Six months ago, I thought that itchy feet were a genetic disorder, doomed never to go away, no matter how much I travelled.
I’ve always had itchy feet. I’ve always longed to travel.

But now, after nearly six months of being constantly on the go, living out of a suitcase, not spending more than 5 nights in one place and not knowing where I’m heading next, I can officially report: Itchy Feet Can Be Cured.

I’m ready to go home.

Yes, Real Life has a lot of admin to deal with – bills, work, shopping, washing up, cleaning, hassle. And of course I’m not excited about any of that. But Travelling also has a lot of admin, just of a different flavour – figuring out places to stay, trying to find the right kind of food (three times a day), finding out how to get from here to there with the least amount of hassle and the smallest cost, searching for an ATM that accepts international cards and will give you the amount of money you’re asking for. There’s a lot of inconvenience about travelling – you have to do things now because there’s no option to wait until later (even as I type I’m thinking that we have to go for dinner soon and I don’t have any food on me). When you run out of cash, there’s nobody to borrow from. When you need to get somewhere, there’s nobody to give you a lift.

I’m really looking forward to the ease of being at home. People speaking my language. Food that I recognise. A bit of good old-fashioned stability.

And yes, we will miss the adventure… It has been the most extraordinary adventure imagineable. But I think there are small adventures to be had in real life. I’ll keep you posted on that.

For now, I have to go and pack my suitcase (for the 1657th time), find some dinner, and go to bed early. 4.30am wake-up call tomorrow, for our 33 hours of travel till we reach Cape Town. We’ve just recorded our last video diary, so that will go up soon, and there are a few more moments to share with you.

But this is the Last Real Blog Post. After six months! Crazy…

So this blogpost is a long time coming… I apologise. It’s been a crazy eventful week – as you’ll soon see.

Interestingly, though, it hasn’t been all good or all bad. I suppose that’s like life – some highs, some lows.

First off, to set the scene: When I last blogged we were in Jakarta, the capital of Java, in Indonesia. Mark had a bad cold and we were both exhausted from our long travels to get to Indo and the hectic pace of our last week in Vietnam. From there we went to Yogyakarta, the ‘cultural heart of Java’, on a delightful train (seriously, the best train we’ve been on in South-East Asia). It took about 8 hours, but it was so comfortable the time flew by. We stayed in Yogya for 3 nights, spending a day at the incredible temple of Borobodur – the largest Buddhist temple in Indonesia. For some reason, all the local tourists kept asking Mark and I to be in photos with them! We managed to catch it on film, here:

We spent all day exploring Borobodur (we chose to take the local bus instead of a tour, so we had 2 hours each way sitting next to and chatting with the locals, which was waaay more interesting than sitting in a sterile tour bus). By the time we got back that night we were exhausted, though, so we went for dinner just down the road, and I ordered ‘comfort food’ – fillet of chicken, which I thought would be sauteed, but turned up fried. And dangerous. I woke up in the middle of the night with a nasty case of food poisoning and spent all of the next day unable to move from my bed except to crawl to the toilet, and with honestly the worst headache I’ve ever had. Food poisoning is the devil! I had no idea how vicious it was. It’s the worst of both worlds – headache and nausea. Eeuch.

The next morning we had a bus to catch, at 7.30am. I woke up feeling better, but still weak and now with Mark’s cold (obviously my immune system had taken a hit from the food poisoning). We spent 11 hours in a minibus that day, a minibus with only the vaguest sense of air conditioning and a driver who knew no fear – he quite happily overtook other cars even if it meant bearing down on the wrong side of the road towards a bus! Yikes. Still, we got to see a lot of stunning Javanese landscape (endless rice paddies, lots of farmers, interesting small towns) and actually sitting down all day probably did my cold some good. We eventually arrived in Cemoro Lawang, a small mountainous village near the famous Gunung Bromo volcano, around 7pm that night, and were lucky enough to be booked into the delightful Java Banana hotel. What a treat.

Most people, believe it or not, make this arduous 11 hour journey for just one night. Gunung Bromo is still active (but only smoking) and the thing to do while in Cemoro Lawang is take the sunrise tour:
You wake up at 3am, take a jeep for an hour to the lookout point at Mount Penanjakan, where you can watch the sun rise over the volcano. Then you take the jeep down to the foot of the volcano and walk up to the crater itself. Awesome!
Here’s how Java Banana describe the sunrise:

“Little by little, from a state of darkness, minute by minute, the sun unveils the dawn in Bromo-Tengger-Semeru, in its incomparable beauty. Mount Bromo stands in the middle of the Tengger caldera and greets the morning, welcoming it with its periodic puffing of smoke. Bromo is visibly the most active and the most prominent on the stage of the theatre of Bromo-Tengger-Semeru.”

How could we resist? So the morning after our day of minibussing, we woke up at 3am to the freezing cold, and set off in the darkness to watch the sunrise. It was really exciting, actually, heading off into the great unknown, about to see our first volcano. And the sunrise was beautiful, illuminating the scene from total darkness to total light in a subtle but spectacular way… Mark will post pics soon, I promise.
It was also FREEZING, unbelievable seeing as we were so boiling hot the day before! From the sunrise vantage point we headed down to the base of the crater, and walked right up the rim, so we could look inside the volcano belching sulphurous smoke. Pretty darn incredible. Take a look:

We spent the rest of that day resting and recovering, and trying to find an alternative route to Bali, so that we wouldn’t have to do another 11 hour minibus trek! We ended up taking the train for most of the way, but it still took us over 11 hours… You can read all about it here, it was a really difficult day.

So there you have it! Our most eventful week ever. We had ancient temples and volcanoes, food poisoning and colds, all-day minibus journeys and diabetic drama. What more could anyone ask for in a week?
Well, some peace would be nice. I’m feeling worn out, to be honest. This week we plan on taking it easy. Having some down time in Sanur, where we are now (on the coast) and then heading inland to Ubud. I’ll keep you posted, I promise.

How has your week been?

Now you can plan one! Whether for a real life adventure, or to plan a dream trip (that will be more likely to come true if you actually have a specific route in mind!)

How? Good question. This time yesterday I wouldn’t have been able to tell you… But then I discovered a magical little tool called ‘Round-the-World Booking Tool’ on One World – www.oneworld.com

I was actually a little hesitant to click on it in case it didn’t turn out to be what I’d hoped for… but it was! And more. You see, when you’re planning a round-the-world trip there are all kinds of terms and conditions and confusing rules and regulations that can make your head ache – you’re allowed 16 flight segments in 5 continents, but you’re only allowed to fly in one direction (East to West or West to East) and you’re only allowed a certain number of flight segments within each continent. You’re also only allowed to fly the routes that the airlines in that alliance fly (which isn’t too much of a bother with One World – they’ve got everything from British Airways to Cathay Pacific to the LAN group in South America).

Still, when you’re something of a control freak (as I am – had you noticed?) and you really just want to get your flight path organised, the whole thing can seem a little overwhelming.

Which was why I was so thrilled (really thrilled, down to the tips of my toes) when I discovered this Round-the-World booking tool. You type in the cities you want to go to, and then choose your flights and your itinerary is built in real time… Really freaking cool.

I’ll keep you posted as I go along with how easy it is to follow through on the process, but for now – go and dream! At www.oneworld.com