The route (edited)

Inevitably, since I last posted my rough itinerary, my route and dates have changed somewhat. I thought it best that I keep a post here containing my planned route and dates, which I edit when things change. That way it's a live post and doesn't become out of date quickly.

2014

9-14 Jan Vancouver

15-21 Jan Seattle

22-24 Jan Portland, Oregon

25-29 Jan Salem, Oregon

30 Jan-11 Feb San Francisco (my mum joins me on 8 Feb!)

12-20 Feb West Coast road trip (stopping on the way at various places including Carmel!)

21-24 Feb Vegas, Grand Canyon

25-27 Feb LA

28 Feb LA (mum leaves)

1-2 Mar LA
3-4 Mar Carpinteria

5-6 Mar LA

7-16 Mar Austin, Texas (for SXSW)

17 Mar-29 Apr Road tripping to: Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, Asheville, The Smoky Mountains, Nashville, Muscle Shoals, Memphis, Baton Rouge

29 Apr-3 May New Orleans (Jazz Festival, yay!)

3-19 May Mexico

19 May Lima

19 May-1 Jun Travelling with my uncle Paddy in Peru, Machu Picchu etc

2 Jun-1 Aug Travelling in South America, volunteering in Bolivia, all dates TBC

1-5 Aug Buenos Aires

6 Aug fly Buenos Aires-Frankfurt

7-12 Aug Heidelberg

13-16 Aug Geneva

17 Aug-16 Oct Corfu (with a stint in Athens and mainland Greece in late Sep-early Oct)

16-18 Oct Glasgow

18-25 Oct Isle of Skye

25 Oct-8 Jan Indeterminate UK-based stuff (London, Yorkshire etc)

More to come as things firm up!

The route

Today I bought my first couple of flight tickets, so I thought I'd share with you my planned route for this adventure of mine. Despite being an exemplary project manager (future potential employers, take note!) I don't want to schedule the shit out of my year, but instead plan to lock in a few key tent poles around which I shall hang loose chunks of time where I can be more spontaneous and follow my nose.

This rather childish-looking spidery drawing is my attempt at capturing my route, which can be translated as:

- 9 Jan 2014: Fly Sydney-Vanouver

- Mid-Jan: head to Seattle

- Then Portland, Oregon and Salem, Oregon

- End-Jan: San Francisco

- Feb: Road trip to LA

- Late-Feb: mooch about in LA and surrounds

- 6 March: Fly LA-Austin

- 7-16 March: SXSW festival

- Then 6-8 weeks of Texas and The South (Dallas, Memphis, Little Rock, Tennessee, St Louis, Jackson, Alabama, etc etc, end up in New Orleans)

- Mid-May: Mexico

- Late-May: Lima, Peru, Machu Picchu

- 8-10 weeks in Bolivia and Argentina, (maybe Chile), planning to do some volunteer work in Bolivia, then travel to Buenos Aires

- Late-July: Fly Buenos Aires-Frankfurt

- Hang out in Heidelberg

- August: Geneva, Rome/Barcelona

- Mid Aug-mid-Oct: Corfu (with a trip to mainland Greece in late-September)

- 20 Oct: Isle of Skye

- Nov-Dec UK

- Jan 2015: Fly home to Sydney

Epic, huh?

I have to confirm some of my other big flights in the next few days so it's time to make some decisions about how long I think I want to spend in various places, but as you can see it's still leaving a lot to decide while on the road. It will be expensive to change my flight out of the US and my flight to Europe, so I should try to confirm those now, but around that I can pretty much be flexible.

I've been booking the flights through a friend of a friend called Freya, who works at STA, and she's been amazing. A seasoned traveller herself, her advice has been extremely useful every step of the way. I think she'll be living the trip vicariously through me when I'm on the road!