Day 1 - a sleazy motel outside Vegas

Okay so a few of you have been asking if I'm going to do a blog whilst I'm travelling... and I honestly have to say I'm not sure if I can handle that kind of commitment at the moment - I've got the fear it'll feel like having a report to get done every 2 weeks.

But I suppose if I'm going to do anything, then I might as well make a big effort at the start and hope it continues.... so here’s my very first ever blog entry - Day 1 and so far all I can report is I’ve just got over a monster hangover (thanks to all those involved in its inception), an 18 hour transit (screaming babies and all) and 2 hours driving through the Nevada desert with Kate (who is spending the next 5 weeks with me). Highlights so far: a lovely warm welcome at arrivals in Vegas from Kate (bless her she even made me a sign saying “Lord Swain”!) and that amazing Americana feeling you can only get from tearing out of Vegas in a convertible in the warm evening sunshine and finding U2 on the radio.

Anyway in the absence of anything else useful to say I’ll summarise the plan - such as it stands at the moment:

• Katey B and I spend 2 weeks driving round California, fly to Mexico, tour around Mexico, Belize and Guatemala for 3 weeks and then, if she hasn’t done so before, she leaves me.

• I’m then on my own for a month and a half in Nicaragua, Hondouras, Costa Rica and Panama until I meet James (aka Travelling Jim) in Colombia at the start of September.

• After that all I know is that we need to drag ourselves round South America and end up in Argentina in time for James to fly home for Christmas.

If funds hold up and all of that goes according to plan (which for the first time in ages I’m kind of pleased to say I don’t care if it does) then I’m possibly going to take another few months to come back via New Zealand, Oz, Cambodia, Vietnam and a bit of China. Possibly.

So I thought I’d close up with trying to answer the question that I’ve been asked the most since deciding to do this trip:

“What are you hoping to get out of it?”

This always strikes me as an odd question - mostly because I’m English and we don’t talk about our feelings - but the truth is I’m 32 and relatively shallow so for me it’s never been about discovering more about myself, finding inner peace or spiritual enlightenment (although that might be nice!)... I just want to have a bit of fun and generally take a look around… but I hope I’m also going to learn a lot and I’m sure there’ll be plenty of surprises and tests of character along the way all of which I’m determined to meet head on.

Anyway the tickets are booked, the job, the car and the flat have gone and farewell drinks have been well and truly drunk. So it’s just me, an over-filled shiny new backpack and the big wide world.

See you around!

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