Year 3 precursor
Well it's been a while since we got back from our Sheffield to Cape Town trip on the bikes in May 2011.
And now we're ready for round 3.
This time we're planning to visit North, Central and South Americas. On our first trip around the world we had to rush across North America, west to east, trying to keep ahead of the snow, which meant we didn't get to see lots of the places we'd planned to. And there was also a cock-up on the financial front, meaning we were running out of money, so we missed out South and Central America altogether.
So we've had a few years to assess, review, cogitate and plan and now we're off again. Bob has always seen this as "unfinished business" and to be fair, the original starting point of the trip was my desire to see the "Christ the Redeemer" statue in Rio de Janeiro. So it was always on the cards that we would think about completing the trip properly.
In the intervening four years, we had a short break while I fought breast cancer; we wrote an unpublished book about our travels; and we've both worked to earn some money, in order to restore and rebuild a knackered, rusting 25-year-old Land Rover Defender 110 County Station Wagon. This has taken us around 18 months, with Bob doing pretty much all of the work himself. So at least if it breaks down, he'll know how to fix it, allegedly!
He is currently fitting out the Land Rover (which we've named Foxtrot), and we are sorting out equipment and paperwork ready to resume our travels in February/March 2016. We're planning on about 10 months away, and will be potentially shipping Foxtrot over to Baltimore via RoRo ferry, and back from Caracas when we've finished. Although nothing is written in stone, as ever.
Much of the kit we had in our first two adventures is being utilised again and this time we have a lot more room than two panniers each! But we've got used to travelling light, so it's a bonus really.
The biggest change is having a roof-tent on top of Foxtrot we've tested it out once so far, and managed to climb up to it after several cans of cider and a bottle of whisky between us. Not recommended it has to be said.
Foxtrot
So we're making plans for another adventure in 22 weeks time, roughly. Will update this nearer the time when we have some solid plans.