Wednesday 29 March 2006
Highlights: The trip beginning and no hassles with flights or transfers.

After a farewell dinner I have a restless night thinking about everything that is ahead of me.   Will I be okay by myself, will I get sick during this very lengthy trip, what great experiences will I have?

This is a massive 150+ day trip which has a heap of highlights, I’m really looking forward to attending a Football (Soccer) World Cup match in Germany, everything in Europe, hiking the Great Wall of China and catching up with a great friend (Jon) in UK.   It was very hard to get any sleep with my mind turning to the big trip.

Well the first day of any trip from Australia means a lot of travelling.   I was off to Johannesburg via Sydney starting in Melbourne on flight QF191 and then transferring to QF63.   For the Sydney-Johannesburg leg I was placed in seat 35K and during the 14 hours watched “Walk to Line” (very good), “Rumour has it” (okay), and “A History of Violence” (very good).   The 7,288 miles actually seemed to go very quickly.

The best thing about the trip was that my bags showed up!  There were heaps of people trying to pick up my bags all looking for tips, lucky I had a pre-tour pick up scheduled and after a short wait I was on my way.

It was interesting to see a place like Johannesburg’s suburbs with very well protected properties in some areas.   The hotel was fine, since it’s a adventure tour hotel and I’m here early some only a few people are staying here right now.

After getting in at 6.30 pm local time I just beat what I’d call a very big and forceful storm, very glad I didn’t have to land in this weather.   Incredible lightning and noise!   Still with over 20 hours awake I got to sleep very easily and dreamed about a life on the road for the next5 months.