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Trip Prep

12th November
2010
written by Hazel

Packing for this trip has been a daunting task.  Not only is it difficult to predict what kinds of weather conditions you’ll run into all over the world for a whole year, but we made the decision to travel light.  This does not come naturally to me.  By nature I’m a worrier and I can think of 800 situations in which I will need more stuff.  So one of the smartest moves we made was to start out by buying the backpack first – thereby providing a clear limit to the amount of stuff I’m capable of packing.

In case you’re curious, here’s a video showing off my backpack, the Deuter Futura ZeroSL


I’ve been extremely happy with this pack so far and it holds a surprising amount of gear.

Most of the space in the backpack will be taken up by clothing.  Here is what I’ve ultimately decided to take with me.

1 – 2 long-sleeved shirts (gray with hood and blue)

2 – 1 short-sleeved shirt (gray)

Trip Clothes

3 – Hat

4 – 3 tank tops (black, brown, and gray)

5 – bathing suit (blue)

6 – cotton shorts (gray)

7 – bandanna treated with insect repellent (yellow)

8 – fleece jacket (black)

9 – rain coat (green)

10 – long cotton skirt (black with pretty pattern)

11 – 2 pairs hiking trousers (black and olive green)

12 – 4 sports bras

Trip Shoes

13 – little black (sun)dress

14 – hiking sneakers

15 – hiking sandals

Not pictured – 4 pairs socks, 4 undies

I’m clearly not going to be winning any fashion awards here, but ultimately every item I’ve packed is functional, easy to wash, easy to dry, and able to be layered to keep me warm.  This can last me a year, right?  Right!?

11th November
2010
written by Hazel

On a Hike

One of the hardest parts about taking off for a whole year is leaving this sweet face behind.  I found Daisy in the Tacoma, WA pound 5 years ago and she’s been a major part of my life since then.  She’s moved with me from Puyallup, WA to Davis, CA, back to Seattle, WA and now here to the Bay Area.  She’s gone fishing, camping, whale watching, rafting, hiking, was the ring bearer in our wedding and even goes to work with Justin every day.  It’s going to be pretty difficult leaving her behind!

Luckily for us, our close friends have volunteered to take her for the year we are gone.  Daisy already loves hanging out and playing ball with them and will be totally happy to spend a year with them and their two kitties.  And even more luckily for us, they’ve promised to give her back once we are back from our travels.  We couldn’t ask for a more ideal situation.

Fetch in the Park

We’ll miss Daisy, but it’s much easier leaving knowing that she’ll be in such good hands!

 

Whale Watching off Monterey

9th November
2010
written by Hazel

This weekend we headed out to this place: The San Jose Flea Market to sell some of our stuff in preparation for the trip.  It was an awesome experience and a great way to pass on some of the things we needed to get rid of but didn’t want to take the time to post online or make a fuss about selling.

We chose to go to the Flea Market on one of their free selling days – the website said to just show up, so that’s what we did.  Since we wanted to get a good spot we were up at 3:45 a.m. and waiting in line at the market at 5:15 a.m!  This strategy worked out well and after getting lost only once we got our spot.

Early morning

Once we were set up it was pretty relaxing to watch the people go by and do a little haggling over prices for our stuff.  There was lots of cheap food available and the Mexican hot chocolate was a lifesaver in the cold early morning.  This is a very easy alternative to a yard sale and I’d highly recommend checking it out.  We hung out until about 5 p.m. and managed to get rid of a lot of our stuff.  Kitchen items, yarn, picture frames and shoes were top sellers with books being the hardest to pass on.

Justin relaxing at the Flea Market

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5th November
2010
written by Hazel

Today we booked the first leg of our trip.  We’re starting out with a one way ticket to here:

NEW ZEALAND!!!

From there we will begin our Around-the-World Ticket and travel east for the rest of our trip.  So, just to get the excitement flowing about our first stop I’ll post a few more photos from my brother’s trip to New Zealand a few years ago.

More New Zealand by Thomas Ball

All photos in this post by my brother, Thomas Ball – very inspiring!

