200 days on the road

23 countries

86,000 km
28 flights
1 Mobile Home
7 Hire cars
11 drivers with cars for long distances/all day
Taxis: Lost count
5 Long distance buses
26 Touk Touk rides
23 intercity trains

69 Hotels/Hostels/Apartments/Camps/Ryokans

Friendly places to stay: a lot. Most notable Masai Simba camp & Masai Duma Bush Camp (Kenya), Bamboo Palace hotel (Rwanda), Green House hotel (Uzbekistan), Dovipie Inn (Nagaland), Villa Oasis (Laos), Redpoint hostel & hostal nuevo sol y viento (Chile)

163 posts (Ian), 200 ({Flo)
1,600 photos posted (Ian), approx 7,000 posted! (Flo)

Further point from home 18,848km in New Zealand
Hottest 40C in Australia
Coldest not sure, since we try to follow the sun, probably Puerto Natales.
Highest point 4200m in Bolivia/Chile

Security issues : none serious
Car crashes : 1 minor (with motorbike) and near crashes with giraffes, zebras , and kangaroos.
Stomach illnesses: 2 hospitalised, 1 other serious, 3 others 1-2 days in bed

Countries planned but not visited: Burma
Countries visited, not in original plan : Laos

Rucksacks: 6 weighing 15 kg for adults and 6-8 for kids
Rucksacks are lightened by jettisoning unneeded clothes, gadgets & others by 8 kg
Items lost or stolen: 2 mobile phones, 1 Bluetooth speaker, 1 credit card (recovered from machine the next day), loads of other things (all Ian). 1 credit card (lost for good-Flo)

Home Schooling on track (thanks to Flo)
Home School Tablets: Do the job fine
Kids broader education in culture, lifestyles & living conditions, history, geography, languages, politics, religion, environment, geology, astronomy, animal behaviour, biology & theory of evolution, planning, decision making, IT tools way ahead of their peers
Kids' awareness of their privileges and the hardship of others improved dramatically

Kids favourite countries:
Lennox - Uzbekistan
Lola - Japan
Nora - Namibia
Oscar - Australia

Countries we liked and would visit again 21/22 (Adults), 20/22 (kids). They would skip large parts of India due to health risks.

Countries we were disappointed in: Tanzania (similar experience in the past to Kenya, but now not as good, corrupt officials, prices too high for hotels in Serengeti, too high for cars, US$300 for visas, and just generally less pleasant.

Most exotic foods: Bees, caterpillars in Nagaland and Namibia, spiders, crickets, dragonflies, worms
Best food: Israel, Japan, Argentina and Nagaland (for some), and Laos
Most friendly cooks: in Bamboo Palace Hotel (i.e., Lola cooked with the chef)

Best 2 days :
Dad – 1 Torres del Paine (Chile),2 Road trip including Uhuru Australia
Mum -1. Swimming with turtles & along the drop-off at the Great Barrier Reef, 2. Equally: Rajisthan square in Samarkand, Miyajima, Big Daddy Dune in Namibia, Masai Mara, Fitz Roy hike, the Olgas hike in Australia, Nagaland.
Lennox – Samarkand, day at Iwaso with Grand-Papa.
Lola – 1. I loved the days when we went to Iwaso (ryokan in Miyajima) 2. The day of my birthday at the Ritsurin-Koen Garden in Takayama.
Nora - Namibia bush paintings and petrified forest, Trelew, worlds largest dinosaur
Oscar - Australia crocodiles, Sydney New Years fireworks

Days we felt like giving up: From zero to a few depending on person
Days we felt like doing a second year: A lot (we won't for now)Read more