Australia

House has been packed and hauled to Wodonga over the weekend and now we are living on the bare essentials for the week. Kind of training for the year ahead

Currently trying to sell the remainder of our possessions (including two cars) before the weekend, fingers crossed it will be sorted out. Anyone need a new set of wheels?

Also currently debating whether it is a good idea to lease a car while in France, Spain and Portugal. It’s a bit more expensive but also very convenient and would allow us to see more of the country side....still undecided!

Few things we have locked in are two nights in a capsule hotel in Tokyo (with traditional Japanese bath house), a tour of Vietnam for 15 days with intrepid travel, a room for two nights in Kowloon (Hong Kong) and 4 days in Berlin. Still a few things to arrange....

11 days to go!

We're excited!

After the third consecutive late arrival at work today we managed to arrange purchase of our tickets! It’s a strange feeling handing over all that cash and only receiving a ticket back but it brings out the reality that we are actually leaving soon!

Stops are:

Melbourne – Tokyo – Hanoi – Ho Chi Ming – Hong Kong – Helsinki – Berlin – Paris – Edinburgh – Dublin – London – Mexico City – Cancun – Reno (San Francisco) - New York – Miami – New York – Vancouver – Melbourne

..................and everywhere in between!

I arranged an international drivers licence yesterday (the licence looks very cold war like "papers please") I might try my hand at driving on the wrong side of the road at some stage, thinking a Cadillac in the USA.

Working on the packing situation at this stage, trying to figure out if I should take the sleeping bag or not. We have decided against the recommendations of packing only one t-shirt one pair of shorts and one pair of socks and underwear for two days, but will still be keeping the content of our packs to a minimum!

As you can see in the picture (taken on the new camera) Emily’s bag on the left is already a little full!

10.5 days of work to go!

Emily and I had our final round of shots today, for some reason Emily always ends up getting more shots than I do!

Made the essential purchase of a gastro kit as well, seems that there is less in it than we were originally told but at least we are ready for the inevitable ...

I also managed to purchase a camera today, after much deliberation I decided on the new Ricoh R8.

Now we can start publishing some pictures!

12 more working days to go!