The BIG Trip....
For some time now, Gretchen and I have been talking about one last
hurrah before we do something mature and responsible like settle down,
have kids, assume an oppresive mortgage, and otherwise join in the
American dream. Other than immediately after college, there is rarely
a "good time" to undergo a complete and total disconnect from daily
life, so we figured 2007 was as good a time as any. While we're still
working on the details, the following is the overall plan. The routes
shown on the maps are also pretty notional but will be more or less
the intended route. We'll be travelling primarily by bicycle with
full gear for camping, cooking, and otherwise surviving. Camping will
depend on location, but we'll probably be living in the tent 2/3 of
the time. Life is pretty cheap when all your posessions fit on 2
wheels.
Phase 1: Southern Africa (4 months)
We'll be leaving the US at the end of January 07, and heading to
Tanzania for the first leg of the trip. From Tanzania we
head south soaking up a lot of heat (which will be a major shock
coming out of Denver in January), culture shock, and saying "nice
kitty" to any very large felines we encounter. We'll pass from
Tanzania into Malawi, down part of Lake Malawi, cross Zambia, and into
Namibia at the Caprizi strip, take a quick look at Victoria falls in
Botswana, and then head for the famous sand
dunes of Namibia. From the dunes, we then head south into South
Africa and on down to Cape Town. The other major destinaion in South
Africa is Kruger National park in the upper northeast corner of the
country. At some point we'll have to rent a car to get to Kruger -
bikers wouldn't be allowed in on grounds of being cat food in short
order - and we'll spend a week or so giving our legs a rest this way.
(click image for a much larger map with route sketched in)
Phase 2: Munich to Armenia via the Balkans (2 months)
After 4 months in Africa, we'll do some culture-shock the other way,
re-joining western civilization in the form of Munich and Austria,
patching up any broken bikes while we have the chance. From there we
head down through the Balkans - some to be determined path through
Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria into Greece and finally Turkey. We're
only leaving 2 months for this stretch, so there will probably be a
few train rides to make up distance, but we'll see. The end goal is to
find my cousin Rud who's currently in Peace Corps in Armenia.
(click image for a much larger map with route sketched in)
Phase 3: Northern India (2 months.. or so)
We've been looking for opportunities to do a little volunteer work
along the way, but it's difficult to get the timing right. Looks like
we may find something a bit north of New Delhi in early August and
start our India stint with 2 weeks of teaching english and that sort
of thing. From there we'll head north as far as Leh, up near the
Tibeten border, over some of the highest roads on the planet with
passes up around 5000m! (16,500 ft). We hope to do a couple weeks of
trekking here along with the biking. After that... depends on how
we're feeling about still being on the road and all that, but if we're
still gung-ho, and the Maoists aren't kicking up a ruckus in Nepal, we
might opt to head for Kathmandu.
(you know the drill)
Phase 4: Japan (1 month)
And if we're still going strong and time hasn't gotten away from us,
there's Japan waiting off the end of the Asian Continent. Haven't put
much thought into this area at all yet, but here's a pretty map.
Credits
All maps are from the National Geographic World Atlas, which I
photographed with the Canon D20 to put them on the computer.
