Overview

Whilst planning my route I’ve come to realise just how big the world is – 6 months sounds a long time until you sit down and try and work out where you want to go and what you want to see! You can see the round the World Route I have planned by click on the Globe icon below (start from UK to China):

I hope to visit the following countries on my trip, in this order:

• China
• Hong Kong
• Thailand
• Cambodia
• Vietnam
• Malaysia
• Singapore
• Australia
• New Zealand
• Chile
• Ecuador (inc. Galapagos Islands)
• Peru
• Boliva
• Brazil

Roughly this will work out as:

Asia – 1/11/2006 to 10/12/2006 – 5 weeks
Australia – 10/12/2006 to 20/1/2007 – 6 weeks
New Zealand – 20/1/2007 to 16/2/2007 – 4 weeks
South America – 16/2/2007 to 2/5/2007 – 10 weeks

Asia

After last years visit to Thailand I deffo wanted to start my travels in Asia (that’s where I got the travel bug!), so when Tom said he was going to be in Beijing biking the Great Wall of China (crazy fool!) I thought that would be as good a place as any to start! I’ve always wanted to see the Great Wall and see what the really China is like (Chinatown in Manchester just isn’t the same!). After Beijing Tom and I are going to fly down to Hong Kong and spend 4 days there before heading onto Bangkok. My plan this time is to head to Cambodia and see Angkor Wat and then on into Vietnam you all know I’ve wanted to go there for ages!). I’ll then head back to Thailand and catch the sleeper train into Malaysia before ending up in Singapore for a day or two before my flight to Australia.

Heres a map of my route through Asia:

Australia

Australia is where I’ve wanted to go for ages and was always going to be a big part of my trip so I’ve planned a month and a half down under. I fly to Perth spend a few days there before flying to Alice Springs where I shall be doing a three day Mulgas Tour of Ayres Rock sleeping in a swag with the stars for a roof! Then I fly to Adelaide where I shall spend a few days before taking the Wayward Bus Great Ocean Road Tour to Melbourne. From Melbourne I fly to Sydney in time for Christmas, I meet up with Phil for New Years Eve, which we hope to spend in Sydney Harbour. After New Year I’ll spend my final three weeks in Australia heading up the East Coast to Cairns, hopefully visiting Brisbane, Australia Zoo, Fraser Island, and the Whitsundays on route.

Here’s a map of my route through Australia:

New Zealand

I fly to Auckland, New Zealand from Brisbane mid-January 2007 to begin a months tour of the Kiwi Islands. The plan is to head to the top of North Island to see the Bay of Islands, then travel down to South Island (via the ferry!) to see Wellington, Christchurch and Mount Cook. That’s a rough plan I’ll probably decide more about my tour of New Zealand nearer the time! I have to return to Auckland to fly to Santiago, Chile to begin my journey through South America.

Heres a map of my New Zealand route:

South America

I start my South American adventure in Chiles capital Santiago. This is due to the only flight from New Zealand to South America being to Santiago, but I thought I would make the most of it and spend three days there before heading up to Ecuador.

During my time in Ecuador I’m going to be volunteering for a conservation project on the Galapagos Islands for 4 weeks, you can find out more information about this here. Before I fly to the Galapagos Islands I have a week or orientation and language lessons in Quito to help me on the project. I’m looking forward to getting my hands dirty and doing a job that doesn’t involve IT for a change!

After my month on the Galapagos I’m meeting up with Russ ‘Special Boy’ Dury in Quito for the final six weeks of my trip. We plan to spend about a week in Ecuador, before flying down to Peru to spend time trekking the Inca Trail to the ancient ruins of Machu Picchu. We’ll then go down to Lake Titicaca which spans both Peru and Bolivian borders and into Bolivia. After approximately a week in Bolivia we’ll move onto Brazil through Sao Paulo before arriving in Rio De Janeiro where we’ll spend a few days before our flight home.

Here’s a map of my South America route: