Team Free

We made it……………… After 116 days more than 42,000 km and over 22,000km of that being via ‘overlanding’ through 20 countries from London, England to Kuala Lumpur, we are now back home on the Gold Coast, Australia. It was a strange and surreal feeling when the alarm went off at 5:45am on Day 116 in our hotel in KL. We’re going home!!! Country number 21 – Australia. It’s interesting to see how the boys ‘chew up and spit out’ a 8 hour flight from KL to Coolangatta now as if it’s just another day on the road, a short day compared to what they have experienced since arriving in London back in mid-June. Arriving back in Australia always feels good. The smell of the coastal salt air as you walk across the tarmac at Coolangatta Airport ... read more

Day 95 Wednesday 19th September to Day 107 Monday 1st 2012. Thailand – Beaches, Crystal waters, Resorts, Nightclubs, Ladyboys and Day 100. Days 95 to 107 saw us push through the magic 100 day milestone of our trip. We also got the news that both the Storm and Swans won their respective Grand Finals while travelling through Thailand. Our 13 days in Thailand began by arriving into Bangkok after overlanding across the Cambodian/Thai border. Bangkok is a vibrant city with plenty of traffic, noise, colour, food and entertainment (not necessarily for kids). We only planned to spend a few days in Bangkok and get to the southern beaches as soon as possible. 3 nights gave us time to organise our transport south, check out a few sights and enjoy some Thai food in the capital. We ... read more

Day 81 Wednesday 5th September to Day 91 Saturday 15th September 2012. Vietnam – A kaleidoscope of nature, people and history. Busy cities, crazy traffic, street hawkers, bumpy roads, chaotic markets, war history, cheap hotels, amazing landscapes, luxury resorts with impressive beaches and infinity pools. Vietnam has it all to offer. After a massive 36 hours of travelling from Hong Kong to Hanoi, we all slept amazingly well as expected. This is normally the case after travelling on overnight trains or buses and after breakfast we quickly got out of the hotel and stepped into the chaos that is Hanoi to explore another foreign city. Staying alive during this trip is of upmost importance to us. Weaving a path through millions of motorbikes as we cross the road ensured we had to keep our wits about ... read more

Day 62 Friday 17th August 2012 to Day 74 Wednesday 29thAugust Ni hao (G’Day) from China The last 12 days have seen us visit 3 main areas of China. Beijing, Shanghai and Yangshuo. The last time I was in Beijing was back in 2008 to watch Dunc win a Gold Medal. The number of volunteers around who spoke English during the Olympics made it very easy to get around. Well, it’s not 2008 anymore and all the volunteers have all long gone home. We crossed the Mongolian/Chinese border late at night on the 17th August at the edge of the Gobi Desert. Once we arrived at the border, every train carriage is lifted up and a new set of undercarriage wheel sets are attached due to the different gauge of the Chinese tracks. This process takes ... read more

Day 46 – Wednesday 1st August 2012 to Day 57 – Sunday 12th August 2012. Hello from Russia Comrades……. These last 14 days have seen us cover 5 times zones across the largest country in the world to now only be 1 hour behind Australia (East Coast Time). We travelled 5,990kms (let’s call it 6,000km) from St Petersburg to Irkutsk via Moscow on our first leg of the Trans-Mongolian railway. Leg 2 is from Irkutsk, Russia to Ulaanbaatar, UB for short, in Mongolia and the final stage is from UB to Beijing, China. The Trans-Siberian remains in Russia the entire journey from St Petersburg all the way to Vladivostok on the Sea of Japan. The actual trains the ‘Trans-Mongolian’ and the ‘Trans-Siberian’ don’t actually exist unlike the ‘Orient Express’, the ‘Ghan’ and the ‘Indian Pacific’. They ... read more