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Published: August 6th 2007
Boston
The Newbury Guesthouse - our Boston digs.Okay, so the travelblog site is back up and running - and luckily we managed to restore this entry. I feel sorry for those poor folk that have lost entire journals.
Well, it's almost time to go.
Hello everyone. For those of you that don't know, we are about to leave the UK and head off into the outback. We visited Australia for a look around in January 2007, and thought we could see ourselves living there - so why not give it a go? We chose Melbourne as the place we want to live, so we came back to the UK - packed in our jobs, and started organising our trip over.
Final preparations are afoot, shippers have been booked to put all our worldly effects into a container, and send it across the ocean, our house will be rented out and our bags are just about packed.
It will be with great excitement, trepidation and a tinge of sadness as we depart the UK on the 1st September on our way Down Under, taking in some of the East & West coasts of the USA, Peru and New Zealand on the way.
After weeks of carefull planning,
Amtrack train.
Our means of transport down the east coast. our itinerary is now organised and all the digs are booked.
Tony has a job lined up to go to when we arrive in Melbourne, Emma will be a lady of leisure for a while, having the luxury of time to scout out that perfect job. We'll give ourselves a couple of weeks to find a nice rental, buy a car and generally settle a little before Tony starts work, and the enormity of what we will have done will hit us.
Our trip over begins on
September 1st - we leave Newcastle airport and fly via Heathrow to Boston where we will spend 3 nights at the
Newbury Guesthouse. On the 4th September we board the train to New York and spend five nights in the Big Apple. We are staying right near the Empire State Building, in the
Hotel Pennsylvania. Back on the train again on the 9th and over to Philadelphia to spend a couple of nights with our friends Peter and Emma. From Philly it's the train to Washington D.C to stay with our friends Yuri and Atsushi for four nights. That's the East Coast covered.
September 15th New York.
Our digs in the 'Big Apple'. The Hotel Pennsylvania. - from Washington D.C. we fly to Las Vegas where we will be staying at the
Luxor Hotel for three nights. Assuming we have any money left after a dabble in the casinos, we'll be taking a hire car and driving through Death Valley. A one night stopover at the
Furnace Creek ranch before heading into Yosemite National Park. We have two nights booked in the
Ceder Lodge Motel which will give us some time to go and explore the waterfalls and features in Yosemite. From Yosemite, it's a drive over to San Francisco.
September 21st - We are staying in San Francisco's
Chancellor Hotel for five nights, giving us plenty of time to see what San Francisco has to offer, including the Golden Gate bridge and Alcatraz. If Emma keeps her nose clean, they may let her ourt early for good behaviour! We'll get chance to catch our breath and have a decent rest before the real adventure part of the trip starts.
September 26th - It's on to South America from San Francisco. On the 26th we fly to Lima, Peru via LA as part of
Philladelphia.
The home of 'Rocky Balboa' - The Italian Stallion. a
GAP tour. Lima is known as the City of Kings and is Peru’s capital city. After a couple of nights in Lima, we fly on to Cuzco which is the continent’s oldest continuously inhabited city, and the hub of the South
American travel network. We won't have to go far to see major Inca ruins as it is a city steeped in history, tradition and legend.
After a night in Cuzco, it's on to Ollantaytambo where we will travel through the Sacred Valley of the Incas. The Sacred Valley is a lush agricultural region that continues to supply the city of Cuzco with much of its produce.
After spending the night in Ollantaytambo, we start the real adventure - the 4-day Inca Trail to Machu Picchu. It is said to be physically challenging so we'd better get some last minute training in. The Inca Trail is a 40-km (25 mile) hike, with 3 high passes to be crossed, one of which, ( Dead Womans Pass ), reaches an elevation of 4200m (13776 ft). The temperatures at night can fall below zero, so we'll have to pack several extra-thick jumpers for Emma. We'll depart Ollantaytambo for km 82
where the walk starts. We'll be trekking through high plateau areas down to dense cloud forest. On the final day of the hike we climb the steps to the Sun Gate overlooking the peaks that surround Machu Picchu. Apparently there is no way to describe the feeling of the first views of Machu Picchu as the mist rises off the mountains early in the morning, and the famous ruin appears in front of you. We'll have a day to explore the ruins before having the chance to soak in the hot springs of Aguas Calientes, then its the train back to Cuzco.
Cuzco is a colonial town with nearby ruins, cobble-stoned streets, museums, churches and lively atmosphere. If we can still walk after the trek, and have any energy left, we can go horseback riding around archaeological sites, white water rafting on the Urubamba River, ( I don't think so - not after what happened last time we tried white water rafting! ), or mountain biking down to the Sacred Valley.
After a nights rest in Cuzco, we'll be dropping from the cold, thin air of the Andes to the stinking hot humidity of the Amazon Jungle. Sound like fun?
We fly from Cuzco to Puerto Maldonado deep in the lowlands of the jungle. Once in the jungle It's a three hour canoe trip to our lodge in the Tambopata Rainforest Area. We'll explore the jungle with local guides, spotting the abundant wildlife and going on a night trek and night canoe trip to spot alligators! There'll be bugs aplenty, and spiders the size of dinner plates.
After a couple of nights in our jungle lodge it's back to Lima for a final night on the town, before flying out of Peru and back up to Los Angeles.
October 9th - Los Angeles - back to civilisation after our spell in the jungle, ( are people in LA civilized? ). We have three nights in LA, staying in the Best Western
Sunset Plaza on Sunset Boulevard. We'll be off to Universal Studios and Hollywood, who knows - maybe we'll bump into Robbie Williams? - assuming he's out of rehab.
October 14th - From the drugs, guns and mean streets of LA its on to Wellington, New Zealand, where we'll be will spending eight nights with Emma's parents and sister. We have no firm plans
Death Valley.
Looks a tad on the warm side. set for New Zealand as yet, but I think some sort of mountain bike tour - or long trek may be on the cards? So long as no one has 'popped a cap in our ass' in LA.
October 22nd - Melbourne here we come! This is when the real work starts, finding a rental, buying a car and sussing out the lay of the land. All that travelling will either put us off going away again for life - or give us itchy feet and the taste for travel and adventure? So, we'll stick it out in Melbourne for a couple of years at least, see how we settle in. We'll use it as a base to see a bit more of Australia, and maybe a holiday to Japan.
If anyone has visited any of the above places and has 'must see' suggestions, then please post a comment. We wont be doing a trip like this again, so we'll have to make sure we get to see all the best bits as we go.
Well, that's the plan. All in all, it should be a pretty bloody good adventure, exhausting, exciting and a once in a lifetime
Yosemite.
Hey Boo Boo - or is that the other national park? trip. - we'll keep the blog up to date as we go, we'll miss you all and we'll no doubt return to the UK in a couple of years time to catch up. It goes without saying that if anyone wants to come and see us in Australia, then there'll always be some space on the floor for your air-beds.
Here's to a bloody big adventure!
Tony & Emma x
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Vanessa
non-member comment
Wow!
Wow what a trip. How jealous am I! I hope you have a fabulous time. You will be arriving in Melbourne in the middle of spring and hopefully the weather will have picked up by then. Take care and enjoy.