In May we had the first birthday on this world tour: Nicolas’ 30th!
The time to reveal the itinerary for our trip back to France has come. It is a very ambitious one and it took us two months to work it out.
The second part of the world tour: our itinerary
First of all, our return date is October 19th 2019 (we left on September 1st 2018).
This date is a little earlier than expected. Indeed, as we added destinations and activities to our itinerary, we made the decision to move forward our return date so that we do not run out of money. More importantly, our return will also match the school holidays of our beloved nephews.
Southeast Asia
We have changed our initial plans for Southeast Asia. The reason being we are now into the monsoon season for the majority of the countries we had originally planned to visit.
From North-eastern Australia, we flew directly to Indonesia and arrived in Bali a few days ago. Indonesia is a huge country (over 17,500 islands). However, with the tourist visa limiting us to one month, we will just visit the islands of Bali and Java.
We will then fly to Malaysia late June. Between this flight and the next one leaving from Thailand in August, we have not planned anything yet. Depending on the weather and how we feel, we are planning to visit part of Malaysia, Thailand and perhaps Cambodia. If you have suggestions on the region we are highly interested.
India and Seychelles
The rest of the trip is more structured: in August we will take a trip to India. We will travel by train from Delhi to Mumbai and on the way, we will visit the Taj Mahal and the Rajasthan region. We hope to see tigers there, but not too close! Of all of the countries we are going through, India is the most intimidating to us. However, we are very happy to get the opportunity to visit a very dear friend whom we met in London there.
Then we went a bit mad and added a last minute two-week stopover in the Seychelles islands. It’s on the way so why not?
Africa
Early September, after a short stopover in Ethiopia, we are going to Zimbabwe. We have been accepted for a volunteer mission with wild animals in a UNESCO protected area. The organisation in charge of the reserve is fighting against poaching, notably to try and save the last black rhinos in great danger of extinction. A friend is joining us from France for this project.
After our volunteering, we will embark on an incredible adventure: a 21-day safari starting in Zimbabwe and ending in Kenya. We will go through Malawi, Zambia and Tanzania.
To finish off, our last destination will be Egypt. Another last-minute addition but we figured out it is cheaper to go through Cairo on our way back. It’s also a big dream to see the pyramids!
Do not hesitate to tell us what you think of our itinerary. In addition, if you already know some of the places we are visiting we would love to receive your feedbacks and tips 🙂
A few words about our van life experience in Australia
For almost a month, we travelled the east coast with our motorhome. A van is one of our favourite way to travel, so much freedom and convenience!
We started in Sydney and ended up in Cairns with a diving cruise on the Great Barrier Reef. An incredible experience! We are very proud to be now certified PADI Advanced divers and to be able to dive just the two of us without a guide. It was a huge challenge for us. We will probably not get any more diving certifications but we will keep practising and getting better. There is so much more to explore in the underwater world!
In Australia we also took up on other challenges like learning surfing or sandboarding (which is basically snowboarding in sand dunes).
Finally, we would like to talk to you about what we found the most fascinating about Australia: its unique fauna! Indeed, we have crossed paths with the most dangerous and cutest animals, sometimes in the same day… For example, the beaches are beautiful here but it is impossible to swim: if it is not because of the sharks, it is crocodiles and deadly jellyfish.
Our favourite encounters were: kangaroos, rare koalas in the wild, timid platypus and fascinating cassowaries. Cassowaries are endangered prehistoric birds as well as the most dangerous birds in the world.
What’s next?
After a few days’ delays, due to an ear infection which made Clémentine unfit to fly, we are back living off our backpacks!
The first part of the trip was “easy”. First of all, because we spoke the languages of all the destinations we visited (English, French and Spanish) and then because we knew more or less what to expect. For this second part we will really get out of our comfort zone. We are 1% worried and 99% excited for our upcoming adventures!
Keep up with us on the blog, social medias and in the next newsletters to know how it is going for us.
We would like to thank you for being more to follow us every month and we are sending you kisses from Bali!