PROLOGUE
Outside, rain splashes miserably against the train’s grimy windows, and from our starkly lit compartment, there is nothing to see of the dark Croatian countryside – just the reflection of my disappointed face. Darryl, sitting across from me, is once again buried deep within a sudoku. He bought his book of absorbing puzzles in late October, days before we embarked on this adventure and already, six weeks into our journey, it’s worn and beginning to fill. Watching him confidently turn another page throws me back to our recent train trips where squares were laboriously filled and puzzles successfully completed as we shot across China, meandered around Mongolia, slogged through vast Russia, slept through Belarus and passed through Poland. And it makes me realise two things. One: it’s incredible how well his body is handling our rigid itinerary, the ceaseless onward travel. And two: he will most certainly need a second sudoku book before we arrive back in Australia. Before we finish this circumnavigation of the world. Before we conclude – our second global adventure.
In 2017, Darryl and I undertook what we thought was a ‘trip of a lifetime.’ Using ideas or destinations on a coveted ‘Bucket List,’ we spent seven months traversing Asia and Europe, seeking culinary delights, childhood dreams and, in Darryl’s case, health. Still in the throes of depression following a life-changing accident in 2011, our overland journey from Australia to Europe by ship and train was precisely what Darryl needed at the time. It tested his endurance, dispelled the frustrations brought about by an inability to work and cast aside his despair – something medication hadn’t been able to do.
Returning home, what we hadn’t expected were the after-effects of this life of travel: the realisation that a once-in-a-lifetime adventure is not good enough, that this nomadic existence is great; therapeutic and informative, you want – even need – to take off again, to scratch that itch. The online Collins dictionary example sums it up quite nicely and succinctly: “The trip gave me itchy feet and I wanted to travel more.”
Coming from a family used to travel and growing up with a desire to explore the world so great that during my teens, I had created my own Bucket List and even laminated it, the seven months spent ticking the items on this worn piece of plastic, blogging our journey and organising our travel was something very difficult to abandon once we returned to everyday life. Writing a memoir, Bucket Lists and Walking Sticks, helped; we were able to relive our adventure. But unfortunately, it wasn’t enough. We had both well and truly developed ‘itchy feet.’
In late 2018, understanding that this itch wasn’t going to go away and aware of the benefits of travel on our mental health, the joy brought about by just moving onwards, I decided to again hunt out this list.
“My father always dreamt of catching the Trans-Siberian Express,” I say one morning to Darryl over my avocado on toast, my laminated list on the table beside me. “As a child, I remember hearing about this train journey that spanned the length of Russia cutting through Siberia, and how incredible it sounded. But dad died at 61 and never got to realise his dream. And your mother. She had her adventures cut off at 63. It would be good, while we still can, to do some more travel. To take off again.”
“We are only in our fifties,” Darryl laughs.
“I know, but who knows what’s down the track,” I reply. “Whether your body will hold up. Whether we will be able to travel later. Whether Trump blows up the world. Climate change? Who knows?”
“Where did you have in mind?”
“I’ve pulled the Bucket List back out. Amongst what’s left are the Trans-Siberian Express, the Terracotta Army, the Swiss Alps and the Panama Canal.”
“Which one were you thinking of?”
“All of them.”
“All of them?”
“Yes. It could be our second ‘global adventure.’”
It takes a year to organise and, as with our last journey, I love
every moment of putting together an itinerary that becomes harder to control than an excitable puppy, an itinerary that leaps and grows, refusing to be mediocre. Already plush with our Bucket List items, each great new experience that is added seems to suggest another.
It’s possible to commence the Trans-Siberian Express in Beijing, China. This leg, called the Trans-Mongolian, traverses Mongolia, so how about we stay a night or two in the freezing desert in a ger, a traditional tent? The Trans-Siberian journey terminates in Moscow, so let’s spend time exploring Putin’s city. Auschwitz has long exerted a strange pull, so let’s visit Poland. Croatia looks incredible and is cheap, so let’s go there. And if we are touring the Swiss Alps, let’s ride the Glacier Express. And the Golden Pass Line. Let’s have a rum in Barbados, a coffee in Guatemala and guacamole in Mexico.
After 12 months of joyous battle and intense organisation, what eventuates is a four-month, 57,000-kilometre journey crossing China, Mongolia, Russia and greater Europe, arriving in England for Christmas. The New Year sees us continuing the journey onboard a cruise ship that will take seven weeks to deliver us back to Australia via the Panama Canal, America, and the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. In all, we will be traversing 20-plus countries utilising a score of trains, one ship and two planes. It would have been preferable to forgo the planes and achieve the journey solely by land but time constraints, combined with a desire not to repeat Asian train routes covered in our youth has us flying from Brisbane to Beijing in late October, 2019.
