Saturday 21 April 2007

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!

Wednesday 18 April 2007

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"...

Saturday 14 April 2007

The First Post

Step 1: put sticker on. Step 2: drive there.
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...