The Grand Tour: 6 Months To Go

First off, Happy New Year and all that jazz.

Second, apologies for the recent lack of posts. Let's hope I can make up for that (unlikely...).

Third, it's now less than 6 months until my planned departure date for the Grand Tour, my hopefully epic trip round the world. Thanks to lovely presents from family, I'm starting to gather together all the bits and bobs I'm going to need. Little things like a head torch, first aid kit and a compact sleeping bag.

Perhaps more importantly, I'm pretty sure I'll be booking my first flight and hostels in the next few weeks. I've been warned that accommodation in Iceland books up pretty quick in the summer months and as that's my first stop and possibly the most expensive stop (based on per day costs), I want to get that sorted out soon.

I had originally planned to make my way round the entire island on buses, but looking at accommodation costs I think I'll actually base myself out of Reykjavik and Akureyri and explore from there - accommodation is marginally cheaper there. No worries - the buses are still going to come in handy.

So that's Iceland. But what else do I need to sort out in the next 6 months?

 

Vaccinations

Ugh. How delightful. Thing is, I'm planning on going a few places where I have to have jabs. For example, I'm going to Peru and while Peru has no vaccination requirements, because I'm stopping there, future stops like Cambodia and South Africa require me to have been vaccinated against Yellow Fever. Fun.

Aside from that though, it looks like I might be able to avoid getting too many others. I've had jabs previously for rabies and Hepatitis B in the last 5 years, which are (Doctor Google says) long-lasting. My typhoid jab will probably need redoing and possibly my Hep A. But everything else... looks like I'm getting off light.Yay.

Visas

This is going to be fun. Good job I've included these in my budget because they're soon adding up. Currently I need to sort out visas (or visa waiver details) for Canada, the US and Australia, plus making sure I add in the cost of visas or other approvals on arrival in Chile and Cambodia. All the fun.


Right at this moment though, I'm going to crack out the world map my sister gave me for Christmas. It has magnets and marker pens so I can mark my route. It will be awesome. I'm a small child at heart.

On with the planning. Planning, planning, always planning. Ah, the joys of a round the world trip!