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Our Plan


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The plan, like all great plans, was simple. Travel and see as much of the world as possible, while taking enough time to get to know each region. The priority was geographic and cultural exploration, using the medium of adventure sports, in particular rock climbing, as the fulcrum for our travels.

While our itinerary was quite flexible, we had to estimate when and where we would be in order to book plane tickets. It is interesting to compare how long we thought we would spend somewhere with how long we actually spent there.

India and Nepal

This is what we've done

12 Feb - Flew from Dublin to Heathrow and on to Delhi

15 Feb - 17 hour bus ride up to Manali

18+19 + 22 Feb - Skiing in Solang

21 Feb - Day trip to Naggar

23 Feb - 16 hour bus ride back to Delhi

25 Feb - Agra and the Taj Mahal and onto Varanasi that night

1-3 March - Train to Gorakhpur. Narrow gauge train to Border and over to Pokhara. Bus to Pokhara - 9 hours

4-7 March - R&R Pokhara

8-16 March - Trek to Annapurna Base camp

16-20 March - R&R Pokhara

21 March - Bus to Katmandu

24-6 April - Fly to Lukla and Trekking in Everest

6-10 April - Katmandu

10-11 April - 9 hour bus to Bhairawa. 3 hour bus followed by 14 hour train to Delhi

12-14 April - Delhi

14-21 April - Ladakh

21-22 April - Fly to Delhi and overnight train to Udaipur

26-28 April - 6 hour bus followed by rock climbing in Mt Abu

29-30 April - 6 hour bus to Udaipur. Overnight train to Jaipur

3 May - 18 hour train to Bombay

 This was our Plan

February 12th: Fly from Dublin to Delhi (via London). In Delhi we will spend 3 to 5 days getting our feet on the ground, arranging further travel and sight-seeing. We will be spending our first three nights in a hotel owned by one of India's most renowned mountaineers, hopefully gathering first hand information on India's rock climbing, trekking and mountaineering. For the next 2 months we plan on staying in India doing a variety of cultural and sporting activities.

April 12th: Nepal - we plan on spending a month hiking in Nepal, Maoist insurgency permitting. This is where we hope to see the most spectacular Himalayan scenery.


South East Asia
9 May - 4 hour flight to to Bangkok

11 May - overnight bus Krabi

28 May -14 hour overnight bus to Bangkok

2 June - 1st class overnight train to Chiang Mai

4 June - Cooking course Chiang Mai

5 June - Climbing in Crazy Horse Buttress Chiang Mai

7 June -Chaing Mai to Laos

8 June - Huay Xai to Luang Namtha

14 June - Luang Namtha to Luang Prabang

20 June - Trunk and boat to Muang Ngoi

22 June - Back to Luang Prabang

23 June - 7 hour bus Vang Vieng

26 June - 3 hour truck to Vientiane

29 June - Night train to Bangkok

2 July - 4 hour bus, 4 hour truck to Siem Reap

6 July - 6 hour boat to Phnom Penh

8 July- 3 hour bus to Kampot

11 July - 8 hour minibus to border, 1 hour taxi and 5 hour bus to Bangkok

15 July - Overnight train to the south of Thailand

16 July - 4 hour minibus to Malaysian border, 2 hour taxi and 1 1/2 ferry to Perhentians

21 July - overnight train to KL

29 July - 2 hour bus to Melaka

31 July - 3 hour ferry, 8 hour minibus to Bukittiggi

5 Aug - 2 hour bus to Lake Maninjau

8 Aug - 2 hour bus to Bukittiggi and 3 hour bus to Padang

9 Aug - 11/2 flight to Jakarta, 14 hour overnight minibus to Yogya

13 Aug - 12 hour bus to Mt Bromo

14 Aug - 2 hour public van, 2 hour bus to Bondowoso

17 Aug - Minibus to Mt Ijen and to ferry port, 1 hour ferry and 11/2 hour motorbikes to Lovina, Bali

22 Aug - 4 hour shuttle to Kuta

May 12th: Thailand - after 3 months heavy travel we will be in need of break and there is nowhere like Thailand to relax. Here we will recover, eating and drinking like kings as we soak up the sun on some of the best beaches in the world. We may even get in a couple of sea cliff climbs.

