Adieu! Adios! Arrivederci! Auf wiedersehen! Au revoir! Bye Bye!

The Last Centimetre of our Countdown Tape - Suddenly this is Very Real!
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Our car has been sold, our final day of work is behind us, our bags have been packed (and repacked!) but the one thing that most firmly underscored the fact that we leave tomorrow was snipping the last centimeter of our countdown tape this morning...in a little under 30 hours we board flight SA220 and our 9 month adventure begins!

These past few weeks have passed in a bit of a whirl.  Denise was in China for 10 days leading an MBA study mission from the UK - which left me to tie up a few of the final loose ends like cleaning and handing back our Kloof Street apartment to our landlord, selling the VW Golf and trying hard to win the Lottery before we leave (ah well - not EVERYTHING can go as planned!).

Watch out world - here we come!!!!!

Drinking a toast to the birthday girl - and the much-anticpated trip
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We even managed to fit in a last-minute farewell with about 15 friends at the Paulaner Bräuhaus (V&A Waterfront) which was also a 30th Birthday celebration for Denise.  Thanks to all who made it - it was a great time and a perfect send-off.

All things considered, the final preparations have run relatively smoothly (touch wood) - Denise even managed to collect her new German passport last week - we had been quite sure it would have to be couriered to us in Europe.  Packing has been fun and about as challenging as you would expect.  Trying to work out what to take and what to leave behind for almost a year of travelling was never going to be easy!

The celebrants in fine spirits at Paulaner
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For those of you who missed it in our earlier blog entries, or who haven't heard the latest planning, our (very flexible) route plan looks something like this:

• April:  UK, Italy, Monaco
• May:  France (South), Andorra, Spain, Morocco, Switzerland, France (North)
• June:  Ireland, Scotland, Germany
• July: Greece, Turkey and then on to Asia and the Far East

After that the plan gets even less fixed - with the rest of July, August, September, October and part of November set aside for China, Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia, India, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and possibly Vietnam, South Korea and Taiwan.

All of this has to fit into Rob's backpack?!
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The rest of November, December and January will be for Australia, New Zealand and the islands of the South Pacific - after which we will be homeward bound, aiming to be back in Cape Town by the end of January 2008.

We are truly excited that we will be seeing so many of you during the course of our travels (either as much-appreciated hosts or as fellow travelers for parts of the journey) - but for all of you who want to live our experiences with us we will do our utmost to update this travel blog at least once a week - with pics, stories and our most outrageous adventures.  Enjoy! Stay in touch! And remember - we are only an email away so write us with your news as often as you can.

Denise's look says it all!
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Watch out world - here we come!!!!!