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… we closed the loop!

During these 428 days around the world, we :
- travelled through 13 countries on three continents
- spent 107 days in the Northern Hemisphere, and 321 in the Southern Hemisphere (between the latitudes of 55 degrees south and 51 degrees north)
- Enjoyed 141 days of spring, 147 days of summer, 92 days of fall, and only 48 days of winter (which is actually the nice, sunny season in Peru and Indonesia!)
- went down to -75 m, and up to 5000 m above sea level
- used every form of transport imaginable, including :
-> a total of 11 flights
-> an incalculable number of bus and boat rides (including a row boat!)
-> about 1000 km hitchiking
-> 55 days of hiking or almost 2 months out of 14
-> car, scooter, bike and quad rental
-> 4x4s, tuk-tuks and collectivos of all kind
- visited 24 UNESCO World Heritage sites
- avoided 4 earthquakes (which happened either before or after our visits to China, Australia, Indonesia and Chile)
- used 3 pairs of hiking boots, 3 pairs of sandals, 3 pairs of thongs, 2 pairs of tennies shoes, as well as lots of tshirts and a few pairs of pants
- consulted 3 different doctors (1 on each continent!)
- went scuba diving 22 times (all in Asia), to a max depth of 30m
- published 137 articles (an average of one every four days); we took turns writing the articles : the articles written in English by Kath were translated into French by Roland, and vice versa.
- received 620 comments from you (about 4 per article, thank you!)
- took over 18.000 photos (which is about 40 per day)
- and most importantly no accidents or theft (we were touching wood up til the last day)!!!!! Yes, the world is a safer place than you might think ;-)

But all these figures aren’t enough to sum up over a year of travel – the feeling of being able to choose our route as we went along, the pleasure of discovering new cultures and living a little with the locals, the excitement of the unknown and going to a new town every week without knowing where we’d stay or how it would be, the difficulty of changing currency non-stop, the comfort of crossing Australia in our own van being able to stop wherever and whenever we wanted, the frustration of not finding a good internet connection when we had 500 photos to upload, feeling too lazy to write the articles for the blog when we were 3 weeks behind, the hope that one of us will always feel good enough to remotivate the other when things weren’t going so well, the stress whether or not we’d have enough money to get home , the pride of having pushed ourselves and the joy of suceeding!

The best memory: there are too many! And it’s hard to compare the unexpected appearance of a whale jumping out of the ocean with the joy of seeing Machu Picchu after four days of hiking, or the beauty of sunrise over the Great Wall of China with the total letting go that comes with hitchiking in Chile when you have no pressure because you can just plant your tent wherever you end up…
The best food: difficult to say because we ate well most of the time, but Thailand probably takes the cake, or the curry…
The best beer: in London no doubt, but we quite liked the beer in Tasmania as well
The best wine: in Argentina, nothing better than a malbec with a juicy bife de lomo ;-)
Our favourite country : it’ll have to be a bit more precise to answer that one! Despite all our concerns, we were fascinagted by China, and we’d return ther ein a heartbeat (actually, Roland wants to go live in Beijing!) ; Malaysia was a wonderful surprise as it’s a country with beautiful landscapes and incredibly diverse, with a mix of Hindu, Chinese, Muslim and colonial influences, where it’s very easy to travel; our trip across Australia was unforgettable (even though we never got to the two spots Kath was determined not to miss: the centre and the north…) and we miss Denny very much; Chilean hospitality is unbeatable; and we’d love to go back to Bolivia as it’s an interesting country, as yet not totally invaded by tourists, where it’s possible to live along with the locals
The worst experience: for Roland, the 20 hour night bus trip up to Tibet where he got altitude sickness
The scariest: the silver mines in Potosi, but maybe also the climb up the Bicentenary Tress in Australia where the smallest mistep would have led to a 75m fall!
Our biggest regret: not having had the time in Asia to visit Cambodia or Vietnam, and we would have liked to spend more time in China and Malaysia! We would have prefered to do things at the pace at which we explored South America, but it was just the beginning of our trip and we were eager to move quickly! And we’ll have to go back to Chile for the island of Chiloe…

And then it was time to come home…

Since arriving in Lyon last Saturday, we’ve both made the same reflection : we have the feeling we never left!
It’s incredible, but we didn’t really suffer from jet lag, and we’re settling in as if we were always here, even though we were expecting a big shock…
But the memories from this trip will always be with us, and we shared an amazing experience that we’ll never fully be able to share with anyone other than each other
It’s really great to see friends and family after being away for 14 months !
Well, Kath has to wait a little longer, and that brings us to the next question:

What do we do now?

At the moment, our plan is to go settle in Vancouver in August.
Even though things have become a bit complicated due to Roland’s visa problems, we still want to go to Canada this summer to see Kath’s family and friends, and sort our Roland’s immigration issues from within Canada… or at least that’s the plan at the moment, things may change!
And you can continue to follow us as we’ll continue with the blog while we get settled in Vancouver – even if it’ll be a bit less exotic than during Ze Big Trip.

Anyway, this site won’t go anywhere and we’ll keep it online as long as possible, as it’s a journal of sorts for us and it will be nice for us to come back and read about our Asian, Australian and South American adventures! We may also complete it later with one or two articles to help future travellers prepare their trip.

Here we are with about a month or so in France before heading to Canada, so we hope to see everyone this summer!
We’d also especially like to thank those who hosted us along the way: old friends or people we met along the Big Trip, we were really touched by their hospitality, and having a second home gave us a little rest and a chance to get out of hostels for a w while… thanks !

And finally, thank you everyone for your messages on this blog : it was a real pleasure to know that you were following us when we were far away, and your comments meant alot!!

So see you soon for some new adventures !