Julie and I are sitting patiently at home in Sydney, waiting for this dreadful corona virus to finish doing its evil on the world before we and millions (billions!) of others can resume normal life as we knew it – or whatever the new ‘normal’ will be when that time comes.  In the meantime, we are reminiscing about our fabulous Follow the Sun trip which was interrupted after completing four of the five continents of our journey and looking forward to getting back on the road some day.  So when a friend recently asked us a common question, what’s been your favourite part of the trip so far, we had to look at each other and smile.  How do you answer that question?

Follow the Sun has so far spanned 543 days, 51 countries, 80 border crossings, 128,000 kilometres and 31,000 photos across four continents, all of which adds up to immeasurable memories of this fabulous planet we live on.  So what was our favourite part of the trip so far?  Well, it depends on how you measure ‘favourite’. 

As a favourite destination we might say Alaska, it ticked all our boxes and offered so many unique and special moments it makes our heads spin. 

For favourite places we might say the Galapagos Islands with all its unique flora and fauna. 

For favourite campsites we might say Masuma Waterhole in Zimbabwe where the nearby roar of lions convinced us to move from the fire to inside Tramp. 

For favourite wildlife moment we might pick the night in Newfoundland Canada when our camp was surrounded by wolves as they howled into the night, angry at our invasion to their territory.

 For favourite natural phenomenon we probably would choose Bolivia’s Salar de Uyuni, the largest salt flats in the world, where we drove out on the salt and camped for the night.   Or would it be Victoria Falls on the Zambia and Zimbabwe border?

For our favourite game park we might have to choose between Kruger National Park in South Africa and Choebe National Park in Botswana.

Are you into fjords?  Take Norway.  Deserts?  That might be northern Chile or central Namibia.  Best beaches? Maybe Baja California (Mexico) or South Africa.  Best dinner out?  You can’t go past fresh lobsters in Newfoundland Canada.  Most emotionally moving place?  Hands down, Robben Island where Nelson Mandela spent 27 years.

And so the list goes on.

But if you bundle all that up, slice it, dice it, ruminate over it and debate it over and over, Julie and I do have one moment that probably stands out more than any other.  In Alaska (of course it would be Alaska) we took a float plane flight from the small town of Kodiak on the island of Kodiak to remote Katmai National Park where we waded ashore and with our guide/guard we watched up close huge Kodiak bears fishing for salmon. 

The two hours we spent on that gravel spit watching bears come down for a feed, including mum’s and their cubs, was like no other – the majesty of Alaska, the awesomeness of bears, the balances of nature, the uniqueness of being so close and watching this natural phenomenon of life in the wild take place was just extraordinary.  Julie and I still talk about it as if it was yesterday.

 

 

We will no doubt have many more fabulous moments as we (eventually) complete the final leg of our journey, which we call the Silk Road – driving from London, across Europe, Turkey, the Caucasus countries, Iran, the ‘Stan countries of Central Asia, Mongolia and Russia until we finally reach Vladivostok on the Pacific Ocean.  But until then we are spending some wonderful time with our family and friends, staying safe from this dastardly virus and reminiscing on our wonderful Follow the Sun journey so far.