We are Helen and Mark – a husband and wife team. Our son travelled extensively with us during his pre-university years and now travels independently. We continue our adventures and this update is prior to our trip in March 2025 that will take us to 40 countries over 284 days.
Since I last updated this page we have travelled to:
- Taiwan – November 2023
- California – July 2024 (Just Mark for an Adobe conference)
- China – November 2024
With the normal sojourns between Melbourne and Darwin
We are both over 60 but fit enough to enjoy more than 10,000 steps a day. We have a broad itinerary for next massive trip spanning more than 9 months and as of the end of 2024, I can tell you when we leave Australia, arrive in Hong Kong, but I don’t know where we are staying.
We are backpackers who use the online booking apps – mainly booking.com to book literally just days ahead of our accommodation needs. Even though we have slept in airports and do sometimes choose busses or trains with overnight legs for sleeping opportunities, we will normally book a private room with its own toilet and shower. We travel with one carry-on luggage bag of 8kg each. Of course, this means finding places to wash our clothes and it is unlikely that we would be attending any black-tie events. One pair of shoes for the entire trip.
We don’t travel frugally but choose be pragmatic about discretionary spends on luxury travel and accommodation. We plan our own itinerary, book our own travel and accommodation and sometimes take guided tours where local knowledge adds value to the experience. We know when we will enter and exit Europe and when we will enter the US on the way to Caribbean. To see our current version of our itinerary, click here.
Given our own cultural backgrounds, we are more used to travelling and living in Australia and Asia than Europe, Africa, or the Americas. We have travelled extensively enough to be able to adapt quickly to new locations and enjoy the experience, no matter where we are. Our travels through the Americas and Europe to date have been fabulous experiences and we expect this to continue our next big journey starting in mid-March 2025.
An important part of enjoying the travel experience is having a plan B. Whether that is an alternative means of communication, alternate ways to secure funds, knowledge of visa requirements, customs, and expectations of people in the locations you are visiting, it is important that you are self-informed and situationally aware. When you are on a fully organised tour or on a cruise ship, you only need to follow the tour guide and their flag or listen to ship announcements or read the daily activity newsletter. When you take complete control of your journey, you need to not worry, but you do need to prepare. The word Prepare forms a useful acronym – Plan, Research, Expectations, Prepare, Alternatives, Review, Execute.
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