{"id":13417,"date":"2019-01-06T08:49:58","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T21:49:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=13417"},"modified":"2019-01-06T08:49:58","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T21:49:58","slug":"2018-what-a-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/?p=13417","title":{"rendered":"2018 – what a year!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n\nWhen we welcomed in the new year of 2018 from our secluded beach-side camp in Baja Mexico we never could have imagined what a spectacular year was ahead of us. We had a rough plan, more or less, of what we wanted to achieve during the year but turning that plan into a reality was one of the greatest experiences of our lives. \n\n<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n

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Here’s a brief and somewhat inadequate summary of the amazing year of travel that Julie and I have just completed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We’ve enjoyed a theme of superlatives running through our travels, including this one – standing at the Norwegian point of Nordkapp, the northernmost point in Europe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

One of the great joys of overland travel is meeting not just the locals but also fellow travellers, those who have a similar outlook on long distance travel over a period of many months – or in most cases, many years. Our Follow the Sun plan was to travel for about three years which is actually a fairly short period to cover as much ground as we wanted. But we also needed to juggle other important priorities such as family (especially the arrival of grandchildren!) and friends back in Australia. And so our slow travel wasn’t nearly as slow as other overlanders, of which some had turned slow travel into a full time lifestyle. Oh well, we committed to see as much as we could in our ‘limited’ timeline and so far have had no regrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We had a ritual of rating every one of our camping spots on a scale of 1 to 10. To receive a perfect 10 the spot had to be…well…perfect, such as this magnificent view at a secluded spot in Costa Rica.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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And talk about perfect…how about this spot just off the
Sognefjellet scenic road in Norway!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Not all camping spots were perfect, such as this Texaco station in El Salvador , whose only redeeming feature was an armed guard to protect us through the night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

But you can cover a lot of ground in a year at a medium pace and every day is full of adventure, discovery, learning and (usually) pleasant surprises. One achievement that we thought was pretty cool was completing the drive from Prudhoe Bay on the Arctic Circle in northern Alaska, which we hit in August 2017, to Tierra del Fuego, the end of the road on the southern tip of South America which we made April 2018. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We made it! The end of the road, the southern-most drivable point in South America.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Our highlights for the year? Way too complicated to choose one single place or moment, so many to choose from, such varying criteria depending on our mood and memories. But here’s a few that rate highly:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Camping on the Salar de Uyuni in central Bolivia, the largest salt flats in the world, a spectacular experience, one for the ages<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Machu Picchu, hidden high in the Peruvian Andes, a testament to the resourcefulness, ingenuity and skills of the Inca people all those centuries ago<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We splurged and had six days on the Galapagos Islands of Ecuador on a luxury little cruise ship with 11 fellow explorers, left speechless by the close encounters with so many amazing creatures, including the ageless tortoises<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We loved our time in Russia, very different, a bit edgy sometimes, a unique and somewhat confused culture, especially St. Petersburg which struck us as a great European city trapped in Russia, and St. Basil’s Cathedral in Moscow (above), in my view one of the great buildings in the world<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Cuba was an unexpected delight, not just the crumbling colonial buildings and the classic old cars but also the friendly people, rich history and beautiful countryside<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We really dined out on the Mayan ruins of Mexico and Guatemala, including the El Castillo pyramid of Chichen Itza Mexico, viewed just after dawn before the crowds arrived<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Julie and I would often end the day talking about the little surprises that make travel so enjoyable and rewarding. Many times each day we would see something that we didn’t expect, didn’t know anything about or didn’t understand. We were constantly shaking our heads in amazement at what this wonderful world has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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We were travelling across the barren Atacama Desert in northern Chile when we come across this magnificent sandstone carved hand – and of course it becomes an instant photo op for Tramp!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Thanks to our kids who gave us Christmas money to spend on an ‘experience’ we proved its never too late to try zip lining, including through the jungle of Costa Rica!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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We’ve all heard of the Panama Canal but until you spend an afternoon there watching the ships go through the locks its hard to appreciate the incredible engineering achievement it is<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Julie and I aren’t really into zoos, locking up animals doesn’t sound like a great plan, but we visited a native animal zoo in Belize and were blown away by the well-tended creatures – including the jaguar which makes Belize their home like no other place on earth<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Most of the countries of Central America suffer from low living standards and we were amazed to see locals using bullocks to pull trays for transporting their goods<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Julie and I tended to avoid the big cities, not good for Tramp and for camping spots, but we made a few exceptions in Europe. One place that surprised us was Porto in northern Portugal, a beautiful ancient city on the Douro River, full of history, culture, and fabulous buildings<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Another city that was a great surprise for us was Cesky Krumlov in the Czech Republic. Yes, it’s crowded in high season but for good reason as it’s an absolute gem. <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Parting is such sweet sorrow…with our European visas expired and a strong calling for home we parked Tramp in a friendly barn in Essex England and headed back to Australia to see family and enjoy an Aussie summer<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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There’s no place like home and its fun to be back again for a couple of months before heading off to….Africa!! Can’t wait!!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When we welcomed in the new year of 2018 from our secluded beach-side camp in Baja Mexico we never could have imagined what a spectacular year was ahead of us. We had a rough plan, more or less, of what we wanted to achieve during the year but turning that plan into a reality was one of the greatest experiences of our lives.<\/p>\n Continue reading →<\/span><\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":13421,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[40,60,50],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13417","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-central-america","category-europe","category-south-america"],"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/DSC_0097.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13417","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13417"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13417\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13534,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13417\/revisions\/13534"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/13421"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13417"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13417"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ourpangaea.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13417"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}