I recently reorganised this blog to separate posts covering our global sabbatical travels in 2005. These posts were previously published in 2006, shortly after I started the blog. Over the years, the blog has morphed into something akin to that of a travel diary. As a result, it seemed appropriate to date shift these early posts to match the months (and the year) in which they actually occurred.
As part of this exercise, I've revisited and revised each post. I’ve also created a few new entries that expand on more of our travels. My original posts were mainly repurposed updates I’d sent to family and friends while on the road. Given the depth and breadth of our travel itinerary at the time, these emails barely scratched the surface of the adventures we enjoyed.
Over a period of nine weeks, Garry and I traveled through the USA northeast, Eastern Canada, South America, and the Middle East before finally landing in the UK ready to start a new life in London. During this period we experienced so much including the spectacular Autumn colours of Canada, the awe-inspiring ruins of Machu Picchu, the steamy Amazon jungle, the energy of Rio de Janeiro, the ancient Nile, and the serenity of Petra. I doubt we'll ever experience anything quite like it again.
As I revisit these early posts, I've started progressively fleshing them out and adding additional images. This is very much a work in progress. No doubt I'll continue working on them long after I've retired. For now, enjoy these incredible highlights of a global journey that kicked off with three days visiting family in New Zealand, followed by three nights each in Washington DC and Boston, followed by a week-long business conference I attended in Princeton, New Jersey.
I've also begun adding retrospective posts covering our travel adventures in the years before this blog began. You can read these here and here.
Enjoy our journey...
More detail for the curious reader
Here's a summary of our entire sabbatical itinerary. It took me a lot of research to find three small group tours with dates that flowed from one tour to the next so seamlessly (and it took almost as long to work out how to HTML code this table so that it fitted neatly into the blog!). We also saved ourselves thousands of dollars by cashing in Starwood loyalty points for hotels in North and South America.
DAY | DATE | LOCATION | NOTES |
SAT | 08 Oct | Auckland | Visiting the McGregors |
SUN | 09 Oct | Auckland | |
MON | 10 Oct | Auckland | |
TUE | 11 Oct | Washington DC | Four Points by Sheraton Downtown |
WED | 12 Oct | Washington DC | |
THU | 13 Oct | Washington DC | |
FRI | 14 Oct | Boston | The Westin Copley Place |
SAT | 15 Oct | Boston | |
SUN | 16 Oct | Boston | |
MON | 17 Oct | Princeton | Text 100 offsite |
TUE | 18 Oct | Princeton | |
WED | 19 Oct | Princeton | |
THU | 20 Oct | Princeton | |
FRI | 21 Oct | Princeton | |
SAT | 22 Oct | Montreal | Le Centre Sheraton Montreal |
SUN | 23 Oct | Montreal | |
MON | 24 Oct | Ottawa | Four Points by Shearton Gatineau |
TUE | 25 Oct | Toronto | Westin Harbour Castle |
WED | 26 Oct | Toronto | |
THU | 27 Oct | Lima | Sheraton Lima Hotel & Casino |
FRI | 28 Oct | Lima | |
SAT | 29 Oct | Tour Day 1 | Lima |
SUN | 30 Oct | Tour Day 2 | Arequipa |
MON | 31 Oct | Tour Day 3 | Arequipa |
TUE | 01 Nov | Tour Day 4 | Arequipa |
WED | 02 Nov | Tour Day 5 | Puno |
THU | 03 Nov | Tour Day 6 | Taquile Island |
FRI | 04 Nov | Tour Day 7 | Puno |
SAT | 05 Nov | Tour Day 8 | Cusco |
SUN | 06 Nov | Tour Day 9 | Cusco |
MON | 07 Nov | Tour Day 10 | Machu Picchu |
TUE | 08 Nov | Tour Day 11 | Cusco |
WED | 09 Nov | Tour Day 12 | Cusco |
THU | 10 Nov | Tour Day 13 | Amazon Jungle |
FRI | 11 Nov | Tour Day 14 | Amazon Jungle |
SAT | 12 Nov | Tour Day 15 | Amazon Jungle |
SUN | 13 Nov | Tour Day 16 | Lima |
MON | 14 Nov | Tour Day 17 | Depart Lima. Fly to Rio |
TUE | 15 Nov | Tour Day 1 | Rio Private Day Tour |
WED | 16 Nov | Tour Day 2 | Drive to Parati |
THU | 17 Nov | Tour Day 3 | Parati |
FRI | 18 Nov | Tour Day 4 | Minibus to Sao Paulo |
SAT | 19 Nov | Tour day 5 | Sao Paulo |
SUN | 20 Nov | Tour Day 6 | Drive to Curitiba |
MON | 21 Nov | Tour Day 7 | Curitiba |
TUE | 22 Nov | Tour Day 8 | Iguazu Falls |
WED | 23 Nov | Tour Day 9 | Iguazu Falls |
THU | 24 Nov | Tour Day 10 | Fly to Buenos Aires |
FRI | 25 Nov | Buenos Aires | Sheraton Libertador Hotel |
SAT | 26 Nov | Buenos Aires | Evening flight to Egypt via Madrid |
SUN | 27 Nov | Tour Day 1 | Arrive in Cairo |
MON | 28 Nov | Tour Day 2 | Cairo |
TUE | 29 Nov | Tour Day 3 | Luxor. Karnak. Valley of the Queens |
WED | 30 Nov | Tour Day 4 | Valley of the Kings. Nile cruise |
THU | 01 Dec | Tour Day 5 | Edfu - Kom Ombo |
FRI | 02 Dec | Tour Day 6 | Kom Ombo - Aswan |
SAT | 03 Dec | Tour Day 7 | Aswan - Abu Simbel |
SUN | 04 Dec | Tour Day 8 | Cairo |
MON | 05 Dec | Tour Day 9 | Alexandria |
TUE | 06 Dec | Tour Day 10 | Mt Sinai |
WED | 07 Dec | Tour Day 11 | Mt Sinai - St Catherine - Aqaba |
THU | 08 Dec | Tour Day 12 | Wadi Rum - Petra |
FRI | 09 Dec | Tour Day 13 | Petra |
SAT | 10 Dec | Tour Day 14 | Kerak - Madaba - Mt Nebo - Amman |
SUN | 11 Dec | Tour Day 15 | Jerash - Amman |
MON | 12 Dec | Tour Day 16 | Amman |
TUE | 13 Dec | London | Flight to London |
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