I received this question from Ben:

How long did it take to plan the trip?

It was my wife Helene who seized the moment when I mentioned that the wheels of industry may continue to turn if I was to put myself out to pasture and retire in my sixtieth year. She bought me a huge map of the world and two boxes of pins; one pink, one blue with clear directions.

‘Start sticking pins in the places you’ve always wanted to go,’ she instructed. There were a few rules like not including any country we had visited before and each of us were allowed a “non-challenge” destination.

A few weeks later we had a route, starting in South America and finishing in Japan, and a Rubik’s cube of holiday planning. We needed to search for a specialist who understood our purpose, our dream and us. We found Audley Travel. What a splendid approach they take, before any discussion around the route and destinations began they spent time getting to know our likes and dislikes.

Some three months later we had a tailored itinerary specifically designed for us.

All we had to do then was work out the timing, the finance, what to do with the house and its contents, and our cars, arrange insurances, inoculations and visas, select what clothes to pack and a thousand other incidentals. They took another three months, so total planning was around six months.