continents, as a family.

Why?!
Since we were 16 or so, we have talked about travelling the world with our children. Imagine teaching your kids about plate tectonics, by showing them the Himalayas, we said. ‘The Fulani are a migratory tribe following the rains. That’s them.’ Of course, the itinerary we have booked includes neither Nepal or Ethiopia, but hey.

So if not Nepal, where?

Here goes …

NY. Canada. West Coast USA. Costa Rica. Ecuador. Peru. Chile. New Zealand. Australia. Singapore. Borneo. Sri Lanka. Hong Kong. China. Possibly Tibet, if they open the train line. Mongolia. Russia. Then, reunited with our own four wheels, back across Europe at our leisure. 15 countries, before we get back to Europe. 321 days plus. Trains, hostels, motels, planes, buses … and we probably have little idea what else. Yes, we have been grappling with problems like organising a ger to stay in when in Mongolia, without any kind of pre-arranged tour, or guide, or word of Russian. OK, Russian visas are stupidly hard and expensive to get. No, we don’t speak Chinese. Or Spanish. No, we haven’t yet booked the trans Siberian railway from Beijing to Moscow. But we’re having a lot of fun discovering and getting past all these obstacles.

Why now?

The kids are young enough to still be really excited about this sort of thing, and not too teenagerish yet – though in a couple years … School are also being really supportive. Then, there’s work. Our own company can be left dormant without too many problems, and I resigned back in April having had enough of the corporate stuff. After about six months of being worn down … I told Joe I was thinking seriously about quitting. He thought for a few minutes, then said – ‘fine, go for it. Why don’t we just bring the trip forward, and go this summer?’

And so, here we are.

We’ve been busy finishing off a complete renovation on a dilapidated house, selling the car, finding out what the hell you pack for a year away, booking first nights in countries we know nothing about, getting visas, vaccines, school curricula, finding someone to have the gerbils and fish, merging bank accounts, getting currencies, malaria protection and sensible shoes.