The Plan
We have loosly mapped out an overland route that will loop from Australia through to the UK via South East Asia, China and Central Asia and then back via Russia, Mongolia and South Korea.
This time we really want to slow our travel down, allowing the opportunity to pause more, learn more and get a real feel and taste for where we are.
We plan to travel for approximately 8 months of the year, park the car up and then flying home to spend time with our children, family and friends, take a break from travel (it is surprising, but travel fatigue is a thing!) and plan and research the next phase.
Our vehicle is set up for self contained travel, but given it’s simplicity we will also use guest houses and small hotels when the weather is working against us (heat and rain!)
At this stage we have broken the trip into:
First Year: East Timor, Indonesia, Malaysia, Brunei, Thailand
Second Year: Cambodia, Laos, China, Kyrgizstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Turkiye and Bulgaria (big year!)
Third Year: Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Germany, Netherlands, Belgium, France and finishing in the UK.
Fourth Year: France, Spain, Portugal, Morocco and then a selection of North West Africa, before looping back to the UK. We have kept this open as right at present there is quite a bit of unrest in the region.
Fifth Year, the return journey, taking us eastward through Europe, Russia, Mongolia, South Korea and then back to Australia.
We are completely comfortable to adjust the plans on the go. A short chat with someone who recommends a particular location can totally change the approach to a country (we undertook a totally different route than planned in Turkiye and it was all for the better) Likewise if the safety of country turns, we also pragmatic enough to go around the trouble.