From Fitzroy to Fitz Roy[1/50]

Starting in January 2015, I will take a one-year break to travel slowly and write about travelling. I will travel from Fitzroy in Melbourne, Australia, to Fitz Roy in Patagonia, Argentina (and yes, they are both named after the same illegitimate Fitz Royals!). It is something that I have wanted to do for a pretty long time, but the common aspirations kept trumping the uncommon ones. During my time away, I will travel independently from place to place, starting in Fitzroy, Melbourne, and ending in Fitz Roy, Argentina (a big-arse mountain in Argentina).

I have done a lot of traveling before, but never for quite so long and never for quite so far. In my mind, much contemporary travel has become far too banal and instrumental in terms of going to a specific place for a specific purpose for a specific amount of time. But not much fun in that!

The first part of my journey will be on familiar territory in South and East Asia and Europe. However, the majority of the trip will be in unfamiliar territory in South America. I suppose I could have gone directly to South America and skipped the other places, but I needed to re-trace a few previous paths. Travel is a bit like re-reading a complicated book; if you don’t re-read it, you will end up reading the same book over and over again.

Below is the very rough itinerary. It is both old paths and new. The first part is re-visiting places while leaving behind. The next bit is death (after you leave behind but not literally) and the final leg is re-birth (Fitz Roy here I come!). I will develop this Camino de Santiago-style theme some more whilst I travel as like all good research, insights will arise along the way in which I will share with you (and sorry if you subscribed to this blog expecting something else).

• January 7-April 1, South East Asia and East Asia (Thailand, India, Nepal and walking the Annapurna Circuit)
  
• April 1-30, Western Europe (London, Porto, walking the Camino de Santiago. Barcelona, Berlin)
  
• May 1- December 31, South America (Bogota, Columbia to Fitz Roy, Argentina)

I will write a blog post here about once per week, so I hope you will join me!