About the next six months

(This article is part of a series called:  Checking in at 6 months.)

What’s the plan for the next six months?  Well, in keeping with our “there is no plan” philosophy, we are not sure although we have lots of diverse ideas of where we can go and what we can see.  The first six months seemed rather straight forward: start at the top of South America and work our way down the west side and up the east side.  The next six months are anything but straight forward.  There are so many options, so many countries to choose from.

We would like to slow down our pace of travel during the next six months and try to spend more time in one place – a month sounds like a reasonable amount of time.  Of course this means we will be visiting fewer places.  I would like to focus more on the cultural experience and less on being a tourist.  I’m not saying I don’t want to see all the sights that every other tourist wants to see – I still want to go on Safari in Africa for instance – but I want a deeper, more enriching experience that you just don’t get as a tourist.  I’m still not sure how to achieve this, but at least I know it’s the direction I want to go.

Here’s what we know for sure:

• We are focusing on two continents – Europe and Africa.
• We arrive in Venice, Italy on April 9^th.
• We have two and a half weeks planned in Italy with my sister, Sonja who is coming to meet us from Canada.  This will be a whirlwind tour, cramming everything we can into the allotted time.
• We have made arrangements to work on a vineyard in Tuscany for the month of May, in exchange for free room and board. Pinch me, I must be dreaming!
• We want to do the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage – a 780 km walk from the south of France to Santiago, Spain over a period of 4-5 weeks.  June will be a good month for this before the summer heat and crowds.
• If we hike Kilimanjaro, we would like to do this near the end of September.
• Finally, we want to fit in a visit to my cousin in Germany, but nothing definite has been planned.

So we have July-September to figure out.  Here’s some ideas we are considering:

1. Skip Western Europe entirely (mainly because it is so expensive) and head to Eastern Europe and make our way south towards Egypt.  Then continue south along the eastern side of Africa to Kenya.  This does not align with our “stay in one place longer” approach as there would be a lot of ground to cover on this route.
2. After the Camino de Santiago, travel south (through Portugal perhaps) then cross the Mediterranean Sea to Morocco.  Travel through Western and Central Africa to Kenya.
3. Forget Africa altogether and save it for a future trip and spend more time in Europe.
4. Find house sitting or work exchange opportunities in Western Europe (to offset the high cost of those countries) and spend one month each in France, England and maybe Ireland (countries we are really interested in visiting anyways).
5. Buy an old camper van and just meander through the back roads of Europe for 3 months.  Does anybody know anybody who is selling a reliable camper van at a reasonable price??

As you can see the possibilities are endless, limited only by our imagination which is pretty fertile these days. Every day we seem to come up with a new idea.  Of course, the people we meet each day all have their own ideas of places we absolutely must see.  I’m sure our readers at home have their own opinions too.  We’re listening to everyone with open hearts and minds.

One thing is for sure, we’ll figure it out along the way.

Want to read more about: Checking in at 6 months?

• About long term travel
• About getting along
• About money and budgeting
• About the people we meet
• About our back packs
• About the big question – what’s next