Next 10 Weeks: Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia - We have left our itinerary very flexible here and we will pretty much decide where we are going on a day by day basis.

Australia and New Zealand
25 Aug - 5 hour plane to Sydney

3 Sep - 3 hour plane to Christchurch

8 Sep - Phil arrives in town

10 Sep - 3 hour drive to Arthur's Pass

11 Sep - Snowboarding in Cheeseman

12 Sep - 6 hour drive to Cook

15 Sep - 5 hour drive to Te Anau

16 Sep - 4 hour roundtrip to Milford Sound, car blows up

18 Sep - 2 hour bus to Queenstown

19 Sep- 1 hour drive to Wanaka

23 Sep - 4 hour drive to Franz Josef Glacier

25 Sep - Left Phil and 4 hour drive to Westport

28 Sep - 3 hour drive to Nelson

30 Sep - 2 hour drive to Takaka

8 Oct - 4 hour drive to Picton

9 Oct - 3 hour ferry to Wellington, 6 hour drive to Rotorua

11 Oct - 6.5 hour drive to the Bay of Islands

13 Oct - 1.5 hour drive to Waipu

21 Oct - 2 hour drive to Auckland

 September 1st: Australia - we will fly into Sydney and catch up with some ex-work mates. Hopefully we will be able to cadge a decent meal out of a couple of them before we head up north, to the Great Barrier Reef where much swimming and snorkelling will get done.

September 22nd: New Zealand - hopefully we won't be too late for the winter sports season here. We are planning on snow boarding and really getting to see the country. We may rent a car here to get around.

South America
21 Oct - 10 hour flight to Santiago

22 Oct - 31/2 hour flight to Punta Arenas

25 Oct - 12 hour bus to Ushuaia

1 Nov - 12 hour drive to Punta Arenas

2 Nov - 6 hour drive to Torres Del Paine

8 Nov - 8 hour drive Moreno glacier

9 Nov - 5 hour drive to Fitzroy

15 Nov - 6 hour drive rough camp

16 Nov - 12 hour drive rough camp

17 Nov - 10 hour drive to Bariloche

30 Nov - 6 hour bus to Osorno, Chile followed by 11 hour bus to Santiago

3 Dec - 2 hour bus to Valparaiso

6 Dec - 2 hour bus to Santiago

7 Dec - 2 hour subway & bus to Cajon de Maipo for Barbara, Caelen stays in Santiago

13 Dec - 10 hour truck to Mendoza, Argentina

14 Dec - 12 hour bus to Buenos Aires

22 Dec - 30 hour bus to La Serena

26 Dec - 10 hour truck to rough camp

27 Dec - 14 hour truck to Socaire Gorge

31 Dec - 2 hour truck to San Pedro de Atacama

2 Jan - 2 hour truck to Socaire

3 Jan - 2 hour truck to San Pedro

4-7 Jan - 4 day jeep tour through Salar de Uyuni salt flats in Bolivia

8 Jan - 8 hour overnight bus to Oruro

11 Jan - 6 hour truck to La Paz

18 Jan - 4 hour bus to Copacabana

20 Jan - 14 hour truck to Cusco

25 Jan - 1 hour flight to Lima

27 Jan - 1.5 hour taxi & minibus to Chosica

2 Feb - 8 hour bus to Trujillo

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 October 20th: South America - this is where our trip really gets interesting. We are joining the "Hot Rock Global Challenge" truck in the very Southern tip of South America. Here, along with 32 other rock climbers, we board a specially converted truck and spend the following 10 weeks travelling from remote crag to unexplored mountain, climbing as we go.

January 16th: South America - this is so far away and so much will have happened that we have made few plans for this month, except that we think we would like to spend some time in Peru.

Feb 12th: Fly home - tired, dirty, jubilant and ready to bore everyone to death with a full year's worth of stories
Pictures - click to enlarge