mission 2007

In talking with Andy, he indeed is one enthused guy, ready to take off into the hinterland. He's pretty clear on doing this tour, but with other plans on the drawing board, we're going to be looking to do this in January of 2007 if it's in the southern hemisphere, or later the same calendar year if we do it in the north.

From my post to him:

speaking of danger, i was looking into travel
insurance, and was having a hard time finding
something that covered "high risk sporting".  maybe
when you go to the hospital with a broken arms that
you just tell the nurse that you fell off your
bicycle?

anyhow, i think that i might be worth making a show of
it.  raise money for tsunami victims?  dedicate our
trip to democracy?  hmmm, maybe i should just as well
paint a big target on my wings to make it easier for
all those arabs.  in any event, making a media splash
does have it's benefits to sponsors, and it wouldnt
hurt to try, and if it becomes a pain in the ass, then
we'll just have to write a travel book to make up for
the loss on our balance sheet.  i've got a hunch that
a x-country flight guide wouldnt have an audience that
is very large, but maybe we could also open up an
adventure flying school to train people like us?

i'm guessing that a healthy 3-6 month trip is what i
had in mind, but that was just a feeling that i had as
to what would be a nice amount of time to rattle the
ole bones.  latin america would be fun, but not sure
how many landing areas there are in the amazon jungle.
maybe it would be interesting to have pontoons on the
trikes?  it would be heavier and the flying would be
slower, but would be nice to land in harbors along
coasts, or fly up the entire nile river, or amazon.
water is often on the edge of things and that often
appeals to me.  regardless, while i've traveled there
a small  amount (mexico, Guatemala, belize, honduras,
Venezuela, peru, brazil), and have no burning desire
over other places, i have fantasized about doing a
trip from south america over to asia.  i did meet two
women who were flying together from alaska to buenos
aires in a little piper and that was quite inspiring.

To which he replied:

Maybe we can get an insurance company on board as a sponsor if we have
the right mission. The idea of plummeting 3000ft out of the sky
straight into a mountainside, dusting ourselves off like something out of Tom
& Jerry, and strolling off to the local hospital, to say we had a bit
of a spill on a bicycle, has its amusement value, but we might be a bit
pushed to pull it off. The insurance question has  obviously been
overcome by other adventurers, so I don’t think insurance will be a problem
nearer the time.

With my vast experience as a travel writer by then, the idea of a book
to help recoup expenses is a very real likelihood. A flight guide I
agree would have a limited market, but I think we may just have enough
amusing and entertaining anecdotes to entertain the armchair traveller for
a good few hours.
3-6 months sounds good to me also, and the idea of following a river
like the Nile also appeals.

So there you have it. If we do a northern hemisphere sojourn, might it be a trip along the entire length of the great wall of china? either way, this gives us a full 1 1/2 years to prepare. Probably can wait to get into it for another year. to be continued....