We’re back from our epic adventure. 454 Days later, we met awesome people, visited family and friends across the globe and saw beautiful places – all memories that will last a lifetime!
Here is a quick highlight reel we made one year into the trip: https://www.instagram.com/p/CzBneptoJmB/
We are busy returning to the ‘real world’, securing jobs, renting an apartment, and settling down a little. It is great not to be living out of a suitcase for a while, and for the medium term, we won’t take any longer vacations.
So, what did we cover in this major trip that has recently ended? Well, we started this trip with a quick stop in New Zealand at the beginning of November 2022 and then spent 40 days in Chile, going as far south as we had ever been. Then we were in Cusco in Peru for nine days, but unfortunately, we needed to leave Peru early due to political unrest (we left as soon as the airports opened up again).
Atacama Desert, Chile 2022
Christmas 2022 was in La Paz (Bolivia), and New Year’s Eve was in Isla Del Sol (an island in the middle of Lake Titicaca). After visiting the massive salt flats in Bolivia, we visited the Amazon and the Galapagos Islands in Ecuador for a week each, and this was certainly a highlight for us.
Chiyar Quta, Bolivia, 2022
Sacha Lodge, Amazon Rainforest, Ecuador, 2023
Galapagos Islands, Ecuador, 2023
We made a quick stop in Costa Rica before heading to Canada, where we spent 70 days in pretty freezing temperatures (we even needed to go thrift store shopping for more winter gear, and in the Yukon, we needed to hire proper winter kit). As part of our Canadian leg, we did some pet-sitting while waiting out some colder weather before travelling east across Canada.
Aurora Borealis, Whitehorse, Canada (it was minus 29 Celsius that night)
In mid-April, we went to Iceland for two weeks (returning for a longer time than our 2016 visit) and then spent a week in Greenland (with its totally unique landscapes) before making our way to the UK. We started our UK trip in May 2023, with three glorious weeks of late spring in Scotland and finally with some warmer weather, before making London our base.
Ilulissat, Greenland, 2023
Edinburgh, Scotland, 2023
Towards the end of June 2023, we decided to visit friends and family in South Africa (not originally part of the grand plan) before heading back to Europe at the end of July to enjoy some summer weather again.
Table Mountain, Cape Town, South Africa, 2023
We started the next leg in Switzerland and saw magnificent views of the Alps. Then we did a tour of Demark, Norway and Sweden, where the Norwegian Fjords were definitely the highlight of Scandinavia.
Lauterbrunnen, Switzerland, 2023
Norway, 2022
This was followed in August by a two-week travel whirlwind filled with city and national park tours – all during a heat wave! In sweltering conditions, we visited Poland, Czechia, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Budapest, Hungary, 2023
Dubrovnik, Croatia, 2023
A quick overnight stop took us to Vienna on our way to Sofia, Bulgaria and later Romania. As you’re limited to 90 days in the Schengen countries, our destinations over the next few weeks allowed us to collect a few more days to be able to return to Western Europe afterwards. We found a great-priced stopover flight deal that resulted in us visiting Türkiye and getting to see the beautiful hot air balloons at sunrise in Cappadocia before going to Montenegro.
Cappadocia, Türkiye, 2023
We met some friends in Munich, Germany, for Octoberfest and returned to Austria to explore other regions. We used Venice, Italy, as our base to go to the Dolomites and stopped in Geneva before heading to France.
One of many beer halls at Oktoberfest, Munich, Germany 2023
View from the Bridge of Sighs, Venice, Italy, 2023
The Alps as viewed from the top of the cable car at Chamonix, France, 2023
Bruges in Belgium was our next stop before a quick jump to Malta before finally going to the Netherlands.
Bruges, Belgium
Sailing towards the Blue Grotto, Malta
We then spent 20 days exploring the south island of New Zealand, including an overnight cruise on the incredible Milford Sound, before heading back to Australia. In Australia, we saw some amazing spots we hadn’t been able to visit before, like Uluru, Broome and the Snowy Mountains and have now headed back to our home city, Sydney.
Milford Sound, South Island, New Zealand
Uluru, Northern Territory, Australia
The image below shows our original wishlist, but there were a few changes to the plan. For example, skipping Easter Island and visiting the Amazon rainforest instead. We also skipped Russia and decided to leave Mongolia for a future adventure. Overall, we think we did pretty well!
