Australia

I remember saying to Patti, "how hard could it be?". Well turns out it's pretty hard in parts but it's like when you ask someone how they got through a massive job or event in their lives and your thinking that you couldn't have done it and it would all have been too much but the fact is is you just tackle it in little chunks and you get through. Once we made the decision to go we knew we had to prepare so we spent ages on the itinerary. Firstly you can't see everything so we picked experiences that we each wanted to do and built a bit of a frame work around them. Matt wants to Scuba so the first stop is Coron, Palawan Philippines. The rest of the planning for that part of the trip is then built around that. We will plan as we go and try and get a more local feel for a place.

The next thing was how do you pack for a 12 month trip around the world? The answer is you can't. We really had to avoid the panic of thinking that we had to be prepared for every known weather situation just in case we found ourselves on top of Everest in a snow storm or Morocco in a heat wave. The fact is we want to travel lightly and everywhere we're going will have shops. Just like you would do at home, we'll shop and throw as we go. We did spend some money on a couple of Goretex jackets and light weight gear but we are generally going for the "look like everyone else" look!. We avoided branding as much as possible. We didn't want to look like we are sponsored by HH or be walking around a city looking like we'd lost our mountain to climb. You get the drift.

The big elephant in the room is " How are you going to afford it?" The fact is that everyone travels differently. I can say that we spent around $24000 before we left the country. That was Round the World tickets, shots for every disease, travel insurance, packs and gear. That was a major expense but unavoidable of course. As for the rest of the budget I suppose it depends on ourselves and the level of comfort we want. We are in some cheap travel countries at the start but we move on to Europe and USA later in the year. We have rented the house to a friend, I am lucky enough to be on paid leave and there are no school fees this year. Our normal living expenses have been heavily reduced so whether we are travelling or at home we still have to eat and live as we would. I'll post a better blog about it when we're more into the trip to gauge how it's all going but hopefully there shouldn't be many surprises.

Lastly was the preparation of affairs before we left. I won't bore with the details but can be a little frustrating. I was amazed at how much correspondence and paperwork is delivered to our home every month. Most systems will not just send electronic bills. All banks and Utilities want a street address so all of our mail had a change of address to my parents place. Patti located most of our bills and we managed to change most over the phone but every day more would sneek in like the once a year donation to Unicef or a Superanuation statement. I know we didn't get them all. There are some problems with paying bills so we asked a trusted family member to open our mail and let us know when a bill was received and we B pay it.

Like i said before, the task looks daunting and for most people far too much uprooting but we are motivated to make this happen for us and the boys. We had a bigger view on what we want out of it and for us it is worth all the hassle. First stop Manila. Let's Go! Coles

Shorncliffe Pier Qld Australia

First things first. For those that don't know us but have stumbled on to our blog, please allow me to introduce you to our brood. We are a family of four Mike and Patti ( Mum and Dad) and our teenage sons Brenton 17 and Matthew 14. We are a normal everyday family with the usual trials and tribulations but with a little sense of adventure. Patti and I hold down normal jobs, I am a firefighter and Patti works in the teaching field. We made the decision to travel with our sons on a grand adventure to show the boys a different side to the world they live in and hopefully a different side to themselves and their parents.
Let me just say that we are not wealthy in western terms, we did not win lotto or have been left great sums of money. The decision to travel for us was as important as the decision that some people have to drive an expensive car or live in the best neighbourhood. Don't get me wrong, we're not tree-hugging lefties or have anything against the latest BMW, it's just not our style. We decided that the "road less travelled" suited our personalities better plus I had a motza of long service leave burning a hole in my pocket. I would love to say we're on some grand discovery tour with a real sense of purpose but the real purpose is to have fun as much as possible and be up for anything and everything.

For those of you that do know us, welcome aboard!. I'm going to post heaps of blogs so I can keep track of our trip and put up photos and stuff like that. We don't leave until January 15, 2011 so for the most part it will just be about practical things like packing lists and itinery's. I'm posting them for others who may be thinking of an extended holiday with teenagers and need a starting point. I know we have appreciated the blogs of others that have bravely gone before us so just repaying the favour.