rblackwell
Adventurer
So when does a journey move from being a plan to an "in progress" expedition.
Nina (my wife) and I are about to start a (long awaited) trip from Vladivostok to Istanbul (via Mongolia, a bunch of Central Asian Republics, and Iran). We hope to be in Istanbul by Christmas of this year.
We got our Russia visas returned to us today March 7th. These are 1 year multi entry business visa. Though they only allow 90 days in Russia every 180 days - much like the Schengen rules in Europe - but never the less are valid for a year. We could conceivably
spend 6 months of the next 12 months in Russia on these visas.
We take our yellow beast to the port of Everett Monday (March 11) to be loaded on a RORO boat that departs for Vladivostok March 20th.
It is supposed to arrive in Vladivostok April 3rd - we will see!
We have arranged with a local shipping agent in Vladivostok to assist with the port and customs formalities. Hope that works out!
So it certainly feels like we are already "in progress"
But from another perspective we have been on this journey since July 2012
when we set out on our 26,000 mile "proving trails" across Canada to the Eastern provinces, back across the US, down the Baja and back to our home in Washington.
Or did it start on the cross Canadian journey when we touched the most Easterly point of North America and started heading west. After all traveling out of Vladivostok we will simply be continuing our westward journey.
We will leave the US at the end of March, spend a few days in Beijing and be in Vladivostok on April 4th. So certainly by the afternoon of April 4th our expedition will definitely be "in progress".
Before we leave the US I will release an update to our website http://whiteacorn.com with a lot more information about our truck and our experience with it to date. Once we hit Vladivostok we will once again try to run a travel diary or journal via (almost) daily posts.
Our proposed route can be found at http://whiteacorn.com/map/rtw#proposed
Nina (my wife) and I are about to start a (long awaited) trip from Vladivostok to Istanbul (via Mongolia, a bunch of Central Asian Republics, and Iran). We hope to be in Istanbul by Christmas of this year.
We got our Russia visas returned to us today March 7th. These are 1 year multi entry business visa. Though they only allow 90 days in Russia every 180 days - much like the Schengen rules in Europe - but never the less are valid for a year. We could conceivably
spend 6 months of the next 12 months in Russia on these visas.
We take our yellow beast to the port of Everett Monday (March 11) to be loaded on a RORO boat that departs for Vladivostok March 20th.
It is supposed to arrive in Vladivostok April 3rd - we will see!
We have arranged with a local shipping agent in Vladivostok to assist with the port and customs formalities. Hope that works out!
So it certainly feels like we are already "in progress"
But from another perspective we have been on this journey since July 2012
when we set out on our 26,000 mile "proving trails" across Canada to the Eastern provinces, back across the US, down the Baja and back to our home in Washington.
Or did it start on the cross Canadian journey when we touched the most Easterly point of North America and started heading west. After all traveling out of Vladivostok we will simply be continuing our westward journey.
We will leave the US at the end of March, spend a few days in Beijing and be in Vladivostok on April 4th. So certainly by the afternoon of April 4th our expedition will definitely be "in progress".
Before we leave the US I will release an update to our website http://whiteacorn.com with a lot more information about our truck and our experience with it to date. Once we hit Vladivostok we will once again try to run a travel diary or journal via (almost) daily posts.
Our proposed route can be found at http://whiteacorn.com/map/rtw#proposed