Look out World, Team Free are coming…………………

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Look out World, Team Free are coming…………………

It’s been 10 weeks since our last post and D-Day (Departure Day) has finally arrived - and gone. Team Free are currently sitting at Kuala Lumpur International Airport at 5:15am (local time) as we draft our first Blog on the road while waiting to board our flight to London. 6 months ago when we started to research in more detail such an epic trip, we felt 6 months would be plenty of time to organise this. Well it was, however…………just!!!

The biggest issue to date has been our Visas for Russia and Mongolia. Both required ‘letters of offer’. Real
Russia (travel agents) have been great in providing these documents for us. But once you post your visas off to the respective embassies, it tends to become this waiting game called ‘fingers crossed’. The time we posted our 5 passports off for the last time for our Vietnamese Visas, we had a substantial amount of funds invested, and to have our passports misplaced only a few weeks out work be an absolute tragedy as most our of visas are required to be applied for here in Australia. So as most travellers would confirm, your most valued possession are definitely our passports!!!

It’s been a crazy 10 weeks. In that time we finalised the sale of our house at Royal Pines, packed up,
moved all our worldly possessions in to storage (thanks Nan), moved into a unit in Surfers Paradise (thanks Mark) and have finalised the boys school work and on Friday I finished work for 4 months. I can certainly relax knowing that work is being left in the very capable hands of Clarissa and my 3 great managers. (Clarissa, just don’t crash my car!!!)

Kings Christian College have been fantastic with organising the boys work and to the boys (somewhat) disappointment, as we have plenty of work for them. Kings have an incredible IT platform for the boys to be able to hand in their homework on a daily or weekly basis. We are unsure of how much they will actually get through, as we certainly don’t want one term of school work to get in the way of them exploring new languages, cultures, foods, currencies, parks, beaches, transport, cities, important historical attractions (including theme parks – Lego Land in Denmark is at the top of the list for the 3 of them along with Hong Kong Disney) and generally absorbing as much as they can in a actioned packed 4 months.

Having a large 4 bedroom home full of ‘stuff’ makes for an interesting time when the 5 of us are now going to
be living out of 4 backpacks and a couple of daypacks for 4 months. However, we think we have done pretty well and are travelling as light as possible. We’re very pleased that we are not taking too much ‘stuff’ with us. We have a bit more ‘technology’ than I had 20 years ago backpacking when the most advance item in my possession was a 35mm instant camera!!! We’re taking a HP Netbook, iPad, iPhone, Sony HD Video Camera, 2 x Panasonic Lumix ‘Shockproof’ cameras (one for Melissa and I and one for the boys to document their version of the adventure. I’m sure that will create some ‘interesting’ shots of things that catch the eye of a 7, 10 and 13 year old) and one Kindle for some ‘Melissa time’ over the coming months. Attached are the ‘before’ and ‘after’ photos of our ‘stuff’.

Attached is a ‘draft’ plan (map) of attack. The only 3 modes of transport we have committed to are the flight via KL to London arriving Monday afternoon, the Trans-Mongolian train journey from Saint
Petersburg -> Moscow -> Irkutsk -> Ulaanbaatar (Mongolia) -> Beijing between the 3rd and 18th August and then our flight from Kuala Lumpur back to the Gold Coast in mid-October. The rest is on a ‘wing and a pray’.

The plan will see us arrive in London and then spend some quality time Andrew and Joanna and the twins in Oxford and then down to Devon with Don and Emma and the girls. A few days at Henley Royal Regatta will
enable us to catch up with some long lost London Rowing Club mates. We will then head across the Channel to France up through Belgium and the Netherlands then Germany to Denmark and Sweden, across on a ferry to Latvia and Estonia and then another ferry to Finland. Once we get to Saint Petersburg in Russia we are
on the train to Moscow, UB, Irkutsk and then onto Beijing. We will head down through China to Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Malaysia, before flying home from Kuala Lumpur.

We visited the only person we are sending postcards to (Nan) yesterday afternoon. Sorry anyone else expecting such items!!! Nan, here are a few photos as promised (someone will need to show her). You would think that by the age of 94 she would have Internet, email, Facebook, Blogs and at least Twitter. We love you so much Nan and we promise to write and thanks for your lovely card. We then enjoyed a nice meal and Mum and Dads (Reg and Helen's) - Yes, we love you guys too. The boys managed a few last phone calls to some friends on the way to the airport. Thank Dad for the ride.

Stay posted for our second Blog on the road from somewhere in the UK……….

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