Chapter 1 - Where D'ya'wanna Go Then

September 2009

"So where d'ya'wanna go then ?" I asked Nikki as the Eurostar sped from London to Paris.
"What do you mean ?" responded Nikki.
"So, I've taken off two years out of my working career so far; the first was emigrating to Australia, and the second was being Mr Mum for Alex and Michael"
"But what about work ?" Asked Nikki.
"Work is really important but I reckon it's more important to take time out to smell the roses".

At the back of my mind was the memory of Betty, my Mum, who, having worked hard all of her life in order to have this fabulous retirement, got cancer at 58 and died at 63. No, putting off smelling the roses was definitely not on my itinerary. However, there were my two sons, Alex and Michael. They would need to be through High School and that wouldn't be until the end of 2016.

"Where would you want to go ?", I asked again.
"South America. I've always wanted to go to South America". Nikki said.
"Alex and Michael are a quarter Guatemalan, so I'd want to go there".
"Aunt Zoy, and her partner Katherine live north of San Francisco", Nikki continued "And I really want to go to Mexico.

At this point I got out a copy of the Le Monde newspaper that I'd picked up a St Pancras, got out a pen and started drawing a (very bad) picture of the world.

Map 1 for Blog

"Where then ?" I asked having put "x's" on the map to mark out the locations that we'd mentioned.
"The Trans Siberian. I've always wanted to travel across Russia. Now you."
"Israel, I went there decades ago, and the vibe of the place is awesome. Whether you like the politics or hate it, it is the centre of 3 world religions, and when I was there, I could feel the history". I added more x's onto the map.
"And I've always wanted to go to Jordan" Nik said.
"And Africa" I said. "I've always wanted to go back to Africa." I paused, adding more x's onto the map.

"Well", I said, drawing a line between the x's "It's pretty obvious. We need to go from Cape Horn at the bottom of South America, to Cape Horn at the bottom of South Africa. By Land."

Nikki looked at me with a 'really ?' look. "That's never going to happen. What about work ? The Boys ? Travelling together for a year ?"

However, the trip took on a life of it's own and, gradually, the years passed. My Sons grew. The plans firmed. We did an 8 week trip to South America/ Antarctica. And then, in 2016, it was time to shit or get off the pot. A decision needed to be made. And it was. 26th December 2016 would be the departure date. We would take a year travelling from Cape to Cape. By Land. Mostly.