1st November
2010
written by Hazel

I can’t believe how quickly time is going and how close we are to heading out on this trip.  One month from now we’ll be heading off around the world!!!

This afternoon we’re heading back to the travel clinic for yet another vaccination – Japanese Encephalitis.  This is actually fairly last minute as we need to have a booster shot 28 days after this first shot.  So we’ll have to go back to the travel clinic right before we head out on the trip.

31st October
2010
written by Hazel

This year for Halloween we went as obnoxious tourists.  Hopefully this means we know what NOT to do while we’re traveling!

30th October
2010
written by Justin

Justin exploring the travel clinic.Today I had to get 4 shots. Two more potentially! Plus a live vaccine in pill form. Wow!

We learned a lot today at the travel clinic. Like, for example, never put two high-ranking executives on the same plane. Check. Also, malaria is only common in one small part of South Africa. However, it’s the place most people go on safari. It turns out Malaria is one of the tougher choices we have to make. The pills are complicated, expensive, and all involve side-effects of one form or another. Choice A: a $5 per-pill new drug that you take 1 day before, during and 7 days after your trip into a malarial region, for a minimum of $40 pp plus $5 a day. Ouch. Most trips into malarial regions will cost us $100 on medication alone with this pill. B: a cheap, once-a-week pill that can give you suicidal thoughts. Oh, and you have to keep on it for 4 weeks after you leave the malarial region. C: A $1-a-day, once-a-day that you must take 1 week before and 4 weeks after entering malarial region. Also makes you prone to sunburn and irritable.

No easy choices! Just to go on safari, and to Laos which is completely infested with them. We got a prescription for the expensive pills but haven’t filled them yet.

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28th October
2010
written by Hazel

We’ve started to make some really good progress in getting this trip on the road (er…air?).  Yesterday we sold Justin’s car so we’re now officially a one car family.  There’s still lots of furniture and odds and ends to go, but with the dining table, bike, and car sold we’re starting to make a dent.  Hopefully by the time we leave in a little over a month the house will be empty!

Although we’re significantly cutting down on “stuff,” we aren’t getting rid of everything.  The remaining car will get a year of retirement and wait for our return Dec. 2011.  It will also allow us to take one station wagon load of stuff to keep to my parents’ house near Seattle.  Between that and a few boxes here and there with friends we won’t have to completely start over on our return.

Tomorrow is our trip to the travel clinic to make sure we won’t catch any exotic diseases during our travels.  Wish my arm luck – I’m not a fan of needles!

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11th October
2010
written by Hazel

After 5 months of delays we’re right back at the point of the last post I wrote and could not be more excited!  We’ve even made some progress on getting our backpacks set to travel (post on backpack contents soon to come).

We’ll write a proper post about where we’re going once we’ve purchased our tickets, but just to get it down on paper, here’s a basic sketch:

New Zealand

Chile

Argentina

Possibly Peru, Uruguay and/or Brazil

Ithaca, NY

Europe (this will involve lots of land travel, so not sure on countries yet)

Morocco

Either South Africa or Kenya

India

Thailand (and possibly other SE Asia locations)

Possibly China

Australia

What are we missing here?  Even though a year is a long time, it’s important to us to not just race around the globe.  This seems like a huge, but hopefully manageable, amount.   This list also reflects our main set of RTW flights, not all the land travel we’re planning on doing.  We can also take shorter hop flights from any of these locations.  I think we have lots of options here.

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18th May
2010
written by Hazel

There’s a lot of preparation that goes into leaving for a year and we’re getting down to the deadline here.  We’re hoping to leave as soon after June 5th as possible and be gone until the beginning of May 2011.

So far we have:

  • A rough route of travel planned
  • Our backpacks and most of the stuff to go in them
  • Informed friends/family/employers of this plan
  • Hazel working full-time on trip preparation

We have not finished:

  • Getting all the vaccinations needed
  • Selling or donating all of our possessions
  • Finalizing visas/travel documents

Seems like we’re cutting it pretty close, but it will come together in the end!

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