BACKGROUND

BACKGROUND

This blog is available for those friends and family who wish to follow our progress during our 6 month plus trip of a lifetime. It is not intended to upset anyone; we are not trying to ‘rub it in’ about our good fortune at being able to actually do this journey. All we are trying to do is share our experience as best we can with those who want to share it with us. So, if you wish follow us as we set off on this, our once in a lifetime opportunity to have a holiday of a lifetime!

Our initial plans were certainly more modest than the final outcome became. It was more than 2 years ago when Julie and I talked about taking a trip to the UK for Christmas with my sister, Susan in Grimsby. At the time of the initial planning Julie had never been out of Australia so it was somewhat daunting. However, the prospect of seeing some of the heritage of mine was sufficient to overcome her very real fear of flying and plans were laid.

I had my long service leave due and the perfect opportunity was there. With this in mind we drew up plans and investigated air-fares and the like. This is where the trip started to take on a life of its’ own! Flying any airline involves a stop-over in one of the ‘hubs’ and the Emirates stop-over is Dubai. Who wouldn’t want a few days in Dubai? So the seeds were sown.

A colleague at work suggested rail travel in Europe and on investigation this looked like a great opportunity. Thus 2 months travelling through Europe became a real option and further leave was planned. Annual leave was added to long service leave and the experience was born. I was well aware of Julies’ fear of flying and had this brainwave to return via cruise ship, Southampton to Fremantle. When I suggested it to Julie she was all for it, killing two birds with one stone so to speak. Julie was then ‘researching’ cruises on ships such as the Athenia, and nearly fell out of bed when I suggested one of the Queens. The Queen Mary did this trip in 2012 with an overnight stop in New York. Naively we presumed this would be the same for 2013. As I had always wanted to see ‘The Big Apple’ it seemed like a perfect opportunity and we talked of a visit to Broadway and even a stay in the Waldorf for the night. Looking at the cost it did seem a reasonable option. This then became locked into our psyche.

When the Cunard schedule for 2013 was released it transpired that the Queen Mary was not sailing the itinerary suitable to us but the Queen Victoria was. However there was no New York overnight stay. It was also a later sailing and involved further extension to my leave. Fortunately I have ample leave so extend it was. We at first intended to fly to New York from the UK, stay a few nights and then join the Victoria for the journey home. We then decided to fly to Los Angeles instead and take in Las Vegas and Disneyland just for the heck of it. After all, if we are going to be crazy and spend the kids inheritance then why not do it all in style. It was as we were finalising our plans that we then decided to make it complete by incorporating the Indian Pacific and Ghan trains on our return to Australia. Of course that leaves the problem of returning to Perth from Darwin.

So, the final leg of our trip was devised. A consideration for our retirement has been to purchase a motor-home and tour Australia. What better option for our plans to test drive a motor-home than to hire one in Darwin for our return to Perth? The only problem being was the need to take yet more annual leave from work to do this. Fortunately I had sufficient leave available and I was able to secure this. Thus almost two years ago the final touches were put to the trip and the physical booking began.