So we come to our final posting and as you can see we are still smiling and still together after 36 weeks and 4 days on the road! We have not stopped talking about our journey since we returned although we try to tone it down when other people are around. Comments like 'do you remember...', 'where were we when...', 'what was the name of....'? Memories return at unexpected moments, a taste, smell or noise can trigger off a thought and take us back months to a small town in the outback or a journey that we took. As we sort through paperwork, documents, souvenirs and photos we are constantly reminded of places and people. We are catching up with friends and family and we are asked similar questions in a variety of formats - 'what was our favourite place, which place/country would we want to return to, what did we miss the most, what have we learnt, how have we changed, what did we enjoy the most, what are our most vivid memories, what will we do next?' It is, of course, almost impossible to answer these questions with a single answer but we thought on this final post we would try.

The best thing in many ways about our journey were the people that we met. Everywhere we went people were interested to talk about what we were doing. Our accents often attracted attention, many not recognising that we were from the UK but assuming Australia/New Zealand as our country of origin! Some thought that we were ex-pats living abroad as we were in places where tourists from the UK were not often met. After journeys by coach, ferry, train and plane we have exchanged e mail addresses and passed on our blog address to fellow travellers. We have heard from a number of these people already and through meeting them we have learnt a little about their countries and lives. We have been reminded of the kindness and generosity of strangers; help when we arrived late at our first RV park and a warm welcome from fellow campers, hospitality from people we had only ever spoken to over the phone but who had received a recommendation from family and friends about these two English travellers who would certainly make good house guests!

As for the places, how can you distinguish between Canada and Vietnam, forests of Douglas Fir or Tingle trees, Sydney and New York? If Phileas had to chose a place it would be New Zealand, but then we did spend the longest time there; for Fogg it would be a small village on the banks of the Mekong River in Laos or the town of Riverton in South Island, New Zealand. But there again what about Halong Bay, the farm, Devonport, Western Australia, The Flinders, Tasmania, Vancouver Island, Kangaroo Island, Yosemite.............? The list is endless or we can look at it a different way. How about the beaches, the trees, the wildlife, the food, coffee and wine, the softness of the water!! Or the things we did; train journeys, Fogg's wonderful sail on NZ 41 an America's Cup yacht, the helicopter ride over the NZ glaciers, the seaplane flight in BC, the overnight trip on Doubtful Sound, albatrosses on the Otago Penninsula or the close encounters with these amazing birds off Kaikoura; don't forget the whales and the dolphins oh! and of course the sea otters! Shall I go on?

What did we miss? Family and friends at home, decent TV (thank goodness for the BBC!!), the English countryside. Of course we didn't realise how much they were missed until we returned! Food is universal, Vegemite is a great substitute for Marmite but hey, we wanted to try local food as much as possible although we both drew the line at barbequed rats in Laos!!

So what did we learn? Well, a cliche we know, but people are basically the same the whole world over. It doesn't matter what colour their skin is, what God they worship, how much money they have. People are good and kind and the one's that aren't are in the minority. This is a very small and fragile planet and the concerns of one country (environment, cost of housing, education, human rights, politicians etc) are universal. We now know that our knowledge of world history is very poor as is our understanding of key issues in post colonial New Zealand, Australia and Canada. This gap in our knowledge can be rectified and it will be all the more interesting to learn about the history of places now that we have visited them. We have also been reminded of how lucky we are.

The future? In the short term Phileas is back in the classroom and Fogg is a full time painter/printmaker with some teaching too. We have friends and family to catch up with, letters to write, a home and garden to look after, 'stuff' to deal with. Longer term, who knows. Fogg already has itchy feet and we are both remembering fondly the simplicity of life on the road. Another long journey? We think not but we are both keen to continue travelling, we only touched a very small part of the world.

How have we changed? Again hard to say but I think that we will look at life in a more relaxed way, realising now that what is important for us is people and that if something is urgent it will get done and if it doesn't, well the world won't come to an end. It is difficult though not to fall into old habits of worrying about a bit of paper or a dusty corner!

Would we recommend what we have done? Yes, unreservedly. This journey has been one of the most amazing experiences of our lives and we have memories to last a lifetime.

We hope that you have enjoyed reading our blog, thank you to all of you who have commented on it. We leave you with our best wishes.

Phileas and Fogg