more happens...

Joanna's put in her visa application, so we've got all our paperwork done and dusted and everything's kinda irreversible now. Time to organise leaving parties!

Proposed Route

Our proposed route - we'll show the actual once we're going...

Place	Distance (km)		Total km	Days There	Last Day
				Start:	11-Jun
Rambouillet	331	(calais - rambouillet)	331	1	12-Jun
Bilbao	877	(rambouillet - bilbao)	1208	2	14-Jun
Portugal	863	(bilbao - lisbon)	2071	7	21-Jun
South Spain	583	(lisbon - cadiz)	2654	1	22-Jun
Morrocco	696	(cadiz - casablanca - cadiz)*	3350	7	29-Jun
Madrid/Barca	1119	(cadiz - barcelona)	4469	6	05-Jul
Venice (Verona)	1239	(barcelona - venice)	5708	3	08-Jul
Slovenia	300	(venice - ljubljana)	6008	3	11-Jul
Croatia	475	(ljubljana - split)+	6483	6	17-Jul
Serbia	776	(split - belgrade)+*	7259	4	21-Jul
Bulgaria	621	(belgrade - varna)	7880	5	26-Jul
Greece	1120	(varna - sparta)+	9000	9	04-Aug
Turkey	2650	(sparta - bodrum - istanbul)+	11650	10	14-Aug
Bulgaria	502	(istanbul - varna)+	12152	1	15-Aug
Romania	277	(varna - bucharest)+	12429	6	21-Aug
Ukraine	916	(bucharest - kiev)+	13345	9	30-Aug
Hungary	1097	(kiev - budapest)+	14442	6	05-Sep
Slovakia	201	(budapest - bratislava)+	14643	3	08-Sep
Poland	650	(bratislava - warsaw)+	15293	8	16-Sep
Kaliningrad	316	(warsaw - kaliningrad)	15609	2	18-Sep
Lithuania	400	(kaliningrad - vilnius)	16009	3	21-Sep
Latvia	289	(vilnius - riga)	16298	3	24-Sep
Estonia	307	(riga - tallinn)	16605	3	27-Sep
St Petersburg	369	(tallinn - st petersburg)	16974	4	01-Oct
Moscow (& Novgorod)	717	(st petersburg - moscow)	17691	4	05-Oct
Gen Russia	1384	(moscow - ufa)	19075	6	11-Oct
Kazakhstan	1400	(ufa - astana)~	20475	8	19-Oct
West China (Xinjiang)	2200	(astana - urumqi)~	22675	10	29-Oct
central / Xian	3200	(urumqi - xi'an)~	25875	10	08-Nov
southern, head to Laos	2200	(xi'an - mengla)~	28075	9	17-Nov
Laos	650	(mengla - vientiane)~	28725	9	26-Nov
Thailand	763	(vientiane - bangkok)~	29488	8	04-Dec
Malaysia	1720	(bangkok - kuala lumpur)~	31208	9	13-Dec
Singapore	392	(kuala lumpur - singapore)~	31600	2	15-Dec
			Total Days:	187
	(GoogleMaps except *mapcrow, +RAC, ~beastly estimates)

Wednesday

I found a link today, that lets you highlight countries. Say where you've been in the world. But here's the countries on our planned tour here.

Also today I handed my resignation letter in. Told them yesterday, just did the formals today. We tried to hand Joanna's NZ residency application in on Monday, but we had the wrong birth certificate. So we're waiting for the long version, hopefully it'll arrive tomorrow and we can get the application in on Friday. Other than that the application is apparently "perfect"...

The First Post

We're still some way off leaving - just under a couple of months - but we're starting to get things organised. Our stuff has been picked up and is to be put on a ship this week; we apply for Joanna's NZ visa on Monday; we've started organising being able to drive in China (the tricky place); and we've worked out which countries to visit. We're not going the most direct way, and we're going to cheat by flying the second half (from Singapore or Kuala Lumpur), but we're going to try and visit lots of interesting places. We aim to be in New Zealand for Christmas.

The picture is of our wee sticker ceremony we just had. We already had a GB sticker from previous European trips, so we added NZ for where we're going...