Travel Update: The Rest of 2015

Six months ago, while preparing for our departure from Africa and the next leg of our journey, I wrote a blog entry about our travel plans for the next year. Five months later, I updated that something had changed in those plans (I wasn’t able to travel to Iran).

Today, I’m letting you know that, once again, something in our plans has changed – and it’s a much bigger change. (I wonder if I should stop writing blogs about travel plans…!)

Bruno and I had planned to be on a ferry boat from Germany, bound for Canada, by mid-July. It’s early May and we’re only in Turkey. We spent a long time in Ethiopia, made a detour to Djibouti, checked out the plentiful sites in Sudan, and so fully enjoyed the Arabian Peninsula (particularly Oman and Dubai) that we are late – very, very late – for our ride to Canada.

So the change of plan is this: we’re not going to make it to North America this year. We try to plan our travels around the seasons and we don’t want to arrive in Canada with the summer already behind us and have to race down the coast because we’re stuck in snow storms again! I’m disappointed that we’re not going to get to show off Totoyaya to family in New Brunswick or visit friends in various cities around North America this year, but we’ve been having too much fun in the countries along our route to speed things along!

Our new plan is this: We’re going to take the same ferry from Hamburg to Halifax next summer, but this time at the very beginning of it, in order to maximize our time in Atlantic Canada before driving south along the east coast of the US. In the meantime, we’ve made alternate arrangements for our fall and winter that I’m really excited about. We’re going to visit our friends Josu and Ana in the Basque Pyrenees of Spain, head down the coast of Portugal, and winter in Morocco! That’s three new countries for me, yippee! In the spring, we’ll head back into Europe toward Germany, but I’m not going to put my foot in my mouth again by telling you which countries we’ll visit along the way!

Also, our summer plans are firm – dates have been set, flights have been purchased. Bruno and I will arrive in France (with our vehicle!) on July 1^st. Bruno has a knee surgery set on July 7^th, and has a few pre-op appointments to deal with before that. Don’t get worried – he’s had this exact surgery before, eighteen years ago, to be exact. He needs a non-cancerous tumor to be removed from just below the knee. It’s not a risky surgery, but he will need quite a while to recover and rehabilitate the knee.

And so, he won’t be able to come with me to Canada this summer (again). He’s sad that he won’t get to meet my family and I’m sad I have to wait another year to show him my neck of the woods, but I suppose time does fly.

I’ve bought my flight to New Brunswick. I will be home between July 15^th and August 30^th. In contrast to last year – the summer of constant visitors, which I loved – it will be a low-key, family-oriented summer, which I’m also looking forward to. Then, I will return to France and Bruno, and we will spend the next three weeks hopping between Geneva and the South of France visiting his family and friends (and doing some more sightseeing, and loads more eating, I hope!). By late September, we’ll be on the move toward Spain.

I’m really sorry to those of you I hoped to see this summer – particularly the New York crew that I began to enquire with in hopes of crossing paths with. I tried to book a layover (I also tried in Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal in order to see other wonderful people I’d love to see) but surprisingly these layovers were more expensive than flying direct to Moncton! That’s gotta be a first. I promise that Bruno and I will do our best next summer to make our way to as many of you as possible by road. And, of course, you’re welcome to dust off your tent and join us on any portion of our North American travels. We’d LOVE to have as many of you as possible!

So, folks, that’s our updated plan in a nutshell. The summer plans are firmly set, and the fall and winter plans are as firm as they can ever be in a camping car (which I’m learning means something between “not that firm” and “anything could happen”!).

What are YOU up to this summer? If you could get away from the snow and cold for the winter, where would you go? Any must-see places or countries in Europe that we should add to our spring itinerary? Any chance our travel plans will coincide in the next year? We would love to hear from you in the comment section below!