The Journey – Part 1 – Going North

The Journey – Part 2 – Going South —->

Well it will be quite long, extremely challenging and will take some time – all of three years to complete from beginning to end – a circle of the Earth, going north from São Paulo. Breaking it down and it is going to look something like this:

March 2014: After over two years of preparation, we will start our journey from the mega-city of São Paulo on the 1st March, going to Bolivia, via the Pantanal. This part of the journey will take place largely by bike and by foot and will take about a month.

April 2014: Traveling by bike, through Bolivia, along El Camino del Muerte: what many consider to be one of the, if not the, most dangerous roads in the world. For a good blog to see what this road is like take a look here…  After up through the Andes into Peru and the Cotahuasi Canyon, before going into Ecuador and climbing the Chimborazo Volcano, the summit of which is the point farthest from the Earth’s centre.

May 2014: Into Colombia, through Bogotá to Cartagena, from where we will sail to Colón in Panamá – much as we would like to journey from Colombia into Panamá by land, the Darian Gap which is an area of land between the two countries is far too dangerous with banditry and general lawlessness for us to go by foot, at least at present… But the sailing will be nice!

June-July 2014: Travelling up along the Pan-American highway and trekking through the rainforests of Central America (as well as having some time passing by some of the beaches) then we will enter into Mexico from Guatemala by around mid-July.

July-September 2014: Up through Mexico, crossing the Chihuahuan Desert and into United States, from where, after having a brief stopover at Las Vegas, we will climb, trek and cycle through the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone Park

September 2014-February 2015: Canada – we will travel north through Canada, continuing with our mountaineering training by climbing peaks in the Rockies, before travelling along the Dempster Highway, which is the farthest north road in the country. We will also continue with our polar training with courses in the country to ensure that we are as prepared as possible for crossing the North Pole.

February-April 2015: North Pole Expedition – this will be the climax of our journey northwards, crossing over from Canada to Greenland, to the North Pole, encountering temperatures which average at about -30C at this time of year, through to open water leads; treacherously thin ice, polar bears and strong winds. For around seventy days, we will be walking through these conditions to cross the North Pole and start the next phase of our adventure, going south through Russia and Asia towards Antarctica…