Friday 8 June 2012

London - overland from Kathmandu, complete.

The Eurostar slid effortlessly into St Pancras Station, London. Suddenly our rucksacks felt weightless as we skipped down the platform. Our families were waiting for us at the exit and a group of friends who mentioned they would come along for the celebrations. There were also a few surprises. Friends who had followed the blog and taken an interest in the trip. Mark who entertained our exploits in Tajikistan and Jo who we met up with in Azerbaijan were there and Adrian and Giulia from Vienna, surprised us by flying in for our return. After a few glasses of champagne to celebrate at the Champagne Bar we headed to a more affordable venue. I asked a group of guys if one of the bar stools was a available. They joked with me about their friend needing a seat as he'd just travelled a long way......... they let me have the bar stool.

So, a final summary of the trip, overland from Kathmandu to London, via a couple of mountains:

# of metres ascended on foot     25800
# of Kilometres travelled            17000
# of days travelled                     265
# of pounds within budget          50
# of countries travelled in           20              (+3 unofficial ones, Tibet, Abkhazia, Nagorno Karabakh)
# of vehicle break downs           12              (all in Kyrgyzstan)
# of flights taken                        1
# of bribes paid                         0