In March 2017 we pulled out of my parents’ driveway in California to begin our Follow the Sun odyssey. It was the culmination of 25 years of planning, dreaming and hoping that this day would finally come. Full of excitement and anticipation, Julie, Tramp and I drove down our first road in our quest to drive around the world while criss-crossing five continents.
North America
The first continent of Follow the Sun was North America – specifically continental United States, Canada and Alaska. This section of our trip stretched from March to October 2017 when we were drawn back to Australia for the birth of our first grandchild, the beautiful Abby. You can read about the hectic time packing up and moving from Australia, only to be delayed by eight weeks in California waiting for our camper to be ready from here. And our Follow the Sun journey officially begins here.
Our journey around North America covered a lot of ground with the highlight being our two months in Alaska
Mexico, Central America and South America
We hit the road again in December 2017 with our bigger and shinier Tramp, heading south for Mexico and beyond. That journey starts here. After driving down Central America and arriving in Panama we shipped Tramp to Colombia. Our South American trip starts here.
Our journey through Mexico and Central America – with a side trip to Cuba – was culturally rich and scenically beautiful
We spent about five months in South America, including a week-long cruise in the Galapagos, but this huge continent is drawing us back for more
Europe
We shipped Tramp from Montevideo Uruguay to Antwerp Belgium and flew home to see family and friends until he arrived in Europe. We then picked him up and began our trip around Europe here. Unfortunately we were limited by visa constraints – most people, including Australians, are only granted 90 days to spend in Schengen countries…which is basically all the countries of western Europe. Over the years we’ve seen a lot of Europe but we definitely need to come back again (and again!) because there’s so much more to see.
Our European journey was mainly about Scandinavia, a bit of Russia and then down to Spain and Portugal
Africa
In early 2019 we shipped Tramp from Southampton, England to Durban, South Africa to begin the next leg of our journey around southern Africa. Originally we were going to drive from the UK to southern Africa but decided there were too many unknowns and too many unqualified risks involved in traversing western Africa so we shipped Tramp again. That journey begins here. We loved the nine countries we visited in southern Africa, absolutely stunning stuff, but were called back to Australia again for the birth of another beautiful granddaughter, Leah. We’ll be heading back to Africa again some day, that’s for sure.
Our nine country circumnavigation of southern Africa was probably our favourite continent on our journey so far
Central Asia
The last leg of our journey was originally scheduled for the second half of 2019 and would take us from London to Vladivostok, Russia on the Pacific Ocean. To get there we planned to drive across Europe through the Balkan countries, across Turkey, explore the Caucasus Mountain countries, cross Iran, spend extended time in the five ‘stan’ countries (Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan), then into Russia, dip down to explore Mongolia and end up in Vladivostok. Sounds pretty straight forward.
This is our proposed route from London to Vladivostok following the fabled Silk Road
While we were enjoying our two grandchildren, surviving Australian summer bush fires and planning our Central Asia leg – which we had moved to 2020 – the dreaded corona virus struck and all travel was completely shut down. And so we sat in Australia, self-isolating, bidding our time, trying to stay healthy, just like millions if not billions of people around the world. Meanwhile Tramp was safely resting with friends in the UK and Follow the Sun just had to wait. Bugger!
And just when we were ready to hit the road again and complete the fifth continent of our journey – Asia! – Russia invaded Ukraine and the whole world as we knew it changed again. Suddenly travelling through Russia, as we had intended to do twice as part of our plan to reach Vladivostok, was completely impossible. No problem, we’re flexible, and we came up with a new plan. It looks something like this.
Can we do it? Will Covid and the war have an ongoing impact on our travels? Follow us on the blog in 2023 and let’s find out!