Planning session: choosing the adventure

This was the main event. Chris and I occupied a booth in the pub, with a low, underlit table, perfect for spreading out maps and plans. In front of us were cast 10+ A4 sheets, each with an adventure idea on them, a crude map (printed off from google) and a few notes about the positives and negatives of the trip in question. Most of the ideas were given catchy names.

Immediately we were able to discard Australia Anticlockwise (a 20,000km charge around the continent) on the grounds of being too easy in terms of language and roads; we binned the ideas of Project 26 (a frantic charge around 26 European/Baltic countries), the Disaster Tour (historical procession to Chernobyl, Auschwitz, D'Day landings, Berlin Wall, Antioch earthquakes etc) and YllarLognom (Mongol Rally backwards) on the basis they repeated earlier trips too much. The Freedom Fighters idea (hitchhiking across Africa's uprising belt) was canned on the grounds that it didn't seem to have any purpose other than to get ourselves in trouble.

We also had to forgoe the idea of doing research for The Adventurists (basically becoming a travel guinea pig and going somewhere remote to see how possible it is to survive there). Tom, founder of the Advenutrists conceded that our timing was lousy as he has just completed a research mission and already has ideas and adventures coming out of his ears. We shelved the idea of circumnavigating New Zealand by boat (during Rugby World Cup time) on the grounds that this was too much like a holiday.

The next ideas to bite the dust were the Pan-American Highway (North to South America) as this would duplicate a bus trip through Central America that Chris has recently done. This left us with just three contenders. China in a San Lun Che (hybrid of sofa, motorbike and greenhouse); Operation Outbound (to get as far away form home as possible) and the eventual winner Argey Bargey (South America).

South America won because neither of us have been there, we both really want to go, it offers stunning scenery, a mighty challenge in terms of distance and logistics and later in the year will be gloriously hot/wet/muddy.