Walking around the world

Yes you read that right. I am going to walk around the world. As much as possible I will be using my feet to take me places. A big believer in slow travel, the art of wandering, and exploring little laneways, tucked away places, things that call to my curiosity - the antithesis of the Lonely Planet traveller. But then I guess that's almost a cliche thing to say now too.

Now don't get me wrong, I will be flying between continents, but am planning to put some frequent walker miles on my feet too. A pair of ankle boots for Europe (think classic fashion, not doc martins or hiking boots) and some walking sandals for Hawaii and Asia will hopefully help me stride out in style and comfort.

I love exploring a city on foot. Its a pace that allows for discovery. Time to wander aimlessly and follow my nose to what smells, looks, sounds interesting. All my favourite most treasured memories of travel are those experiences which were simply stumbled across, not on a planned itinerary of ticking off the 10 most popular spots to visit.

For instance, in Paris, yes, I went to see the Eiffel tower, even though it was snowing, and you could see it from many vantage points around the city - my favourite being from Montmartre and the Sacre-Coeur.

Eiffel Tower from Montmartre, original pic by KBQ

And I had another reason to go to the tower. Ten days before I left my remote island in Australia's largest inland waterway, someone planted a travelbug in a geocache right near my house. Finno the Frog wanted to get to Paris. Oh Wow! Count me in. Those were the days when I was a mad cacher.

Finno the Frog gets to see the Eiffel Tower,
before I hid him in a cache at Jardin des Tuileries.

But I didn't actually go up the tower. Quelle horreur! But quite frankly I was not prepared to spend half a day in a line waiting to get a view not dissimilar from the steps of Sacre Coeur.

Walking around a city allows you to see the real place.
Like the local Parisian lady taking her pooch for a walk. 

When in the States I loved visiting Amish Country. A highlight was a ride in one of their buggy's and the dear gentle man allowed me to take the reins and try to drive his pride and joy in the traffic. Much laughter as the horse refused to follow my lead and we ended up bumping over the gutter at one point. So, i got a big fat F as as a buggy driver..... but what an experience. Those guys know all about the simple life. And for a day it was lovely to step into their world.

Last year I created a mini vision board and one of the elements that has really stuck in my consciousness were the words: 

"You see a lot more travelling at 2 kms an hour". 

Let this be my mantra.

One month in the US (Hawaii, New York City)

one month in Europe (Germany, Netherlands and Greece)

one month in Sth East Asia (Bangkok, Bali)

bon voyage?

bring it on babe!

Packing in triplicate

So the packing began in serious mode last week as I had to vacate my unit this weekend. It was a three-step carefully planned process involving:

Suitcase 1
Things to see me through two more weeks at work and a few weeks of family festivities over Christmas/New Year.

Suitcase 2
Things for my three month overseas adventure. With weather ranging from snow in New York and Germany, to the tropics of Hawaii and Sth East Asia, there's a wide range of clothing and footwear requirements.

Storage Unit
Everything else, that doesn't go in those two suitcases got boxed and bagged and stacked into a portable storage unit.

The yellow storage box was delivered to my car park one day, then I had 18 hours to pack it lock it up, ready for them to collect early next morning and take to the storage facility. Having moved house more times than I am old, I'm pretty good at packing and making things fit. That said this storage unit in no way fit everything from my small 1 BR unit into it. So I  kept a few things to sell privately, and the rest was donated to a local opshop where hopefully those things will find a new home.

Last week I hit the travel store outlets in Fitzroy and scored a few bargain items all clearing out for $20 each. Travel pants, shorts, shirts and dresses. Light fabric, non-crushable, quick drying. Neutral colours for easy mix'n'match while on the road.

At my local cheapie Asian store, I found some compression bags, manual roll up ones, to compress clothes into a smaller space. I bought half a dozen for the same price one would cost in the travel shops. These great little buys will  be worth their weight in gold. Light easy to dry clothing and compression bags. Geez, you'd think I could travel carry on only. But given the wide variety of climates I'm visiting, its just not possible.

So now I'm camped out in the spare room at a friend's place. My first stint of 'living out of suitcase' has begun. Two more weeks at work then sayonara Melbourne.