Preparation
It was almost three years ago that we began to seriously entertain the notion of heading off again on another extended trip.
The catalyst was a short holiday backpacking in Egypt and Israel. We met other long-term travellers who didn’t have the burden of a return plane ticket or jobs and responsibilities to come home to, and we longed for that freedom again ourselves.
We didn’t want to return to England again without a penny to our name, so the first priority was to set some serious long term saving goals (and with the meticulous use of Microsoft Money these plans were achieved).
Once the finances were on track, the next step was to decide where to go and how to get there. Over the next 12 months our plans changed a thousand times. Whenever we spoke to someone, read a new article on the web, or looked at the atlas there was another “must visit” place calling out for us to add to the list.
Deciding how to travel was no easier. In 1996, we had travelled using a cheap round the world (RTW) ticket, and this time we initially favoured the STAR alliance ticket with it’s mileage based tariff. We had some great evenings, glass of wine in one hand, using the measurement tool in Encarta World Atlas to plot alternate routes. Very sad, but you have to find new forms of entertainment when on a tight budget!
The downside of a RTW is flexibility – the route is fixed which means that when you hear of another must-see place you have to file it away for the next trip. So much of the joy of independent travel is the ability to wake up in the morning and say “I think I’m going to go to …… today”.
Many travellers tend to fall in love with one continent, and for us it has to be Asia with it’s rich, exotic cultures, warm, friendly people and spicy, aromatic food. After much debate the decision was made to concentrate on Asia and explore as many of the countries we had not previously visited.
We will buy a one-way ticket to our first destination and take it from there. The exact destination will depend on the discounted flights available nearer the time, but will be somewhere in the Indian sub-continent – probably India, but possibly Sri Lanka, Nepal or Bangladesh. Our favoured options are to travel overland through Nepal, Tibet and China and into South East Asia via Laos, Vietnam or Cambodia, or fly to Burma and on to Thailand and then overland back to India, but anything is possible.
Our original plan, was to leave straight after New Year in early January 2002. However, by October when it came to booking our tickets there was so much uncertainty in the world as a result of September 11th that we decided to delay for six months (after all, we’d waited for three years already, what difference would this make?).
The six months dragged for an eternity. We were now so close after the long wait and the excitement was building, but we were living secret lives as we felt unable to tell friends or colleagues at work of our plans.
The upside of this wait was that the additional money saved meant that we could now add a three month trip through Africa to the start of our adventure. We had already seen a number of the overland trucking companies at various travel shows, so knew exactly what we wanted – to travel from Nairobi to Cape Town via Namibia taking in the Mountain Gorillas in Uganda.
With money, and route decided (sort of), the last piece of preparation was what to take. To say I have become obsessive about pack weight is an understatement. In Africa the backpack will stay on the truck, but one of our main goals when we reach Nepal is to walk the Annapurna circuit independently without a porter. At altitude a light pack will be a godsend and I would love to get the weight of our packs down to 10kg. I suspect I will have to settle for 13kg.
For the last three years we haven’t been able to pass a camping or outdoor shop without browsing the latest and greatest gear. During that time we have accumulated a number of useful products which we will take:
The problem of which sleeping bags to buy vexed us the most. The bag must be as small and light as possible, but able to deal with the coldest conditions on the trip. Unfortunately, the manufacturers’ warmth ratings are not independent and anyway what is toasty for one person is uncomfortable for another. First of all we purchased incredibly light, compact duck down bags and silk liners. One wintry weekend we camped out on Dartmoor to put them to the test. The weather was wet and wild, but Himalayan it was not – we froze. The next week we splashed out on best quality three season goose down bags. Slightly heavier and bulkier they may be, but we will take these instead.
We now leave for Nairobi on July 28 and return from Cape Town on October 18. We hope to be back in England for no more than two weeks – just long enough get a visa and a one-way ticket to India.
