It all started on New Years Day 2005 in a smoke filled auditorium, known as The Lakeside. Staring into our pint glasses, wryly smiling at the behaviour of Britain's chav class, we glanced up to the stage with the prompt of the cheering crowd. "One huuudreddddd annnnd eeeeiiiighhhty," cried the umpire. Yep, this was the World Embassy Darts Championships. And it was here that we made the decision to sell up and see the world - properly.

Ten full months passed before our plans became a reality. On 31st October that year, we jetted off into the Autumn night, bound for Africa.

Since Day 1, we have sauntered through five African nations, twelve of the sixteen Latin American countries, cruised to Antarctica, caught our breath with three holidays in the USA, hopped through the South Pacific islands of the Cooks and Fiji, spent twenty nine consecutive nights under canvas in New Zealand and enjoyed the comforts of Australia, before looping through South East Asia, China, South Korea and Japan.

We have spent 210 hours on buses, flown on 43 seperate occassions, slept in no less than 154 beds, crossed the borders of 28 countries and trodden on allseven continents.

To write a summary of our emotions on a journey spanning 529 days over three calendar years is not easy. We might mention we have laughed, cried, become excrutiatingly frustrated, annoyed, amazed, overwhelmed, underwhelmed and, at times, darn right stupefied. But most of all we have felt alive. Rarely disagreeing, never really arguing, we might never have continued for so long alone.

Looking back now, we have a reasonably rounded view of the world - its people, cultures, ways of life. We have seen the worst poverty, the best beaches, wonderous mountain ranges, slept in a hut with two rats and 1 huge spider, we have frozen in Patagonia, boiled in Central America, learnt how to dive, paraglided, swung through the trees in Nicaragua, bumped along on chicken buses from Guatemala to Panama, stood in awe at the beauty of Aitutaki Lagoon, swam with sharks, been robbed, been followed, scared, poisoned and gauped at. We have roughed it in shared dorms (albeit on only 5 occassions!), stayed in a 6 star hotel, stayed in the tallest residential building in the world, been up Las Vegas's Stratosphere tower, New Zealand's Skytower, Shanghai's Oriental Pearl TV Tower and Seoul's N Tower. We have watched the River Plate v Boca Juniors El Classico football match, smelt the penguins in Antarctica, trekked in Patagonia, stood atop Machu Pitchu in Peru, visited wineries in South Africa, Chile, Argentina, New Zealand and Australia, hired cars in Africa, South America, North America, New Zealand and Australia, ridden mopeds in the Cook Islands and Thailand. Been on safari, seeing Lion, Zebra, Rhino, Elephant and Springboks. Been up close and personal with Sperm Whales, Orca Whales, Pandas, Alpacas, Llamas, Seals, Dolphins and Koala Bears. Watched New Years Eve fireworks in Rio and Sydney, and with the exception of upset tummy's and a couple of colds, we have survived unscathed. Looking back now at the paranoia we felt at times, particularily in Africa and Central America, no one actually tried to harm us. Returning in our bag, safe and sound is our camera (over 11,000 pictures taken), our now dated ipods and, thankfully, City Seal.

We have made some great friends along the way. If you are reading this blog, then you are one of them.

Would we do it all again? You betcha.

PaSx