I have just said goodbye to my house for 4 months – such a strange feeling! So how did this come about?
Well, I suppose it all started quite simply with me booking a ticket to Australia to stay with Ben and Jo, after weeks of putting it off as I had a sneaky suspicion that I might not get the dates right. I should have listened to that little voice in my head. I was certain I wanted to go in March, as last year I found it too hot and tiring in February. So I finally made the decision and booked – one of those ‘V’ tickets that you can’t change, as I found out later.
At the end of November I had an appointment at the hospital where my titanium knee was checked out and found to be excellent, even if it won’t bend more than 90 degrees. The other knee was not so good, bone on bone apparently, so I had another steroid injection which would stave off surgery for another year. All fine so far…
The knowledge that I had a year of painfree travel ahead naturally prompted me to get on the internet and start googling all the places I wanted to travel to after Australia… and at this point I came across overland trips. Of course, the first destination I looked at was Australia (again! twice in one year?!) because most overland travel companies went through central Asia and China before heading south – who could resist that! After that, there was no way I’d even contemplate flying anywhere – it had to be overland. I had almost decided on a journey taking 5 months and ending up in Sydney just before Christmas 2011. So you can imagine how devastated I was when I discovered that this trip – and most of the other London to Oz trips – involved pretty high altitudes, which I knew I could not cope with.
Then, bumbling about on the Ozbus website, I came across the most amazing journey of all, and knew I had to do it! London to New York, over land and sea – three months of excitement and adventure across northern Europe, Russia and Siberia, Mongolia, China, Alaska, Canada and the northern states of the USA. I made contact with Rob from Ozbus and shot almost daily emails off to him with a thousand queries which he patiently answered. The fact that he had been on the first-ever London to New York trip in 2010 (LNY1) meant that he had great insider knowledge of essentials and fascinating trivia – and his photos were great!
But, my plans were to be dashed again – how many disappointments can a person have? The Ozbus date of departure from London was March 27th. I was due to fly back to London from Australia on March 30th. I had two options: change my ticket or delay the overland trip for a year… Neither was a good bet. The ticket was a ‘V’ ticket, as I found out, and could not be changed. And in a year’s time I could be lame and crippled and waiting for surgery. Rob came up with the solution: join the rest of the travellers somewhere in Europe. And so I cast caution to the wind, didn’t stop to ask how the house would look after itself for 4 months (but I have a very good friend who has stepped in, selflessly!) and went ahead and booked.
The next couple of months were a whirlwind of activity and sleepless nights, as I worked out how to get visas for Russia, Mongolia and China – and still get my passport back from a visa company in London in time to travel to Australia on March 1st. And then there were the jabs: Hep A, Hep B, tick-borne encephalitis, typhoid, polio, tetanus, diphtheria…and rabies, not to mention the GP prescriptions to cover my meds for the months away. Finally, packing two bags: one for Australia and the other for the LNY2 trip. A headache which will probably come back to haunt me, as I don’t think I’ve got it right! I am now in Australia with too few clothes, and may have put too many in the Ozbus bag. The friend who has sacrificed herself to care for my house is also travelling up to Heathrow on March 31st to spirit away my Australia bag and substitute the Ozbus one in its place. How’s that for organisation! And a day later I fly to Warsaw and have a day to myself before the Ozbus adventurers catch up with me.
So now I’m in Australia, glowing in the humidity. LNY2 is a few weeks away and if the bag isn’t packed right, then it’s too bad. In the meantime, I’ve been to the information centre in Frankston, on the Mornington Peninsula, and have handfuls of brochures and bus timetables. Tomorrow I’m off to explore, now that the jet lag has worn off and at the weekend we’re off to Castlemaine in the Goldfields, northwest of Melbourne. More of all that later….
Patamateria 