My enormously huge journey

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Trip Start Apr 25, 2010 Trip End Nov 10, 2010 Next
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  London, England, United Kingdom
Friday, April 2, 2010

So this is it. In a matter of weeks I'm embarking on a long long journey, overland from London to Australia and back (well almost). I'll be on the road for at least six months, travelling through at least 28 countries.

I'm heading out on the Oz Bus, a marvellous (or horrendous?) three-month rumble across Europe and Asia from London to Sydney with a handful of equally insane and intrepid individuals. It will take me down through Europe to Turkey, then crawl through Iran, Pakistan, India, with a short diversion to the Himalayas and Nepal. We fly to Bangkok, then ease our way down through SE Asia and across the islands of Indonesia before finally entering Australia through Darwin and heading across the outback. Time and money allowing, I shall flit across to New Zealand for a well-earned rest, before retracing my steps to Darwin by train and flying out to Singapore. Back in Bangkok, I shall veer off to the east, bussing through Cambodia, and then turning up through Vietnam into China. After Beijing I'll resist the ease of the Trans-Siberian railway, large parts of which I've already seen, and take a more obscure route, through Central Asia and across the Caspian Sea. I'll then make my way through the southern Caucasus before slipping back into Turkey and home.

Why am I doing this instead of just jetting off somewhere far away and jetting back again? In short, two reasons - to go from A to B without missing what's in between A and B, and to avoid planes. For me, the journey has always been just as important as the arrival, and watching the landscape, the climate and the people change as you go is just about as fascinating as life gets. Equally you don't get the culture shock, the jetlag and general disorientation you feel from long-haul flights - instead you're adjusting slowly, steadily, constantly, and seeing so much more. I've never liked flying - being in such an unnatural state for a human being has never felt comfortable to me, and I am always frustrated than I can't see what's below, or if I can I often don't know what it is! There's never any danger of that on the ground.

But there's another reason I don't want to fly, and forgive me if I get on my high horse here for a moment - planes are huge emitters of greenhouse gases, and, I'm sorry, but they're ultimately unsustainable for human civilisation. They are the only mode of transport that has to rely entirely on fossil fuels (I don't count biofuels, which are a joke, and whoever heard of an electric plane?). And I think it's about time we faced the fact that if we carry on using them the way we are for much longer, we'll exhaust our oil supplies, or bring about runaway climate change, or both. It's generally accepted that flying is a far more intensive contributor to climate change than most other modes of transport, because aircraft emit at higher altitudes. They emit other greenhouses gases apart from CO2, and the climate impact of aircraft is estimated to be two to four times greater than that of their CO2 alone.

So my aim is to set an example here - I'm not saying don't fly at all, and I'm certainly not saying drop everything and go round the world on a bus - who'd be so mad as to do that? - but at least think about how you might avoid it. Can you go another way? Can you take less frequent, longer holidays that give you time to see more along the way? Is it so bad to stay closer to home? How about enjoying the journey rather than just the destination?

So, you might ask, what are you doing taking shorter flights which actually mile-for-mile emit more carbon than long-haul? Would that I could avoid it, but I can't - some parts, like Burma and the Iran-Pakistan border, are just too dangerous to travel through overland. There are also no sea connections between Australia and either Indonesia or New Zealand. And if I don't go to New Zealand now I probably never will - I'm never going to fly there from the UK. But there is a way I can, sort of, make amends - I shall calculate my transport emissions as I go, and to compensate for whatever CO2 I emit over two tonnes, on my return I shall make a donation to a charity called PURE, the Clean Planet Trust, which invests in emissions reductions projects worldwide. That way I'll be offsetting not just the flights, but the entire journey.

So please wish me luck, and if I can't find the time for an update on the eve of departure, the next time you'll hear from me will be from somewhere in Central or Eastern Europe, in about three weeks' time.

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