Most Sheffielders, of my generation anyway, will have visited Tip's Grave which is situated by the side of Derwent Reservoir - of Dam Busting fame - just outside the city boundaries in Derbyshire. It commemorates the devotion of Tip the dog to his master. For you not from Sheffield and younger than sixty Tips master was a shepherd who died out on the moors. Tip refused to leave and died by his side. So I am including a photo of Ben our house dog for the past eight years who sadly died last Thursday. He will remind us to respect all the animals we may come into contact with especially the Tigers, Komodo Dragons and all the various and deadly snakes and spiders.
People keep asking for the route we will be taking and so here is the intended plan but of cause it may change depending on political and environmental factors. Here is the yellow brick road to Oz: Uk, France, Germany, Czech Rep, Austria, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan, India, Nepal, China, Laos, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Australia.
The first section is by bus but once we get to Sydney we're on our own and we will spend a month or so travelling up to the Cairns area and then fly to New Zealand for five or six weeks before going onto New York and Boston and then home.
I see the journey to Oz in two stages, the first taking us to the roof of the world in the Himalayas and then back down to earth and the beaches of East Asia and finally Oz. I have no doubt I will take hundreds of photos of the view from the Himalayas (hopefully Everest) and so I thought it would be a good idea to start with the view from the roof of our house which I just happen to have because we have just had a new roof.
When we tell people the route it tends to be in terms of countries and cities when it is more interesting to break it down into the deserts and the rivers. Here are some of the rivers I think we'll be crossing: the Rhine (820 miles), Danube (1771 miles), Tigris (1,180 miles), Indus (2000 miles), Ganges (1,560), Brahmaputra (1802 miles), Irrawaddy (1350miles) and hopefully the Murray (1,600 miles). We'll have to negotiate a couple of deserts including the Balochistan on the borders between Iran and Pakistan and we'll have to do it in daylight with no stops because of bandits etc. We shouldn't have the same problems crossing the arid interior of Oz and we should see plenty of Camels seeing there are more in Oz than the Sahara etc. As for mountains well there are the well known ones like the Alps, the Carpathian, the Himalayas and the Blue Mountains in Oz but the there a number of ranges in Iran that I have never heard of and all between 3000 - 5000 metres high.
The first section is by bus but once we get to Sydney we're on our own and we will spend a month or so travelling up to the Cairns area and then fly to New Zealand for five or six weeks before going onto New York and Boston and then home.
I see the journey to Oz in two stages, the first taking us to the roof of the world in the Himalayas and then back down to earth and the beaches of East Asia and finally Oz. I have no doubt I will take hundreds of photos of the view from the Himalayas (hopefully Everest) and so I thought it would be a good idea to start with the view from the roof of our house which I just happen to have because we have just had a new roof.
When we tell people the route it tends to be in terms of countries and cities when it is more interesting to break it down into the deserts and the rivers. Here are some of the rivers I think we'll be crossing: the Rhine (820 miles), Danube (1771 miles), Tigris (1,180 miles), Indus (2000 miles), Ganges (1,560), Brahmaputra (1802 miles), Irrawaddy (1350miles) and hopefully the Murray (1,600 miles). We'll have to negotiate a couple of deserts including the Balochistan on the borders between Iran and Pakistan and we'll have to do it in daylight with no stops because of bandits etc. We shouldn't have the same problems crossing the arid interior of Oz and we should see plenty of Camels seeing there are more in Oz than the Sahara etc. As for mountains well there are the well known ones like the Alps, the Carpathian, the Himalayas and the Blue Mountains in Oz but the there a number of ranges in Iran that I have never heard of and all between 3000 - 5000 metres high.
