Shake Down Trip Planned for Summer 2009
Monday, January 12th, 2009
As it is unlikely that we will now need to fly to Australia (this year in any case), we are planning to use the time instead to travel to France and Spain this summer (6-8 weeks with Land Rover and Jurgens Xplorer) as part of a much needed shake down trip (to better prepare children and ourselves) but will then likely exclude from the April 2010 Overland Route. This may mean sacrificing most/all of North Africa (Morrocco, Algeria, Tunisia) during main 2010 travel as a result as will become inefficient and lengthy to go opposite to what remains of a natural principal direction. The jury is out on this however and subject to some further research before we decide for sure as these countries seriously beckon. But things like distance, weather facts, children’s durability and quality of overall trip/s play a big part. For example, we don’t want the children’s experience (or ours) to be about long distance driving by car and risk the fun and learning just for the sake if it. We want plenty of time in each place/regular stops for the children and us to be able to relax and just ‘be’. We do want to maximise opportunities however so need to look at how we can strike an overall balance.
