Let the Amazing Race around the World Begin!

Let series two of the Amazing Race around the World begin! Nine years ago we set off on a life-changing race around 30 countries in one year. Now we’re about to do it all over again but this time the ambitions are grander. At the moment the total country count is 60 (although according to Jason it’s 63 because he counts airport stopovers). Let's see if we can get to 100 (or 103) by the end of the 12 months. I can't promise that there won't be cross over episodes with the Lost World or that the Lost World may have already started in pre-production.

The last few weeks have been hectic with finishing up work, packing up the apartment and getting it ready to rent out, whilst doing renovations that were meant to finish weeks ago. In typical Jason and Ricky fashion, we made it by the skin of our teeth. The new powder room renovations were finished in time for us to at least christen it. No more running up the 20 steps to the upper level to go to the toilet!

The first major task was to move everything into storage. The big question was whether the storage unit was going to be big enough for all our crap. Jason kept taunting me about the clothes and shoes that I had packed into storage, but I say that ain’t anything on his Emelda Marcos collection of crocs. They say people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones.

To get all the crap out of the apartment and into the storage shed, we borrowed a ute/truck from our friends Kiri and Johno. I think it was all of about 10 minutes of loading up the truck before her majesty Princess Jason of James Street had had enough. “Why are we doing this? Why are we not paying people to do this for us?”, proclaimed her majesty. My reply was “because we’re not old and dead yet”. After 2.5 loads to the storage shed, there was no juice in the tank for Princess Jason. Mission aborted.

You might think that was all the packing needed. No. Everywhere we looked, every cupboard and pantry still had shit in it. Where was all this going? The storage was a decent size but it ain’t no TARDIS. Panic set in for Princess Jason, and instructions to dump more shit were declared. The funny thing was the piles just kept moving around the apartment, with the rare item being placed at the door for me to take down the five flights of stairs to the bins.

Originally, Jason wanted to move out of the apartment two weeks before heading off, with the idea that we could move straight back in after being away for the year. Me on the other hand, I wanted more time to prepare. My logic was that we will be couch surfing for 12 months, what’s another couple of weeks. Six of one, half a dozen of the other really. Well, as time galloped towards our departure day, the move-out date kept moving. The renos weren’t done either which meant we couldn't move out anyway.

The last few days before the Amazing Race around the World things started to ramp up; things were getting real. Piles of shit seemed to slowly migrate to the lower level. I’m sure the neighbourhood could hear the expletives every time one of us opened another cupboard door to be surprised with more stuff. Luckily it all fit in storage with a little room to spare.

We loaded up our backpacks and headed to Cat and Paul’s house to spend our final night in Oz. But that was only after a few tantrums and breakdowns. How are we going to do this? How have we got so much shit to stuff in our backpacks? They were chock-a-block. There was not a nook or cranny to fill. And that was after adding an extra backpack. I was loaded up with 20 kilos in one bag and another 8 kilos in the smaller backpack. Jason was only a little lighter at 18.8 kilos. There was so much weight that I needed to wear one backpack on the front just to even things out. Otherwise I would have toppled over.

Luckily, we’ve been in training for the big adventure. Nine years older but we’re much fitter. How long will this last? Jason is already predicting some weight gain on our first stopover. We’ve said no alcohol or pastries this adventure. How long will this last? The first cheap beer and tart and all of this will be out the door. Or the first free bit of booze on the flight 😜

After a night at Cat and Paul’s, we woke up early to repack. Then came the cycle of cursing, cussing and claiming we couldn’t do this. After a few deep breaths, we tried it all over again. I think constantly doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome might be the definition of insane.

Insanely packed, Paul dropped us to the airport for our 2:25pm flight. The airport was a ghost town. The QANTAS check-in is all self-service, and apart from the two staff members we were the only passengers to be seen. The flight was empty so the ground crew offered to move us to better seats – a whole row to ourselves. No annoying people or screaming children in between. I'm not sure that was enough to counter the bad twice cooked beef and overcooked rice.

We breezed through customs and got to the front of the TRS (Tourist Refund Scheme) counter with plenty of time before we had to board, although as per usual my bag needed to be examined by customs. I was praying that I wouldn't need to take stuff out of my bag. It was like a jigsaw puzzle; there was only one way it was going to fit. Jason was paranoid that he'd be caught with oversized carry on, so he walked onto the plane shielding his jammed packed bag from the eagle eyes of the flighties. Mission accomplished.

Next stop clue: A country named after a king. Made famous by 7,000+ islands.Read more