Emirates to Dubai

This has been the adventure of a lifetime. What a journey and what a blast! I've driven 40,691 kilometres (33,808 in Oz and 6,883 in NZ) over 436 days across two countries, stayed on 241 different campsites (203 in Oz and 38 in NZ), owned one gorgeous camper van and rented another, been on planes, buses, trams, trains, ferries and cable cars, broken two cameras, had three GPS (Bruce, Mick & Les), seen approximately 58 different animals/birds, broken down fou...

The flight from Sydney was the second of our four flights to get home. We were in the air for about nine hours all the time edging closer to Bangkok where our next landing would be and very excitingly getting closer all the time to Christmas Day in Manchester. Luckily when we touched down at Bangkok we didn't have to leave the aircraft and go through the traumas of airport security again. They allowed us to remain on the aircraft whilst they gave it a quick clean...

So here it is, day one! The adventure has begun. This is the day that I fly to Australia. I can’t quite believe that it’s here as this trip was conceived in my mind about 18 months ago and has taken a lot of planning. I’m a mixture of excitement and happiness and sadness (at leaving my loved ones behind) and a few nerves. But nervousness can always be confused with excitement and the new me doesn’t do nervousness so it must all be exciteme...