Planning a world tour can takes ages!

to go?

Where

The Plan as at 1997

Ireland 9/97-1/98 (Mary's home country)...Marocco 2/98 ...Gib/Costa 3/98 ...Portugal 3/98 ...Spain 4/98 ...France 4/98...Belgium/Holland/Germany/Denmark 5/98... Sweden 6/98 ...Nth Finland 7/98 ...Russia 7/98 ...Estonia/Latvia/Lithuania 7/98 ...Poland/Czech/Romania 8/98 ...Bulgaria (Black Sea) 9/98 ...Turkey/Syria/Lebanon 10/98 ...Jordan(Dead Sea) 11/98 ....Egypt 12/98 ...... (Africa was not on the plan)Kenya 1/99....Tanzania 2/99...Zimbabwe 3/99 ...Mozambique 4/99... South Africa 5/99...Yemen/Oman 7/99... Pakistan 8/99...India(New Delhi) 9/99... Nepal 10/99...Goa 12/99 (join the party on the beach - New Years Eve)...Bangladesh 1/2000 ...Burma(Myranmar) 2/00...Thailand 3/00... Malaysia 4/00 ....Indonesia 5/00 ...Vietnam 6/00 ...China 7/00 ...Russia 8/00... Alaska 8/00 ...Canada 9/00 ...California 10/00 ...Mexico 11/00 ...Venezuela 12/00 ...Peru 1/01 ...Chile 2/01... Argentina 3/01 ....Uruguay/Paraguay 4/01 ...Brazil 5/01 ...Caribbean 7/01 ...Sth East USA 8/01 ...Nth East USA 9/01
But the best site to assist with all things travel is Lonely Planet. By far.

When to go?

We all hate freezing to death so therefore having checked the climate changes and seasons of the world it is feasible to remain in and around 20 to 30 degrees centigrade most of the time. By starting in Marocco in Early February and working our way north, by the time it is May and warming up a bit we should be ok for Holland Denmark and so on north. By traveling across Scandinavia in high summer it would mean we will still be in the 20's at worst. As we make our way south from Finland the autumn is approaching so we will still be ok providing we get south, quick enough. And so on. I'll keep you posted.

When anywhere other than the States you never really know if your seeing all there is to see so I knew that purchasing everything there, was the right decision, except sleeping bags which are best bought in New Zealand as they make the best.A trip, therefore, to the States was necessary in order to view the huge range of product at such places as REI. This company must be the most organized and well stocked, with variety never seen anywhere. From rock climbing to peddling, REI had almost everything we needed. No decent bikes however so over sixty phone calls later I finally discovered a T2000 at Eriks Bike shop in Wisconsin and it was a 19". Just right for Mary's frame size. Now to find a 21" for me. I phoned Cannondale on their 1800 BIKEUSA number only to be bombarded with a feast of digital options however hanging on the phone, when in the USA, always helps in the quest to speak to a real person. Once I did however, the person was most helpful by advising me of all the T2000 in our sizes, they had sold recently and to whom they sold them. Bravo! The Pony Shop, 743 Chicago Ave, Evanston were the ones, and what a great little shop. Very helpful experienced people with real bike techs out back. So $5000.00 later I had the bikes with racks fitted, shame they were not the right ones for the Ortlieb bags but finding real specialist gear is, I have decided, impossible. All shops seem to carry a bit of this and a bit of that but never the whole deal.

What VISA

I am sick and tired of trying to work out what visa's we need for which countries and with Mary having an Irish passport and mine being British, it is even more confusing. I would really appreciate help on this one. Yes I know the US has a brilliant information package on the web but of course that is only applicable for those with US Passports. Besides all that, what about the one where you get a visa for a country and once granted, the visa starts from that date. That's a real help when you don't really know how long it is going to take you to get there and besides that, a 180 day visa is no good if it takes a year to get there as is the case with an Indian visa. So guess what! We are going to play it by ear and take our chances. I'll keep you posted on that one too. Just think of the fun we will have entering Russia..Ha Ha!

For my part I travel not to go anywhere, but to go. I travel for travel's sake. The great affair is to move, to feel the needs and hitches of our life more nearly, to come down off the feather-bed of civilization and find the globe granite underfoot and strewn with cutting flints. Robert Louis Stevenson