We decided to go West.  We looked at seasons, school calendars, swells, weather patterns and meeting family when they were available and it made most sense to take the less conventional route around the world.

Starting on the East coast of the US in mid September and visiting an old school friend and his family in Washington DC and Columbia we then plan to travel up to New York City for a week and then Niagara falls for a few days, to coincide with Kates’s birthday.

We have then booked a house in the south west of Costa Rica, up in the rainforest above the pacific surf of Dominical.  We plan to  be based there for 8 weeks and hope to travel around the country to see the wild diversity the land offers, including volcanoes, hot springs, primary cloud rain forests and the Caribbean coast.

Then we are off to Australia to stay with Kates family for Christmas and New Year in Freemantle.  We hope to explore a bit of the vast western coast of Australia and spend time with family.  On the way we have 12 hours overnight in LA, just long enough, Summer hopes, to see the Hollywood sign and Beverley Hills, and then 4 days in Hawai, staying in a simple Air BNB behind the famous pipeline surf break, hopefully to coincide with the Pipemasters Classic ASP word surf contest!

After Australia we aim to travel across Asia, probably through Vietnam, Cambodia  and maybe Laos before hooking up with James’ brother and his wife in Thailand for a couple of weeks.  We hope to volunteer in a school in rural Cambodia.   Then our plans are flexible; maybe a few weeks in Sri Lanka, or India or possibly Nepal.  We will decide nearer the time depending on our circumstances then.

We plan to end our trip with about a month in Malawi, linking with a school outside Lilongwe, through a contact back in Devon.  We hope to volunteer in a school there, live in a remote village for a few days and then visit the lake and possibly get a few days in Zambia on safari.

That’s the plan.  Its all subject to change and we hope that as we travel our route will develop from the people we meet and the places we experience on the way.

If you have any experiences or suggestions of places we should go, people we should meet or things we should see or do please let us know.  We want to ensure that through the whole journey we can learn together as a family and grow together and as individuals.

Exciting times ahead, so watch this space.