This section is about our own preparations for our first RTW trip.

Picture right - The Lone Digger, Ream National Park, Cambodia.

Our preparations.

Planning
Websites such as www.lonelyplanet.com were very useful in the planning stage along with their paperback books. Rough Guide books were also excellent. Another site I found useful to read about peoples experiences in places of interest was www.bootsnall.com. I also highly recommend your local library for guides and videos. We also watched Michael Palin's Full Circle episodes on Peru and the Amazon which we found most useful and included some key information on places we were planning to go to and also opened our eyes a bit on what to expect.

We had studied each of our destinations and had decided an approximate timescale for each step of the itinerary. Obviously a much more basic version of the itinerary on the previous page suggesting main destinations only.

Booking
We basically decided our route gauging the price by what was given on the Airtreks website and thankfully it's website quote was about a third more than the actual quote given by Trailfinders. On 22nd February 2003 we decided firstly to visit a local specialist about our plans to get a better idea of the cost. This was STA Travel in Canterbury, on the university grounds. On the 15th March 2003 we visited Trailfinders in London Piccadilly who gave better advice and we had friends who'd traveled with Trailfinders tickets with no problems. They were actually about £50 more expensive than STA but we felt more comfortable with the professionalism of Trailfinders at that time and booked the tickets.

The date booked was Monday 1st September 2003. The booking was with Trailfinders and for the two of us including most taxes, comprehensive insurance and a mysterious £100 charge totals £5544.20. The tickets are basically RTW Star Alliance tickets with some additional flights not with the alliance. Because the ticket was over the top Star Alliance ticket bracket of 39000 miles (Click here) we had to buy separate flights from Sao Paulo to L.A. and a Quantas Boomerang ticket from Christchurch to Melbourne and from Cairns back down to Brisbane. It works out to about 41000ish miles which is about 6p a mile! Not bad really. One thing you have to consider when purchasing a Star Alliance ticket of this sort is that also include the mileage of one airport to the next when traveling it overland, so effectively you end up paying twice! See the Star Alliance website for more information. www.staralliance.com

Preparing
102 days before departure day. We had to prepare ourselves for moving out of our rented accommodation. Our tenancy agreement was due to expire on 30th June 2003, the rent was due to increase and a lovely £70 renewal fee was expected to deal with 'the admin'. Being only 2 months away from leaving we discussed an alternative option to save a little more money, be it not the most ideal. Emily decided to move back to her mums and got permission to use her garage for storage of all of our furnishings in the house whilst away. Whilst I ended up house sitting firefighter colleagues homes whilst they were on holiday allowing me to stay in the turn out area for the fire brigade and still earn the cash needed. Unfortunately Emily's mothers house was welcoming but too far to turn out to the fire station.

Vaccinations
Next thing was the chore of vaccinations. Being we had not been anywhere tropical in a while we had to have about everything that was going. I ended up having Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, Tetanus, Typhoid, Polio, Yellow Fever and Rabies. Emily had to have The TB (Tuberculosis) jab too that she escaped from at school! We also had to consider the Malaria protection for the Amazon Basin. We decided Malarone was the best choice for us, the area and the time we were spending there. See the travel clinic or local GP for more information on Malaria protection.

Packing
We obviously had to give thought of what to take, what not to take and what we needed to purchase. Obviously things like a decent camera is essential. I actually took a 35mm Canon 300v SLR with a 20mm - 90mm lens, and a 70mm - 300mm lens with UV filters and a polarising filter for those reflection shots, coral reefs and blue skies! The standard lens was a good all rounder and the 300mm lens allowed me to get real close to the wildlife on river banks etc. I didn't use it much but it was very handy to have when I needed it. Next trip I'm definitely going to take a wide angle lens too & a small tripod for low light shots. The other good thing was a minidisc player, probably better off now with an MP3 player but try and get one with a microphone on it so you can record noises of the rainforest etc. It's amazing how the sounds take you right back afterwards. Unfortunately our minidisc player was stolen on a bus in Peru. Shit happens! I have found this website excellent for preparing what to take. It'll give you a good insight in how to pack light and efficiently.

Necessities to pack:
Swiss Army Knife
Camera
Recording Device (i.e. MP3 recorder)
-5 + Lightweight Sleeping Bag
Torch
Waterproof Jacket & Trousers
First Aid kit & Sterile Needles
Bathroom & Sink Plug
Malaria Protection (If needed)
Compass (If trekking)
Lightweight Clothing
A Warm Jumper
Clothes for City Breaks
Hat
Sunglasses
Journal & Pen
Day Pack of some kind
Walking Boots
Hard Wearing Sandals (Merrels or something)

Remember you can buy clothes abroad and they'll probably be cheaper too so pack light.
My Backpack weighed in a 18KG which for my bodyweight is O.K. but I could of got away in hindsight on about 14KG. Emily's weighed about the same but we were carrying quite a few guidebooks too. Actually one for every country up until Thailand. Emily's mother took our old guidebooks away from us in Sydney and gave us the next set for the next half of the trip. You can obviously exchange them at many of the book swap places or with other travelers but we liked to hang onto them for reference later on. They came in very handy trying to put a name to a place in photographs. After all I need take over 3000 photos.