We have lived a year that most people only ever dream of.  It’s been hard at times but mostly it’s been truly amazing.  The world is, as we expected, a beautiful place and its mostly the people that make it so.

We have now finished our trip and are living in Ireland.  It’s a bit strange being back and having to deal with the rain on a daily basis, even in the summer.

A quick round up:

• No. of days travelling: 382
• No. of continents: 5
• No. of countries: 23
• No. of flights: 19
• No. of bus journeys: 55
• Longest bus journey: 33 hours (Laos to China)
• Worst train journey: Pingyoa to Beijing in China (the smell of piss, shit and tobacco for 12 hours)
• Countries we enjoyed the most (in order): Nepal, New Zealand, Indonesia, Thailand and Cambodia
• Country we liked the least: China
• No of photos taken: approx. 30,000
• No. short videos: approx. 250
• No. of gigabites: 160
• Favourite photos: Ankor Wat, Cambodia

Website stats:

• No. of posts uploaded: 264
• Total views: 17,003 (avg. 45 per day)
• Busiest day: 154 (when we got engaged)
• Busiest month: August 2008 (1,720 hits)
• No. of comments: 540
• Most avid followers: Tim Knight and Delboy May (thanks guys!)

Some highlights of our trip:

• Trekking to Annapurna Base Camp in the Himalayas
• Cycling the world’s most dangerous road in Bolivia
• Getting engaged on a Thailand beach
• Trekking in the Andes
• Tubing in Vang Veing
• Canoeing down the Amazon
• Solar de Uyuni tour in Bolivia
• Visiting family in Australia and New Zealand
• Diving in Amed in Bali
• Campervaning in Australia and New Zealand
• Three months surfing in Australia
• Skydiving in Taupo New Zealand
• Camping with the Orangutans in Bucket Luang Indonesia
• Ice walking and climbing Franz Joseph Glacier in New Zealand
• Certifying as an open water and advanced scuba diver
• Scuba Diving in Egypt, Thailand, Indonesia, Australia, New Zealand and Honduras
• Visiting 36 UNESCO World Heritage Sites, and
• 5 New Wonders of the World:
• Historic Sanctuary of Machu Picchu (Peru)
• Christ the Redeemer (Brazil)
• The Great Wall of China (China)
• The Taj Mahal (India)
• Pyramids of Giza (Egypt)

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everybody that followed us through our epic journey and left comments which kept us motivated to keep this site updated.

We will be collating a personal book of our journey which will include our posts and a selection of our 30,000 photos.  You will be able to download a hard copy for only a few dollars via blurb.com. This will take some time to collate so you’ll have to bear with us.  I will keep you posted on such developments. It will keep us occupied while we seek employment.

Thank you for everything, it’s been amazing.

All our love,

Davey and Sam

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” – St. Augustine

This will be the cover of our book:

We chucked out all our ragged clothes and went shopping on 5^th Avenue, took the tour around Manhattan, Brooklyn  Queens, Ellis Island and around the Statue of Liberty.  A fabulous weekend and one we will no doubt relive again in the near future – at least next time we won’t have to do so many tourist things.