About

For those who want a (more) in-depth insight into this blog and what it's about...

The blog
This blog started off in its original form back in 2008, as I took my first trip across Europe. It was hardly a groundbreaking trip, but during the five or so months abroad, I went from someone that had never been on a plane before, to one navigating my streets through the streets of a vibrant and stunningly electric and alive Marrakech. It was a great experience and one I still recall fondly to this day.

I documented my travels on that trip fairly immensely via a web-blog, mainly in the first instance to keep my family informed of my whereabouts. As the trip progressed and I became aware that it wasn't just my parents reading it, I became a tad more immersed in my writing and tried to convey a bit more of a sense of story-telling and adventure. Upon my return, and further reflection down the track, I was quite glad that I went to to the effort of capturing everything the way I did.

The idea
Fast forward three and a bit years, to the 2011 AFL Grand Final, and three friends are talking about their desire to hit the road for a bit of travelling.  After seeing all of our friends travel abroad of late, Mike, Harry and myself  decided it was our turn to forgo a Perth winter and explore a bit of the world.

I guess the concept of doing a roadtrip across the States is a holiday that many people want to do at some stage in their life, and this certainly rang true for all of us, so after a few ‘I’d really like to go to….’ conversations at parties, the conversations started to become considerably more serious.

Things all seemed to fall into place with work/study/money, and we all seemed to have a common thought on what we wanted to see, and how we wanted to see it. The seed had been sewn. Harry recruited long-time friend Bryan to join us, and we started to plan routes, look into flights, cruises, transport… the list is endless.

The journey
In order to try and see as much of the states as our 90-day visa would allow us, we had to research the North America section of our trip quite extensively.  After a stop-over in Auckland, and arrival in Los Angeles, the plan is to head to Las Vegas, then south to San Diego and Tijuana, then heading back up the west coast of the US (San Francisco, Portland, Seattle) until we hit Vancouver in Canada.

From there we've booked an RV to drive across Canada, before ducking back over to the States to see Minneapolis, Chicago and Detroit. After visting Toronto, and Montreal in Canada, we'll head down the east coast of the States (Boston, New York) until Washington, before heading to Nashville to catch up with Harry's brother Rob.

From there, New Orleans and Atlanta are on the cards, before ending up in Miami, from which we will set forth on a cruise through the Carribean, touching down in locations such as Belize and the Cayman Islands.

Once we arrive back in Miami, we'll fly to Europe and see how things go. We have additional stop-overs in Dubai and Singapore on the way home, and there's a high likelihood of extensive side-trips off of those stopovers, but that's a long way down the track yet.

The people
My name is (obviously) Mark, and more information can be found about me at my website. I'm into sports, reading, watch too many TV shows, spend too much time on Google and ask lots of questions (many annoying). I like to consider myself a writer, but whether others would is up for debate.

I'm also travelling with my friend Harry. He's in a band and is also single. He probably also hates me as much for typing that as I hate myself for typing it. You can follow his blog here.

My friend's Mike and Bryan will also be tagging along, and various other people will join me along the way, including my girlfriend Abby. If they ever manage to get some sort of website/blog/portfolio up and running, I'll make sure to link it here.