As on our last adventure, I organise most of our travel myself. I book our accommodation through Booking.com, purchase Eurail passes through Raileurope.com.au and use Russiau.com to help with the convoluted Russian visas we require. I organise fee-free credit cards from Citibank and order a variety of currencies from Travelex. I purchase three sim cards through Simcorner.com for China, Russia and Europe, arrange ESTAs which authorise us to travel to America and organise flu, tetanus, typhoid, hepatitis A and B shots. Disconcertingly, I discover that even though we will not be stepping onto Belarusian soil – our train will merely be passing through – visas are still required, and unbelievably, they can only be obtained personally in Moscow. I push aside the disturbing thought of what will we do if we fail to obtain these visas; the entire itinerary hinges on each leg going to plan.
I do get some help with travel through China and Russia. China is cagey about foreign visitors, so ChinaTour.net helps me with letters of introduction for our visas, the airport pickup and internal excursions. They book our tours to the Great Wall, Forbidden City and the Terracotta Army; everything else, including accommodation and internal train travel, we organise ourselves. For our Trans-Siberian journey, we consult Monkeyshrine, a company recommended by train-travel expert The Man in Seat 61.
The Trans-Siberian is the world’s longest railway journey. Spanning 9,289 kilometres from Vladivostok in the east to Moscow in the west, it crosses Siberia, runs alongside the great Lake Baikal, across the endless Russian steppes and over the rich Ural Mountains.
The Trans-Mongolian is a 7,621-kilometre journey that leaves from Beijing in China. It enters the Gobi Desert, cuts across Mongolia then merges with the Trans-Siberian line in Siberia. It is, some would argue, the more interesting of the two journeys.
Both the Trans-Siberian and Trans-Mongolian Express are not one train journey each but instead routes along Russia’s massive rail network. You can catch several different trains of varying grades that travel the routes. Although possible to book cabins ourselves through pass.rzd.ru, it becomes easier, given the considerable paperwork involved, to use Monkeyshrine.
Wrestling with such an extensive itinerary, I do make plenty of mistakes. I have us booked into accommodation in Warsaw ready to visit Auschwitz, when in fact, we should be staying nearly 300 kilometres away in Krakow. I have to rearrange our whole Switzerland itinerary once I discover the Glacier Express closes each year for a month’s maintenance – the month we hoped to be aboard her. Booking late, I just manage to secure the last sleeper cabin on the Jadrolinija ferry between Croatia and Italy, and I learn that you must purchase an actual seat reservation with a Eurail pass and that there are limited online sites where you can buy them.
I book train tickets from Budapest to Zagreb and realise that these tickets cannot be printed online; they must be posted to us. Unfortunately, we will have left Australia before they arrive – they will have to be sent to our Moscow accommodation and fingers crossed, they turn up. And knowing we will be in London while the Premier League is playing, I leave it up to Darryl, a keen West Ham fan, to secure tickets and ask him on the eve of our departure.
“Have we got seats?”
“Um no. I was hoping you could look into them?”
But perhaps my biggest mistake, although I do not know this
at the time, is to not adequately insure Darryl for any pre-existing injuries. Using the free travel insurance attached to our credit cards, we will both be covered. But when it comes to paying any extra to cover Darryl’s numerous ailments, on Darryl’s bidding, I unfortunately decline. A decision that will later cause me much angst.
Despite the mistakes, I do have some good wins. I purchase a new iPhone to replace my old one which is slowly dying, knowing I will be able to claim back any GST at the airport before we fly out. And I manage to secure a great deal on the cruise ship that will return us to Australia, a cruise ship we are familiar with.
“It’s the Arcadia,” I mention to Darryl. “The ship we sailed on to England last time.”
It’s surprising how quickly those 12 months pass, how well the itinerary comes together, how ready we are to once again take off, to scratch the itch. Whereas last time, it was our children’s travels that ignited our travel bug, this time, both Pierce and Paige will be remaining in Australia. Pierce, currently in his third year of an electrical apprenticeship with a Byron Bay electrician, will be looking after our house.
“Yes mum. Of course, I’ll keep it clean.”
Paige, with her nursing studies complete, is presently looking
for a graduate position while working at a Woolworths in Brisbane. Our little water dragon-chasing dog Jordie has sadly passed away.
On the eve of our departure, knowing that we will be missing the long, beautiful Australian summer, I take my usual early morning stroll along the Brunswick Head’s breakwall, scanning for dolphins and enjoying the sunrise. I won’t be doing anything like this in the wintery northern hemisphere. Local Geoff, another early morning walker, greets me as I approach.
“So, tomorrow, is it?”
“It is. We’ll stay tomorrow night in Brisbane before flying out Monday morning.”
“And you will be away for four months? Travelling around the world?”
“We are.”
“Why?” he asks simply.
It’s a question that I need a few seconds to answer.
“Because there’s more to the world than the Byron Shire and we want to see it. Because we only have one life to make the most of. Because we still have Bucket List items to tick off.”
I’m satisfied with my answer, but Geoff looks unconvinced. I continue.
“Because you can gain so much by travelling through a country, a town or a place. Because everyone should know about the joys of travel. Because when we return, I’ll use my notes to write a book and you’ll be able to experience the joy and hopefully learn something from our journey.”
