August 21, 2003
Off we go...
Our adventure starts on Monday September 1st, when we fly from Ottawa to London. Here are some details of our trip so you can follow along and know a bit more about the background.
Sept 2-12th, Ireland with Mom and Paul. We've rented a car and we're exploring the island for 10 days together.
Sept 14-22, Scotland. We've rented a car to explore. If we end up having time, we might walk some of the West Highland Way that Jim and Marg have suggested.
Sept 23, we fly from Scotland to Pau, France using RyanAir. We'll then jump on a bus and head to St Pied de Port where the Camino Pilgrammage begins. We'll get our "pilgrim" passport, send on items to Santiago to make our packs a little lighter, and then start walking on the morning of the 24th. The first day you walk over the Pyrenees mountains before arriving in Spain. The camino can take anywhere from 30-45 days to walk, since it's 900 kms. We are going to play it all by ear ... we may walk for 2,3 or 4 weeks.
There are web cams along the way, but the one we will let people know about is the one in Santiago when you actually finish the walk. It's located in the main square in Santiago. We'll either call or email you to let you know when we'll arrive and you can see us online - look for us waving at the bottom of the stairs. We did this before when Ben finished the northern route and when Ben and Dad finished the southern route and it was very exciting to see them finish right before our eyes. Check it out! Go to this site, click on "all the cams", then click on the image in the top right hand corner, which should say "Obradoiro Square".
When we finish the camino, we are planning to head south through Portugal and then onto Morocco before heading to Marbella to see Ben, Sylvia, Uncle Bill, Aunt Lolita and the rest of the family. We hope to be there for November 7th - for the birthdays! We're planning to rest and visit there for awhile. Dad may also join us here for a week or two, which would be a very nice treat. It will be nice to have a break from travelling for a bit.
We fly out of Madrid on November 24th to Nairobi, Kenya. We arrive first thing on November 25th. We'll be staying with a friend of Cailin's friend Abdella's for a night. Jess stayed with him before her safari a few years ago. We then meet out safari group on November 26th. We head out on a 5-week camping safari through Kenya, Tanzania (including the island of Zanzibar), Malawi, and Zambia. We'll visit game parks, islands, lakes, local communities, etc. Some nights we'll camp in official campgrounds and other nights, we'll stop along the side of the road. It should definitely be an adventure. We end in Victoria Falls, Zambia.
On January 4th, we fly to Cape Town, South Africa for a mini "western" holiday for six days before heading to South East Asia. We've heard nothing but good things about Cape Town - cute B&Bs, wonderful restaurants, beautiful beaches, gorgeous vineyards, a great amount of history ... and it's supposed to be quite reasonable.
On January 10th, we fly to Bangkok, Thailand. We hear that Bangkok is really neat, but two days and you're ready to leave the city. We plan to explore many of the beautiful beaches and the north where there is supposed to be great hiking. We haven't made too many plans for the South East Asia leg of our trip - we will play it all by ear. We do want to explore Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia (in particular Ankor Wat), and Mynamar (formerly Burma). We'll see when we're in that area, how our schedule works out.
Before heading home, we also want to visit India and Nepal. In India, we are interested in spending time in the north, as well as the south - Goa and Kerala are supposed to be gorgeous. At this time, our last adventure is to Nepal, which should be the jewel of the trip. We will visit in Katmandu before heading towards Pokahara where we will begin the Annapurna trek. This hike should take anywhere between 3-4 weeks.
As for what's next after that ... well we're either continue on to visit Jay and Fiona and then head back through Europe or we'll head straight home. I guess we'll just see.
Here is some additional info, in case you need it:
Bill and Lolita Kessels
Del Rocio 5A
Marbella, Malaga
29600, Spain
011-34-952-77-1669
Ben Meloche
Sylvia Barba Redondo
Edificio Valladolid
Avenida Ricardo
Soriano 66
Apt #5, B2
Marbella, Malaga,
Spain, 29600
011-34-952-82-1755
Feel free to email us at any time at bg14@hotmail.com or jillmeloche@hotmail.com.
Rough Image for Title
This is a rough image for the title banner of our web site.